Hamza Hafeez
KASHMIR day was first celebrated on August 14, 1931 in connection with the massive protests organized by the Muslims of Kashmir against the savageries inflicted on them by the Dogra government of the state. It’s a pleasant coincidence that exactly 16 years later, on the same day Pakistan came into being in 1947. In 1990, this day was celebrated in Pakistan on 5th February to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir against the illegal Indian occupation of the state, and this tradition continues to exist till today. The historical, traditional, cultural, political, geographical and spiritual bonds between the people of Pakistan and Occupied Kashmir give a special meaning to the Kashmir Day. Pakistan is the only hope of the desperate Kashmiri people who have been subjected to the brutal aggression of India, and on this day, the people of Pakistan tell the world that they won’t leave their Kashmiri brethren to die at the hands of Indian cruelties and will continue to support them in their truthful struggle against Indian oppression in whatever way they can.The history of the Jammu and Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan dates back to 1940s making it the oldest dispute on the UN agenda which has yet to be resolved. Numerous dimensions of this conflict have been altered over a period of seven decades but still some features of this conflict remain unchanged. One of them is the tenacious commitment of the wretched, colonized, suppressed but nevertheless passionate people of Kashmir to resist what they call the “illegitimate occupation†of their land. Another unvarying feature of this dispute is its propensity to cause a terrible posture of threat to the peace of South Asia. Whenever the situation in the occupied valley gets chaotic, a danger of war starts looming over the subcontinent.The valley had become a mini-Palestine when a wave of ruthless state-terrorism struck against Kashmiris in the aftermath of Burhan Wani’s murder by Indian armed forces. One after the other, hundreds of people sacrificed their precious lives for the holy cause of attaining freedom. For they know that freedom is never given, it has to be taken forcibly from the hands of oppressors, thousands of people got badly injured but their zest for freedom from India did not dampen at all. My assessment is that as long as India will keep using force to suppress the voice of Kashmiri people, the freedom movement of Kashmir will keep gaining momentum accordingly.A thorough study into the pattern of resistance offered by the Kashmiri people to the oppressive regimes over the past one century shows that the use of any power, of whatsoever kind it may be, cannot alleviate their zeal for freedom, they tend to stand against any might which hampers their passion for freedom. India, perhaps, has not yet understood who Burhan Wani actually was, what made him such a well cherished freedom fighter and why he plunged into the struggle against oppression. The reason is easily conceivable, the barbarities of Indian armed forces which he had been seeing since his birth coupled with the extrajudicial murder of his brother Khalid Wani to urge him to join the pro-freedom camp in the early years of his life. But instead of learning a lesson from it, India crossed all the limits of cruelties and further killed several hundred Kashmiri people following Burhan’s murder. There can be no assurance that the thousands of people, belonging to the families of these mercilessly butchered innocents, will not stand up someday to avenge the blood of their loved ones. Whether the Indians accept it or not, they have actually created thousands of Burhan Wanis by killing one Burhan Wani.
So far I’ve excluded from this equation a huge number of the people who lost their sight because of being hit by the pellets and those who became lifetime disabled in the face of this mayhem. These people can turn out to be more dangerous for Indian occupation as they are alive and are naturally filled with a desire to take revenge and to end the illicit occupation of their beloved land. Today, when the situation in the valley is comparatively more tranquil than past few months, the Indian government should have taken appropriate measures to heal the wounds of these Kashmiri people, but unfortunately the reality is the other way around. There are reports of substandard drugs in the hospitals of Kashmir which are killing the patients. India is not leaving anything undone which can agonize these already traumatized people. Won’t it add fuel to the fire?
Provided this grim picture, it is hilarious to find the governing elite of India in a state of self-delusion. They’re living in fool’s paradise to think that the agitation has been quelled thoroughly and the dust is settled. It is only due to the extremely cold weather of Kashmir that the valley is a bit calmed nowadays. But the game is not over; this temporary silence is the harbinger of another storm- perhaps a more violent storm- which will shake the foundations of India’s unlawful occupation of Kashmir yet again. Martin Luther King had once said, “A riot is the language of the unheardâ€. Uprisings in the occupied valley will keep occurring until the day comes when the sun of freedom will shine on the soil of Jammu and Kashmir… and that day is not too far! God willing!
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