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EDITORIAL: August 5, 2020 was declared Yaum-i-Istehsal (Day of Exploitation) by the Pakistan government to mark the day one year ago when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rolled back the special constitutional, legal and political status of Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). IHK has been split into two union- administered territories, a new domicile law now allows outsiders to own land and property in IHK, while the only exception to the almost complete halt of economic life is the permission to the Indian military to carry out 'strategic' construction projects. Busloads of workers (13,000 in the previous week alone) from outside IHK are being brought in who do not face any coronavirus quarantine unlike Kashmiris returning to their homeland. Houses and separate settlements are being constructed for the Kashmiri Pundits and former Indian army soldiers. This seems to be an attempt by the Modi government to change the demography of IHK. Since the annexation, a regime of brutal repression has been launched against unarmed peaceful protestors voicing their rejection of Modi's steps in this regard. IHK has been under severe curfews and lockdowns since then, a situation made worse by the lockdowns imposed in the name of the coronavirus pandemic. None of this has deterred the Kashmiri people from resisting this denial of freedom. The Indian military, partly to distract attention from the fierce resistance it faces from the Kashmiri people, partly to reinforce its narrative that the armed resistance in IHK is exclusively conducted by infiltrators from Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, has been regularly violating the Line of Control (LoC) ceasefire since at least 2015. In 2020 so far, 1,844 such violations through artillery and mortar fire have killed 14 people and wounded 138 on the Azad Jammu and Kashmir side. To register Pakistan's protest at the annexation of IHK by Modi's government through the abolition of Article 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution that provided autonomy to IHK, a series of steps have been taken by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government. Kashmir Highway in Islamabad has been rechristened Srinagar Highway, a postal stamp to mark the annexation a year ago has been issued, and Pakistan has outlined its position on IHK by issuing a map that shows IHK as a disputed territory. Rallies and protests adorned with posters and banners throughout Pakistan on August 5 brought home the message that the people of Pakistan stand firmly behind the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of Kashmir as enshrined in the UN Security Council resolutions.

India is not having it all its own way in IHK or the region despite its precipitate and provocative steps to suppress the Kashmiri people's longing for self-determination. Not only does New Delhi face determined resistance to these measures from the people of Kashmir, it also faces tensions (and sometimes conflict or near-conflict) with Pakistan. The recent India-China border clashes have inadvertently brought China centre-stage as far as the eventual resolution of the Kashmir conflict is concerned because Aksai Chin and other border territories once part of the Jammu and Kashmir state are now under Chinese control. A two-front scenario, so far the stuff of war gamers in the Indian high command, seems closer than ever. While this can be cause for some satisfaction in Pakistan and amongst the Kashmiri people, perhaps we should also do some introspection why an eminently justified cause such as Kashmiri self-determination does not find the traction with the international community that it once did. Amongst a host of other reasons, one important turning point is the concession Pakistan had to make to India after the 1971 debacle to limit the Kashmir problem solution to a bilateral dialogue. That may have been dictated by our weak hand after the 1971 defeat, but it served to get India off the UN Security Council resolutions hook, i.e. the regular roasting it used to receive at the UN on the Kashmir issue. India's economic rise too now militates against the great powers foregoing their vested interests in a strategic and economic partnership with India. What to talk about the great powers, even the Muslim world has turned its back on the Kashmir cause, honourable exceptions such as Turkey notwithstanding. Pakistan's diplomatic, moral and political support to the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination according to the UN Security council resolutions therefore faces an extraordinary challenge to get its and the Kashmiri people's voice heard.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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