By: Azam Inqilabi
Our conscientious and courageous brethren of Azad Kashmir had the privilege and honour to establish the revolutionary government in exile on October 24, 1947. And Sardar Muhammad Ibraheem Khan became the President of this government, which patronized Kashmiri insurgents and supervised their activities. But for the inertia, passivity and dereliction of Commander Khursheed Anwar the Indian armed personnel would not have been able to dart into Kashmir valley on October 27, 1947. Indian military intervention in Kashmir prompted and provoked Pakistan to react with promptitude and resolve. Thus furious battle ensued between the armed forces of the two belligerent nations India and Pakistan. The stiff resistance of Kashmiri Mujahedeen flanked by Pak army constrained and compelled Indian Premier, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, to declare, in unequivocal words, at Lal Chowk Srinagar on November 11, 1947, that Kashmiris would be free to determine the political future of Kashmir through a free and fair referendum. The jittered and jolted Indian rulers rushed to UNO to lodge a complaint against the retaliatory role of Pakistan in Kashmir on December 31 1947.
So the world body initiated a debate in Security Council. Pakistani dialectics regarding Kashmir was fathomable; and sensitivities of this country as vocal proponent of Kashmir cause were taken into account. Thus UN Security Council, after marathon debate and discourse on Kashmir, constituted a commission through its resolution on April 20, 1948. So the United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP) embarked on a mission to ferret out the facts related to the genesis and complexities of Kashmir issue. The UNCIP resolution of Aug.13, 1948 reads: “The government of India and the government of Pakistan reaffirm their wish that the future status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be determined in accordance with the will of the people and to that end, upon acceptance of truce agreement, both governments agreed to enter into consultations with the commission to determine fair and equitable conditions whereby such free expression will be assured.†The UN resolution of Aug.13, 1948− the covenant entailing and invoking the commitment of India and Pakistan, the two contending parties to Kashmir dispute, to ensure free expression of the democratic verdict of Kashmiris regarding their political future− is irrefragably sacred and sacrosanct for us. It really guarantees our unfettered right to self-determination.
The expositional expression “will of the people†is, in its nuance, polysemic. The philological aspect of the expression, especially in the backdrop of two-nation theory, is certainly comprehensible. Kashmiris, while thinking about the nature of future dispensation of Kashmir, cannot afford to bypass Pakistan, the uncompromising passionate exponent of our cause, the cause célèbre: our right to self-determination. Kashmiri and Pakistani civil societies are culturally and religiously interwoven and intertwined with each other. So it is quite fathomable why Kashmiri Muslims, notwithstanding political differences, have a natural psychological disposition to Pakistan. Keeping this dialectics about and dynamics of Pak-Kashmir relationship in mind one has every right to question, impugn and arraign the role of Pak Foreign Minister Sir Zafrullah whose imprudence and parochialism proved instrumental in making Kashmir issue a bilateral Indo-Pak affair in UNCIP resolution of Jan.5, 1949. This is how Kashmir became a border dispute between India and Pakistan. And it is the same resolution which implicitly envisages the resolve to neutralize the role of Azad Kashmir as a revolutionary government in exile having initiative to take on India the way it likes. In fact Jan.5, 1949 UNCIP resolution on Kashmir recognizes our right not to self-determination but to self-delusion, subservience, compliance and obsequiousness. It asks us to play second fiddle in Kashmir issue. It asks us to be at the beck and call of India or Pakistan. This is all about a resolution which some compatriots rave over.
UNCIP resolution of Aug.13, 1948 and Pt. Nehru’s pledge and promise regarding a referendum and plebiscite in Kashmir empower Kashmiris to struggle as a nation for freedom. Aug.13, 1948 resolution does not wrench and wrest patriotic initiative from Kashmiris. In fact, it ideally invigorates them to remain steadfast in their campaign for freedom. It asks them not to flinch, vacillate or waver in the path of resistance. Here it is worthwhile to mention that over a dozen resolutions were passed by UNO on Kashmir including Jan.24, 1957 resolution which debars Kashmir Assembly from claiming any right to decide the political future of Kashmir. This resolution too emphasized the peaceful settlement of Kashmir issue through a “democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices and aegis of UNO.†Political analysts have something different to suggest. Can you muster up the courage to struggle for freedom like the people of Bangladesh, East Timor and South Sudan which became sovereign countries even without UN resolutions?
Kashmir where corpses of valiant Mujahedeen are lying littered, interspersed and strewn in the mountainous terrain of the wailing vale seeks attention of the free world especially the Muslim countries. Why should Kashmir situation be allowed to become ineluctable and cul-de-sac due to the monomaniacal fixation, obduracy and intransigence of Indian rulers? OIC should not swither, swerve or falter in its endeavour to adopt a proactive diplomatic role for the early settlement of Kashmir tangle and imbroglio. And Syed Salah-ud-din, the UJC chief, can rope in and co-opt some adept and proficient diplomatic luminaries for high profile activities aimed at seeking of an early peaceful solution of Kashmir issue. Azad Kashmir and IHK have a strong urge to merge with each other. People of Kashmir that straddles the Loc want the complete demolition of the Berlin wall (Loc). The 3-D Freedom Formula of Mahaz-e-Azadi can facilitate an early, peaceful and honourable settlement of Kashmir embroilment. Stalemate and deadlock in Kashmir peace process is fraught with dangers inconceivable indeed. Unpredictability is pith and marrow of Kashmir stand-off.
APHC (M) is wallowing in self-delusion and complacency. Why should your political demeanour reek and smack of your ineptitude, callousness and callowness? In the recent past controversial outpourings of a Hurriyat member blemished the edifice of the forum. Something was really a miss. And inertia, inaction, indecision of the quiescent forum chief rendered the situation more complex, confounded and flummoxed. Why should the “executive†look like a “fossilized†body of the activists with ossified ideas. So, now the only way to salvage the forum and restore its prestige and decorum is to convert “executive†and “general council†into Majlis-e-Shoora (as ordained by Qur’an). And office bearers of the forum should seek mandate of the shoora through a democratic process prioritizing consensus of opinion.
Perpetual house arrest of resistance leaders, human rights abuse and violations, and in fact, all the repressive measures of the establishment here constitute, perhaps, the quintessentially indispensable part of the stratocracy. Why should “more loyal than the king†attitude of the Kashmir police entice you to seal the house of ailing Khan Sopori, the senior resistance leader? Avtaar Singh, the murderer of Jaleel Andrabi met his nemesis. But who will mourn the death of his innocent children? This is the natural dividend of your statecraft which guarantees immunity and impunity for erring soldiers and indemnifies them against accountability. Why should Dr. Qasim, Mushtaq-ul-Islam and Masarat Aalam remain languishing in Jails? You have converted your jails into Nazi concentration camps where prisoners of conscience are humiliated, tortured and persecuted without any rue and remorse. So you can’t evade and elude culpability. The situation in Kashmir is really gory, gruesome, appalling and horrifying. God Almighty will finally requite the disdainful and abominable scenario with universal justice. This is how we aphorize the overtaxing ambience of suffocation and strangulation.
M. Azam Inqilabi
Patron JK Mahaz-e-Azadi
mahazmediacell@gmail.com
