Tariq A. Al-Maeena

 

Tomorrow, February 5, is a significant day each calendar year for Kashmiris around the world.  It is Kashmir Solidarity Day which was first commemorated in 1990 to honor the continuing struggle of Kashmiris for their rights to the self-determination of their future.  It is also a national holiday in Pakistan, demonstrating the Pakistani nation’s steadfast support for the struggle of Kashmiris for independence and it is also a day to pay homage to the dead who have given their lives for the cause.



A look back through time tells us that at the time of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 by the hastily retreating British Empire, Kashmir was considered to be acceding to Pakistan based on the overwhelming number of Muslims which made up nearly 80 percent of its inhabitants.



However, after some resistance by the ruling Maharaja at the time and the subsequent foray of Pakistani forces into the territory which drew an immediate response by the Indian army, the United Nations stepped in.



The UN Security Council passed Resolution 39 on 20 January 1948, establishing a special commission to investigate the conflict.  Subsequent to the commission's recommendation, the Security Council ordered in its Resolution 47, passed on 21 April 1948, that the invading Pakistani army retreat from Jammu and Kashmir and that the accession of Kashmir to either India or Pakistan be determined in accordance with a plebiscite to be supervised by the UN.



Its been over 67 years since that resolution, and yet the people of Kashmir remain entangled in Indo-Pakistani politics.  The dispute over Kashmir has in fact led to two wars between the neighboring countries and has escalated tensions since.  But events on the world’s stage in recent years, such as the Middle East crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan and the new menace of global terrorism have relegated the aspirations of the Kashmiri people to the backstage.



India itself took the issue of Kashmir to the Untied Nations, which passed some 18 resolutions related to Kashmir, recognizing the status of the state as disputed and calling for a resolution of the conflict based on the will of the people of the state, which the first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, himself also publicly promised. Today, all that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are saying is that India should live up to the promise that it made of holding a plebiscite in accordance with UN resolutions.



The cost for the Kashmiri people has been high and sorrowful.  M. Raza Malik, a senior editor for Kashmir Media Service, recounts that Indian troops "have killed over 92,000 Kashmiris, widowed more than 25,000 women, orphaned more than 100,000 children and molested or gang raped around 10,000 Kashmiri women during the past 20 years. The whereabouts of thousands of innocent Kashmiris, who disappeared in the custody of troops, are yet to be made known while hundreds of unmarked graves have been discovered in the occupied territory, which are believed to be of disappeared Kashmiris. This whole mayhem is being carried out with the protection of draconian laws, by virtue of which any person can be killed or put behind bars without any accountability."



In a further attack on the present ruling government, Raza charges that the present Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, takes an even harsher stand: "He talks of abrogating Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir. He has a totally anti-Kashmir agenda of a complete integration of the territory with India and also of changing the demographic composition of Jammu and Kashmir. Unfortunately, the international community is turning a blind eye to India’s actions in Kashmir resulting in the continued suffering of the Kashmiri people."



Kashmiris have no one to turn to except for their friends in Pakistan.  And Pakistan is determined not to let them down.  February 5 is a day when all Pakistanis feel that they are Kashmiris.  It is also a message that the struggle will continue until all Kashmiris are granted the right to self-determination.

 

— The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena