The State of Jammu and Kashmir having an area of 222236 square kilometres and the total population of 125482926, divided into three regions Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. It lies between latitudes 32º17’ to 36º58’ North and longitudes 73º 26’ to 80º 26’ East.
The Jammu and Kashmir are the State with its borders touching Pakistan in the west, China & Tibet in the North & East and the Indian States of Punjab and Himachal in the South. Kashmir the world’s most militarized zone where there is one soldier for about every fifteen citizens. There are over 5,00,000 equipped troops, 3,00,000 army men, 70,000 Rashtriya Rifle soldiers, 1,30,000 central police forces as against the total inhabitants of one crore.
In the past 20 years, a cohort of Kashmiris has grown with rebels every street corner often even in their breathing quarters. The grievance of the people is that instead of confining the role of the military and security forces to that of external defence and as against freedom fighters, it is regularly and endlessly used for domestic repression.
These excessive deputation forces have resulted in wiping out all breathing space for the exercise of democratic rights by the people. Kashmir has seen its worst shutdowns, movements, resistance calls, curfews, and what not from the last 70 years of its illegal occupation by India. Each passing day people in Jammu and Kashmir are being killed, tortured, illegally arrested including minors, Human beings chastened I mean to say here and that too because we demand our right to self-determination.
It’s not only in this 19th year of the twenties, but the People of Jammu and Kashmir have been struggling for their right of self-determination from more than seven decades. The issue of Kashmir started just after India‟s independence and the birth of Pakistan in 1947. At that time, there were around 560 princely states under British India, and Kashmir was one of them. The delay in deciding Kashmir‟s future by Maharaja Hari Singh – the last king of independent Kashmir – after the British left was the root cause of Kashmir conflict.
The tribal invasion caused by raiders from Pakistan made the Maharaja feel insecure, and he decided to seek help from India. India‟s viceroy Mountbatten promised him militarily help and in return Maharaja signed the “Letter of Instrument of Accession to India,” which stands controversial ever since. And with that Instrument of Accession, the Kashmir dispute has stared into the faces of the two nuclear neighbours for more than six decades now.
On 2nd November 1947 India‟s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru announced on All India Radio that “Kashmir future will be decided to employ the plebiscite.” However, the promise of the referendum is still pending. Is this the image of so-called great nations, and is this the worlds so-called largest democratic country is supposed to do with the helpless beings of Kashmir?
From last more than 42 days, the world knows that Jammu and Kashmir are under Siege. Human beings there are without necessities, there is no in and out information about the people living there no communication system, no access to internet, televisions, and radio, in this twenty-first century Independent media is not allowed there, and whoever is raising the voices against this brutal and unjustified rule is being arrested, harassed and murdered.
The instrument of accession on which the State of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India itself contains the statement given by the Maharaja as: Nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit in any way to acceptance of any future constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into agreement with the Government of India under any such future structure but the sad part is that the Indian Government’s revocation of the autonomy and special status of Jammu and Kashmir on 5th of last month violates the rights of representation and participation guaranteed to the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the Indian Constitution and in international law and is a blow to the rule of law and human rights in the State and the move was preceded by a communication blackout, detentions of political leaders, banned movement and meetings of people, and increased military presence.
The Indian Government has pushed through these changes in contravention of national and international standards concerning the rights of people in Jammu and Kashmir to participate and be adequately represented, accompanied by draconian new restrictions on freedoms of expression.
India in the arrogance of power is brutalizing the people of Kashmir, and the fact is it is never going to get any solution and if the people of Jammu and Kashmir are raising the voices against the tyrannical rule of India the killings or the least is Imprisonment as the form of punishment. There are gross human rights violations in Kashmir so India should stop its brutality in Kashmir and as a concerned citizen of the State we request to:
- Amnesty International USA
- Human Rights Watch
- Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
- United Nations Foundation and all other such organizations.
Protecting the people of Jammu and Kashmir against the Indian brutality, we request the United Nations organizations for activities involved in getting the justice against the brutal and criminal actions against the beings of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.