The issue of Kashmir is considered to be the primary
issue that is considered as the cause of political tensions between the South
Asian neighbors--India and Pakistan--which leads to economic decline in the region. Indian Occupied Kashmir has faced immense
violence and hard times. The Territory controlled by India contains a large
number of Muslim populations that is striving to get freedom from the illegal
occupation of the Indian Armed Forces. The group named Hizbul Mujahedeen has
been working in the valley for over a long period of time.
The uprisings in Srinagar and other 10 districts of
Indian Occupied Kashmir were initiated in the aftermath of the death of a young
Kashmiri named Burhan Wani who was a part of the Hizbul Mujahedeen, who are
working in the valley for liberation from the Indian Forces that have illegally
occupied their land.
Observers in Kashmir informed of advancement in
homebased violence and fundamentalism of the Kashmiri people in the late 2015
and early 2016. Numerous motives for this tendency have been mentioned such as
the
1) Lack of a political discourse.
2) The lack of economic opportunities.
3) Frustration of people due to high unemployment.
4) Unnecessary militarization of the municipal space
5) Recurring human rights Violations by the Indian
Forces.
According to scholars and different think tanks, the
number of Indian Forces have increased in the valley since the past year. The number
of soldiers deployed in the valley is almost double of that which were deployed
in 2015.
Even before Independence of Pakistan, the leader of
the country, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had addressed this issue of
Kashmir. He said, “Although I am fully occupied with the British Indian
elections just now yet I have not forgotten the problems of Kashmir, I am fully
conscious of the suffering of the people there and that though the burden of
the struggle against repression and oppression was mainly to be borne by the
people of Kashmir, we shall always help them in every possible way...”
He also said; “In search of an inventive approach to
untangle the Kashmir Knot, the ‘merit of the case’ was not a good starting
point. Firstly, we might not agree on the merit: we did not for over six
decades. Secondly, and more importantly: complex issues are not resolved by
providing one or the other side wrong, but by identifying common causes that
can be pursued together”
The people of Kashmir have
been protesting against the brutal occupation ever since India had occupied the
Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. But the recent uprising was very distinct one
as it was in the aftermath of the killing of a young militant name Burhan Wani.
Burhan Wani was a young kid
who was beaten up with his brother by the Indian security forces for no
specific reason this shocking incident made him joined the militancy at the age
of 15. He was not a normal militant at all, born to a highly educated and also
belongs to upper class of Kashmiri family. Burhan Wani was a very rare entry
into the militant group that was fighting against the Indian security forces
for the purpose of liberation.
The aspect which made Burhan
Wani a popular character in the liberation movement was that Burhan Wani was
tactically very strong, For example, he used social media very effectively and
unlike the other militants who were not educated and tried to stay behind the
mask, Burhan on the other hand liked to remain an explicit entity. His video
massages were very popular and the whole used to watch him speak in the videos.
The video massages were mainly about justice and liberation. He talked about
the possibility of Kashmir becoming liberated from the Indian occupation if the
whole of the population of the valley were to be united and stand against the
occupation.
The rhetoric by a young and
educated man went miles and was heard by almost every person in Kashmir. In a
very short span of time, Burhan Wani became the Kashmiri’s hope and everyone
was talking about his bravery and fearlessness. He was becoming more and more
of a headache to the Indian armed forces who had occupied the valley. So they
decided the root cause of the problem so in a shooting conflict Burhan Wani was
killed by the security forces.
After the death of Burhan
Wani their came a very extreme reaction by the people of Kashmir as the famous
young mujtahid was killed and outcry an anguish spread among the people of
Kashmir. The people reacted with anger and violence and protest started on a
large scale in almost every district of Kashmir. The people were so angry that
almost every Kashmiri came out of their homes in order to protest and fight the
security forces. The Indian security forces got bamboozled by such an extreme
and intense reaction as they imposed a curfew in the valley which is continued
till now. The memory of Burhan Wani is still alive in the people of Kashmir and
they have that ideological goal of being a separate nation as a catalyst for
their freedom struggle against the illegal occupation with which they are
subject to.
On 9 July the protest from
the people of Kashmir violently broke out in almost every part of Kashmir. In
the clashes between the protestors and the security forces almost 15 civilians
were killed and almost 200 were wounded. Since the martyrdom of Burhan wani
more than 60 people have lost their lives and almost five thousand five hundred
have been wounded. This contemporary situation is worst in the history of
Kashmir.
