DOST KHAN
JAMMU: First time since Independence, India has dared to call the bluff of Pakistan by bringing into focus Pak-occupied-Kashmir, especially Balochistan. A smart move indeed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi provided it is pursued with same ferocity and sustained with sincerity. Giving moral, material, diplomatic and political support to suffering Balochs will certainly puncture the Pak balloon of Jihad in Kashmir.
In psychological (psy)-war, outwitting enemy is important to remain in the ring. India did it, perhaps for the first time after military intervention in the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh in 1971 when in a spree of mayhem Pakistan army killed over three million Bengalis, plundered and raped women. The situation is no less grave in Balochistan, which is witnessing intermittent aerial bombing, artillery shelling and all the machinations which Islamabad indulged in Bangladesh. India always exercised maximum restraint while tackling terrorism in Kashmir in order to avoid collateral damage, which could be caused by air-strikes or artillery guns. The nation was within its rights to use whatever force required quelling terror-violence but for the weak kneed policies of the successive governments, which served as a license for the rogue neighbor to indulge in misadventurism. However, Narendra Modi finally appears to be talking straight, thus creating shock-waves in perplexed Pakistan and among Pak apologists in India
Shia dominated Gilgit-Baltistan region is actually a colony of Pakistan, which is subject to worse type of human rights violations with Pakistan openly settling Punjabis and Pathans to change its demography. Balochs have been agitating over the Punjabi domination and attempts being made to reduce them into minority. This is enough for inhuman Pakistan Army to subject the entire population to mayhem. The indigenous movement is being dubbed alien with finger being raised against India.
OFFENCE IS BEST DEFENCE
Unlike Pakistan, India has never pleaded the cause of Balochs at international forum or called their genuine representatives to its Islamabad High Commission. On the contrary, Pakistan does not only train terrorists, abet terror strikes, push in infiltrators, support openly the violence as Jihad but also invite hawks like Syed Ali Geelani, Yasin Malik besides self-styled moderate Mirwaiz Umar on Indian soil to scheme against India.
Now that the Prime Minister has asserted that Indian External Affairs Ministry will maintain liaison with Balochs, spread across the globe, and make aware the international community about excesses being committed in Wazirstan, Swat and other areas, Pakistan and its apologists in Kashmir, and unfortunately across the country, are feeling rug getting slipped out of their feet. The offensive defence has started yielding results. The Pak apologists, seeking dialogue with Islamabad are feeling unnerved. Those prompting the Prime Minister to send an all party delegation to violence torn Kashmir are also disappointed as their pro-active campaign to seek some sort of face-saving for abandoning the current spell of agitation, forced by the Sangbaz Force, has out rightly been rejected-at least for the time being till there is semblance of order in the Valley. Indian assertion that New Delhi will first talk on Pakistan occupied Kashmir with Islamabad is high point of diplomacy. This has had an electrifying effect across the rogue nation, as also her lackeys in Kashmir.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi must maintain the push to Balochistan issue and highlight New Delhi’s claim on PoK. It will be only reassertion of the unanimous Parliament Resolution of 1994, which, inter allia, states, “Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir (PoK), which they (Pakistan) occupied through aggression”.
New Delhi must also highlight the persecution of minorities, especially Hindus in Pakistan, which at the time of partition was the second nation after India having substantial Hindu population (including East Pakistan, now Bangladesh). In West Pakistan, (today’s Pakistan) Hindus constituted 1.6 per cent of the total population. According to the 1998 Pakistan Census, upper caste Hindus remain the same 1.6 percent of the total population of Pakistan. The Pakistan Census separates Schedule Castes from the main body of Hindus who make up a further 0.25% of national population. (Keeping Scheduled Caste population out of the main body of Hindus is a sinister move, the trend which is gaining momentum in India too with pseudo secularists trying to divide the Hindu society by terming them as Upper Caste Hindus and Dalits) The same percentage of population means that Hindus formulations of looking at the issue in Kashmir through the prism of Pakistan and radicalisation,” the former Chief Minister said in a statement here.
“The unrest in Kashmir is not because of Pakistan. While suggesting so might be politically expedient and convenient for the Centre, it comes with the unimaginable risk of alienating the people of Kashmir to an irrevocable and irreparable limit. When that limit is breached, no amount of rhetoric or grandstanding will help,” he said. He expressed dismay at the “refusal” of the government to acknowledge the gravity of the situation.
“I am dismayed that New Delhi has yet again refused to acknowledge the gravity of the already volatile situation in the Valley. This will add further fuel to the current unrest,” Omar said.
Launching a scathing attack on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he accused it of advancing an anti-Kashmir narrative and insulting the Kashmiris.
“Whose interests is PDP trying to serve by distorting the ground reality in Kashmir? Towards what self-serving political goal does PDP want to insult and defame the people of Kashmir?
“Given how PDP has provided the central government with an opportunity to advance an inherently anti-Kashmir narrative, it is not surprising that the All Party Meeting turned out to be a cruel, practical joke with the people of Kashmir,” the former Chief Minister said.
He alleged that Baig’s suggestion that youths are becoming militants for ‘two sets of Kameez Pajamas’ was an indication of how his party looked down upon the people, especially the youth of Kashmir.
“While we disagree with their ways and methods and reiterate that violence is unacceptable, we cannot afford to ridicule and insult them and consequently push them further away from the system,” he said. He said such remarks from PDP, first from Mehbooba and then from Baig, were augmenting the anger and frustration in the Valley, he said.
