Pakistan says India is crushing the
innocent Kashmiri voices. Its leaders shout over the top in telling the world
community that India's left, right and centre oppression in Kashmir is now
spilling over on streets, shedding youngsters' blood.
To add to it, people have visuals from
Kashmir (the Jammu & Kashmir part that is with India) where people can be
seen clashing with security forces on camera - and the lenses recording such
scenes roam across the world to tell the stories of the so-called atrocities.
The world can see thousands gathering in
funeral processions of terrorists gunned down by the Indian security forces.
The world can see the J&K crowds
running amok stone pelting the security forces even if they try to minimize
casualties as much as possible. Yes, in the ongoing Kashmir unrest, 55
civilians have lost their lives so far and that is condemnable.
But equally condemnable are the development
like where a security personnel (CRPF commandant Pramod Kumar) had to sacrifice
his life in an encounter with the terrorists on the day that is very essence of
the sovereign India, i.e., its Independence Day. And he was not the first.
If civilians have lost their lives in the
Kashmir unrest, the Pakistan driven and Hizbul Mujahideen terror phase that
began in late 1980s, so have the security forces. According to the figures
available from the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), if over 14,000 civilians
have been killed by the terrorist violence in the state since 1988, the Indian
establishment has also lost over 6200 security forces personnel.
The world can see the Twitter, Facebook and
YouTube feeds of separatist leaders like Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,
Ashiya Andrabi and many others. Syed Ali Geelani, one of the prominent
separatist leaders and chairman of the separatist outfit All Party Hurriyat
Conference (APHC), is free to abuse India on Twitter and Facebook. He regularly
posts tweets, posts and videos of clashes, of Pakistani flags and of funeral
processions eulogizing terrorists. See these twitter handles yourself – that is
self explanatory - @sageelani; @MirwaizKashmir; @aasiyehandrabi. They openly
humiliate India by chanting pro-Pakistan rants and by indulging in anti-India
activities.
And they do so while staying in India. Can
an oppressive nation tolerate that? We all know what China does with its
dissident voices, be the Peace Nobel laureates like Liu Xiaobo or the students
massacred at the Tiananmen Square of Beijing.
The world can see wanted terrorists like
Hafiz Saeed, Syed Salahuddin or Masood Azhar threatening India to launch a full
blown war. Hafiz Saeed carries a US bounty of $ 10 million and is main
perpetrator behind many terrorist acts in India including the November 2008
terror attack. Syed Salahuddin is the man who started the ongoing phase of
Pakistan sponsored terrorism in 1980s that has killed thousands so far yet his
bloodlust is very much the same. It is when his family still lives in India and
its members are employed by the institutions of the Indian establishment.
Masood Azhar was in Indian jails when he was swapped against the innocent
civilians hijacked in the Kandahar plane hijacking incident of December 1999.
Terrorists like them are the Pakistani patrons for the J&K separatists and
we all know the communication channels between them always remain active. Yet
it is propagandized that India chokes the voices of dissent in Kashmir.
The world can see the debate that ensues
every time whenever such developments take place in J&K. The world can see
the Indian Parliament discussing the issue intently for the whole day. The
world can see the India's political opposition charging the Indian government
of mishandling the situation and the government defending it.
But can the world say same about
Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir including Gilgit and Baltistan and Baluchistan?
Does the world know who the main separatist
voices of PoK and Gilgit and Baltistan are? PoK is called Azad Kashmir yet
Pakistan implants its puppet governments there and exploits its territory like
its own – as is the case the China Pakistani Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $ 46
billion project of which PoK is a vital part of. A simple Google search with
tag words ‘J&K separatist leaders’ will return with lots of pages and loads
of information but when we repeat the process with ‘PoK or
Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir separatist/rebel leaders’, we are going to have tough
time.
An obvious argument may be proposed that
there are none – that the so called PoK is so heavenly that everyone wants to
be a part of the state and its Pakistan driven administration. Well, we all
know what the reality is. Pakistan uses the so called Azad Kashmir as a terror
backyard for India where it trains terrorists in dozens of camps. Some PoK
voices that do speak on international fora speak of how Pakistan is exploiting
PoK and abusing its people. Extrajudicial killings and disappearances are common.
An India Today report from March 2015 gives a detailed account of
how bad the situation is in PoK. The report quotes Kashmir affairs expert, Dr.
Shabir Choudhry, who says, "We in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir cannot even
complain that we are occupied or expose Pakistani abuses and exploitation of
our resources."
Why the world doesn’t rush to hear those
voices? Is it Indian failure or Pakistan’s over-efficiency that the whole world
seems engaged about J&K but doesn’t give a damn to PoK?
©SantoshChaubey
