- Sleepless nights expected in Delhi this February 5
The just struggle of the Kashmiri people in Indian-held portion of the region for holding a UN plebiscite on self-determination, nothing less, and freedom from seventy years of tyrannical Indian rule has dragged on fruitlessly so far, much like the extended parallel fight of the Palestinians for a separate homeland. It is an inspiring reflection on the irrepressible human spirit, that in both these movements, even as ruthless state atrocities multiplied manifold, the people’s will to fight for freedom intensified correspondingly, sucking in young and old peaceful protestors willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause. In deadly use of pellet guns which killed and blinded thousands of Kashmiris in recent years, the ‘world’s largest democracy’ reached a nadir of inhumanity, and its other barbaric steps include forced disappearances, arrests, torture, burial in mass graves, kidnappings, sexual violence, cordon-and searches and razing houses, all under the umbrella of draconian laws.
But the world at large, including Big Powers, European Union, and our Islamic brethren (barring a few) still turns a blind eye to these daily killings, repression and gross violations of basic human rights. The extremist Modi government, despite all the evidence to the contrary shown on his rare visits to the Valley, which shuts down completely in protest, stubbornly harps on the self-deluding, worn out argument of Pakistani-backed terrorists. Former Indian intelligence chiefs, generals and well-meaning intellectuals have all termed the uprising indigenous in nature and urged a political settlement, while the belated, maiden UN Human Rights Report 2018 has recommended an international inquiry.
Kashmir Solidarity Day activities this year, despite sour Indian umbrage, include high-profile international events, notably the House of Commons meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group, an international conference in London addressed by the persuasive Pakistani foreign minister, a pictorial exhibition of the victims of Indian forces’ inhumanity against civilians, which would no doubt stun the unwary British visitor, and demonstrations in some European cities. No longer is February 5 holiday merely the ‘mini-basant’ of yore, but a serious concerted international exercise, in tandem with top Hurriyet leadership, and all national political parties should unite on a single platform this day to show solidarity with long-suffering Kashmiri people.