JKLF Diplomatic Bureau London - has called upon the world’s top Human Rights organisations including, International federation for Human Rights ( FIDH), offices of UN high Commissioner (OHCHR), Human Rights Watch ( HRW ), Amnesty International, International committee of Red Cross, Asia Watch and Secretary of Head of Commonwealth expressing deep concerns on the deteriorating health condition of Yasin Malik, who is languishing in Tihar prison, (in solitary confinement) on fabricated and politically motivated charges. 

In a statement issued on 22nd May 2023, Jklf Diplomatic Bureau has urged the heads of these organisations to use their good offices and  intervene in providing a medical board in assessing  Yasin Malik ‘s health, and  take steps towards his release from his illegitimate imprisonment.

London 20th May 2023.

JKLF Diplomatic bureau has written to  the Chinese Ambassador HE Ambassador Zheng  Zeyuang, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ambassador HRH Prince Khalid Bin Bandar Bin Sultan and Turkiye Ambassador HE  Osman Koray Ertas, thanking their respective governments for withdrawing and boycotting the G20 group working meeting in Srinagar, ( Indian Occupied Kashmir). The letter said the decisions by the friendly countries are in accordance with the UN charter  and UNCIP Resolutions on Jammu Kashmir. The Kashmiri people are eternally grateful and appreciative of your stand for a just and a peaceful solution of this 75 year longstanding international issue. The Statement also urged all other G20 Member state NOT to attend the meetings in the internationally recognised disputed territory, and reminded them of their legal obligations and commitments to the UN Resolutions on the State of Jammu Kashmir.                               

Jklf Diplomatic Bureau,
JKLF International Secretariat,             
119-123 Cannon st Road,                   
London E1 2LX.

An open letter by the JKLF to the Foreign Ministers of OIC States, meeting in Islamabad on 22 March 2022.

Excellencies

RE: Indian Gov’t’s nefarious and pernicious Jammu & Kashmir -J&K- Policy: decimation and re-writing of history.

Excellencies, India’s right wing Hindu ultra-nationalist BJP/RSS Government’s decision to abrogate articles 370, and 35A on 5 August 2019 to annex, and bifurcate Kashmir, is illegal, her decision to do so however, is designed to obliterate Kashmir’s heritage, destroy its religious and cultural identity, turn the majority Muslim population into an inconsequential minority, and to communalise the centuries’ old harmony and tolerance in Indian occupied Kashmir to further its nefariously pernicious objective, of the  BJP/RSS Government’s flagship Hindutva project. Primarily, India’s policy is designed to bring about demographic change. This is intended to be achieved with new domicile rules which replaced article 35A. Through these illegal rules, Indian occupied Kashmir has literally been opened up to 1.3 billion people of India. It is pertinent to remind your Excellencies that by revoking article 370 on 5 August 2019 India no longer has a conditional arrangement to be in J&K, and therefore, India’s   presence in Kashmir is that of an occupier.

Excellencies, Political dissent, systematic human rights violations and detentions of civilians, including political leaders are perpetrated under repressive Public Safety Act PSA, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA, and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act AFSPA. Mr Yasin Malik, the Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), is held under such punitive laws which are colonial in nature and designed to force him into submission.  Having been arrested on 22 February in 2019 and detained at a local police station in Srinagar, Mr Malik was slapped with the inhuman PSA on 7 March and removed to Kot Balwal jail in Jammu, while on 9 May 2019 he was taken to the Indian capital Delhi where he was subjected to physical and psychological torture by India’s National Investigation Authority (NIA). The NIA is tasked with fabricating evidence against Mr Malik as part of Modi Government’s malicious campaign to malign, stifle and discredit Mr Yasin Malik’s peaceful struggle to resolve the Kashmir issue.

Excellencies, the arrest of Mr Malik and the subsequent banning of his party, the JKLF on 22 March 2019, was in fact, to pave the way for India’s military build-up, and subsequent illegal actions against Kashmir and its people. As the most prominent and internationally acknowledged pro-independent pacifist leader of Kashmir, Mr Malik actively seeks a political resolution of the conflict which remains a constant threat to peace and a danger of nuclear confrontation in the region.

Mr Malik stood up to defy Prime Minister Modi’s ideologically driven policy of Hindutva; the manifest objective of which is to obliterate Kashmir’s history, geography, socio- cultural, and religious harmony and identity, through demographic change. Mr Malik has opposed the Indian Government’s policy to deprive the people of Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh of their fundamental citizenship rights, which had been secured with enormous sacrifices by them during their heroic struggles throughout the twentieth century.

