|

Observance of October 27th as Day of Occupation in Kashmir

Articles, Uncategorised

Cumberland, Maryland. October 27, 2012. “The international community must intervene on humanitarian grounds to ease the suffering of the innocent and unarmed Kashmiri population. The suffering and abuses are so pervasive as to extend beyond those directly affected. The pattern of abuses reaches every man, woman and child in the Valley of Kashmir. The people live under the constant threat of the abuses. The prevalence of military personnel and bunkers serve as a constant reminder to Kashmiris of the potential for them to fall victim to such a horrible occurrences,” this was stated by Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai from Cumberland Prison Camp in Maryland, USA. Fai warned that India may be the largest democracy but its policies in Kashmir has been uniformly brutal and deceitful.

Fai quoted the New York Times column of July 8, 2012 which appeared on page 4 that says, “Had the graves been found under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s compound in Libya or in the rubble of Home in Syria, there surely would have been an uproar. But when over 2,000 skeletons appear in the conflict-ridden (Kashmir) backyard of the world’s largest democracy, no one bats the eye. While the west proselytizes democracy and respect for human rights, sometimes going so far as to cheerlead cavalier military interventions to remove repressive regimes, how can it reconcile its humanitarianism with such brazen disregard for the right to life in Kashmir? Have we come to accept that there are different benchmarks for justice in democracies and autocracies? Are mass graves unearthed in democratic India less offensive?”

Commenting on the Observance of the Kashmiri Day of Occupation, Dr. Fai said that the issue of Kashmir became international the day an alien Indian soldier set foot on the soil of Kashmir on October 27, 1947. Fai reiterated that the people of Kashmir demand what has been agreed upon at the United Nations Security Council with the consent of both India and Pakistan that they will be allowed to exercise their right to self-determination to decide the future of their land, i.e., whether they want to join India or Pakistan or remain independent.

Fai said that it is symptomatic of the approach of the world powers that the greater emphasis is placed on the “reduction of tensions” than on the settlement of the core issue, i.e., Kashmir. This gives importance to superficial moves and temporary solutions even though it is known that such moves and solutions do not soften the animosities of the parties, nor allay the life and death concerns and anxieties of the people most directly affected.

Fai emphasized that the rational approach to set a stage for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute is to include the accredited leadership of the people of Jammu & Kashmir in all future negotiations with India and Pakistan. Any Kashmir solution that fails to command the consensus of the 17 million people of the State of Jammu & Kashmir is doomed to shipwreck moments after its launch.

Dr. Fai can be reached at:

Syed Fai
78764-083
FCI- Cumberland
Prison Camp
P. O. Box 1000
Cumberland, Maryland – 21501, USA

Similar Posts

  • |

    Fai outlined eight areas for establishing communal harmony in Kashmir

    Monterey, California. March 31, 2014. Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General of the ‘World Kashmir Awareness’ highlighted eight areas to create an atmosphere for communal harmony that will ultimately lead the people of Jammu & Kashmir to a meaningful and purposeful dialogue. He was speaking at a Kashmir event near Naval Lodge Monterey, organized by the American Muslim Alliance which is headed by Dr. Agha Saeed, an eminent political scientist

  • |

    Human Rights Are Universal and No Longer Accepted as Domestic Jurisdiction: Dr. Fai

    Washington, D.C. July 8, 2012. “No human rights are self-executing. Thus, everyone who participates in raising the issues of civil and political rights does yeoman’s service on behalf of the oppressed. What is even more impressive is the willingness to invite risks to life, liberty, and property by those who would speak in the name of civil and political rights against autocratic or cruel regimes. How many unknown champions lie unremembered and unheralded in graves?” said Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai on the eve of the 105th session of the United Nations, Human Rights Committee which will be meeting in Geneva between July 9 – 27, 2012. The Human Rights Committee is the body of internationally known 18 independent experts who are elected for a term of four years. Currently, Dr. Zonke Zanele Majodina of South Africa is the Chairman of the Committee. The Committee monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights all over the world.

  • |

    Bad for Business: India’s White Elephant Kashmir – Part 1

    It is nothing less than astounding that intelligent men who are charged with the responsibility of leading a country cannot comprehend that spending billions of dollars to maintain possession of a very small disputed territory to its north with millions of troops at the expense of their own national quality of life makes any sense at all. While millions of Indians don’t even have a toilet (As Prime Minister Modi said, “My real thought is to first have toilets and then temples”)and live in squalor in cardboard shelters, the government feeds off their meager incomes in order to possess and control a nation that itself is kept in a dire state economically and cannot possibly pay any return on such an investment.
  • |

    Kashmir: Where the Truth Doesn’t Matter

    NPR’s Julie McCarthy was in Kashmir earlier in September and reported on how different the unrest seems now compared to previous years. “First of all, there’s this unprecedented kind of force being used. There’s these high-velocity pellet shotguns for crowd control. And it’s left thousands of people riddled with pellet injuries. And a lot of them have damaged eyesight. And some demonstrators have thrown stones, attacked police stations and government buildings. And, unusually, this started in rural areas. And it has spread throughout the Kashmir Valley. And it’s lasted over 60 days. That’s also unusual.”

    Perhaps it’s not enough to point out that the champion of this latest uprising, a person who was slain in a fashion frequently called “extrajudicial” by others in the press, and whose killing was the primary provocation for the current uprising, was a self-declared militant who had used social media to resist the Indian occupation. He was someone who had become a symbol of the true spirit of resistance in the hearts of all Kashmiris.

  • |

    Kashmir: Legal and Moral History

    These are my views on the principle of ‘right of self-determination’ and its applicability to the 67-year-old Kashmir conflict to be considered during the United Nations Working Group meeting that is taking place this week at its headquarters in New York. What I do hope to offer is an unstarry-eyed view of the fate of self-determination in Kashmir; and, the indispensability of convincing India that its national and economic security would be strengthened, not weakened, by ending its military occupation.