Exploitation Day, Kashmir’s severe siege, usurped rights, 7 years of oppression
(Asghar Ali Mubarak)
The guard of millions of occupying Indian troops, the worst oppression, enforced disappearances and sweeping censorship—this is today’s occupied Jammu and Kashmir, where ‘Exploitation Day’ is being celebrated on the completion of 7 years of the siege.
The constitutional bloodbath that the Indian government committed on August 5, 2019, was not only an attack on the basic human rights of the Kashmiri people but also a powerful slap in the face of the global conscience.
Despite this organized state terrorism, the voice of the Kashmiris has not been suppressed,
Today, on the completion of seven years of Indian aggression, the entire Pakistani nation and the justice-loving people around the world are celebrating ‘Exploitation Day’.
August 5, 2019 is the darkest chapter in history when the Indian rulers began changing the geography and demographics of the valley by abrogating Articles 370 and 35-A. The main objective of this cruel move is to convert the Muslim majority into a minority by issuing domiciles to non-Kashmiris. Despite the blatant violation of UN resolutions and the criminal silence of world powers, the Kashmiri spirit of freedom is still creating new stories of courage and bravery. Millions of innocent Kashmiris are still standing in front of the Indian aggressors, raising the flag of their freedom.
Pakistan expresses complete solidarity with Kashmiri brothers and sisters and makes it clear that exploitation of the oppressed Kashmiris is unacceptable under any circumstances!
The disputed status of Kashmir is an undeniable fact, which no power can erase. The right of Kashmiris to self-determination must be given to them at all costs.
The purpose of the Day of Exploitation is to raise a strong voice against the severe siege and oppression of the Indian army occupying Jammu and Kashmir for the past seven years.
The Government of Pakistan has formulated a comprehensive national program on the occasion of this day, under which large-scale protest rallies, seminars and solidarity walks are being organized in the federal capital Islamabad, all provincial capitals, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Ministry of Kashmir Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all government and private institutions are part of this campaign to make the international community realize the seriousness of the unilateral and illegal measures taken by India on August 5, 2019.
The main activities of the day will begin with a minute of silence in the morning, during which traffic will be completely stopped across the country, and sirens will be sounded, immediately after which the national anthems of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir will be played. The President, Prime Minister and other political and social leaders have issued special messages, while major rallies will be taken out under the supervision of Hurriyat leadership and members of civil society, in which strong protests are being recorded against the serious human rights violations in the occupied valley, Indian efforts to change the demographic ratio and the illegal detention of Kashmiri leaders.
On the media front, Radio Pakistan, Pakistan Television and all private channels are airing special documentaries, talk shows and reports in which the historical status of Kashmir and the humanitarian situation arising after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A are being highlighted in detail.
Essay writing and speech competitions have also been organized for students in educational institutions to make the new generation aware of this long-standing conflict.
At the diplomatic level, Pakistani embassies and high commissions around the world are presenting the Kashmir case before world leaders, human rights organizations and think tanks, and protest notes are being sent to local offices of the United Nations so that the Kashmiris can be given their legitimate right to self-determination in accordance with the Security Council resolutions.
After a quarter of a century, India continues to commit continuous and unsparing human rights violations throughout occupied Kashmir.
Occupied Kashmir is the only region on the planet where more than 800,000 Indian occupying forces are deployed in an area of just a few thousand square miles. India is using all its resources and tactics to continue its forced and illegal military rule over the land of Kashmir.
Pakistan has always supported the Kashmiris politically, diplomatically and morally. Despite all the oppression, torture, arrests, and state terrorism, India has not been able to succeed in its nefarious objectives, nor has it been able to demoralize the Kashmiris. Their struggle could not be stopped; it cannot be denied that every child, elderly person, woman, and every youth of the occupied valley are determined to achieve freedom, and India should also understand this now.
In fact, August 5, 2019 is the most tragic, painful and darkest day in the history of occupied Jammu and Kashmir. General elections were held in India in April 2019.
In these general elections, the RSS-backed BJP party won, and Narendra Modi again assumed the chair of power as the Prime Minister. After coming to power, this government took the biggest step of callousness and bigotry and challenged Kashmir’s autonomy by killing Kashmir’s right to self-determination. It had only been four months since the formation of the BJP government that they started the heinous process of passing blind laws in Parliament. On August 5, 2019, the Indian Parliament abolished Article 370. Article 370 gives special status to Kashmir. It gives Kashmir its own constitution and its own flag. With the abolition of Article 370, the special status of Kashmir was abolished, and its constitution and flag were also confiscated. It did not stop there.
The BJP government also abolished Article 35A through a presidential decree. According to Article 35A, a person can be a citizen of Jammu and Kashmir only if he was born here. After the abolition of Article 35A, the process of resettlement of people from other states of India started in Kashmir. As a result, lakhs of people in Jammu and Kashmir have lost their jobs in the last five years. When it came to oppression after oppression, India crossed all limits of lawlessness. On August 6, 2019, an act called Reorganization was also passed.