Excellencies, prior to Mr Malik’s arrest, he stood firmly opposed to the anticipated abrogation of articles 370 and 35A.  He led peaceful political dissent. Under Mr Modi’s rule however, right of Mr Yasin Malik, and role of his party the JKLF, to organise peaceful democratic dissent, is called anti-national, even when the dissent is in Kashmir, which since 1947 is under de- facto rather than de jure Indian control. Therefore, India’s, and that of Pakistan’s presence in Kashmir, has always been contingent upon a final settlement of Kashmir’s status.  Mr Malik has engaged with previous leaders of both India and Pakistan including the current Prime Minister Mr Imran Khan when he was an opposition leader. And in the past 28 years Mr Malik has assiduously sought support, both in the sub-continent and across the world, for a peaceful and equitable resolution of the Kashmir issue.

Excellencies, within the first two years of Kashmir’s annexation, around 4 million domicile certificates under the new illegal rules have been issued to non-Kashmiris. At this rate, when Prime Minister Modi’s ultra- Hindu-nationalist BJP goes to the polls in the 2024 general election, a declaration of complete victory over Kashmir, will be proclaimed by the ideological progeny of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh- RSS- to heighten majoritarian extremism in India, at his bid to be re-elected for the third time. Success of the RSS supported BJP and Mr Modi in the 2024 Indian general elections appears assured, not only due to the socio-cultural, religious and political obliteration of the 70% Muslim population of J&K, but also at the expense of more than 225 million Muslims of India itself! Today’s India therefore, is poised to take the next step against its religious minorities, and the brunt of the highly polarised, and politicised extremist Hindutva frenzy, will inevitably be borne by the Indian Muslims.

Excellencies, since coming to power in 2014, the Modi led BJP/RSS India, has used its Kashmir policy to weaponise the majoritarian political fervour in India, to support its Hindu supremacist Hindutva ideology against religious minorities, especially the Indian Muslims. Lynching of Muslims on suspicion of eating beef is a common occurrence, and convicted murderers are garlanded by union ministers in the India of BJP/RSS era. Drastic policies by many State governments, like Karnataka, are introduced against Islamic attire including hijab and meekly upheld by the courts, since the Indian judiciary has simply become a compliant instrument of the BJP/RSS at the centre and the state level. Today’s India is a dark place for the Muslim minority. Influential OIC countries have huge economic leverage in India which does not appear to have helped the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination or eased the impact of hugely discriminatory policies of the BJP/RSS’s political chauvinism against the Indian Muslims.

Excellencies, India’s illegal action on 5 August 2019 not only betrayed people of Kashmir, but defied the UN by showing utter contempt for more than 20 UN-SC and UN-CIP resolutions, and the UN Charter, on the status of J&K and Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. With annexation, and disintegration of the 176 year old State, the BJP/RSS nexus has embarked upon its nefarious and malicious policy to decimate, and obliterate centuries’ old heritage, and identity of the interconnected heterogeneous State J&K by fomenting divisions on religious, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural grounds across the diverse people. India defied UN resolutions 91 of 1951, 123 and 126 of 1957, which clearly stipulated that unilateral action to change territorial and political disposition of Kashmir was prohibited for India and Pakistan.  

Excellencies, Kashmiris on both sides of the ceasefire line CfL expect that Pakistan, a prominent OIC member country which is hosting the current OIC Foreign Ministers’ conference in Islamabad, will refrain from emulating India by changing political and territorial disposition of Azad Jammu Kashmir-AJK, and Gilgit Baltistan AJK&GB. Developments around Gilgit Baltistan in Islamabad however, signify that through back channel facilitation of friendly countries, Pakistan and India may be persuaded to formalise the CfL so as to effect permanent division of Kashmir. We hope that no OIC country will either condone, or facilitate such an abominable solution, as it would amount to the annihilation of Kashmiris’ heritage, identity, and the territorial integrity of their beloved homeland- Kashmir.

Excellencies, quite poignantly therefore, India’s aggression against Kashmir on 5 August 2019 will remain etched in the collective psyche of the Kashmiris as their nakba- the great catastrophe- which the people of Palestine also suffered having been ‘ethnically cleansed’ from most of their homeland in 1948; and seven decades on Palestinians are disenfranchised and seen as strangers in their own land as a direct consequence of the settler policy of the Israeli government. Unfortunately similar fate not only awaits but has descended on the defenceless Muslim majority and their leadership in Indian occupied Kashmir with India’s Hindutva project to settle non Kashmiris.

Excellencies, India follows a similar pattern of repressive policies and laws to delegitimize Kashmiris’ internationally recognised right to self-determination. The BJP/RSS Modi government projects the legitimate freedom struggle as a struggle for Muslim religious rights. In a calculated policy to vilify and denigrate the freedom struggle, India has weaponised the Pandit minority of the greater valley of Kashmir to project the struggle as ‘Islamic terrorism’. Ironically projecting the Kashmiris, as the problem, in their own homeland, just as Israel projects the people of Palestine a problem in their homeland.

