The Kashmiri dream

With every passing day, the situation in Kashmir is deteriorating. There seems to be no end to the unrest in the fire and blood plagued valley. Just this Wednesday, the number of civilians killed by a vehement use of force hit a staggering 70, days after Kashmir’s Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti defended the 50-day lockdown of the disputed region, paralysing life there. Her statement came on the heels of Indian Premier Narendra Modi’s stubbornness, who turned down country’s opposition leaders’ plea to rein in security forces and seize violence, arrests and raids, playing havoc with the lives of the common Kashmiri. The blatant and indiscriminate use of pellet guns has already rendered more than 100 youth blind, with the military authorities recently deciding to replace these with chilli-filled shells – only to decapitate many more. It now seems that the slain separatist leader Burhan Wani actually represented all youth in the region who have put their lives at stake to register their protest with stones against the heavily armed 0.8 million occupation forces.

The unnerving circumstances in the disputed territory have brought the two arch-rival, nuclear-armed nations on the brink of a complete disaster. The United Nations and the world powers completely and tangibly fail to realise the gravity of the situation and play their role to calm the unrest. Pakistan’s efforts to get the neighbouring country on the negotiating table have also gone in vain as the latter persistently opts out of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) meetings being held in Islamabad.

PM Modi’s assertion to mention the restive Baloch, the platform of Indian Independence Day failed to win praise even from within the country, with the former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid terming it a meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs, warning of fallout. India’s newly found adventurism of comparing Kashmir with Balochistan, which itself is reeking with subversive activities, and a talk about infiltration in the valley seems an attempt to divert and deflect world’s attention from the original issue.

If constant emergence of the green flag in the held valley does not speak louder of whom Kashmiris want to merge with, Islamabad may perhaps clearly announce to leaving the decision up to the locals.

But before that process can even begin, the occupying forces need to leave the valley to immediately halt the inhumane treatment being meted out to Kashmiris.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2016.