It is good to see that the plight of Kashmiris in Indian held Kashmir is being highlighted at international forums. The recent speech by World Muslim Congress' Altaf Hussain Wani at the Geneva Human Rights Speech is a case in point. He told the meet that the Indian government has created an atmosphere of fear and terror in Held Kashmir and violating all international laws to suppress the Kashmiris peaceful struggle.

He was addressing a multilateral forum at 52nd session of Human Rights Council in Geneva, saying that Indian government is using various tactics and repressive policies and tactics like enforcement of black laws, extrajudicial killings, rapes, torture, forced disappearances and forced arrests. Under the draconian laws, the Kashmiri people were deprived of all basic rights including the right to life and under the guise of anti-encroachment laws, the authorities are depriving Kashmiris of their lands, jobs and are rendering them homeless in their own homeland. He said that the draconian demolition measures in Valley are being carried out to demolish residential houses and occupy Kashmir's land. This speaks volume of India's disregard for the highest office of Human Rights.  Indian government has applied different forms of strategies and suppress the peaceful resistance of the people of Indian held Kashmir. To showcase normalcy, the Indian Govt plans to hold G-20 meeting in held Kashmir to whitewash its crimes. Human Rights experts say that Indian bid to host G-20 moot in held-Kashmir must be thwarted.  The fresh reign of terror unleashed by Modi regime in Kashmir since 2019 and which is an integral part of the wider BJP Hindu nationalist agenda, is becoming extreme in nature with the passage of time.  Though Kashmiris have been suffering the human rights violations since 1948, but with the Modi's new dark chapter is another addition to the long and never ending list of Indian atrocities in held Kashmir. And in its latest anti-Kashmiris agenda, the Modi-led BJP government has revealed fresh plans to hold the next year G-20 moots in held valley and to this effect, the Indian government has already directed the concerned authorities in the held valley to finalise preparations for this large scale moot. The Pakistan coalition govt of the day has done the right thing to have out-rightly and 'completely rejected' this Indian attempt in the wake of Kashmir's internationally and globally recognized disputed position which has been forcefully occupied by India since 1947 and the issue in the UNSC and which has also been globally recognized by the world community to be a disputed territory between the two Asian rivals. Though Kashmiris have been dying unsung since 1947 due to Indian atrocities, but under Modi's regime, a new black chapter has been opened which is marked by widespread atrocities and grave human rights violations in the held territory since 2019 with the Modi government's unconstitutional and illegal move to end separate status of Kashmiri as guaranteed to it under the Indian Constitution and its bid to submerge it with Indian government, It was in 2019 that Modi Sarkar revoked the entire Article 370 of the Indian constitutions and the  stripped the  held valley of certain amount of autonomy after over seven decades in violation of the Indian Constitutions. Under this article, Kashmiris had the rights to make their own constitution, a separate flag and also had freedom to make their own laws. Under this article, the Foreign office, defence ministry and communications remained the preserve of the central government, but in other affairs, the Kashmiris were free to some extent. As a result, Jammu and Kashmir could make its own rules like obtaining domicles etc, ownership of property  etc. However, the Modi government revoked that article. Since then an unprecedented new wave of  violence and extra judicial murders and harassment is underway in the held valley. Right now India is busy in making concerted bids and attempt to change  the demographic structure of the occupied valley which is a grave violation of UN Security Council resolution which shows Kashmir to be disputed region between India and Pakistan and which is to be settled according to a UN resolution which called for plebiscite in Kashmir. The Indian move is also deplored under the international law and the Geneva Convention as well. And now with fresh move to float ideas of hosting of G20-related moots in the held valley shows how disrespectful and disregard of the globally acknowledged "disputed" status of the territory is being shown by India. The world should not accept this demand of India and should not allow it to proceed with this plan of hosting the G-20 related moot in held valley. There is no international legitimacy for this illegal act of the Modi government as India is holding tyrannical occupation in the held valley  since 1947. The G20 members should refuse to okay this idea. They should now that held valley is a disputed region and the issue is in the UN. Since August 2019, Kashmiris are facing extreme human rights violations; their main leadership is lodged in the jails on fabricated cases and are subjected to extreme torture by the jail authorities.

The recent award of life imprisonment to Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik on fabricated charges by Indian court is a case in point. Other leaders are also facing same situation.   Indefinite curfews are in place in the valley and the internet is being closed frequently for weeks, denying the Kashmiris a connection with outer world so that the world does not know what is going on in held valley. Every day, tens of thousands of new military forces by India are dispatched to the held Kashmir to control Kashmiri Muslims by force and not to allow them to protest against HR violations in the held valley. Hundreds of new checkpoints have been formed and there is an unprecedented rise in cases of detention of Kashmiri leaders and people and torture under the draconian Public Safety Act which is black law. The demographic of the held valley is being changed which is aimed at increasing the population of Hindus in the held valley so that ever a referendum on self-determination is held in the occupied Kashmir as promised by the UNSC under it resolution, the non-indigenous Kashmiris would outnumber the local population and  the valley will sway towards India due to the Hindu majority. 

Published in The Daily National Courier, March, 13 2023

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