Excellencies, since the annexation on 5 August 2019 the economy and livelihood of the relatively prosperous Indian occupied part of Kashmir has nose-dived drastically. The economy of Indian occupied J&K has lost around 7 billion US dollars with more than half a million unemployed, while the economic slide continues to move downward. It is quite clear therefore that at best it is indifference and neglect, and at worst a calculated policy of the Hindu- nationalist BJP/RSS Modi Government of India to pauperise the masses in Indian occupied Kashmir. We are dismayed and disappointed that despite India’s heinous conduct in Kashmir of brutalising and inhuman treatment of the population which includes extra judicial killings, collective punishment, depriving the families of appropriate religious burial rites for their loved ones killed in all too frequent fake encounters, goes un-noticed, with very few exceptions, by the OIC countries.of the issue based on the international legality with UN resolutions, and Kashmiris’ right to self-determination Excellencies, we anticipate that the OIC will take an extended view to seek an equitable resolution. We expect the leaders of the OIC countries to support people of GB in their legitimate need for Self-Government, structured on the AJK model, and will encourage Pakistan to facilitate the needs of Gbians rather than to annex the region as a province of Pakistan. As people of the divided State including the Gbians, we fully support China-Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC. It is appropriate to expect, however, that GB’s Government must be represented as a full-fledged partner on the all-important CPEC project.

Excellencies, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to the governments and peoples of nations that support the rights and aspirations of our people’s valiant struggle for freedom. In particular our heartfelt gratitude to the people of OIC countries whose leaders during their address at the UN General assembly in September 2019, 2020 and 2021 extended their support to the people of Kashmir despite considerable opposition, and threats of trade boycott by the Hindu-nationalist majoritarian BJP/RSS Modi Government of India. Kashmiris wish to see their State become a cross road, and a bridge of peace in South Asia to unlock prosperity, and create amity in the region.

All that is required is to take the first step based on the inherent and inalienable sovereign right of more than twenty two million Kashmiris in accordance with the UN mandate. Many of the OIC countries including Pakistan, have close ties with Britain, the US and the PRC. All these powers have a direct diplomatic and economic stake in peace and prosperity of the South Asian sub-continent. A just and equitable resolution of the Kashmir issue will ensure peace and prosperity in the region to the advantage of all concerned.

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, JKLF.

A poignant reminder about Kashmir on the World Human Rights Day:

While oppression, incarcerations, fake encounters, custodial killings & siege in Kashmir by India continues!

Respected UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,

Excellency tenth of December every year as Human Rights Day has not been a day of rejoicing for the people of the internationally disputed Jammu and Kashmir (commonly referred to as Kashmir) which comprises of the greater valley of Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir.

The first three regions of the divided State are under Indian occupation, while the latter two are in Pakistan’s direct and indirect control. The theme of the Human Rights Day for 2021 is ‘equality’ in accordance with Article 1 of the1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights- UDHR- which states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

For the people of Kashmir the text of the UDHR’s article1 and indeed that of article 1 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights- ICCPR- are clearly empty and hollow. For the record article 1 of the ICCPR enunciates more specifically the spirit of the UDHR’s article1 by stating that “all peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

Lamentably however, despite numerous UNSC and UNCIP resolutions since 1948 on the issue of Kashmir’s political status through a UN supervised Plebiscite, Kashmiris are still deprived of exercising their inherent, inalienable, and unfeterred sovereign right to be the sole arbiters of their political destiny. For more than seven decades now 22 million Kashmiris, forcibly divided between India and Pakistan, across the 1949 ceasefire line-CfL- have  experienced none of the spirit of brotherhood or equality in dignity in their occupied homeland.

Excellency it is pertinent to remind you that people are not only divided by the CfL between the hostile nuclear neighbours, those in Indian occupied Kashmir, are under a siege especially since India illegally annexed Ladakh, the greater valley of Kashmir, and Jammu on 5 August 2019  in blatant defiance of the UNSC and UNCIP  resolutions mentioned above. These three regions, with the illegal revocation of articles 370 and 35A, coupled with the illegal dissolution of Kashmir’s legislative assembly in 2018, are now bifurcated, and  ruled by the Indian Government, as two union territories of Jammu Kashmir, and Ladakh, taking away peoples’ long standing pre 1947 fundamental  legal rights.

BJP/RSS Government of India as part of its nefarious Hindutva project, has connived to settle non Kashmiris in the State. Since August 2019 up to 4 million domicile certificates under the new illegal rules, have been issued to non-Kashmiri settlers with tenuous links and pretext of service and study with Kashmir as the basis of settlement. At the heart of the Kashmir issue therefore, lies the fundamental principle and the inalienable sovereign human right of Kashmiris to self-determination.

