The Uri attack

Of several insurgencies under way in India the one in the Indian-held Kashmir is currently the most active. And the Indian action to curb and control it with brute force is in full swing. Since eruption of its current phase in the wake of killing of young militant Burhan Wani on July 8, nearly a hundred Kashmiri protesters have been gunned down and thousands more injured. Perhaps, the killing of unarmed protesters could have gone for some more time, but not after the discovery of riddled body of an 11-year-old boy - it forcefully nudged Kashmiri militants out of their protest mode, forcing them to retaliate with equal force. Early Sunday morning, four Kashmiri militants broke into the Indian military brigade headquarter at town of Uri and killed 17 soldiers and injured twice that number before being gunned down. As per routine, even before the forensic experts could sketch out who could be the attackers and how the attack took place the Indian leadership was out in bazaar accusing Pakistan of masterminding the carnage. "Pakistan is a terrorist state and it should be identified and isolated as such," screamed India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Prime Minister Modi was equally lethal but not direct: "We strongly condemn the cowardly attack in Uri. I assure the nation that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished". And according to Indian army's DG military operations "initial reports" suggest the attack was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad. But there is something quite inexplicable about the location of attack. Uri doesn't sit on the Line of Control (LoC); it's some 20 kilometers inside the Indian-occupied Kashmir and area between it and the LoC is quite thickly populated prohibiting stealth march through it. Then how come with border being extensively sealed on both sides and electronically watched the attackers could seep through it undetected. This was an indigenous affair. India must understand if rebels in Manipur in Eastern India could attack military posts and kidnap police personnel why should expect the Kashmiris won't retaliate the brute force with a matching force.
Of course, the people in the Indian-held Kashmir do look towards Pakistan for political and diplomatic support, but how do they fight back excessive brutalization by the occupying forces on day-to -day basis that's their choice. With Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the United Nations to shake up the world conscience on what is happening to Kashmiris Pakistan should undertake such a venture, it offends common sense. If the attack was not of India's own making - in military lingo it's called 'false flag operation' - to sabotage Nawaz Sharif's Kashmir-focused visit to the world body as some would like to suggest, we have no idea. But what sounds so much real is that having suffered so much at the hands of occupying forces the Kashmiris had to react and that they did this past Sunday morning by wiping out the entire brigade headquarter at Uri. Their success is expected to encourage them to undertake more such ventures - that's the way with insurgencies against foreign occupation. Will it lead to a wider conflict? The nuclear deterrence being a guarantee for peace in South Asia any wider conflict involving Pakistan and India is not likely anytime soon - irrespective of the possibility that the ongoing insurgency in Indian-held Kashmir would escalate to the next stage, the Uri attack being one such indication. Obviously, India would employ ever more harsh treatment to curb and control the Kashmiris' freedom struggle.
Kashmiris are struggling for their right of self-determination which has been recognised by the United Nations and mind you that was in response to a call of India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Now when India has gone back on that and is bent upon integrating the occupied Kashmir as its part it becomes legal reasonability of the United Nations and moral responsibility of the world at large to ensure that Kashmiris are not dispossessed of their right of self-determination. Blaming Pakistan for whatever goes wrong in India would not help. But Pakistan should not be expected to give up on its right to support Kashmiris' struggle at international forums. Threat of open war or Cold Start hostilities the Indian establishment would be grossly mistaken if it thought Pakistan would give up its extending moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir.