Cauldron of Kashmir on the boil again

Posted on 28. Sep, 2010 by Raja Mujtaba in Kashmir

By Brig Asif Haroon Raja

Women Protesters India-Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOK) is under illegal occupation of India since 1947 and the people suffering under the oppressive rule denied of their basic rights desire freedom. They have been waging struggle for the last 63 years to get freedom from Indian yoke and have resorted to both democratic and violent means. Savage methods have been employed by Indian occupation forces to suppress the people and make them submit to Indian illegal occupation. Brutal force has failed to stifle the yearning desire for freedom which has now taken a new shape in the form of stone-throwing by teenagers. On the other hand, Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) was liberated from the hold of Maharaja Hari Singh’s Dogra Army and Indian Army by the freedom fighters of Kashmir and tribesmen from FATA/NWFP in October 1947.
People of AJK are living in complete freedom and enjoying all the concessions of an autonomous state. There has never been any movement for democratic rights or regional autonomy. Selig Harrison’s biased article appearing in Jewish controlled New York Times in August apart from creating a sensation through his false reporting of presence of large number of Chinese troops in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Pakistan’s decision to hand over GB to China has also tried to equate the situation of AJK with IHK by stating that AJK is being brutally suppressed. There couldn’t have been a bigger lie than what has been fabricated by Harrison to please the Indians. Blinkered and prejudiced Harrison somehow cannot hear or see the cries of the Kashmiris in IHK. Through his colored glasses he sees Indian forces showering roses on Kashmiris and the latter gratified by their benevolence chanting pro-India slogans.

 Pro-independence nonviolent movement which triggered on 11 June 2010 as a consequence to killing of a 17 year old boy by Indian occupation forces has turned into a mass movement. This is the third bout of political agitation by peaceful means since summer of 2008. In the last 3 ½ months, 107 innocent people have been killed by occupation forces, mostly young boys and women, and thousands injured. Police and paramilitary troops have been firing indiscriminately upon peaceful protesters chanting slogans of ‘Azadi’ and ‘go India go’ to suppress them. Brutal methods are being employed to break the momentum of the movement which has now spread to all parts of occupied Kashmir including some of the Muslim-majority districts of Jammu.
Police instead of using water canons or rubber bullets to disperse stone pelting protesters, aims tear gas shells at their children are also fearlessheads.

This crude practice results in deaths. On August 2, a policeman thrust his baton in the mouth of an 8 year boy Sameer in Batmaloo due to which boy’s lungs ruptured and he is still fighting battle of life and death in critical condition. Besides using tear gas shells excessively, troops fire volleys of live bullets direct into the crowds and their rifles point towards chests and heads of the protestors. Many bystanders including some children playing in playgrounds have been killed because of wholesale firing.

The new generation having grown under the boots of Indian occupation forces has become fed up of the continued oppression of occupation forces. They hate their hypocritical Kashmiri rulers acting as puppets of India and want to get rid of them. They are disillusioned with other so-called moderate Kashmiri leaders of APHC who had been induced by Indian rulers and had agreed to indulge in fruitless talks. United Jihad Council chairman Sayyed Salahuddin’s effigy was burnt on 2 August since he had appealed to general public to show restraint and protest in a phased manner so as not to hamper schooling. Likewise when Syed Ali Shah Geelani sent a message of truce to the puppet government of Omar Abdullah and requested for lifting of curfew, the people got enraged and threatened to burn his house.
Young Kashmiris are extremely unhappy with rulers of Pakistan who since 2004 have stopped extending them even moral and diplomatic support and have been promoting Indian scheme of solving Kashmir dispute. Whatever arbitrary pro-Kashmir statements made is mere lip service. They have not forgotten Zardari equating Kashmiri freedom fighters with terrorists, or saying that India is a friend and Pakistan has no threat from it. Their disenchantment and frustration has reached such a high pitch that no amount of brutality inflicted upon them scares them away. Tender aged boys as small as 8 years are more enthusiastic and are seen leading the processions. Each death of their colleagues adds to their pent up anger and further steel their resolve to continue with their civil disobedience movement. Not knowing how to counter the hail of bullets, young boys hurl stones on the soldiers and police.

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