It comes more than seven months since New Delhi revoked special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir and resorted to mass arrests to forestall backlash. Former chief minister of the state and a member of Indian parliament, Farooq Abdullah has been released from house detention. What prompted his release is unclear. If age is a factor - he is 82 - then another incarcerated pro-independence leader Syed Ali Shah Gilani is 90! Thousands of others, including politicians, traders, journalists, students as well as two former chief ministers – Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti - remain imprisoned in jails inside the state, and for want of space, in different Indian cities. Despite their allegiance to New Delhi, the all three former chief ministers, impelled by popular sentiments, have been calling for talks with separatist leadership as well as Pakistan to find a way for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. What senior Abdullah says next will indicate where he stands now.
Occupied J&K has been turned into a virtual prison for its 80 million people with restrictions on movement, internet and phone connections, and reporting by foreign journalists. Shops and other businesses remain closed. Even though schools have been opened in some areas, parents do not send out their children for fear of arrests. Infesting the troubled region are as many as 90,000 soldiers and paramilitaries who take advantage of the information blackout to barge into homes and nab young men and boys to be jailed and tortured, and also subject female members of families to sexually harassment. The UN Human Rights Council as well as other rights organisations have been expressing grave concern over the impunity with which the Indian security forces have been acting. Yet the clampdown persists for over seven months running. This only shows New Delhi has failed to break the will of the Kashmiri people to wrest away freedom. In fact, according to many decent people within India, such as veteran BJP leader and its former finance and external affairs minister Jaswant Sinha, who headed a civil society group’s visits to the restive region, India is “not losing but has lost Kashmir.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s far right Hindu nationalist government cannot keep occupied J&K lockdown forever. Bloody repression is only feeding anger, which will erupt whenever curbs on movement and communications are lifted. Media reports say more and more Kashmiri youth are taking to the gun. The question, therefore, is not ‘if’ but ‘when’ a bigger confrontation will erupt between these young freedom fighters and the Indian security forces. That will have serious repercussions for the peace of this entire region. For, as is its wont the Modi government will blame Pakistan for its troubles and is likely to undertake some false flag operation, drawing a befitting response from this side. As Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly been warning such a situation between two nuclear-armed nations could lead to disastrous consequences for this region and beyond, which no one would want to see. It is imperative, therefore, for the friends of India’s errant rulers to play their role in resolving the Kashmir dispute according to the wishes of its people.
