EVERY DATE OF THE BURNING VALLEY IS BLOOD SOAKED DAY

 By Sohail Parwaz

The comedy of error is that the Muslim could never keep them as a united block to show strength or display their worth. The Ummah’s interest was always a last priority for the States especially the Arab nations. Whenever I critically look at this irony then few lines from a famous German poem – through which the German intellectuals were condemned and criticised for their silence and cowardice – suddenly haunt me:

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Socialist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

Few years ago, the British member Parliament George Galloway bluntly bashed the Muslim leadership of the world for their indifferent attitude and criminal silence over ruthless killings in Gaza strip by the brutal Israelis. He never spared them even in the following years. He openly said, “I address the Arab and Muslim leaders sincerely with the question. Have you no sense of shame? Judge yourselves before you are judged”. He never hesitated to condemn, the Indian atrocities in the blood bathed valley of Kashmir, in past. Although both the issues have centuries old historic background, nevertheless, in near future the both were founded with hardly six months difference; the announced siege of the Kashmir valley took place on 26 October 1947 while Israel was founded hardly 200 days later on 14 May 1948. The Muslim block is finally at a crossroad, where it is completely lost and doesn’t find a way out. The Muslim Ummah has not only lost its destination but has also lost its identity, courage, character and faith (Emaan).

Like Muslim Ummah I shall also prefer to shed few tears for the burning valley where the children of lesser god are facing the atrocities at the Indian hands. The plight of inopportune Kashmiris is a never ending saga. Like 27thOctober and 5th February there are many other dates also associated to the Kashmir freedom movement. One more historical day was 13 July 1931, a day that was not only a mile stone but a turning point in the history of Kashmir. That was the day when the Kashmiris bluntly spelled their hate and revulsion against tyranny and oppression and ever since then, every day in the Valley is 27th October or 13th July.

According to a systematic and deliberate planning the Kashmir issue is being shoved in the dusty draws. The basic issue was the freedom and Kashmiris’ right of self-determination, which was molded with the passage of time as an unfinished business of partition. The deliberate efforts were made to minimize its gravity as some ‘internal matter’ or some bilateral matter, while the history suggests that the issue existed even before India and Pakistan were founded as independent and separate nations.

As aforesaid that the dilemma of Kashmiris is a compilation of dates and no specific date by no means is the date when resistance started in Kashmir. There have been incidents of equal importance before 27th October, like the deal between the East India Company and Maharaja Gulab Singh, merely for rupees seventy-five lacs in 1846. However, these dates were certainly the turning point in freedom movement.

It was the Maharaja and his forces’ highhandedness that forced the people to turn against them. The Kashmiris, mostly the Muslims were marginalized and persecuted.

In July 2011, British parliamentarian George Galloway, the veteran campaigner on Kashmir, while addressing a seminar at the UN in Geneva had said that Kashmiris simply want plebiscite which was promised to them by the UN and former prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru. He pointed out to the world that due to a crime committed by the British empire the sufferings of the Kashmiris were greater than the Palestinians and some 80,000 had died in more than 20 years of freedom struggle, uncountable numbers had been imprisoned, exiled, wounded and maimed, while the rape was used as a tool of occupation. Mr. Galloway stated in unambiguous words that Kashmir was never the part of India.

The same prejudiced West that shows concern for Arab Spring and lost sleep for people’s rights in Libya and Syria is ironically seen indifferent to the miseries of the Kashmir quandary. It’s a point of great concern that due to the atrocities by Indian security forces from January 1989 till mid June 2014, around 94,038 innocent Kashmiris have been killed and that excludes custodian killing which comes around 7,023. During this period approximately 126,209 arrests have been made while 22,778 women have been widowed and 107,469 children have been orphaned. The most heinous crime is of gang-raping which the inhuman Indian soldiers, shamelessly committed, thus raped and molested 10,120 women.

Dr. Subramanian Swami of BJP has recently said in a television interview that the only solution to the Kashmir problem is a decisive war against Pakistan and latter must be nuked if India is interested in a peaceful Subcontinent. It reflects the mindset of Indian leadership and their interest for the peace but still if someone is interested in presenting the other cheek to the Indian hardliners then he is certainly living in a fools’ paradise. Ironically, despite a lapse of 69 years, Kashmiris are still struggling and sacrificing to achieve their alienable right under UN resolutions for the plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir. What the world needs to understand is that the global village will always remain restive if the flashpoint Kashmir remains unresolved and is not handled seriously.

According to a systematic and deliberate planning the Kashmir issue is being shoved in the dusty draws. The basic issue was the freedom and Kashmiris’ right of self-determination, which was molded with the passage of time as an unfinished business of partition. The deliberate efforts were made to minimize its gravity as some ‘internal matter’ or some bilateral matter, while the history suggests that the issue existed even before India and Pakistan were founded as independent and separate nations. It is high time for the peace custodians of the world better worry for the speedily approaching Asian Autumn that may turn world into a barren globe.

The irony is that on one hand the innocent Muslim Kashmiris of Jammu & Kashmir were suppressed and tortured while on the other hand the clever Indian Prime Minster Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru was assuring the world at every forum, about extending the plebiscite right to the Muslims of the Valley. That’s the most tragic episode of this unresolved issue. What Pandit Nehru assured to the outer world and what he executed and accomplished internally is a different story being kept pending for some other time. That’s how the new tale about the miseries of the inopportune Kashmiris started. Ever since the freedom of India Pakistan, the number of the Indian troops is increasing in the Kashmir Valley and so is the severity of the atrocities committed by the brutal Indian Army.