RESOLUTIONOFKASHMIR

MehboobMakhdoomi

I do not find any point in starting this essay with the history of Kashmir. In my essay,
onlyfewhistoricalinstanceswillbebroughtintothelimelight,whereverrequired.

Resolution of any problem can be ascertained by the deep understanding of the cause
of the problem. Kashmir imbroglio, although being a vexed issue is not complicated to
understand at all. History standswitnesstoeachandeveryincident.Irepeat,itscrystal
clear. Then the question arises, why isitstillunresolvedevenafter60years?Thereare
manyanswerstoit.Indiasadamance,fewmistakesbyPakistan,andlastbut
nottheleastistheconfusedKashmirileadership.

It isnotwisetocallKashmirjustabilateralissue.Thefateof13.6millionpeoplecannot
be decided by the two foreign countries or any organization which does not represent
Kashmiristruly.

Pakistans representation of Kashmir is always being seen at, with dubious eyes at the
international platform. No country can trust Pakistans sayings about the condition of
Kashmir. Many countries and organizations perceive India and Pakistan both as
occupantsanddonotdifferentiatethem,sayingbothofthesenationshavetheirvested

So my point is that the bottleneck of the problem is weak and bifurcated Kashmiri
separatist leadership, so are the people. This has given rise to the two obstacles in
betweenKashmiranditsfreedom.

1.LOSSOFTHEFREEDOMPASSIONKashmirishaveneverfelttobepartof

India, they always aspired for their freedom, but they were predominantly ignorant, so
they needed a reliable, wise and influential torch bearer.They got few but at the end of
the day all of them turned out to be cheaters. So due to the known reasons, violence
broke out in the valley.It was not the war between few organizationsandIndia.Itwasa
civil war. It was raised by the local populace of Kashmir, it was so popular that if India
would not have been able to succeed in confusing the militant outfits and thepeopleof
Kashmir and if it would have persisted 1 or 2 years further with the same zeal and
passion, India had to leave the valley. Indias first success was the internal rift in
Kashmirimilitants,agangwarlikesituationprevailed,whenHizbulMujahideen
and Jammu Kashmir liberation front began to kill each other due to their ideological

differences, leaving the war against India aside. So with this, local population was
dividedasboththeseoutfitshadmasspublic

This broke the back of Kashmir freedom struggle.The second setback to the struggle
was a very ugly name in the history of Kashmir, i.e. Kuka Parray, the very unfortunate
formationofsocalledIkhwaan.Indiasucceededinindoctrinatinghundredsof
Kashmiri youth, majority of whom were former militants, to surrender and gave them
arms, ranks, unlimited power and utilized them to curb the militancy, because, they
being locals and involved in militancy before,knew each and everything about the
militants, their thinking and way of operating. Although majority of these socalled
Ikhwanis have been killed by the militants now, but the damage done by them to the
freedomstruggleisirreparable.

This second setback cooled everything down and this betrayal even killed the freedom
passion in the local populace. There was a lack of trust. Nobody would know who is
who. Even there were many families which had its members in different rival
organizations.

On the whole, India played a very intelligentpoliticsincurbingKashmirsstruggle.India

couldnothavebeensuccessfulindoingallthisdirectlywithoutgettinglocalsintoit.

2.INADEQUATEINTERNATIONALSUPPORT

According to United Nations Resolutions, Kashmir is a disputed territory whose people

have to exercise their rightsthroughafreeandfairplebisciteunderU.N.Sothisdispute
was internationally recognized, but now Kashmir has lost thatsupporttoagreatextent.
Thereareagain2reasonsforit.

a).Immediately after the armed resistance erupted in the valley, there was a huge
exodus of minority Pandit community, a plan mainly engineered by the then governor
general of Kashmir, Mr. Jagmohan, and many other unpopular reasonsareresponsible
for it. This helped India to label the Kashmiri uprising purely Islamic India was
successful toframethisissueoncommunallines,toagreatextent.Sothisdefamedthe
uprisinginmanypartsoftheworld.

b). Another setback was theSeptember11,2001attackontwintowersandpentagonin

the United States ofAmerica,afterwhichAmericaswaragainstterrorwaslaunchedall
over the world. So in this post9/11 world,itbecamehardforinternationalcommunityto
differentiatebetweenfreedomstruggleandterrorism.Thewordterrorismbecameso


popular that anybody with a weapon, for any cause, waslabeledasterrorist.According
to America, their prime suspect was Sheikh Osama bin laden, for whom they attacked
Afghanistan and then suspected him to be in South Waziristan, which is a PakAfghan
border area. America found Pakistan to have huge number. of Osama sympathizers,
and Pakistan somehow managed to convince America and saved itself from
devastation,althoughitwasatthebrinkofit.

So, now it was a cake walk for India to link Kashmir issue with the international
terrorism. According to India, 9/11 attack had a direct link with Kashmir and it even
succeeded in highlighting this link to a great extent. So these two reasons, especially
the second one destructed the Kashmirs international support as India claimed to be
theterrorvictimlikeUS.

So, till now I have sorted out the basic two problems, which if dealt with delicately,and
solved,thedayisnotfarwhenwecanseeafree.

Nowtheremediestosolvetheproblems

50% of the problem is solved if its cause is predicted and then understood properly so
at the present moment by figuring out the causes of this problem, we have solved it
partially.

There are two steps to be taken to resolve the Kashmir dispute, which means to solve
theabovetwoproblems.Sothetwostepsofremediesare

1. Revival of that freedom passion in Kashmiri people which was in them at the
inceptionofthepopularuprising.

2. Succeeding to get the sincere interference of International community especially the

majorplayerslikeUnitedStatesandUnitedKingdom.

