EDITORIAL: India’s recent attempt to portray itself as a sympathiser of the Kashmiri people, in the wake of the disturbances in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), is a grotesque distortion of reality. In a statement issued by its Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, went so far as to suggest that Pakistan should be held accountable for the situation in AJK—an assertion as audacious as it is hypocritical.
The irony is glaring. While the people of AJK continue to enjoy the right to protest, vote, and participate in democratic processes, their counterparts in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) face a harsh and deeply repressive regime. Basic human rights are routinely violated in IIOJ&K, with repression institutionalised as state policy.
India’s track record in the occupied region is well-documented by respected international human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Since the unilateral and illegal abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, repression has intensified. Arbitrary arrests, custodial torture, extrajudicial killings, and the systematic silencing of dissent have become disturbingly common.
Journalists are harassed, local leaders are detained, and the space for political expression has been all but erased. Ordinary citizens live in constant fear of raids, violence, and state surveillance in one of the most heavily militarised zones in the world. The use of excessive force has become routine. Security forces have used pellet guns on unarmed protesters, blinding hundreds—including children. Thousands of Kashmiri youth have been detained under draconian laws such as the Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), often without formal charges or trials.
Those are not the hallmarks of a democracy, but the tools of an occupying power. Compounding this repression is the Modi government’s policy of demographic engineering. Through new domicile laws, non-Kashmiris are being systematically settled in the disputed region, aimed at altering its Muslim-majority character and diluting the indigenous population’s political and cultural identity. In its response to India’s provocative statements, Pakistan’s Foreign Office rightly reminded New Delhi that it has neither the moral nor legal standing to speak on the rights of Kashmiris while it continues to deny those very rights to the people living under its occupation.
The people of IIOJ&K have an internationally recognised right to self-determination, as enshrined in several UN Security Council resolutions. They must be allowed to exercise this inalienable right through a free and fair plebiscite, promised by the international community. Until India ends its military occupation, halts its campaign of repression, and engages in sincere dialogue with Kashmiri representatives, its attempts to masquerade as a well-wisher of the Kashmiri people will remain a cruel farce—repeatedly exposed by the grim realities on the ground.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.