The ruin of Kashmir

Over the last year and a half, since India imposed a siege on the territory in August 2019, the people of Occupied Kashmir have suffered an economic loss of $5.3 billion. They have watched orchards full of apples go waste, but no means to distribute or send out the produce to buyers. This was stated by Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram to the UN Security Council in a statement intended to highlight the plight of Kashmiris. Akram has said that the situation also means that major articles of the UN are being violated by denying people access to means of production and distribution. We all know, and the ambassador also reiterated, that conflict is a major source of food insecurity across the globe, and Kashmir has become criminally trapped in the same situation.

We have now been hearing about the situation of Kashmir for months. It has been more than 600 days since the suffering began and since the territory saw a change in its status, with the special status granted to it by the Indian constitution stripped away and Kashmir and Ladakh split apart with a conversion into two union territories ruled by the federal government. Since then, there has been a continued presence of a large number of Indian military forces in Kashmir, impeding the life of the people of the Valley and making it almost impossible for them to go about daily life without the threat of harassment or checks at roadblocks intended to prevent them from moving freely. There have also been problems created by the arrest of Kashmiri political leaders and others who the Indians say are militants in one form or the other. The situation of Indian Occupied Kashmir and the desperate economic situation of people who once earned a reasonable living on the basis of their products and the ability to market them cannot be ignored any longer.

It is time the UNSC as well as the rest of the world took notice of what was happening in Occupied Kashmir and what the situation of people was in that location. The world cannot afford to ignore this indefinitely. We ask why resolutions and articles central to the UN are being ignored in the case of Kashmir. The people of the Valley deserve the same treatment and the same protection as the rest of the world. They cannot be denied access to basic items which are essential to living reasonable lives. Pakistan has continued to bring up this matter before the UN and at other forums. But more support is needed from other countries, notably Muslim countries, so that Kashmiris are at least aware that they have support from the outside world.