More oppressed Kashmiris on the other side
by Wilson John Columnists

Enough has been said about Kashmir on either side of the border. Pakistan's soldier-President Musharraf has been hammering at it, like a demolition man gone crazy, for the past three weeks. He has made it an international issue. We, on our part, have been busy deflecting his barbs and innuendos. It is time we stopped being defensive and told President Musharraf, and the world, especially the All Party Hurriyat Conference and their supporters, some home truths about what Pakistan has been doing, or not doing, in a place which was, not long ago, an integral part of Kashmir.

Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) is today spread over 78,114 sq km of land that was part of Kashmir till 1947, when Pakistani marauders launched a surprise attack and forcibly occupied it. What they did there since then should offer a few moral lessons for those who are misleading the Kashmiri people into believing that salvation lies in becoming a part of Pakistan. The Hurriyat Conference leaders are in the forefront of such an agitation, demanding secession from the Indian Union. They want President Musharraf, or any tin pot dictator like him, to be their leader. They, one presumes, would also be too happy to be treated like Sardar Qayyum. But do they have any right to drag ordinary Kashmiris to believe that jannat (paradise) lies in Islamabad. The truth is horribly different.There is nothing called "freedom" in POK. The only freedom for those who live in this forcibly occupied Kashmir is the freedom of practicing Islam. No other faith, mind you. There is no media and whatever public opinion is there gets squashed under the jackboot in a minute's notice. There is no way you can go out and hold a protest march. Chances are either the cops or the jackboots will gun you down. There is no civilian establishment in this region and if at all there were any pretension of any such set-up, there would be a hawk-eyed General standing close by. The entire administration is in the hands of the Pakistani army. The army runs the schools, the water department, the power stations, and the transport. Everything.

Hear what the representatives from this area have to say: Mohammed Mumtaz Khan is a senior leader from Rawalakote. He says people living on the Indian side of Kashmir were very fortunate because "development in that part of Kashmir is a distant dram and people are missing even the most important necessities of life". In Delhi for a seminar, Khan says the Pakistani army was using POK as a training camp for terrorists. As for development, he said: "The area lags by ages behind Jammu & Kashmir, where development had moved at almost the same pace as that of other cities in India."

Khan is today on the run from the Pakistani army and has sought political asylum in Canada. He says medical facilities in POK are "pitiable and, God forbid, if an epidemic strikes, it could prove to be a catastrophe." Khan said it was POK that required an armed struggle and not the Indian Kashmir, where development had been taking place despite terrorism for the past decade and more.

Nazir-ul-Haq is one of those who set up the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front but is now totally disenchanted with Pakistan and says Islamabad and its army rulers were exploiting the area for "their vested interests". He says Pakistani rulers are misleading the Kashmiri people on both sides of the border into believing that Islamabad is their saviour. In fact, it is the other way around. Haq says terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba, propped up by the Pakistani army are the real roadblock before peace. "These groups are determined not to allow peace return to Jammu & Kashmir nor to POK as they would be jobless... But has anyone asked them why they are spreading terror. Islam religion disapproves of it."

Zulfikar Khan Aziz heads a well-known NGO in POK. He was at the United Nation Human Rights Commission's annual session recently where he told the global community the true story of POK. He says people of the area have no freedom to vote, cannot approach the high court in Muzzaffarabad against jail sentences, have no TV station, access to media, university, medical or engineering college and no employment opportunities.

Aziz points out that even access to travel abroad was denied to people of the area, and adds: "We have had no right to vote since 1947 when Pakistan illegally annexed us through an armed invasion. We are not permitted any political activity, to speak nothing of dissent. Any voice for rights is ruthlessly suppressed. The UNHCR should investigate and expose all such illegal crackdowns by the Pakistan Army." Aziz says Pakistan is harping on self-determination for the Kashmiris as a "ploy to instigate the people of Jammu & Kashmir" while treating areas under its occupation worse than a slave colony.

Anwar Khan is the chairman of London-based Jammu & Kashmir People's Committee, an organisation fighting for the cause of POK. In his recent address at the UNHCR, he said: "When India allows full public dissent even under armed insurrection in Jammu & Kashmir, why do Pakistani authorities continue to persecute and dub any voice for rights as enemy agents?" These voices tell only one story: That Pakistan has no noble intention in Kashmir except to annex it as a slave colony like the POK, where even the rudimentary necessities of life depend on the mercies of jackboots.

All materials on this website are © 2000-2010

Printer Friendly Format

Search this website

top