THE Kashmir cauldron is boiling again and the killing fields of the once serene valley are smeared with blood of the innocent Kashmiris. While the world is preoccupied with the war against terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, India finds it an opportune moment to target the hapless Kashmiris, whose only crime is that they have demanded their rights assured to them by the UN Resolutions of 1948, calling for a plebiscite to determine the fate of the Kashmiris but denied by India for the last 62 years. On October 27 1947, which is considered the blackest day in the history of Kashmir, India landed its army in Jammu and Kashmir, in total disregard to the Indian Independence Act and Partition Plan in 1947. In order to change the demographic composition of the territory, Indian troops, the forces of Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh, and Hindu extremists massacred over three hundred thousand Kashmiri Muslims within a period of two months. The Indian Independence Act and Partition Plan of 1947 had stated that the Indian British Colony would be divided into two sovereign states, India, with Hindu-majority areas, and Pakistan, with the Muslim-majority areas of Western provinces and east Bengal.India by landing its Army in Jammu and Kashmir violated the guidelines set for deciding the future of Hyderabad, Junagadh and Kashmir, three of the independent Princely States at that time, which were given the choice to either accede to Pakistan or India, considering the geographical situation and communal demography. It forcibly occupied the Hyderabad and Junagadh, which had Hindus in majority but their rulers were Muslims. Kashmir was a Muslim-majority state and had a natural tendency to accede to Pakistan, but its Hindu ruler sealed the fate of Kashmiri people by announcing its accession to India under a controversial accession document (Instrument of Accession, which probably never existed.
The Daily Mail opines that it is a historical fact that if the partition was done on the principles of Justice then India had no land route to enter into Jammu and Kashmir but the so-called Boundary Commission, headed by British Barrister, Cyril Radcliff, that demarcated partition line, under a conspiracy split Gurdaspur, a Muslim majority area, and handed it over to India, providing it terrestrial access to the territory. Right from the day one, the people of Kashmir did not accept India’s illegal occupation and started an armed struggle with the total support of public in 1948, which forced India to approach the UN Security Council to seek help of the World Body to settle the dispute. The UN Security Council through its successive resolutions nullified Indian invasion and occupation of Kashmir. It also approved a ceasefire, demarcation of the ceasefire line, demilitarization of the state and a free and impartial plebiscite to be conducted under the supervision of the World Body.In 1989, the Kashmiris, disappointed by the world bodies in granting them their rights, the Kashmiris took up arms in a just freedom struggle to achieve freedom from the yoke of Indian tyranny. The forces of evil let loose by India to crush the freedom movement have taken a toll of more than 93,241 Kashmiris martyred to date from January 1989. The wanton killing began a fresh spate of bloodletting after the Valley was hit by regular protests over the past two weeks following the deaths of three Kashmiri protesters allegedly at the hands of Indian security forces. In response to the killings, Kashmiri leaders have been calling for demonstrations and general strikes that have crippled Srinagar and other areas in the Muslim-majority region. The Daily Mail notes that General V.K. Singh the Chief of Indian Army, during an interview to the Times of India has called for a political solution to unrest in Indian-administered Kashmir, saying the military should step back from its security role in the region.The Daily Mail would like to inform the Indian Military Chief and its political leaders that India has no option but to grant Kashmiris their right guaranteed by the UN but usurped by India.
