IOK: six month of siege

January 31st marked six months of India-Occupied Kashmir having been placed under siege by the Indian occupation forces. According to Kashmir Media Service, in January alone, 21 Kashmiri youth were martyred, 104 civilians arrested under the brutal Public Safety Act, three women molested, and five houses damaged by the occupation forces. The overwhelmingly Muslim-majority region has been under lockdown since August 5, 2019 when the Indian government scrapped Article 370 of its constitution ending the state’s autonomous status. Since the illegal annexation of Jammu and Kashmir against the wishes of its people, the occupation forces have turned the state into an open prison.

Despite India’s unrelenting provocative postures, Pakistan has been lending full moral support to the innocent Kashmiris. The international community has regularly been raising its voice against Indian high-handedness in IOK. A group of EU parliamentarians refused to undertake a guided tour of IOK to reprimand the Indian government for pursuing repressive policies in the occupied region. Then the EU decided to vote on a resolution on Jan 29 in condemnation of the abolition of the special status of IOK and also against the promulgation of the Citizenship Amendment Act. The EU parliamentarians have described both these acts as repressive and smacking of fascism. However, the vote has been put off to end-March because of diplomatic reasons. Indian PM Narendra Modi is to attend a summit in Brussels in February and US President Trump is to visit India in the same month. The EU wants to keep itself out of the story.

Notable Indians too are severely criticising the handling of the Kashmir issue by their government. The Modi government claims that now conditions are normal in IOK, but many Indians contest the claim saying tourists are not visiting Kashmir. They are asking the government to release the jailed Kashmiri leaders and reach out to them. They say the fascist Modi regime is tearing the Indian constitution to shreds as is evident from the abolition of Article 70 and the most significant part of Article 14 by bringing in the CAA which is discriminatory against Muslims. Article 14 guarantees equal rights to all Indians.