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.
Now to the situation in Pakistan, and the inability of the government to properly address the crisis. Any subscriber of Crescent International knows that Pakistan has been the subject of numerous articles and opinion pieces, and thus this is not the place to go over a detailed history of the country and outside involvement in its internal affairs.
On May 21, A. B. Vajpayee, prime minister of India, visited Kashmir, known for its legendary beauty as "paradise on earth". At the end of his brief tour Vajpayee made enough statements and decisions to indicate unequivocally that India is determined to make Kashmir a "hell on the earth" for its Muslims...
Each killing brings out more protesters onto the streets. The situation has now deteriorated to the point where the Indian army has been called out to enforce curfew that the people appear determined to defy
After a few years of relative lull in resistance activity, last year Kashmir was hit by some of the biggest anti-India demonstrations since the eruption of the insurgency against India’s rule in 1989 that has left more than 100,000 people dead...
The desire for freedom that glows in people’s hearts cannot be put out, though it occasionally flickers low. It is sustained by the justice of the cause and nurtured by sweat and blood; hurdles and difficulties only strengthen a people’s resolve.
Despite its reputation as a model of democracy in the non-Western world, India is in fact a country with serious human-rights problems, with many of the victims being Muslim. K. C. SALEEM, a Crescent correspondent in India, reports on the problem of extra-judicial killings in India.
Serious questions have been raised about the attempt to bomb India’s parliament in New Delhi in December 2001. Human rights activists in India are campaigning against the death sentence passed against one of those accused. Fahad Ansari reports.
1General Pervez Musharraf's insistence on calling his surrender to India a "peace process" has left not only the people of Kashmir but also some of his closest advisors completely bewildered. His U-turn on Afghanistan, and his abandonment of Pakistan's principled stand on Kashmir, as well as the nuclear programme to appease the US, have left Pakistandangerously exposed.
The dispute over the state of Jammu and Kashmir, a legacy bequeathed by the British before their departure from the subcontinent, has bedevilled relations between India and Pakistan since August 1947...
How serious is Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee about a dialogue with Pakistan to resolve the thorny issue of Jammu and Kashmir by peaceful means? In Pakistan there seems to be great euphoria about the volte face in India’s stance, first announced on April 18 by Vajpayee during a visit to Srinagar, capital of Indian-occupied Kashmir.
1The telephone conversation between Pakistani prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Indian prime minister, on April 28, is believed to have renewed hopes for restored diplomatic relations between the two nuclear neighbours.
Abdul-Majid Dar, area commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest group fighting against the Indian occupation, was gunned down on March 23 while visiting his brother’s home in Sopore. His mother and sister were also seriously wounded.
It was hardly surprising that Kashmiri Muslims are among those who offered the strongest condemnation to the victory of the fascist BJP Party in the Gujarat election late last year, for they have suffered more than most at India’s hands. QAZI OMAR reports.
“Free and fair” elections in Indian-occupied Kashmir ended in anticlimax on October 17 when Governor’s rule was imposed for six months.
In yet another attempt to legitimize its rule, India is again trying to impose a ‘democratic’ poll on Kashmir. The first phase took place on 16 September and the second on 24 September; the polls end later this month. With coercion by security forces, election boycotts in general...
Displaying supreme arrogance, India’s chief election commissioner on August 2 dismissed calls for international observers to monitor forthcoming elections in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistani president general Pervez Musharraf has made a grand retreat on Kashmir while pretending to be safeguarding his country’s interests. The unkindest cut is that this has happened under American pressure despite Musharraf’s abandoning a 25-year policy on Afghanistan in order to appease Washington.
Pakistani president general Perwez Musharraf walked a fine line in his televised address to the nation on May 27, defiantly asserting Pakistan’s willingness to defend itself against India for popular consumption while also asserting his commitment to prevent ‘terrorists’...
India has moved quickly to cash in on the anti-terrorism frenzy sweeping the world by branding the struggle in Kashmir as terrorism.
