The Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement and Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Bhat’s Twitter bio tells the long and arduous story of his life in a few words ― born in occupation, forced to live in exile, still in search of freedom. A freedom-fighter to the core, he is also the editor-in-chief of the Daily Kashmir Post International / Daily The Capital Post and chairman Jammu Kashmir Voice of Victims. In an exclusive telephonic interview to The Express Tribune, Bhat reaffirms that the Kashmiris will never accept nor surrender to India’s act of suppression and tyranny
Q. The Indian government has seized millions-worth of properties in IIOJK from Kashmiris that have had any sort of link with organisations that Delhi has banned. Many of these organisations are purely political. What is the Indian government trying to achieve?
A. To understand this we have to go back to August 5, 2019, when a Presidential order, the Constitution (application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 was issued to supersede the previous Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954. Scrapping Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian constitution, the new order stated that all the provisions of the Indian Constitution applied to Jammu and Kashmir. Hence, the entire political structure was disbursed and everything happening in IIOJK is now controlled from New Delhi. The objective ofcourse is to change the outcome of the UN-sponsored referendum in the occupied territory. Silence, fear, rising prices and unemployment slowly took over the valley. This move was the same as the Indian aggression in 1947 that changed the internationally recognised status of IIOJK, and now India is not only consolidating its hold in various ways, it is also justifying its illegal occupation.
It is an act of suppression through which they want to demoralise people and destroy their will power. All radio stations of IIOJK have been renamed, Martyrs' Day on July 13 has been removed from IIOJK’s official calendar of, all universities and roads have been renamed, and the properties of political organisations have been confiscated. The State Investigation Agency and National Investigation Agencies operating from New Delhi are raiding and arresting people. Earlier they would only arrest freedom seekers, or Hurriyat leaders and workers, but now they arrest even businessman, falsely accusing them of political connections. Recently a child in a school near Badgam was forced to sing the Indian National Anthem and Indian police arrested over a dozen persons for not standing up to India’s national anthem during an official event IIOJK. All this is being done as a warning or admonishment to set examples for others to see and fear that it could happen to them too.
Q. The Indian government is now consolidating its hold in various ways and also justifying its illegal occupation in Kashmir. Can you expand on that?
A.The Indian government is trying its best to convert the Muslim-majority region of IIOJK into a Hindu majority. It has adopted an aggressive policy of military force and political and diplomatic aggression to crush the rights movement in IIOJK. The plan to take control of the homeland of Kashmiris is so extensive and all-encompassing that a systematic crackdown continues on journalists through the National Investigation Agency and State Investigation Agency, while the Srinagar Press Club is run on orders of the Indian Army. The occupying authorities have made changes to land laws to seize any part of IIOJK for strategic, commercial, and settlement purposes. In many instances, indigenous Kashmiris’ legitimate businesses have been declared unlawful and they have been handed over to non-native or non-resident Indians. This is leading to a large-scale dispossession.
There is an ongoing effort to eliminate thousands of jobs that were reserved for Kashmiris. Additionally, there are reports of daily killings of young men, often portrayed as staged encounters. Thousands of young men are reportedly being subjected to third-degree torture in detention camps. The lives and livelihoods of Kashmiris are under constant threat, and nothing is considered off-limits. New Delhi is using black laws like Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act to arrest and detain innocent people in the territory and they want to wipe out the Kashmiri people as a nation, but the Kashmiris will never accept this illegal occupation and suppression. When the Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had announced in Srinagar that Kashmiris will decide about their own future, we will continue to render our sacrifices until and unless our self-determination right is given to us.
Q. What are your thoughts on the G20 moot India held in Srinagar in May this year?
A. We are all for progress and development in IIOJK and not just G20, we would support even G8 summit, but first and foremost there should be peace in the region. Choosing Srinagar as the venue is Modi’s marketing ploy to give the false impression of normalcy in IIOJK, while the reality is contrary because there has is so much repression of people, and violation of human rights in a disputed land, over which Pakistan and India have gone to war three times since 1947. There have been thousands of casualties, thousands languish in jails, there has been huge damage to property and in 2019, India unilaterally dismantled the status of the territory. There is undoubtedly enormous potential for tourism in Kashmir but to materialise it, the actions for terminating the separate identity of the state should be withdrawn. The delegates must have seen empty streets and that nobody was moving around.
Q. Tell us about the newly-introduced domicile law passed by the Modi government in IIOJK?
A. Following the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, a number of laws were introduced that aimed to fulfil the agenda of turning Muslim majority into a minority. On 31 March 2020, through an Executive Order “Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (adaptation of state laws) Order 2020” enacted new domicile law which envisaged that Indians who have resided in IIOJK for 15 years, students who have spent seven years and appeared for class 10 or 12 examinations, and children of Central government officials who served in IIOJK for 10 years will all be considered permanent resident of IIOJK. Few months down the lane, on 26 October 2020, new land laws which removed the condition of domicile or being a permanent subject of the state for purchasing land in IIOJK. A delimitation commission formed in March 2020 aims to politically dispossess and disenfranchise the Muslim majority of IIOJK.
India is violating Article 49 of the Geneva Convention 4 by demographically engineering IIOJK through a new domicile law, under which, over 3.4m fake domicile certificates have been issued to non-Kashmiris in IIOJK
So out of the 8 million population of Kashmir, 3 million Indians can now buy land here, which previously they could not and changing our demography is a grave crime.
Under a well-planned project, Hindus from different parts of India are being illegally settled in IIOJK. From April 2020, till the last quarter of the year, more than two million Hindus had been rapidly issued domicile certificates and the Indian government plans to increase this number to five to six million in the next two to three years. With the Muslim majority reduced, India plans to have its unchallenged writ in the occupied state, with the support of the newly implanted Hindu population, for whom Hindi has been added to the list of official languages in the Official Language Bill 2020 as part of state policy.
