By
Sajjad Shaukat
The very agony of the
people of Jammu and Kashmir started on March 16, 1846 when the Treaty of
Amritsar was signed. Under the Treaty, British colonialists sold Kashmir along
with its people e to a Dogra Hindu, Gulab Singh for 7.5 million rupees. The
Treaty of Amritsar which was signed by Gulab Singh, Hardinge, Currie and
Lawrence had common cause among the parties with the aim to end the Muslim rule
in Jammu and Kashmir. Gulab Singh thus became the founder and first Maharaja of
the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
As a consequence of the
Treaty of Amritsar, a reign of terror was unleashed by the Dogra dynasty on the
Kashmiris. During the Dogra rule (1846-1947), Kashmiri Muslims were leading so
miserable life that it was difficult to differentiate them from beasts. Slave
labour, heavy taxes, capital punishment for cow slaughter, and living under
constant terror was order of the day.
In this regard, Yousaf
Saraf in his book, ‘Kashmiris Fight for Freedom’ calls it “free forced labour”
and “instead of donkeys and horses, Kashmiri Muslims were used for
transportation of goods across the far-flung areas.” Atrocities of the Dogra
regime could also be judged from the book of Sir Walter Lawrence, ‘The India We
Served’. While describing the pathetic picture of the Kashmiris, he writes,
“Army was employed in forcing the villagers to plough and sow, and worse still,
the soldiers came at harvest time and when the share of the state had been
seized” and “there was very little grain to tide the unfortunate peasants over
the cruel winter.”
On April 19, 1931, the
ban of Eid Khutba ignited widespread demonstrations in the Jummu city. For the
first time, people openly opposed the oppression. On July 13, 1931, thousands
of people thronged the Central Jail Srinagar. As the time for obligatory prayer
approached, a young Kashmiri stood for Azan. The Dogra soldiers opened fire at
him. In this way, 22 Kashmiris embraced martyrdom in their efforts to complete
the Azan.
The people carried the
dead and paraded through the streets of Srinagar, chanting slogans against
Dogra brutalities. Complete strike was observed in the city, which was followed
by weeklong mourning. This incident shook the whole state and the traffic from
Srinagar to Rawalpindi and Srinagar to Jammu came to halt.
However, upon these
ruthless killings, the Kashmiri leadership realized the need to form a
political party, Muslim Conference (MC) with a view to waging struggle for
their freedom. Later, in 1934, state’s first elections were held and MC won 10
out of 21 seats, and after two years in 1936, it succeeded in getting 19 out of
21 seats. Indian Congress was upset with this situation and tried to create
division in the ranks of Kashmiri leadership. Afterwards, on July 19, 1947, MC
passed a resolution to merge Kashmir with Pakistan, considering the
geographical proximity—majority of Muslim population (77%), language and
cultural relations of Jammu and Kashmir.
During the partition of
the Sub-continent, in 1947, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, in connivance
with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Governor-General Lord
Mountbatten, had decided to join India, quite contrary to the wishes of the
majority of Kashmiris.
When a contention arose
between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir dispute in1948, India took the issue
to the United Nations Security Council and offered to hold a plebiscite in the
held Kashmir under UN supervision. On February 5, 1964, India backed out of its
promise. Instead, in March 1965, the Indian Parliament passed a bill, declaring
Kashmir a province of India.
While passing through
various phases, the struggle of Kashmiris which has become an interaction
between Indian state terrorism led by the Indian security forces and war of
liberation by the freedom fighters, keeps on going unabated.
Despite the employment
of various forms of state terrorism by the Indian security forces, war of
liberation intensified since 1989.
A report on human rights
violations by Indian Army and its paramilitary forces in Indian-held Kashmir
disclosed that since 1989, there have been deaths of 93,274 innocent Kashmiris,
6,969 custodial killings, 117,345 arrests and 105,861 destructions of houses.
Indian brutal security forces have orphaned over 107, 351 children, widowed
22,728 women and gang raped 9,920 women.
Besides Human Rights
Watch, in its various reports, Amnesty International has also pointed out grave
human rights violations in the Indian-controlled Kashmir, indicating, “The
Muslim majority population in the Kashmir Valley suffers from the repressive
tactics of the security forces. Under the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas
Act, and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act and Public
Safety Act, security forces have extraordinary powers to shoot suspected
persons.”
Particularly in 2008, a
rights group reported unmarked graves in 55 villages across the Indian occupied
Kashmir. In this context, in August, 2011, Indian Jammu and Kashmir State Human
Rights Commission (SHRC) officially acknowledged in its report that innocent civilians
killed in the two-decade conflict have been buried in unmarked graves. Notably,
foreign sources and human rights organizations including Association of Parents
of Disappeared Persons (APDP) have pointed out that unnamed graves include
thousands of innocent persons, killed by the Indian military and paramilitary
troops in the fake encounters including those who were tortured to death.
It is notable that
leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister of India Narendra
Modi has taken various steps to strengthen Indian illegal control on Kashmir.
The Modi regime hurriedly decided to forcibly annex disputed territory of the
State of Jammu and Kashmir, uncovering its intentions to wrap up the article
370 of the Indian constitution which ensures a special status to J&K.
Therefore, United Nations Military Observer Group India and Pakistan in New
Delhi was asked to vacate official accommodation. In fact, BJP government‘s
long term strategy is to affect demographic changes in the Indian occupied
Kashmir by composition of the region—predominately with Hindu population.
During one year of
People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-BJP alliance government in the Indian Occupied
Kashmir, BJP in aid of RSS has furthered its agenda of complete integration of
Kashmir into India. Though legal experts of India and IOK High Court have
clarified the permanent status of Article 370 of Indian Constitution, BJP’s
agenda of trifurcations is still on table. In this context, BJP is in hot
pursuit of Mission 44+in IOK Assembly elections 2020. However, short of that,
BJP and RSS are busy in changing religious identity of the State. For example,
special concessions were given to expand the horizon of Amarnath Yatra to
project that Hindus have greater stakes in IOK than Muslims.
Special efforts are
being made for demographic engineering in the State. For instance, West
Pakistan Refugees have been recruited in the Indian Armed Forces from IOK
quota. Allocation of lands for separate cities for repatriating Hindu Pundits and
allocation of INR 2 million for rehabilitation of each Pundit family in the
Valley are aimed at creating Hindu constituencies in a thorough Muslim region
of the Valley through delimitations.
Kashmiri Hurriyat
leadership has been suppressed by the PDP-BJP government by not allowing them
to organize rallies for demanding freedom and expressing love for Pakistan.
Their leaders were detained in Police Stations or kept under house arrests
during all important events. Detention of Masarat Alam, even after acceptance
of bail by IOK High Court, exhibits coercive mechanics of Indian forces/police
in the State.
Indian malicious intent
is evident from the blame game against Pakistan for every internal security
issue, merely to avoid serious dialogue on bilateral issues as well as the
humanitarian crisis in Kashmir. Pakistan is committed to the just and
democratic solution of the Kashmir issue, which is plebiscite, however, India
has never been serious in resolution of the dispute, neither through bilateral
dialogue nor involving third party mediation nor by abiding by the UN
Resolutions.
Returning to our earlier
discussion, the Treaty of Amritsar is the genesis of the agony of the
Kashmiris, and their war of liberation keeps on going, and will continue
untill they get their legitimate right of self-determination.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on
international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants,
Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email:
sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
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