Dark and darker in Kashmir

Cut off. Clamped down. Caged. These are the words to describe the world's largest human prison. 27th October 1947 was commemorated as the Black Day in Indian Occupied Kashmir. 27th October 2019 will go down as darkness unprecedented in Kashmir. This is not a darkness of all the communication networks being severed off but the darkness that has engulfed humanity. History has few, if any, parallels of such atrocious violation of laws, codes of conduct and human values. This inhuman imprisonment is now approaching 100 days and is still continuing in human torturing. The dark side of politics and the blackness of power is overshadowing rays of any leftover light in Kashmir with every passing day.

If the story of 1947 has become tragic, the latest chapters being added to this story are likely to be catastrophic. When people living in Sub-Continent became independent, they were given the choice to accede either of the two newly-formed countries. Jammu and Kashmir, with 87% Muslim population, had a natural tendency to prefer to be with Pakistan. Unfortunately, India violating all rules and norms set for the partition, invaded and illegally occupied Hyderabad, Junagarh and Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir's autocratic ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, schemed with the leaders of Indian National Congress and British rulers to suppress the people of the territory by announcing its accession with India under the so-called "Instrument of Accession" thus sowing the seeds of the Kashmir dispute.

Kashmiris are fighters. They did not give in. The people of Kashmir offered stiff resistance to the Indian occupation and launched a mass struggle against it. Their resilience pushed India into a defensive position and sensing a humiliating defeat to its troops, it approached the UN Security Council on 1st January 1948 seeking its help to settle the dispute. The UNSC passed successive resolutions (accepted by both India and Pakistan) nullifying the Indian invasion and calling for settlement of the Kashmir dispute by giving Kashmiri people the right to self-determination. This right was to be exercised through an impartial plebiscite to be conducted in Jammu and Kashmir under the UN's supervision. However to date none has happened.

History is about to repeat itself as Modi has become another Maharaja Hari Singh and made an illegal constitutional change to annex Kashmir. The very fact that a curfew was imposed and communication is cut is evidence to the extreme backlash the government was and is expecting. These extreme measures are a certification to the reality that Kashmiris will not opt out for India and thus Modi will use force to suppress the struggle for freedom. Modi has been banking on India's huge market and a muted response internationally to crush the homegrown insurgency and then move on. The response internationally has been far from muted and the response from Kashmiris once the curfew is lifted will be much more aggressive than it was in 1948.

The lava of unrest is almost ready for eruption. The physical torture and killings are being reported widely. Ever since this dispute began there has been almost 100,000 people killed in Kashmir. Rape as a torture weapon has been reported and lynching incidents are spreading like fire. Even more dangerous is the silent killer- the mental dis-balance. A 2015 survey by Médecins Sans Frontières states, nearly 1.8 million adults in Kashmir, i.e., 45% of the population are suffering from mental distress. More than 41% of the population showed signs of depression, 26% from anxiety and 19% have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Dr Aijaz Ahmad Khan, a clinical psychologist at the SMHS mental clinic, believes the situation now is getting worse. "A week after August 5, we saw a change in the patients. We started having patients who had psychological disturbances. It is increasing since then," he said. "There is emotional numbness and it is increasing," he added.

Just imagine being caged in your house with little access to food and medicine, not knowing when this will end. Just imagine having relentless stress and depression and trauma. Just imagine seeing and hearing children being picked up and women being humiliated. The results of this emotional and psychological torture will be anger, rage, mental imbalance and a desire to strike back. That is how radicalization and extremism takes place. That is how Burhan Wanis are born and die. That is how perfectly normal humans become inhuman and intolerable. Before Kashmir turns into another Afghanistan where fight and kill become the way to live Pakistan and the world community must turn on the pressure points and keep the media spotlight on the abject misery and atrocity in the darkness that shrouds Kashmir:

1. Focus on Children and Women - The world will pay more attention if the vulnerable segments of society like women and children are brought forward to tell their stories. There should be a 'Kashmiri children hour' where Pakistani school kids express their emotions of standing with kids who are being deprived of a childhood and schooling. Similarly, a 'Kashmiri women week' where women from Azad Jammu & Kashmir highlight the plight of their sisters and friends in IOK.

2. Highlight the Indian desire to lie and hide the truth - India's credibility has become questionable after the revocation of the Kashmir status. Media and the UN are questioning New Delhi's claims. Time for Pakistan to take advantage of this doubtful status and provide more evidence to the fake stories and lies of Modi and the Indian army. After Pulwama, recent assertions by the Indian army chief Bipin Rawat that 3 terror camps destroyed in Pakistan was exposed as being untrue by Pak Army taking international media and showing no damage. More such visits of International opinion makers from different walks of life are required to expose the fake news manufacturing machines of India.

3. Mobilise the youth civil society organizations - Students are the main sustenance of any movement. It is time for Pakistan to mobilize Pakistani and other student associations all across the Universities in the US and Europe to carry out debates and a movement for the Kashmiri youth who are deprived of studies and are being kept in prison torture camps.

As time passes by, Modi will get stuck in a prisoner's dilemma, of either lifting the curfew or risking a rising movement in the world. So far, he is banking on a material world which will look the other way. For Pakistan the only option is to make sure whichever way the world looks they see the misery of the people of Kashmir crying out for light in the darkness.

(The writer can be reached at [email protected])

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019