During his recent visit to occupied Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Indian Army chief Gen M. M. Naravane tried to turn around the argument that applies to his side rather than Pakistan when he accused this country of “exporting terror” at a time India was busy along with the rest of the world fighting Covid-19 pandemic. India has relentlessly been terrorizing civilian populations living along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary. During the last three-and-a-half months, i.e., roughly the period coinciding with the spread of coronavirus, India committed as many as 765 violations of the LoC, killing three innocent civilians and injuring 54 others. Last year, when nearly half of the time the disputed region was under lockdown, it violated the 2003 ceasefire agreement as many as 3,351 times, causing several civilian casualties and destroying many homes. Just a few days ago, Indian shelling claimed the life of a two-year-old child and seriously wounded many others.
And the ground situation in occupied J&K completely belies Gen Naravane’s statement. The very fact the region remains turned into a virtual prison for its 80 million people for the ninth consecutive month is proof enough of the Kashmiri freedom struggle’s indigenous nature. Several prominent Indian public figures have also confirmed, on the basis of personal experiences, that the Kashmiri youth are no longer afraid of dying. Press reports say more and more of them are taking to the gun. Common sense suggests any intervention by Pakistan at this point can only damage the freedom movement. In fact, when a while ago, Azad Jammu & Kashmir wing of the JKLF announced its plan to go across the LoC as an act of solidarity with fellow Kashmiris, Prime Minister Imran Khan had warned that any such attempt would only play into the hands of Indian government. Even for the sake of argument Gen Naravane’s accusation makes no sense considering that in case some from this side manage to enter the locked-down region, they would stand out like a sore thumb and easily caught by 900,000 security forces swarming all over the place.
As expected, Islamabad has reacted sharply to his statement, terming it “irresponsible, spurious and totally false”. His allegations, noted the Foreign Office spokesperson, were meant to divert global and domestic attention from “India’s state-terrorism and egregious human rights violations and clamping of fundamental freedoms in IOJ&K [(Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir] particularly post-August 5, 2019.” UN Human Rights Council and several respected international rights organisations have been articulating the same concern though in a different way over the humanitarian crisis in the disputed region and the impunity with which Indian security forces have been acting to suppress dissent. Relentless oppression is only fuelling anger, which is likely to erupt into a big confrontation with the security forces whenever the restrictions on movement and communications are eased. That could easily lead to a wider regional conflict, with disastrous consequences. India’s influential friends need to take notice of its leaders’ provocative accusations and actions before things spiral out of control.
