Seventy-two years have passed since the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan adopted a resolution that guaranteed Kashmiris’ right to self-determination through an impartial plebiscite. But since then, not only has India’s state-sponsored terrorism led to arrests, killings and rapes of thousands of Kashmiris in the besieged valley, but it also launched a campaign to change its demography. On August 5, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that granted Occupied Kashmir special status, in blatant violation of different UN Security Council resolutions. But upholders of human rights – the international community, particularly the UN have remained silent on this issue, while India goes on with its gross attempt of ethnic cleansing.
On Jan 5, as the country observed the Right to Self-Determination Day for Kashmiris, Pakistan once again reminded the UN to implement its own resolution it had passed on the same day in 1949. It reminded the world of its commitment towards the people of Kashmir, who have been living under constant fear and humiliation in the world’s most militarized zone. It reminded them of the war crimes committed by thousands of Indian troops deployed in the valley. The Research Section of Kashmir Media Service released a report the past week which stated that 210 innocent Kashmiris – five of them women – were brutally killed, 487 injured and 2,716 individuals arrested in false flag attacks in the valley in 2021 alone. It further mentioned that ’13 women were molested, abused or disgraced by the men in uniform, while 67 residential houses and structures destroyed’. Human rights groups claim that these numbers are highly underreported considering that the BJP-led regime in the neighbouring country has barred media and international rights organisations from entering the valley.
But as Kashmir bleeds, the world looks the other way. Pakistan has been steadfast in its commitment to the Kashmiri people’s struggle for self-determination. It is now time for the international community to do the same. The UN must intervene between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir dispute, not just for the people of the valley, but that of the region. As Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that “a just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is a prerequisite for durable peace and stability in South Asia.”
