Istanbul, Turkey. December 26, 2022 “The Kashmir conflict is first and last a conflict between two distinct national identities, separate and apart from each other. The two could not be more different in their history, culture, religious identity, and ethnicity. Indigenous of Kashmiri traditions have lasted over millennia thanks partly to its unique geography and independent thinking. Having converted to the monotheistic faith over 600 years ago Kashmiris have guarded it tenaciously,” this was stated by Dr. Ghulam N. Mir, Chairman, Kashmir Diaspora Coalition & President, World Kashmir Awareness Forum at a seminar organized by Dr. Halil Toker, Professor and Head of Urdu Langue and Literature Chair, Istanbul University. Dr. Toker is the author of more than two dozen books, including “Kashmir File: A Book on history of Kashmir” and Editor, Quarterly, ‘Ertibaat-Istanbul’.
Dr. Mir explained that in 1947 when India was set free by the British colonialists after nearly 200 years of foreign rule the newly liberated India wasted no time in invading the princely State of Jammu and Kashmir which was on the verge of gaining its own independence from its local Hindu ruler after a sustained 16 year political and armed resistance. The Muslims of the western part of Jammu and Kashmir had forced the King to flee south. It is at this point that things went wrong. The British rule over India was ending in some chaos bloodletting allover between the newly created nations of Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. As if that was not enough, India invaded the autonomous princely state against the will of the people of Kashmir with a fraudulent and fake ‘Instrument of accession’ with the local ruler. Historians have outrightly rejected the existence of any such document and the Indian government has never been able to produce any such document in the past 75 years before the international community, including the United Nations Security Council. It has become abundantly clear that the emperor has no clothes. Lying so brazenly and doing so for 75 long years makes India an untrustworthy partner among nations of the world.
“But what makes the Kashmir case one of the two most vexing and intractable cases of the last 75 years is the denial of the right to self-determination to 23 million people of Jammu and Kashmir. Following the illegal Indian invasion and occupation of part of Kashmir in 1947, which prompted the people of Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir) and their allies across the border from Pakistan to get involved. A war broke out. United Nations Security Council intervened. UNSC passed several resolutions based on its mandate to hold an UN-supervised free and unfettered plebiscite allowing the people of Kashmir to decide their own political future. Kashmiris have been demanding it and Pakistan is unequivocally supportive of it. But India has refused to implement the UNSC resolutions since 1948., Dr. Mir added.
Dr. Mir warned that the consequences of such Indian aggression have had a devastating effect on Kashmiris’ life. Three wars have been fought between India and Pakistan. Millions of Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir have been internally and externally displaced from war since 1947 and Indian state terror. In 1947 alone a quarter million Muslims in Jammu were murdered in the worst genocide in Kashmir’s history. Since 1990s over a 100,000 Kashmiris were murdered by the Indian military and paramilitary forces. Since August 5, 2019, Modi regime lockdown and blacked out Kashmir after pouring in 900,000 troops into the valley and beyond. Beyond anyone comprehension the Hindu nationalist RSS and BJP have initiated a far-reaching settler-colonialist project which is aimed at eliminating the Muslim population and creating a Hindu Rashtra in Kashmir. Intellectuals, human rights defenders, politicians, and religious leaders are incarcerated in Indian prisons. Lands are being confiscated and Indian Hindus imported to replace the indigenous Muslim.
“The people of Jammu & Kashmir appeal to the Secretary General of the United Nations, the UNHCHR, Amnesty International and other international humanitarian organizations to intervene to save the Kashmiris from extinction,” Dr. Mir concluded.
