The following are the reasons why Kashmiris in Azad Jammu Kashmir-AJK- have decided to assert their democratic right, to peacefully cross the ceasefire line- the CfL- in solidarity, with fellow Kashmiris under siege, in Indian occupied Kashmir on October 4- 2019, from Bhimber to Srinagar via Chakothi.
The Secretary General of the UN including permanent members of the UNSC and many major nations have been informed of this solemn and momentous decision.
1- In a calculated and invidious frontal attack on an ancient civilisation, its history and identity, India illegally annexed, and bifurcated Jammu Kashmir on August 5 2019, and put an entire nation under siege, which we are determined to resist.
Prime Minister Modi has sadistically, blockaded the entire population of the Kashmir valley, the Chenab valley and the Pir Panjal region in Jammu Kashmir. People have absolutely no contact with their relatives even in the neighbourhoods they reside in, let alone with the outside world as all means of communication are completely shut down. The siege is enforced by 900,000 Indian troops as an iron curtain has descended over Kashmir, in a round the clock lockdown and curfew.
2- India abrogated Article 370 which gave it a temporary constitutional relationship with Jammu Kashmir pending resolution of the disputed region. India also abrogated Article 35A which protected basic citizenship and property rights of the Kashmiris.
3- We are grateful to the international press and media organisations including the BBC, Aljazeera, TRT, the Times of London, the New York Times, Washington Post, the Guardian, the Independent, the Telegraph among many others, including some Indian outlets, that have reported on the situation and its impact on the population.
4- However, we feel deeply aggrieved, that permanent members of the UNSC have once more, betrayed us at this most challenging of periods in our history, by remaining indifferent and even ‘uninformed’ about the impact and implications of the siege. Equally many have looked the other way in the face of a blatantly shameful act by the ultra-chauvinist government of India for economic reasons.
5- In the current situation we will assert the right to resist and dissent. Marching peacefully across the CfL will be an expression of solidarity with fellow Kashmiris, and we will send an unequivocal message that their 6 million compatriots in AJK and in the diaspora, will never abandon them.
6- Many of you will know that a team of Indian women produced a report entitled Women’s Voices’ after their fact finding visit to Kashmir a few days ago. They report that the Indian army took away 13,000 boys, and that the army pounces on young boys, it hates the very sight of them. The team refers to a mother who recounted how the army came for her 22 year old son but since his hand was in plaster, they took her 14 year old instead.
Media reports speak of serious resentment with sporadic demonstrations. Many people have sustained pellet gun shots during the past 7 weeks. So far deaths of two innocent youths have been reported, including 15 year old who committed suicide after having been picked up and beaten by the military. Hundreds of political leaders who opposed the illegal annexation and bifurcation, have been rounded up and arrested including three former chief ministers, and people who served in their governments.
7- Pro-independence leader Yasin Malik is illegally incarcerated since February, with malicious designs by the Modi government of opening up 30 year old fabricated cases against him. The reputable Dawn newspaper on 19 September described this malicious and vindictive political vendetta against Yasin Malik with the following words, “while Kashmir continues to reel under a serious humanitarian crisis in the wake of the August 5 abrogation of article 370, it seems another sinister potion is brewing in the Hindutva cauldron of India, to be served at an appropriate time to the collective conscience of the bloodthirsty electorate.” There are many anti-status quo and pro freedom leaders including Shabir Shah and Aasiya Andrabi also behind bars under the oppressive and draconian PSA.
8- Kashmiris under siege are subjected to reprehensible and unprecedented genocidal methods of militarised oppression. Clearly newly acquired tried and tested techniques of spatial segmentation are being used in Srinagar for controlling movement of civilians. We have no idea of the extent to which, millions of people are being subjected to physical and psychological harm with impunity by the Indian Armed Forces under the cover of Special Powers Act- AFSPA.
9- We find this situation intolerable and absolutely appalling, that the UNSC, throughout this ongoing horror, remains a silent bystander, while a genocidal lockdown against defenceless population continues unabated.
10- We are bound to raise the question about the attitude of some major powers as to their reaction, if a country with a similar size of population to that of Kashmir, was put under a lock down for this length of time. Many would have demanded emergency sessions of the UNSC, and called for sanctions with Chapter seven resolutions against the perpetrator. But not against India, and its leaders whose hands are drenched, with blood of innocent Kashmiris.
11- Kashmiris in AJK will not remain silent bystanders and quietly observe the immense suffering of their defenceless compatriots. Instead in their tens of thousands, they will converge at Chakothi from all parts of AJK, and consider it their national duty to be part of the Freedom March to Srinagar.
12- The enforced CfL has separated Kashmiri families for more than seven decades. It is an arbitrary line drawn across the heart of our nation without peoples’ consent. We consider it an aberration for the collective well-being of our people.
13- Furthermore India and Pakistan were required to facilitate a plebiscite in 1948/49. Instead India, contrary to her commitments to Kashmiris, and the international community, has illegally and unilaterally annexed and dismembered an entire country.
