‘Use art to create awareness about Kashmir cause’
Speakers at a webinar on Monday stressed the need for mobilising all available means including, art, literature and storytelling to create awareness among international community on Kashmir cause.
Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution (IICR) organised a webinar titled "Humanity Under Siege: Unheard Voices of Kashmir". The webinar was part of IICR's exclusive Globe 2020 Series, said a press release.
Major General (retd) Raza Muhammad highlighted new wave of Modism in India which is mixture of populism and Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) extremist ideologies.
Raza said the international community was constantly looking the other way when it comes to the Kashmir issue. It is because of the economic relevance of India. Pakistan needs to muster international support in a particular manner that the actions shall not be restricted to just statements.
Is Kashmir becoming a forgotten case?
Turgay Evern, a human right activist from Turkey said that when the British colonised Egypt the first thing they did was to incarcerate the storytellers because they used to tell their people about the legacy of their nation.
Evern said that it was colonial tactic to not to let the pain spread and to contain the voices of descent. The same thing was being inflicted by the Indian authorities on the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
He said that art can be more effective than guns so we need to find artistic ways to tell the world of the anguish which Kashmiri's were facing and for that we need mobilization of creativity.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2020.