This act divided occupied Kashmir into two parts (Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh) and also made both parts administered by the Indian central government and approved the establishment of a legislative assembly for it, which is apparently an unelected legislative assembly. Thus, one day Kashmir’s statehood was abolished, and the next day it was deprived of its right to make decisions on all matters. This is a story of oppression and lawlessness that does not take the name of ending. After the implementation of black laws, the Indian government also introduced a blacklist in Kashmir. This list includes only selected news sites, which are selected by them, where Kashmiris can’t access other news sites.
The story of Indian oppression is not limited to Kashmir. India’s own citizens and minorities are also suffering badly in their clutches. Day by day, their normal lives are being restricted. The National Register of Citizens has even refused to accept them as its own. This register provides citizenship to citizens. To register one’s name in it, the citizen must have a legacy document; whoever is unable to provide this document his citizenship revoked.
India’s National Register of Citizens published its first list on August 31, 2019. In this list, the citizenship of about 1.9 million Bengalis from Assam was revoked, and they were denied citizenship. A few months later, the Citizenship Amendment Act was also passed on December 11, 2019. After this act, the National Register of Citizens was implemented across India. People’s citizenship was revoked, and they were forced to be deported. In November 2019, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act was passed, which expanded the definition of terrorism and declared even the smallest crime as terrorism, in May 2019, when the Babri Masjid was demolished. About two thousand Muslims were killed in the riots.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a political party born out of the RSS and was founded in 1980. The Modi government is the most corrupt in the country since independence. Its performance is poor and condemnable. People fear that if the authoritarian Modi government remains in power, Indian democracy will be in danger. The public has come to understand that these people have lied to them by making promises that they had no intention of fulfilling. According to Kashmir Media Service, Manoj Jha, citing figures available on the website of the Supreme Court of India, said that these negate the BJP’s claims of nationalism and show the misuse of central investigation agencies for political gain. The figures negate the BJP’s claims of nationalism. Pointing out the nefarious links between the BJP and corporate interests, Manoj Jha said that the private companies raided by the Enforcement Directorate later bought electoral bonds from the companies. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has witnessed the highest number of hate speech and crimes against Muslims in Indian history. A Bloomberg report said that since Modi came to power in 2014, there has been a sharp rise in anti-Muslim sentiment among Indians. Of the 255 recorded incidents of hate speech against Muslims, nearly 80 percent occurred in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Modi government has previously banned Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir, Muslim League, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Democratic Freedom Party, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Dukhtaran Millat and Muslim Conference for their role in the independence movement. The United Nations has given the right to decide their future through the right to self-determination in Article 1 of its Charter, but no movement has succeeded through laws alone because this is not possible without the political consent of the international community. An example of this is the creation of the partition of Sudan and East Timor, while Kashmir and Palestine are still a question mark on the international conscience and system. Apart from this, basic rights like political representation, education, freedom of expression, right to life are perhaps impossible for Kashmiris, but it is a pity that the global democratic pioneers, due to their political and economic interests, remain silent on India’s inhuman policies and black laws.
Even after the UN reports on human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, what else is the silence of the international community in stopping India and in favor of Kashmiris, if not criminal negligence? Pakistan will continue to provide strong and steadfast moral, political and diplomatic support until the Kashmiri people achieve their inalienable right to self-determination. Pakistan wants good relations with all its neighbors, including India, but good relations can be achieved not by denying conflicts but only by resolving them.
Occupied Kashmir is a continuous struggle which should not be voiced only on specific days but should be the voice of Kashmir at all times, every moment, every hour, and resonate in the halls of the world. The Kashmiri people are firmly resolved that they will never allow India’s heinous actions to succeed, and the Kashmiri people will continue their struggle for freedom as per the UN resolutions until they achieve their goal. Lasting peace in South Asia depends on the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
“If even millions of occupying forces, the worst censorship and the hardships of imprisonment have not been able to demoralize the Kashmiris in seven years, then this is proof that the freedom of Kashmir is written on the wall. The black history that India created on August 5 is now becoming the precursor to its downfall. The blood of Kashmiri martyrs and the sacrifices of mothers and sisters will never go in vain. Kashmir, the jugular vein of Pakistan, was to be free tomorrow too, and God willing, its destination is freedom today too. These black walls of oppression will keep falling and the day is not far when Kashmiris will celebrate their freedom in the air of Srinagar, because when a nation is determined to die, no power in the world can keep it enslaved.” KashmirExploitationDay#KashmirSiege7Years#StandWithKashmir#KashmirBleeds#HumanRightsKashmir#August5BlackDay#FreeKashmir#AsgharAliMubarak
