Kashmir-Where People Don’t Fear Terror

by Ali Sukhanver

( August 30, 2015, Islamabad, Sri Lanka Guardian) ‘Four kids are standing near the Grand Mosque in Srinagar. They are edgy; they appear to be ready to jump, to run, and to fight, also ready to run and retreat if necessary. It all depends on the circumstances. “They are raping our sisters and mothers!” screams one youth. I am shown teargas canisters, similar to those used in so many other parts of the world to disperse protesters. They are usually fired into the air. Here they are fired by the security forces directly at people’s heads – with the intention to kill,’ these are few lines from an article of Andre Vltchek; the title is Shame India. This article was picked and published by various international newspapers and websites. In this article he has narrated his experiences and observations during his visit to the Indian Occupied Kashmir. Andre Vltchek is a world-renowned filmmaker and an investigative journalist who has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries.

A few days back a girl from the Indian Occupied Kashmir wrote on her face book, ‘Last night, my Mom’s phone kept ringing all night. The man on the line was drunk and spoke in accented Hindi and demanded that we talk to him or he would give our number to all the army drivers in his circles. The man was abusive and vile. It all scared us a lot and we could not sleep even for a moment. I was thinking of the girls who get terrified with such calls and have no way to articulate their frustration in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. But what can we do; we have no one there to listen to us’. Such horrible is the true face of Kashmir. The Kashmiris are being punished and penalized simply because they love Pakistan. But in spite of all such examples of Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir, some of the pseudo-intellectuals, some of the people from trade and commerce, a few politicians and a lot of foreign-supported NGOs in Pakistan have ever been insistent on the promotion of an air of trust, co-operation and cordiality between Pakistan and India and unfortunately no one has yet succeeded. Most of the times their extra-ordinary interest in bringing two countries closer gives birth to suspicions and doubts. One feels compelled to search the actual motives behind their hard-efforts and sincere-desire in this regard but with a grain of salt. In today’s world, there are so many examples of such neighbouring countries which do not have cordial relations with each other, rather they are hostile to each other; but neither the people of such countries do any efforts for the removal of this enmity nor they allow anyone else to facilitate the ‘peace-process’ between the two countries. When we look at the relationship between Pakistan and India, we come to the conclusion that since after its creation Pakistan has been doing a lot of sincere efforts for a deep-rooted cordial relationship with India but all these efforts have always gone waste just because of no-response from India; and this is the fault with Pakistan. It must have not wasted its time and resources on ‘insane-desire’ of peace with India. India is in no way a country from which one could expect friendliness and affability. It is a country which claims the valley of Kashmir as its integral part but at the same time the Indian forces deputed there have made the lives of the Kashmiris a hell of pain and agony. They have deprived the Kashmiris of even the basic human rights.

Those who dream of friendly relations with India must also keep in their minds the statement of Mr. Manohar Parrikar in which he very innocently admitted the fact regarding using terrorism as State policy of India. A few months back Mr. Parrikar said talking to the Times of India “Many terrorists are drawn into terrorism because of financial allurements… they are paid money for it. If such people are there, why not use them.” Atrocities and human rights violations are a part of Indian temperament. Those who are the supporters of cordial relationship between India and Pakistan must review their point of view. The desire of friendly relationship with India would push Pakistan into an inferno of whole-sale destruction. Peace and friendship are no doubt wonderful blessings but the relationship of peace and friendship could never proceed one-sided; this is most of the time a two-way traffic. Be it Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China or the Indian Occupied Kashmir, India always patronizes the terrorists and uses them for its heinous objectives. If we are sincere in our efforts of crushing the terrorists and terrorism we will have to be very much cautious and careful in our relations with countries like India. We will have to realize the real face of India hidden behind the so-called veil of democracy.