Q. How would you explain why you believe that India has begun the process of systematic depletion of all-natural resources in IIOJK?
A. This is a part of the India’s economic blockade to weaken the IIOJK freedom movement leaders and people. Since 2019, Kashmir’s export-based economic industries including agricultural and horticultural industries have also had a negative effect. Some 60% of employment in the region comes from agriculture, which has suffered severely from curfews and lockdowns. The production of horticulture crops such as saffron, walnuts, apples, and agriculture crops including wheat, maize, and rice have decreased. Many villages and farmers who were solely dependent on the horticulture crops and towns known for particular crop production have been in strain due to the change and loss brought by the new agricultural and land use policies introduced after August 5.
Recent Indian trade regulations have had an impact on Kashmiri apple growers too. Since Kashmiri businesses from cross border trade has been stopped, the once booming fruit industry of the region is suffering. India has been making concrete efforts to destroy it by constraining Kashmiri apple growers to sell their crops on the Indian market through strangulating 8000 fruit laden trucks on highways for weeks altogether, facilitating the illegal import of Iranian apples into the Indian market and driving rates down dramatically as well as causing huge losses to Kashmiri traders. The import of walnuts is even worse with rates nearly falling down to zero for local producers. India imported 20,345 tons of U.S. walnuts in 2021–2022, resulting in heavy losses for Kashmiri traders. In view of imposition of different taxes like GST and VAT, walnut cultivation continues to shrink steadily, while chilgoza contribution to local income has also decreased.
The production of Kashmiri saffron has decreased by 65 percent in the last two decades, according to the Department of Agriculture Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir provide 70 per cent of apples and 95 per cent of cherries in India, besides nearly all the walnut, almond and saffron production. The net farm land area across Jammu and Kashmir has fallen from 70%-75% of the available arable land to 65%-70% in the last few years. The yield of rice per hectare has gone down by around three tons.
Q. You have said in your speeches that India has given Kashmir domicile to 300,000 non-Kashmiri Hindus. How will that affect the universities in IIOJK?
A. The new domicile law will strongly impact the universities in IIOJK, because now not only do Kashmiri students have to compete with outsiders for citizenship rights in their own homeland, but they are being forced to give their political loyalty to India in exchange for a livelihood. For hundreds of Kashmiri students, to appear for the Common University Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate, integrated, postgraduate, diploma, certification courses and research programmes in 45 central universities of India has become a major issue as the examination centres are outside the territory. People can’t afford to send their children outside the territory as well as safety and security concerns. Kashmiri students always studied in the universities and colleges within the territory and this has discouraged them to go Indian cities for university education. When they are already suffering human violation from Indian government in their own land, it would only be worse for them in India.
Q. Why are Kashmiri civil services officers being dumped in remote areas of India and non-Kashmiris posted in the region? How does that work for the Indian government?
A. The purpose behind this move is to to limit and confine Kashmiris and to give all civil service opportunities to Indians who are being posted in IIOJK. Previously, we had Kashmiri IGs and DIGs and commissioners, but now we have Indians on these posts, while Kashmiri officers are posted to remote areas of India. Everything in IIOJK is controlled by New Delhi, even the appointment of Imams in mosques.
Q. How are Kashmiri officers treated by authorities and the public in these remote areas in India?
A. You can well imagine that if a Kashmiri person is discriminated everywhere in India, how can a Kashmiri official be treated any different? They feel frustrated as they are unable to achieve anything in these appointments in remote locations. But their contribution to work or development of that remote area is not India’s objective, the objective is to debilitate the Kashmiri official.
Q. Do the people of IIOJK feel discouraged to opt for civil services in the present situation?
A. Well, if the situation does not change, they will certainly start thinking twice before opting for a career in civil services.
Q. What is the future of Kashmiri struggle for self-determination in light of Indian government actions? What more would you like to see from the rest of the world community?
A. We demand the recognition of our right to self-determination by the international community in accordance with UN resolutions. India is committing war crimes in IIOJK and the world must take the notice of Indian state terrorism. There are international laws against the systemic fascism that India is practicing, and there are multilateral forums that should hold India accountable. The crimes committed by India ― genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and illicit transfer of population to the occupied land are crimes against humanity and India is liable for serious breach of international laws such as the UN Charter, the International Covenants on civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights, the Genocide Convention, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Statute of International Criminal Court, as well as several treaties and conventions on torture, racism, and discrimination against women.
Indian denials in this regard have to be categorically rejected and India should be persuaded to allow UN Human Rights Council delegations to visit IIOJK to collate data about wide-ranging atrocities reported in the territory. Indian operations in IIOJK are not counter-terrorism, instead it is counter-people repression. The people of IIOJK are victims of Indian occupation forces’ state-sponsored terrorism supported by draconian laws that make impunity lawful.
The Kashmiris want to have their say in a referendum. Ballots, not bullets is what they want. Kashmiris are determined to take their freedom movement to its logical conclusion. The world community, particularly the UN should be aware of New Delhi’s brutal actions in IIOJK and come forward to save the Kashmiris from the Indian atrocities. We firmly oppose the unlawful imprisonment of freedom seekers, journalists, civilians and our leadership in IIOJK. We condemn the confiscation of properties and land by the Indian government, along with other actions detrimental to IIOJK.
The people of IIOJK hope that whatever the circumstances may be, the Pakistani rulers and people will stand side by side in the fight for our legitimate freedom movement from Indian occupation. Pakistan being a party to Kashmir dispute must start a worldwide campaign against India’s controversial and forced domicile law. If we are pushed against the wall by the domicile law that aims to alter IIOJK’s demography, it will only lead to a bloodbath and genocide in our homeland. ENDS