I just watched a movie entitled “Chor Nikal kr Bhaaga” (The thief has escaped) running number 1 on Netflix. The movie is worth a watch not only because the story plot is embedded in thriller and intrigue but also because it is an eye opener for the entire world, being on the much-revered international platform.
Lies exhibit mirror phenomenon. They have a pattern of revealing themselves and this is the case with India as well. Despite its repetitive attempts at showcasing normalcy in the restive Kashmir region- illusion that needs deployment of about 9.5 lack military personnel post articles abrogation- to be created-India continues to mirror its systemic injustice and indifference in the bleeding valley. The mentioned film is just another torch-bearer. The story plot unfolds into the setting of a plane hijack. It is where the film portrays hijackers as Kashmir-based freedom “terrorists”, demanding release of their captured aide from the government. RAW agents can be seen asking from the captive as to why were the terrorist demanding his release, even when he speaks against terrorism. This is where, the movie embodies extrajudicial and arbitrary detentions of activists (and not terrorist) as undertaken by the state of India. What further captures intrigue are the events unfolding that hijackers were never the Kashmiri based so-called terrorist in the first place but a group of thugs stealing diamonds and seeking revenge.
While the twist of the movie retains, the realty is unfolded, stamped by various national and international reports on Human Rights Violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir, including reports of UN Office on Human Rights (OHCHR) published in 2018 and 2019. According to the December, 2022 report by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, “From January 1989 till November, 2022, Indian Security Forces have killed 96, 156 civilians in fake encounters and 165, 385 were arrested during this time period in IIOJK.
The state of Indian-illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been witnessing insurgency and unrest right from its illegal occupation by the Union of India. The struggle for freedom, however, has taken a more vehement turn since 1980s. The ruler of the then princely state of Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh had signed the instrument of accession on October 26, 1947 with the former, disregarding its principles of geographical contiguity and the will of the people with 80% of the population being Muslims in Kashmir and numerical preponderance of 68% in Jammu and Kashmir region, in total. In their ensuing struggle, the tribes’ men, primarily Pakhtoons under a local Punjabi politician Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan stood strongly and vehemently to their right to self-determination. The struggle that India defines as Operation Gulmarg evolved into the full-fledge war between the two states. It was then that Nehru rushed to United Nations Security Council on 31 December, 1947 to seek its intervention. The UNSC regime did make intervention in what came to forth as UNSC resolutions 38, 47, 51, 91 and 122.
All these Resolutions resonate with the letter and spirit of UNSC Resolution 47 (of 5 January, 1949) that reads: “The question of accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan will be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite”.
India, for its part has not only shied away from materializing any such obligation, but in utter disregard to the international entities/ laws/ treaties and in defiance of its very own constitution-that called for taking into account the consensus of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly for any such act-repealed Article 370 and Article 35-A and since then issued more than 3.5 million fake domiciles to the non-residents in its attempt to change the demographics of the bleeding valley.
But why have the UNSC Resolutions failed to achieve the desired consequences of plebiscite even after 75 years? How come that international regime sanction Russia for its invasion of Crimea or Ukraine, bombs Serbia in support of Kosovo but fails to take action when it comes to the miseries of the people of Kashmir. The answer, to these, is just an embodiment of the well-established fact that anarchy persists in the international system that is governed by power politics. Since West and USA, in particular predominates the World System today, their appeasement to India as a counter-measure to China in the Indo-Pacific comes at the cost of the impunity granted to the systemic repression and imperial practices undertaken by the BJP-lead government of India against its minorities.
For Pakistan, it is better to realize that the answer to the Kashmir Problem does not lie in taking the course of appeal in the international system. Just as India has enthralled the diplomatic support of the region and the world by engaging with them in various aspects of national security, from economy to social to defense-India being an invitee to RCEP and has made more than $60 billion investment in Africa with $ 3 billion poured in investments in Afghanistan, as some instances-Pakistan needs to move ahead of its traditional concept of national security. In the wholesome, the state needs to understand that the concept of security has become holistic in character in the politics of today and hence it has to take a long, arduous but persistent odyssey-by engaging with bilateral and multilateral entities holistically and in the best ways possible-towards achievement of its international goals and aspirations.
