India’s Black Republic Day for Kashmiris

By Sajjad Shaukat

When India celebrates Republic Day on January 26, Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and Pakistanis, including those of rest of the world observe it as the Black Day to protest against Indian illegal occupation of Kashmir and to convey the message to the international community that New Delhi continues to usurp their inalienable right of self-determination.

Although apparently, India claims to be the largest democracy, acting upon the principles of liberalism and secularism, yet in practice, all political, economic and social fields of the country are divided on the religious and caste lines. Theoretically, Indian Constitution safeguards the rights of minorities, but in practice, ideology of Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism) prevails.

Indicating complete disregard to the Constitution, the leader of the ruling BJP party-the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accelerated implementing the Hindutva ideology. Now, Indian internal policies are totalitarian. Various developments like unprecedented rise of Hindu extremism, persecution of religious minorities such as Sikhs, Christians and particularly Muslims, including even of lower cast-Hindus—the anti-Muslim Indian Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, the National Register of Citizens show that the Hindu fanatic groups have been promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism in India.

While, Indian Constitution was torn into pieces when on August 5, 2019, Indian Parliament revoked articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the disputed territory of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). The act split the IIOJK into two territories to be ruled directly from center.

Thus, fanatic PM Modi’s government led by extremist party BJP unilaterally annexed the IIOJK to turn Muslim majority into minority. On the same day, strict military lockdown was imposed in the IIOJK which continues unabated.

The deployment of more than 900,000 military troops in the IIOJK, who have martyred tens of thousands of the Kashmiris, including women and children through brutal tactics-fake encounters, while closure of mosques, shortage of foods, medicines for the patients have further increased the plight of the Kashmiris.

While, under a well-planned hidden agenda, Modi-led regime has intensified, bringing ethno- demographic changes in IIOJK. In this context, Indian various moves such as introduction of new laws, amendment of the laws to facilitate non-Kashmiris and outsiders in order to usurp the rights of the Muslim Kashmiris—issuance of domicile certificates to more than 800000 non-Kashmiris, registration of almost 2.5 million new non-local voters in the IIOJK—failure of fake drama to host G-20 summit on May 22-24, 2023 in the IIOJK, from time to time, violations of the Line of Control (LoC) by shelling inside Pakistanis side of Kashmir—in violation of the ceasefire agreement of 2003 might be cited as instance.

In order to conceal India’s state terrorism, Kashmir has been cut off from rest of the world.

Notably, during the partition of the Sub-continent, the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) which comprised Muslim majority decided to join Pakistan. But, Dogra Raja, Sir Hari Singh, a Hindu who was ruling over the J&K in collusion with the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Governor General Lord Mountbatten joined India.

The Radcliffe Boundary Award gave the Gurdaspur District—a majority Muslim area to India to provide a land route to the Indian armed forces to move into the J&K.

Indian forces invaded Srinagar on October, 27 1947 and forcibly occupied the J&K in utter violation of the partition plan.

When Pakistan responded militarily, on December 31, 1947, India made an appeal to the UN Security Council to intervene and a ceasefire ultimately came into effect on January 01, 1949, following UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir.

The Security Council adopted resolution of April 21, 1948, which promised a plebiscite under UN auspices to enable the people to determine whether they wish to join Pakistan or India. On February 5, 1964, India backed out of its commitment of holding plebiscite. Instead, Indian Parliament declared Kashmir-an integral part of the Indian union.

Since 1989, Kashmiris have already been enduring various forms of state terrorism; no Indian soldier has ever been taken to task. Hence, since the military clampdown started, Indian forces have intensified the employment of cruel tactics. Almost, 100,000 Kashmiris have died in the past 33 years.

UN human rights experts on August 4, 2020 called on India and the international community to take urgent action to address the “alarming” human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir—“to investigate all cases of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detentions.”

Amnesty International said on September 29, 2020 that it is “stopping its work in India because the government has frozen its bank accounts on September 10 [2020] for highlighting rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir…the government had sought to punish it for that”.

In the recent past, the UNSC in its meetings has thrice reiterated that the Kashmir issue requires to be settled in accordance with the principles of the UN charter and the related Security Council resolutions.

Moreover, Indian extremist rulers are escalating tensions with Pakistan to divert attention from the drastic situation of the IOK and Indian internal issues. For the purpose, Indian forces have also accelerated shelling inside Pakistani side of Kashmir by violating the ceasefire agreement in relation to the LoC.

It is mentionable that Pakistan’s military media wing ISPR had said that on December 18, 2020, Indian troops deployed along Line of Control in Charikot sector specifically targeted a United

Nations vehicle carrying two officers of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan.

Nonetheless, 26th of January which is celebrated as the Indian Republic Day, is being observed by the Kashmiris and Pakistanis across the globe as the Black Day to express solidarity with the Kashmiri freedom fighters.

It is notable that once again, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has appealed to the Kashmiris to observe the Indian Republic day as black day on January 26, this year to express the truth of so-called Indian secularism to the world.

In this respect, posters displayed by different Hurriyat groups in Srinagar and others area termed celebrating Indian Republic Day in IIOJK a cruel joke. The posters read that India should read the clear message from Kashmiris that they have always rejected its illegal occupation.

Nonetheless, 26th of January which is celebrated as the Indian Republic Day, is being observed by the Kashmiris and Pakistanis across the globe as the Black Day to express solidarity with the Kashmiri freedom fighters.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com