PROTESTS IN KASHMIR AMID MODI’S VISIT

PROTESTS IN KASHMIR AMID MODI’S VISIT
(Malik Zaeem)
The history of aggression of India towards the residents living in Indian Occupied
Kashmir is long and distressful. Violation of Human Rights and UN resolutions on Kashmir have proven India as rouge state. The atrocities in Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir (IIOJK) have further increased after the removal of Article 370, abolishing its special status. Curbs on press freedom and citizenship amendment acts are heinous tactics to change the demography of Kashmir, making the BJP lead narrative of normalcy in IIOJK a mere hypocrisy and fabrication. International Organizations and watchdogs should adhere to Indian oppression in the valley and force India to amend its acts under UN resolutions, which grant the right of self-determination to the indigenous people of Kashmir.
On Tuesday, February 19, 2024, Kashmiris throughout the region staged a protest along a busy thoroughfare in the city to denounce Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to occupied Jammu and Kashmir. They also wanted it to be known that token gestures made in the name of development would not be enough to appease their oppressed fellow Kashmiris. The protest took place on the busy thoroughfare in bad weather, organized by Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir (PHJK), a group of post-1989 migrants from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

As they marched, the demonstrators holding banners chanted slogans like “Go Modi Go Back” and “Killer Killer, Modi Killer,” alleging that the Indian prime minister was frantically attempting to establish his extremist party’s government in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. They also claimed that a number of illegal and arbitrary measures, such as the issuance of illegal domicile certificates to Indian citizens and their state-sponsored rehabilitation, were taken in order to accomplish this heinous goal. The building of a network of roads, tunnels, and railroad tracks was one of the steps that India had been taking one after the other to solidify the military control of Jammu and Kashmir.

In addition to seizing more than 54,000 acres of land in the occupied region, the Indian state eliminated a 1971-instituted requirement requiring Indian occupying forces to obtain a special certificate in order to seize land in Kashmir. This occurred after Kashmir’s nominal autonomy was abolished in 2019. In addition, the Indian BJP leadership has changed a number of laws and rules to permit the establishment of long-term buildings for military personnel and their families on Indian military encampments and in areas, the Indian military has classified as “desired” or “strategic.”

Published in September 2023, an impartial report by Kashmir Media Services exposed the manner in which the fascist government led by the BJP is utilizing unlawful means to change the demographics of Indian-occupied Kashmir. The study claims that Indian troops have been harassing and humiliating Kashmiris, and that since the Modi-led Hindutva government of India abolished the occupied territory’s special status on August 5, 2019, the situation has gotten worse. It stated that Kashmiri students were forced to endure the brunt of the military blockade due to the repeal of Article 370. For months, Kashmiri youngsters had been forced to stay in their homes since the IIOJK was virtually cut off from the outside world, with phone and internet connections cut off and occupation troops enforcing a severe curfew.

According to the report, the Modi regime’s assault on education had reached unfathomable proportions in IIOJK, where it had outlawed hundreds of schools managed by the Falah-e-Aam Trust in order to keep Kashmiri youth away from decent education. Moreover, the RSS mindset is reflected in the new Education Policy in the region. Hindu devotional songs like the “Surya Namaskar” are mandated in schools for Muslim students in Kashmir as part of the government’s effort to Hinduize the educational system. The report urged the international community to take notice of the suffering of students in IIOJK by supporting the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in line with pertinent UN resolutions, even though it pointed out that India had taken away every right of the Kashmiri people, including the right to education.
Recently, the Indian government has approved the construction of more than 40 prefabricated homes for paramilitary personnel stationed in the Kashmir valley.
Furthermore, New Delhi has agreed to modernize the infrastructure in existing private lounges and hotels in order to keep paramilitary men comfortable during the hard winters. This step suggests that Kashmir may remain in a state of lockdown throughout the winter, paving the way for more human rights violations.
According to reports, the Indian government under Narendra Modi is disseminating blatant falsehoods about peace and normalcy in an effort to mislead the world about the true circumstances in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, as revealed in the most recent All Parties Hurriyat Conference. The Modi government, according to leaders of the APHC, is attempting to twist the truth and manipulate the facts to fit its false narrative over Kashmir. They continued by saying that the harsh laws and arbitrary detentions, including of human rights activists, contradict the claims made by the Modi government. This proves that peace in occupied Kashmir will not materialize unless Kashmiris are accorded their inalienable right to self-determination.
The fact that the conflict in Kashmir continues is without a doubt its worst aspect. The Indian army has killed around 70,000 individuals in the last 31 years, both directly and indirectly. Numerous women have been sexually assaulted, tortured, raped, and forced to disappear. The battle rages on even when Kashmir is removed from the headlines. Media and government in India tend to call this region’s absence from the news “normalcy.”
The rhetoric used by the government to promote “development” and “normalcy” is becoming more and more dystopian. With the moral cover of “development” and “normalcy” providing newfound legal validity, the insignia of violence on Kashmiri bodies is carried out with increasing impunity. UNSC, ICC and ICJ should ponder and act in a way to force India to amend its acts.