The Pakistani prime minister
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif expressed his concerned over the death of Burhan
Wani and also condemn the use of harmful weapons and excessive force against
civilians over protesting against the death of Burhan Wani. The Pakistani Prime
Minister said that the Kashmiri people should be given the right to plebiscite
in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution. The Prime Minister also
said that India should be concerned about fulfilling its human Rights Duties
and obligation in accordance with the UN resolutions. The Ban-Ki-moon, UN Secretary General at the time, also expressed his
concern over the tensions in Kashmir on 11july. He was also saddened over the
loss of lives and injuries in the Indian occupied Kashmir. He emphasize all the
parties to carry out Maximum Restrained to avoid further loss of lives and hope
that all concerns would be dealt with. (Fahad Nabeel 2016) . Burhan
Wani’s popularity can be said to as a manifestation of the contemporary
situation of violence in the Indian occupied Kashmir this has been influence by
several other incidence.
To
popular uprisings in 2008 and 2010 were also the cause of more than 200 deaths
in the valley. Many of them were civilian protestors who were killed by the
Indian forces the situation of Kashmir over the past several years has created
isolation between the Indian state and state of Kashmir. The media of India is
guiding its people in wrong direction with respect to the situation in Kashmir.
They are calling Burhan Wani a terrorist and creating a hype that Burhan Wani
was terrorist trying to attack their country and his killing was necessary.
Many
of these kind of event have also been seen in the past. For instance the
hanging of AFZAL GURU who was a Kashmiri separatist working for liberation but
he was convicted over the 2001 Indian parliament attack. This event also
intensified the rage and anger in the people of Kashmir with essence of
isolation.
The final strike in the
contemporary times, seems to be the decision made by the people’s Democratic
Party that won the election in the Muslim majority Kashmir valley. After that
the irony was that it formed a collision with the India’s ruling party BJB
which is a Hindu nationalist party lead by the Hindu extremist named NARINDRA
MODHI who has somehow become the Indian prime minister. His party did well in
gained a lot of votes in the neighboring Hindu majority region of Jammu. Burhan
Wani who is largely credited with reviving and legitimizing the image in Indian
occupied Kashmir. Police also confirms through its records that some of the
youth who have recently become militants had actively supported the people’s
Democratic Party in 2014 general elections. The scholar say that the absence of
political engagement in resolving the dispute of Kashmir is creating more and
more legitimacy of militancy among people of kashmir who blatantly believe that
India is ignoring and exploiting their legal and political realities.
Thus the death of Burhan
Wani is turning out to be more dangerous to the Indian government then the
effects of him being alive. The government is now facing a very big challenge
that is to fight the ideology that Burhan Wani has created and promoted among
people of Kashmir. This ideological sentiments have been seen in the people who
have taken to the streets over in a very offensive way. (Bukhari
2016)
Solving the Issue
Since the very outset the issue of Kashmir has always
been discussed between the two parties who have claimed possession on it. Many
a times both of the countries, Pakistan and India have sat together and have
tried to find ways of reconciliation. Many treaties and resolution have been
written down on paper with respect to the issue of Kashmir. Both the countries
have time and time again used various ways of communication and dialogue to discuss the issue and trying to find the
ways of resolving this issue once and for all. Not only this after the 1948
indo Pak war the united nation security council has also passed a resolution[1]
which had the opinion that the Kashmiris should be given the right to
self-determination but after the 1971 war the UN resolution loss its importance
on a broader scale. As Pakistan decided to sign a treaty with India which said
that India and Pakistan resolve the Kashmir issue on their own by discussion
and dialogue and since then the two nations have tried again and again to resolve
the issue but the issue is still hanging where it was before. The Security
Council passed a resolution on 20 January 1948, the Security Council in
resolution 39 established a three member commission to investigate the
situation and claims of both the countries but this resolution could not bear
fruit as the war also continued on one end and the discussion also was being
done on the other end. (Kashmir 1948)
According to me, the real issue and the real truth is
that the Indian political leaders and Indian bureaucrat also failed to asses
Pakistan’s predicament correctly, they did not actually have a clear national
aim and they were ignorant of the basic and fundamental axioms that shaped the
role of the arm forces in the democratic governance of Pakistan. In the end we
all left with the empty promised by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as he said to Pakistani
people to trust him. At Simla we accepted that Kashmir is a “disputed issue”
Pakistan also receive an equal status in Jammu and Kashmir as it retained the
land occupied by it. Thus, Pakistan and edge diplomatically and strategically.
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