Kashmiris Celebrated 5th of August as Another Black Day
By Sajjad Shaukat
Protestors shout slogans and march on a street after Friday prayers in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. A strict curfew in Indian-administered Kashmir in effect for a fifth day was eased Friday to allow residents to pray at mosques, officials said, but some protests still broke out in the disputed region despite thousands of security forces in the streets as tensions remained high with neighboring Pakistan. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)
A number of black days are celebrated by the Kashmiris regarding the Indian illegal occupation of the state of the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), but, 5th of August has been added another Black Day for the Kashmiris.
Indian Constitution which claims India to be a secular state was torn into pieces when on August 5, 2019, Indian extremist government revoked articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the disputed territory of the state of J&K. Thus, New Delhi unilaterally annexed the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) with the Indian Federation to turn Muslim majority into minority.
India also issued an infamous map on October 31, 2019. According to which, Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and identifies Pakistani side of Azad Kashmir as well as certain areas of Gilgit-Baltistan as an Indian territory.
Besides Pakistan, China also rejected the Indian malicious acts as “unlawful and void”, saying that India’s decision to “include” some of China’s territory into its administrative jurisdiction “challenged” Beijing’s sovereignty. Border dispute between New Delhi and Beijing, which remains unsettled, has increased tension between the two countries.
In fact, Indian extremist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the fanatic ruling party BJP has accelerated anti-Kashmir moves. Implementing the ideology of Hindutva ((Hindu Nationalism), Indian extremist rulers’ various other measures such as issuance of domicile certificates to 40000 non-Kashmiris to completely end any sort of dialogue with Islamabad to settle the Kashmir issue, blaming Indian Muslims and Pakistan for spreading of coronavirus in India and IOK, intermittent shelling inside Pakistani side of Kashmir in relation to the Line of Control (LoC)-which has killed hundreds of innocent villagers, show ‘Modi’s fascist India’.
However, Indian cruel actions against the Kashmiris reached climax on August 5, last year, when New Delhi also imposed strict lockdown in the IOK and deployed more than 900,000 troops there. Indian military and paramilitary troopers have martyred tens of thousands of the Kashmiris, including women and children through ruthless tactics, firing of pallets and extrajudicial killings. Owing to the military clampdown in the IOK, shortage of foods, medicines for the patients and coronavirus-affected, Kashmiris have been facing painful deaths. In order to conceal India’s state terrorism, Kashmir has been cut off from rest of the world.
In this regard, The Independent wrote: “Kashmir’s tight security and communications lockdown remained in place…as reports emerged of daily essentials running low. Restrictions on almost all movement…were strictly enforced…With internet and phone lines still cut off…soldiers stopping vehicles in the centre of Srinagar…a military surveillance drone flew over…The network of barbed passageways was unprecedented…entire Srinagar city has been knitted in razor wire to seek silence and obedience…closure of mosques…curtailment of this fundamental religious freedom of millions of Kashmiri Muslims constitutes a serious violation of applicable international human rights law, to which India is a party.”
BBC pointed out: “Unprecedented restrictions have put Kashmir into a state of lockdown…In one village the residents said…Two brothers were woken up and taken to an outside area where nearly a dozen other men from the village had been gathered…They kicked us…gave us electric shocks, beat us with cables…we screamed, they sealed our mouth with mud…We told them we are innocent…they did not listen to us. I told them don’t beat us, just shoot us. I was asking God to take me, because the torture was unbearable.”
In this connection, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights—four UN special rapporteurs said: “We remain deeply concerned about the ongoing human rights violations, excessive use of force, torture and other forms of ill-treatment reportedly committed during the arrest and detention and death in custody…We have asked the Indian government to investigate the killings of several Muslim men since January 2019. A report was sent to the Indian government on May 4 over the continued deterioration of human rights conditions in occupied Kashmir”.
In the recent past, Amnesty International has also stated that it is “deeply concerned about the disregard for the lives of people in Jammu and Kashmir…The right to life is laid down in major international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which India has ratified, and in the Indian Constitution. Article 6(1) says: Every human being has the inherent right to life…No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life…the language publicly used by state officials in Jammu and Kashmir betrays and strengthens disregard for the most fundamental of all rights”.
In this respect, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Quereshi have repeatedly stated the inaction by the international community, particularly West’s major powers against New Delhi, who have financial interests in India could lead to conventional war which could be culminated into nuclear war between the two countries.
During his visit to the New York City in September, last year, P.M. Imran said: “The Indian occupied region has been facing a clampdown since August 5…[Nearly] 100,000 Kashmiris have died in the past 30 years…I am disappointed by the international community. If eight million Europeans, or Christians or Jews or Americans were put under siege…you can imagine the action…The only reason why Kashmiris are subjected to this is, they’re Muslims”.
Notably, India’s Home Minister Shri Amit Shah threatened of conducting air and surgical strikes inside Pakistani territory.
Reacting to his statement, Foreign Minister Qureshi stated: “Let me make it clear to Amit Shah that if India made the mistake, we will give a befitting response…Amit Shah should tell…Why does India not launch a surgical strike on Laddakh?…India has reached the extreme in committing atrocities in Kashmir…New Delhi is threatening Pakistan to divert attention from its internal situation”.
Last month, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa expressing similar thoughts and warned India, saying: “We will respond any aggression with full might”.
In a recent statement, DG of ISPR said: “Pakistan Army shot down another Indian spying quadcopter that intruded into the country’s airspace along the Line of Control. This is 10th Indian quadcopter shot down by Pakistan Army this year. Indian ceasefire violations along LoC have witnessed a surge since the abrogation of the constitutional status of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir…the situation along LoC is worrisome and India has violated the ceasefire agreement many times during recent times.”
Nevertheless, 5th of August is the first anniversary of India’s revocation of the special status of J&K.
On this very day, Kashmiris living on both sides of the LoC and their brethren in Pakistan, including rest of the world have decided to celebrate this day as the Black Day for several days, while Pakistan is also observing August 5 as ‘Youm-e-Istehsal-e-Kashmir’ (Day of Exploitation in occupied Kashmir).
Conferences and rallies which have already been started in the capitals of West’s major countries, will increase on August 5, as people will protest against India, its lockdown in the IOK, brutal treatment of the Kashmiris by the Indian forces, while reminding the internal community regarding the rights of self-determination of the Kashmiris as recognized by the UNO-related resolutions. On this very day, in Western countries, Kashmiris, Pakistanis and human rights activists would also conduct demonstrations in front of the Indian embassies. Thus, commemoration of the Black Day will further internalize the Kashmir issue.
Nonetheless, despite the employment of various forms of state terrorism on the Muslim Kashmiris, the war of liberation continues in the Indian Held Kashmir. In these terms, 5th of August is another Black Day for the Kashmiris, which has also exposed the myth of India as the largest democracy.
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