Thesecondstepisspontaneoustothefirstone.

1.REVIVALOFFREEDOMPASSIONINTHEPEOPLEIstronglyconfronttothis
notion that Kashmiris are tired of striving for freedom. Its only because of the impaired
leadership machinery. Evenbeingwithoutamonopolisticleader,Kashmirisstillcontinue
tostrivefortheirgoaltoagreatextent.

They still boycott August 15, Indias Independence Day, October 27th, when Indian
troops entered Kashmir, all elections under Indian constitution and many more.
Although Kashmiri leaders do proclaim a strike call on these days but the reality isthat
thepeopledoitforthemselvesandnotforthecallgivenbytheseleaders.

But we can not deny the fact that a sincere leader is indispensable for this goal to be
accomplished. So my point over here is the need of a passionate, sincere,
knowledgeableleader,whohasafullpublicbacking.

Revolution has always been brought up by single persons, so we have to waitforsuch

a person for whose tones people will dance to. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had
enjoyed such a support just few decades ago but he failed at the end and ditched his
own people. Now we need one more Sheikh, provided he does not ditch the people. I
amemphasizingtheelementofthepublicsupportenjoyedbyhim.

Mathematically, we need Sheikh Abdullah treachery. Such a person even has the
ability to mesmerize the people with his demagoguery. He canbringallthepeoplefrom
all shades under one roof and set a common goal for them. Kashmiris should not
abstain to such a situation saying it can lead to more violence, but they should
comprehendthisfactthateverydaypeopledieandnobodycares,ithasbecomeanorm
of the life now. So, Is it not better to face it at once by facing the Indian pressure and
comingoutontheroadsirrespectiveofage,sex,educationalbackgroundsetcetc?
Exactly the situation of 1989 is to be rejuvenated, but without the gun. Gun can be
detrimental to the struggle this time, it can give room to India for calling itself terror
victimandearnsympathy.

So the war is to be waged with power and passion, as was done before but including
intelligence and unity this time. The whole world is to be shambled with such local
protests. Educated youths are to be involved in thisandtheybegivenchancestoenter
therevolutionarymachinery,sothattheycangofrontandspeakupinfrontoftheworld
effectively. It is to be highlighted at the intellectual level. It should become a fashion.
People should know what their actual rights are.Andallthiscanbedonebythatleader
whocangetthemassesbehindhim.

India has always been strategic in curbing the voice of Kashmir by enforced
disappearances, rapes, plunder, custodial killings, imposition of various draconian laws
like POTA (prevention of terrorist activities act),AFSPA(armed forces special powers
act), artificial ghosts in early 90s to terrorize people and now their latest trend is to
indoctrinateKashmirsnewgeneration.

This year India conducted Gandhi jayanti on a high level in Kashmir asking studentsto
participate in it and even chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad asked people to follow
Gandhis principles in this life and keep Islam for the hereafter, and recently on an eve
of childrens day, children were asked to recite the much debated and controversial
Indian patriotic song VANDE MATARAM, which is not only against the kashmiri
sentiments but even against Islamic sentiments. This Is a religious interference. Thisis
the most dangerous Indian strategy,which could be detrimental tothecauseofKashmir
to a great extent, if not dealt with properly. People, especially children should be made
awareofthesedeepconspiracieshatchedbyNewDelhi.

2. SUCCEEDING TO GET THE SINCERE INTERFERENCE OF INTERNATIONAL

COMMUNITY

AND EVEN THE UNITED NATIONS As I said earlier, this step is spontaneous to the
first one. When such a scenario comes into the being, there is no other wayoutforthe
world community to force India for solving the problem. International community never
takes cognizance of any dispute unless it is not serious and a threat to the world or
regionalsecurity.

Kashmir dispute has already caused 3 wars between Pakistan and India and now both
of these arch rivals have nuclearpower,sothenextwarbetweenthemisathreattothe
whole of South Asia and the world peace. So this threat is to be practically realized by
the world. Pakistan has been pressurizing the world even on this point but as I said
earlierthatnowitisnotbeingconsideredtrueKashmirirepresentative.

Islamic world should be insisted to play a role in it. Organization of Islamic countries
(OIC) conducts Islamic conference every year and every time expresses its solidarity
with the Kashmir cause, but just verbal support does not suffice. All Islamic countries
should stop all kinds oftradeandrelationwithIndiaandpressurizeittosolveKashmir.I
am emphasizing Islamic countries, because we all know that Kashmir is a Muslim
majority place so getting such kind of support is pragmaticallycomparativelyveryeasy.
After getting the Islamic support, Kashmir should turn towards the west. It should
organize programs in which English speaking youth be nurtured and made
knowledgeable about the issue and sent to the universities of the United states, united
kingdom,

Australia and even to the strong Indian allies like Russia. This program should be
launched at the high level with huge funds and responsible,knowledgeable people to
take care of it. So in this way, Kashmir can build up its young intellectual army against

IndiawithnonviolenceandIndiawillbeboundnottodoanythingwithit.

CONCLUSION

India is a big country withanobduratestandonKashmir,sokashmirisshouldfollowthe

above furnished two point theory of reviving their freedom passion and getting
international support, with patience and perseverance. I am sure it is not difficult to do,
butitneedsjointefforts.AlthoughKashmirsaremakingeffortsbutnotintheright
direction, all efforts by them should make one confluence and form an effort pool. I am
certain this is the onlybestsolutionforit,whichisreallyproductiveanddoesnotaskfor
lotofbloodshed.