By: Sardar Pervez Mehmood
Kashmir European Alliance expresses solidarity with the people of Kashmir. President of Kashmir European Alliance Sardar Pervez Mehmood has said that Kashmir European Alliance pledges to stand by people of Kashmir and will continue diplomatic efforts to make India give up illegal occupation and state terrorism in Kashmir. Kashmir European Alliance expresses solidarity with the families of thousands of disappeared youth. India has left no stone unturned in applying dreadful means to what it is not other than a systematic genocide in the troubled Kashmir region. Score of human rights forums and agencies have been reporting gross human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Kashmir European Alliance strongly protest against the Army’s clean chit to its men in the Pathribal fake encounter case and also demands revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act(AFSPA) from Jammu and Kashmir. On 25 March 2000, Indian military forces killed five men in Pathribal village of Anantnag district, claiming that the victims were the “foreign militants”. On 19 March 2012, The CBI (central Bureau of Investigation) told the Supreme Court of India that the fake encounter at Pathribal in Jammu and Kashmir 12 years ago in which seven people were killed by Army personnel were cold-blooded murders and the accused officials deserve to be meted out exemplary punishment. 14 years later, Army closes Pathribal fake encounter case and Army has given itself clean chit in Pathribal case.
Recently, according to a report published in an influential Argentinean daily, Buenos Aires Herald, Argentina sent a forensic team secretly to Kashmir in 2012 to investigate the surfacing of mass graves. In August 2011, for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir, an official inquiry said that it is “beyond doubt” that there are scores of unidentified bodies lying unmarked graves in the Valley. It said as many as 2156 bodies are buried at 38 sites since the militancy began in 1990. All these bodies, according to an inquiry by the investigative wing of the J&K State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), were handed over by the police to the local population for burial with bullet injuries and were classified as “unidentified militants.†SHRC called for a thorough investigation across the state, FIRs, exhumation and prompt DNA profiling of the bodies and comparison of samples with those taken from residents who have been campaigning against the disappearance of their relatives.
Kashmir European Alliance welcomes all attempts including backdoor diplomacy between Pakistan and India to resolve the conflict. Political conclusions need to be endorsed by military shareholders especially in a fragile and immature democratic setup. If the democratic institutions are weaker and fragile; more are the chances of a political decision overrun or influenced by other stakeholders in a comparatively weaker democracy. Pakistan is dangerously destabilized by 12 year Afghan war and nevertheless American desperate drowns strike policy against the sovereignty of Pakistan. Settlement of lingering volatile Kashmir issue is vital for both nuclear rivals and rest of the region. Although India claims to be the biggest and matured democracy, still Indian political elite must take defense and military in to confidence before taking a strong decision on Kashmir conflict.
Defense and military institutions have been desperately engaged on Kashmir front for past so many decades and therefore these institutions have built up a network of continuous economic and main power layout and are in a comprehensive position to press on any decision solely taken by short lived elected government. This complex aspect of democracies in subcontinent is easy to explain in another way. Big expenditures must be rationalized and justified to general public when they are spread over decades and when they are colossal in size and amount. Mainstream public opinion gets used to be steered and driven for years through the best effect of time span running over decades. A sudden and abrupt decision against the status quo may likely disrupt to what seems like a quite normal routine to justify heavy expenditures and main power deployment. Theoretically, it need a smooth passage and un-hurtful change rather than a disruptive call to bring down long planned built ideals flat in front of general public. Settlement of Kashmir issue may bring a new era of peace, tranquility and harmony and at the same time will give fewer reasons to continue piling up weaponry, arsenals and enormous military main power.
People in Kashmir are demanding right to vote. People of Kashmir are the legitimate owner of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. They demand right of vote to determine the future of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Right of self determination is their legitimate birth right and this must be realized by both nuclear rivals striving through back door diplomacy. They must realized that division of the state or declaring the LoC to be the permanent boundary or building the wall on LoC and the attempts like to give an electoral face to occupying puppet regime in Indian Occupied Kashmir by holding election in the state can never be the alternative to right of self determination to Kashmiri people. Sardar Pervez maintained!
Author is the President of Kashmir European Alliance. He could be reached on E-mail: president@kashmirea.com.Â