“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” tweeted the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, on the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23.
While this is the aspiration of the world’s democracies, the concepts of human rights and equality are mocked every day in illegally occupied territories of Jammu-Kashmir (PoJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), which mostly go unnoticed under tyrannical rule and censorship. This is in total contradiction to the Secretary-General’s tweet.
Kashmir is no “complicated international conflict”, as suggested in the recent opinion piece of Pakistan’s national daily, The Nation. The article makes preposterous, farce claims about the land of Jammu and Kashmir which made an independent decision to accede to India in October 1947, when the Pakistan Army sent thousands of tribesmen from their territory to annex J&K. Disturbing an independent princely state in hopes of colonizing it, looting its resources, and using its geostrategic location as a terror-breeding sanctuary to keep India in fear, that is Pakistani mentality till date.
This isn’t an assumption. The live evidence is the mortal remains of what we call Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK). Land grabbing, and plundering of resources like water, minerals, forest derivatives, crops, etc. has been the ongoing business since day one. Over the years, 20-hour load-shedding periods, starvation, and lack of basic amenities like hospital access, schools, and clean drinking water, have been normalized. Threatened with force, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances, residents are given just enough to remain alive.
Pakistan calls the new airport in Skardu and the Mangla Dam in Mirpur advancement, but never addresses the environmental catastrophe it has caused. The airport has snatched the livelihood of people who anyway cannot afford its use, and the dam has caused floods and submerged thousands of homes. Every economic activity in this territory is only for the state’s interests.
Citizens’ demands from the government, their pleadings, and requests resulted in a revolt for dismemberment from the state of Pakistan decades ago. These uprisings have been silenced with open firings. Despite repeated warnings by the UN, Pakistan continues its human rights violations in PoJK and GB.
Ironically, Pakistan beats its chest beating for the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. But on what grounds does it invoke the UN Security Council Resolutions of 1948, when it hasn’t adhered to any of its conditions itself? It never withdrew its tribesmen or Pak nationals from the Indian territory of Kashmir, as laid down in condition one. On July 7, 1948, the Pak Army had three Brigades of regular troops in Kashmir. To this, Joseph Korbel, a member of the UN Commission said, “This disclosure of Pakistan had changed the entire complexion of the Kashmir issue.” The SC Resolution of 1948 was violated in letter and spirit by Pakistan, making it defunct.
Today the UT of J&K is at least a hundred years ahead of PoJK. Accounts of exiled citizens of PoJK reveal appalling details of the Pak Army’s loot and colonization. Every week there is a story of terror launchpads budding in the region preparing for jihad in Kashmir. Their Kashmir jihad strategy was so popular among Army circles that it is being replicated in the progressive, colonized province of Balochistan!
Pak Army’s motto, ‘Rules for thee, not for me’, will not work anymore. History cannot be erased by raising slogans of ‘Free Kashmir’, when Pakistan has done everything in its power to neocolonize it. The pains of Kashmiris under Pakistan rule cannot be invalidated and forgotten. Rather, they should serve as a caution to Pak sympathizers as to what this rogue nation is capable of.
After three wars, countless armed skirmishes, and daily battles by Pakistan over Kashmir, it is ludicrous to view Pakistan as a stable entity, let alone a peace-loving nation. Pakistan has gaslighted itself into believing its false narratives. But their derangement is understandable; after all, it is only the Kashmir tantrum that keeps them relevant in 2023.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.
