Relations between India and Pakistan have never been cordial, in fact often tense, but they have hit new lows in recent weeks. This was again illustrated by the abrupt cancellation of talks between the National Security Advisors of the two countries scheduled for August 23 in Delhi. The latest cancellation occurred against the back-drop of Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s virtual ultimatum to Paki-stan to decide by midnight August 22 whether it wanted to meet Indian officials or invite Kashmiri political leaders struggling for freedom from Indian occupation for a meeting in Delhi.
The heat wave sweeping the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent has led to soaring tempera-tures in more areas than one. It has killed a lot of people because of lack of water causing heat stroke.
The people of Kashmir have suffered decades of Indian military occupation and aggression including rape, torture and mass killings. Now the Hindu fascist Bharatiya Janata Party plans to build Israeli-style settlements for Hindus in Kashmir.
The Hindu fascist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi has made no secret of its plan to incorporate the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir into India, in clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Now using the pretext of resettling Hindu Pandits who were allegedly forced to flee Kashmir, it has been proposed that special secure colonies were built for Hindus to resettle them in Kashmir.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has entered into an electoral alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir. This gives the Hindu fascist outfit, the BJP a foothold in the disputed state. Many Kashmiris are horrified by this development.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is living up to his reputation as a Hindu fascist. He has escalated conflict with Pakistan in Kashmir and Siachen. He is clearly itching for a war.
The issue of Kashmir may be ignored by the UN and other organizations and countries but not by committed people--Muslims as well as non-Muslims--that want to ensure that the gross injustices perpetrated against the Kashmiri people for several decades should not be buried under the debris of history. On May 24, the Friends of Kashmir organized an international conference in Toronto addressed by an array of international speakers.
The problems of Palestine and Kashmir date back to the same time period but the world knows one—Palestine—far better than the other—Kashmir; why?
Most parts of Indian occupied Kashmir were completely shut down today in response to a call by Kashmiri leaders to boycott Indian elections. They refuse to accept that they are part of India and have denounced Indian elections as a “sham.” They want a referendum to determine their own future.
The suffering of the Kashmiris need to be highlighted regularly and the support given by the Canadian Peace Alliance is welcomed by this reader.
The people of Kashmir have suffered a great deal over many decades but their plight is not well known. A reader welcomes the Crescent’s attention to this vital issue.
The apartheid disease is spreading even if it ended in South Africa nearly two decades ago. The Zionists have continued their apartheid policy on the Occupied West Bank by building a separation wall and now the Indian occupiers of Kashmir plan to build a similar wall. As usual, the excuse is to keep Kashmiri militants from “infiltrating” into its side. The Kashmiris have never accepted India's occupation of the state.
Contrary to popular misunderstanding, Kashmir is not a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan but about the right of the Kashmiris to determine their own future. This has been recognized under International law and enshrined in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Kashmir dispute is the longest unresolved issue facing the world. The rights of the Kashmiri people to self-determination have been denied since the problem arose in October 1947. Unfortunately, there is little information about the dispute outside a core of Kashmiri activists and the people of Pakistan. The Toronto seminar was meant to break this situation by bringing together a vast array of speakers to highlight the issue.
What the priorities of the new Pakistani government should be, are listed by Nasir Hussain Peerzadah from Kashmir.
The judicial murder of Muhammad Afzal Guru once again highlights the brutal nature of Indian democracy. The west, however, is not going to do anything about it.
The February 9 hanging of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, in India’s notorious Tihar Jail, has touched a raw nerve in Kashmir. Even fair-minded Indian writers, among them Arudhati Roy, have described it as a judicial murder.
What Indian occupation troops are doing in Kashmir, especially the gang rape of women, and the fact that not one perpetrator has been punished, indicates direct complicity of the Indian state in such crimes. The west’s silence over these crimes is equally shocking—and revealing.
Beyond the clichéd-ridden rhetoric on Kashmir, real people — men, women and children — are getting killed and maimed by one of the most ruthless military machines in the world: India’s 1.2 million-strong army, of whom 700,000 are deployed in Kashmir.
Guns and bullets cannot extinguish the spark of freedom that is lit in the hearts of people. Both Palestine and Kashmir represent this reality although the struggle of the Palestinian people is far better known — and now increasingly supported — worldwide while the suffering of the Kashmiris barely registers anywhere.