14- As a defenceless people under siege we can no longer accept and tolerate, the situation to continue anymore. We do not recognise the sanctity of the CfL. Kashmiris are not bound by international, bilateral or unilateral agreements and decisions that impact them without their participation. Therefore, it is our legitimate and moral right on either side of the CfL to mobilise, and challenge the oppression that it represents against our national interests, by peacefully marching across it in solidarity with fellow citizens of Jammu Kashmir.
15- We have informed the Secretary General of the UN on the momentous step of crossing from one part of our country into another. We have informed leading nations and, have impressed upon them, to ensure that Indian and Pakistani armies do not cause any physical harm, or create obstacles in the path of our fraternal peaceful procession on either side of the CfL.
16- It must be remembered however, that with abrogation of Article 370, India no longer has any remnants of legality left with regards to its presence in Jammu Kashmir. Because in 1949 Prime Minister Sheikh Muhammed Abdullah of Jammu Kashmir and Prime Minister of India Pandit Nehru negotiated a relationship around the status for Jammu Kashmir. Article 370 was created in the Indian constitution to underpin this status. It defined the spheres of responsibilities between Jammu Kashmir and the dominion of India, pending resolution of the Kashmir issue under a UN supervised Plebiscite. Section 1 (c) of article 370 is explicit, that article 1 of the Indian constitution applies to Jammu Kashmir through article 370. In other words it is article 370 which provided legal basis of relationship between India and Jammu Kashmir.
18- As for the competent authority which could recommend or ratify abrogation of Article 370, only the people or a democratically elected institution such as a constituent or a legislative assembly, if the former does not exist, can perform this constitutional function. In fact no such body vested with the democratic will of people under Indian occupation exists since 2018 as Prime Minister Modi dismissed the State government. Instead he appointed an RSS man as governor in 2018 who cannot be recognised as a competent authority to do away with the fundamental rights of the people and change the disposition of the State.
So through illegal manoeuvring Modi’s government went against arrangements with Jammu Kashmir and also snubbed the international community with utter disdain on India’s international commitments. Abrogation of 370 therefore, has rendered the State of Jammu Kashmir an independent country. And as of August 5 2019 Kashmir’s political position has reverted to August 14 1947.
19- Modi government has contemptuously defied the international community by showing no respect for UN resolutions, and has completely dishonoured the 1972 Shimla Accord with Pakistan. However, Kashmiris are baffled why Pakistan has not thrown the Shimla Accord into river Jhelum, – a most fitting resting place- for such a useless bilateral agreement!
There are a number of UN resolutions that specifically remind us about unilateral action to change the disputed nature of Jammu Kashmir is clearly prohibited. The following resolutions 122 of 24 January 1957, 123 of 21 February 1957, and 126 of 2 Dec 1957 provide a relevant example of how India’s decision to annex and bifurcate the State of Jammu Kashmir, is in contravention of the above resolutions. And yet because of its size India is demanding a permanent seat on the UNSC.
20- For the sake of its credibility, we expect that the UN will take serious notice of the contemptuously defiant illegal, and unilateral change made by Prime Minister Modi’s government to an internationally disputed region.
21- History of Kashmir issue is full of betrayals, duplicity and hypocrisy by India, and indifference towards our basic rights by the big powers. Modi government in particular has deviously manipulated the situation, through misinformation, deception, illegal incarceration of leaders like Yasin Malik, banning of the JKLF, which has been committed to a peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue since 1996, clearly shows that Modi government was never interested in a resolution based on the democratic will of the Kashmiri people.
22- In the past for example Nehru the first Prime Minister of post-colonial India said that, “we have taken the issue to the United Nations and given our word of honour for a peaceful solution. As a great nation, we cannot go back on it. We have left the final solution to the people of Kashmir and we are determined to abide by their decision.” In fact Nehru’s statement explains the essence of the Kashmir issue. Because at the heart of the conflict on the status of Kashmir, lies the fundamental principle of the inherent, and the inalienable sovereign right of Kashmiris to determine their political destiny.
23- It seems that the ‘final solution’ for Modi’s ultra-chauvinist BJP/RSS government on Jammu Kashmir, is to obliterate its history, and to change its demography. And unlike Nehru Modi’s vision of India as a ‘great nation’ is nothing but an expansionist hegemonic juggernaut, to achieve Hindutva by trampling on weak and small nations in South Asia, like Kashmir.
24- We wish to put on record that Kashmiris are not prepared and willing to submit to Prime Minister Modi’s aggression and hegemonic machinations. We will make a stand for liberty, for democracy and for justice. We will assert our right to dissent, and to resist peacefully. The Freedom March on 4 October 2019 from Bhimber all the way to Srinagar via Chakothi, is a symbol of our strong resolve and steadfast determination, to assert, for national dignity, and for the recognition of our peoples ‘democratic right, as the central, and the most aggrieved and aggressed party, to the Kashmir issue/dispute.
