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Why do Kashmiris Observe August 15th as Black Day

Articles, Uncategorised
The people of Jammu & Kashmir on both sides of the Cease-fire line and worldwide observed the 69th anniversary of India’s Independence Day as a black day because of India’s failure to honor its pledges that  it has given to the people of Jammu & Kashmir at the United Nations. This year, the All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) had summoned all Kashmiris all over the world to demonstrate on August 15th, as a symbol of their unity and harmony. Their unity in mourning demonstrated their will to resist India’s illegal occupation and defiance of the United Nations Security Council resolutions mandating a self-determination plebiscite for the 18 million people of Jammu & Kashmir.
 
It is a historical fact that the dispute over the status of Jammu & Kashmir can be settled only in accordance with the will of the people which can be ascertained through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite, internationally supervised.  This was the common ground taken by both India and Pakistan.  It was supported without any dissent by the United Nations Security Council – and prominently championed by the United States, Britain and France. The United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolution of August 13, 1948 and other resolutions of the Security Council state clearly that “the Government of India and the Government of Pakistan reaffirm their wish that the future status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be determined in accordance with the will of the people.”
 
These are not resolutions in the routine sense of the term. Their provisions were negotiated in detail by the UNCIP and it was only after the consent of both Governments was explicitly obtained that they were endorsed by the Security Council. They thus constitute a binding and solemn international agreement about the settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
 
India has defied United Nations Security Council resolutions for more than 69 years because she knows Kashmiris will never vote in her favor.  The irony of the fate is that even President Obama would like India to be the member of the Security Council whose resolutions have been blatantly violated by India right from 1948.
 
It is beyond any doubt that for more than half a century, India has treated Kashmiris more like ink blots to be ignored than as human beings to be respected. Indian Government has betrayed most of its high-minded ideals in Kashmir that marked its entry into the family of nations after long years under the British raj: shocking human rights violations, including more than 100,000 killings in the last two decades alone, torture, rape, mutilations, arson, plunder, abductions, arbitrary detentions, and draconian punishment for the exercise of peaceful political dissent; and, contempt for international law and binding self-determination resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.  Indeed, India’s gruesome record in Kashmir is far worse than the records of the Federated Republic of Yugoslavia in Kosovo, Indonesia in East Timor, and Russia in Chechnya, all of which provoked international outrage and more. But not a word has been uttered by the world powers to bring the human rights violations in Kashmir to an end. The studied unconcern by the United Nations in Kashmir has given a sense of total impunity to India.  It has also created the impression that the United Nations is invidiously selective about the application of the principles of human rights and democracy.
 
All experts of South Asia discount the United States hopes that the dispute over Kashmir could be settled through bilateral peaceful talks between India and Pakistan. They recount the litany of failed bilateral efforts between New Delhi and Islamabad. At the same time, the people of Kashmir have steadfastly mainlined that talks between the three parties, India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris, are the only way to resolve the Kashmir issue. We hope that the leadership of India and Pakistan recognize that there can be no settlement of the Kashmir dispute, without the active and full participation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir living on both sides of the Ceasefire Line.
 
We urge the United States to resist the temptation to jettison its traditional foreign policy championing democracy and human rights in the case of Kashmir for in the name of big power politics or economic opportunities in India.  Down that road lies a troublesome blow to international law and amity.  A promising first step towards a just and peaceful settlement of the Kashmir tragedy would be the recognition by the United States, Pakistan and India of the leadership of the people of Kashmir as an equal partner in any future negotiations to settle the Kashmir dispute.

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    Kashmiri American community vowed to continue the struggle for self-determination

     

    bombay1

    Washington, D.C. June 5, 2012. The Kashmiri-American community in the Washington metropolitan area has vowed to continue their struggle for right to self-determination. At an impressive gathering at Bombay Tandoor, Tysons Corner, members of the community including academics, political activists and friends of Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, pledged to carry forward his work during the period of his incarceration.

    Speaking on the occasion, Dr Fai said there is no restriction on him to continue his work for a universally acknowledged cause. He clarified to his well-wishers that the prosecution had withdrawn charges initially leveled against him to be the agent of a foreign government.

    Judge Liam O’Grady, while announcing the verdict for two-year imprisonment earlier this year, had made it clear that “it’s (sentencing) necessary, even though you have done some very moving things on behalf of the Kashmir people and that your cause is a wonderful cause,” Fai told the gathering.

    Dr. Fai urged the community members to continue to support the cause of Kashmir. He quoted again Judge O’Grady who said, “I sincerely hope that while you’re at a minimal security facility like Cumberland, that I see no reason why you can’t continue to advocate on behalf of the Kashmiri people and to write. I know that the KAC is dormant, I guess is the word for it at this stage, but there may be an opportunity to arrange conferences through other people in the future, and I hope that cause continues to be identified as an important international matter. And good luck to you.”

