Solidarity with Kashmiris

People of Rawalpindi-Islamabad and Peshawar say this is again an era of democracy: we must now decide issues long lying in cold storage by democratic means if we want peace in the sub-continent for socio-economic progress of the common man of any creed and colour.

What seizes one’s attention besides soaring prices of kitchen items nowadays is the curiosity of the youth to know what the Kashmir Solidarity Day means and what’s still happening in the Jammu and Kashmir forcibly occupied by neighbouring India.

Kashmiri families reminisce how their elders escaped with their men, women and children the carnage in Jammu and Kashmir soon after the 1947 Partition. So, it’s not difficult to trace a grandmother and a grandfather, and gather from them some information and eye-witness account.

The Day of Solidarity is observed on February 5 every year to express unflinching support to Kashmiris who have been struggling to emancipate themselves from the Indian yoke for about six decades.

One may recall the 2002 historic event when the world watched on TV screens grand show of chain of humans in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas -- the theme of the day being “Justice without Discrimination and the Right to Self-Determination”. The aim, as it is today, was to pass on the real message to international community with a clear objective of peaceful resolution of the long-standing core issue.

The nation’s commitment to the cause of the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir has always been well projected, and the spirit of fraternity continues to prevail with full vigour.

The struggle, as elders recall, began with the liberation movement in the area now called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in October 1947.

In March 1948 Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas was freed from jail by Sheikh Abdullah and he migrated to Pakistan where he, first of all, met the Quaid-i-azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi and then, following a meeting with Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, chalked out a formula on the basis of which the latter was to continue as President and Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas to act as supreme head of the AJK government. The Kashmiri leader passed away in Rawalpindi on December18, 1967. The impact of the formula existed till 1970.

The oppressed people are at the heart of the Kashmir issue, and it is their fate and future which are at stake. Even assuming that the Kashmir dispute was settled at Simla, as India claims, it is worth pointing out that nothing in the international law confers on two parties the authority to make decisions or conclude agreements which adversely affect the rights of a third party.

The United Nations Resolution of January 5, 1949, says “the question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan will be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.” But, as former chief minister of the state Dr. Farooq Abdullah told a public meeting in Srinagar on July 13, 2004, the government of India has “illegally taken over control of the whole state of Jammu and Kashmir.”

India’s state terrorism has not relented in any way until now, a migrant family disclosed to this scribe the other day.

zasarwar@hotmail.com