By FAROOQ AHMAD DAR ALIAS BITTA KARATTE
Chairman JKLF (R)
From behind The Bars Of Tihar Jail :
NEW DELHI ; In the Vicisitudes of time, Kashmir will be remembered as a nation the destiny of whose 13 million souls was put at the barrel of 800,000 guns by the largest democracy of the world——- India. As Aung Saung Su Ki, Myanmar’s democracy Icon puts it, ” ALL THE MILITARY HAVE ARE GUNS AND THERE WILL DEFINITELY BE CHANGE “. Same is true of my beloved land ———- Kashmir. World bodies forgot that Kashmir is world’s most volatile nuclear flash point. Kashmir has to be viewed from the perspective of World Peace rather than trivialising this issue to any kind of regional political agenda.
Kashmir is a vision of harmony, trinquality, serenity, spirituality, ethos, cultural values, a conflux of three great civilazations. Kashmir cannot be reduced to concept of landscape beauty where two nation-states will be permitted to fight an invincible war for centuries together with the blood bath of Kashmiris.
At least 200,000 Kashmiri souls chose graves as their abode in order to taste the dawn of FREEDOM. My brethern and Civil Society members from Delhi asked me the interpretation of freedom. I said, ” My interpretation of freedom is, When no child in the age group of 6 will be killed on the streets of Kashmir, when no 80 year old grandma will be raped in the hamlets of Kunan Poshpora, when there will be no disappearnce of Kashmiri boys from their homes, when shrines of our Sufi Saints will not be burnt in the name of nation-state system, when we will not have to prove our identity after every two miles on our own land, when we we will be masters of our water resources and no Indus Water Treaty will be slapped on us, when our state will be reaping the benefits of our hydroelectric projects, when our Green Gold will not be smuggled to other states, when traders on both sides of LOC will be able to trade freely, when there will be no landmines on borders to miam our people and cattle, when we will not live under the shade of 800,000 soldiers with their guns pointing towards our chests, when we will not be trapped in the games of 14 Intelligence networks, when Kashmir will not be a cesspool of political quagmire. ”
For 18 long years in jail, I kept thinking ” What will happen to my people, What will happen to my Kashmir ? If Kashmir is worth one good soul, then let that soul be mine. Body is mortal and will mix with the dust but will my soul ever feel comfortable given the atrocities that have been inflicted on my people. Every child who has died on my holy land Kashmir—— is my own Child. Every girl who has been raped is my own daughter. Every disappeared son has caused a Psychological injury on my mind. The only source of strength which survived me all the harshness of Jail was the thought that I am Kashmir. My legacy to my posterity is my ‘suffering’ and ‘struggle’.
We will win FREEDOM for Kashmir. I don’t mind shedding my own blood for this nation. I want to be for Kashmir what Mazzini was for Italy.
Revolutions take forward and backward movement. Same is true for Kashmir.
We are in the process of framing an alternative, executive, legislature and Judiciary for the state. We are fully aware of the roadmap to be created for our people. Our people are not going to operate in Vaccuum once soldiers of Indian state leave this territory.
Socrates died for his conviction and declined to run away when his friend from Thalassi had made arrangements for his run away. I will die for my coviction, which is FREEDOM of Kashmir