    “No solution to the 65‑year‑old Kashmir conflict that does not command a consensus among the 17 million Kashmiri people can endure, Dr. Fai stressed, just as no solution to East Timor held a chance of success until the East Timorese leadership was consulted and a referendum on independence from Indonesia was held.”

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    Why does India have a hard time to accept the disputed nature of Kashmir?

    “Kashmir is an integral part of India, constitutionally, legally and morally something that is non-negotiable.” Ram Jethmalani, Outlook Magazine, October 8, 2016.

    “Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so.’ Sushma Swaraj September 26, 2016

    The fallacy advocated by the most celebrated Indian jurist and the Indian foreign minister deserves some clarification.

    The people of Jammu & Kashmir who number more than 129 other existing independent nations individually and have a defined historical identity, are at present engaged in a mass struggle to win freedom and release from the foreign occupation of their land. This struggle is motivated by no bigotry or ethnic prejudice; its aim is nothing but the exercise of the right of self-determination explicitly agreed by both India and Pakistan.

    To the horrors of the repression from which they suffer are added two other circumstances, each cruelly adverse. One is the apathy of the world outside, including the United States that otherwise are justly proud of their championship of democracy and human rights. The second is the fog of myths and evasive arguments, like Kashmir being an integral part of India. It is my modest attempt to help mitigate these two circumstances. My appeal is directed neither to the religious or ideological sympathies of Indian Public Square nor to their leanings towards any particular political party but solely to their conscience and human concern.

  • Kashmiri aspirations must be respected

    “If parties (India & Pakistan) come here and both of them call upon the Security Council to make recommendations for the solution of their (Kashmir) dispute, ought they not in advance agree to abide by it? They are not bound to ask the Security Council to make such recommendations, but if they do, I ask the Committee of Experts if they have not thereby implied that they will conform or try to conform to them.” Ambassador Warren Austin of the United States at the Security Council on May 26, 1948.

    If promises are made to be broken, then Kashmir may be summoned to prove the treacherous proposition. Broken promises haunt Kashmir’s history, and explain its tragedy.

    The Kashmir issue is simply this: the people of a large territory which is not part of any existing sovereign state were assured by the entire international community represented by the United Nations that they would be enabled to decide their future by a free vote. Until now, this assurance has not been honored.

    With the lapse of British paramountcy on August 15, 1947, broken promises over Kashmir came not like single spies but in battalions, to borrow from Hamlet. Princely states enjoyed three options: accession to India, accession to Pakistan, or independence. But the choice, according to India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and tacitly endorsed by the British,

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    Thank you

    November 29, 2013

     
    Dear all,
     
    I am thankful to Allah (s.w.t.) for an early release from the Federal Prison Camp in Cumberland, Maryland. Upon receiving the order from Judge O’Grady, the prison authorities gave me just 10 minutes to pack my belongings and to leave from the premises of the Federal Prison Camp. I am pleased to be home with my family and friends since Friday, November 22, 2013.
     
    At the beginning, the notion of imprisonment weighed very heavily on my conscience. I was mindful that some of my friends wanted to know the conditions I was living in. The conditions at the Camp in Cumberland were propitious and the avenues available were favorable to all the inmates.
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    Dr. Ayub Thakur: Friend, Colleague and Visionary Leader

     

    Dr. Muhammad Ayyub Thakur, the first of four children, was born in 1948 in Pudsoo village near Shopian, in the Pulwama district of Kashmir.

    It was 1973 when I first heard that Dr. Ayub Thakur was active in raising the awareness about the Kashmir dispute at Kashmir University and was the President of Kashmir University Research Scholar’s Association. One fine morning I went to see him along with a family friend, Jinab Aashiq Kashmiri, then the Editor of Daily Azan. We just knocked on the door at his university apartment and went in. I had never met Dr. Thakur until that time. After greeting us, he went out and in few minutes brought a cook and told him to prepare the lunch for us. We told him that we did not want to eat. It is customary in Kashmir to say that even if you are hungry. He did not listen to us and the cook prepared the lunch and we had a delicious meal.

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    Bad for Business: India’s White Elephant Kashmir – Part 2

    Ultimately the referendum in Scotland was held in a peaceful manner, and the people decided according to their own free will not to be an independent nation. This was undoubtedly a victory for democratic principles and universal values. The people of Kashmir do not want anything more than that. They want the same principle to be equally applicable to Kashmir. Let the people decide.