Excellency under the pretext of anti-terrorism operations India’s occupation forces terrorise the civilian population with violent and repressive actions that include Cordon and Search Operations (CASO), arrests, fake encounters, orchestrated destruction and death. India’s huge number of military and paramilitary ‘security’ forces operate in Kashmir with impunity of action and immunity from prosecution.

A most repressive structure and regime of laws provides these forces with the impunity to oppress a population under siege since 5 August 2019.  Hence India’s ‘all out’ policy of militarised and political oppression to completely suppress the voice of Kashmiri people with use of unprecedented naked force, and repressive laws such as the AFSPA- the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, UAPA the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and the PSA, the Public Safety Act.

Excellency killing of civilians in fake encounters, arrests and incarceration of pro freedom political leaders including Mr Muhammad Yasin Malik, Mr Shabir Ahmed Shah, Ms Aasiya Andrabi and hundreds of political activists, defenders of human rights and civil liberties, and journalists, takes place  with alarming frequency especially since 2018.

Latest examples of such outrages perpetrated by India’s security forces include the killings in Haiderpura on 15 November 2021, and in Rambagh on 24 November 2021, as well as the arrest of internationally acknowledged Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez on 22 November 2021.

The three civilians killed at the Haiderpura fake encounter had no connections with either the militancy or with any political organisation. The much talked about fourth person seems to have vanished into the  thin air, which appears to be nothing but an imaginary story concocted by the security forces to provide them with the cover, for their ghastly and heinous act of killing the three men, in cold blood.

According to eye witness accounts, the owner of the building Altaf Ahmed Bhatt was taken into the building twice by the security forces.  When Altaf Bhat was taken into the building on the third occasion he was shot by them. Amar Magray who served tea in the building, was allowed to go and bring his cell phone from his home, which he did. Would Magray have returned with his cell phone had he been a militant?  The security forces however claim that Magray was killed in the encounter.

Dr Mudassar Gul, the third person killed at the Haiderpura fake encounter had an office in the building. The building is said to be equipped with CCTV cameras that would undoubtedly throw light on the pack of outright grisly lies advanced by the security forces to cover up the planed and wanton killings in the fake encounter: an encounter in which Dr Mudassar Gul, Altaf Ahmed Bhatt and Amar Magray became an addition to the tally of thousands of  Kashmiris who have become victims of India’s security apparatus which the Indian military incentivises for such tallies with promotions and other rewards.

As for the Rambagh fake encounter three young men were pulled out of a vehicle and shot dead, while one of them with injuries tried to save himself by running away, was caught and shot by the security personnel. All three young men were unarmed. Thus like the three victims of the Haiderpura fake encounter, the three young men  killed at  Rambagh in cold blood, also became an addition to the tally of  Kashmiris who have fallen victim to India’s security apparatus that shows no compunctions in killing of civilians by such staged encounters.

Excellency, the Haiderpura and Rambagh killings are a pattern that can be nothing other than a deliberate and wanton policy of the incumbent Government in Delhi, to instil fear and awe of India’s absolute power over life and death in Kashmir. Even if apprehended individuals were militants, which they were not in this case, there is no justification for the Indian security forces to execute individuals on the spot in their custody- clearly a method of custodial killing perfected by India’s occupation forces in Kashmir.

Dr Nazir Gilani an expert on rights and President of the UN affiliated Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights-JKCHR, points out that the “Government of India has accepted a regime of Human Rights under the UN Charter and under Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The ceiling of responsibilities is raised in accepting the terms and conditions for the temporary admission of its army into Kashmir.”

Excellency the responsibility must be established in the conduct of the Indian state and its armed forces in Kashmir. We demand that the OHCHR orders an independent inquiry headed by UN experts to ascertain the full facts concerning the deaths at Haiderpura and Rambagh as well as killings by India’s security forces in similar fake encounters over the recent years, and in particular since the 2016 sinister ‘all out’ Kashmir policy of the BJP/RSS Government of India.

Since August 2019 in particular, India has created a climate of total repression and political suffocation in Indian occupied Kashmir State. There is absolutely no space for legitimate free and democratic public discourse and dissent. Kashmir’s all manner of media including social media is muzzled to the extent that journalists who dare to write on India’s policy of impunity are sent to prison under a plethora of security laws. International media is not allowed to report from any part of the annexed region, and rely on Kashmiri journalists who are heavily constrained with threats of arrests and prosecution.

Offices of leading newspapers based both in Srinagar and Jammu are sealed by Indian Government. Kashmir Times, one of the oldest and respected English daily in Kashmir, and the Greater Kashmir one of the largest circulated English dailies have had their Srinagar offices at the  Press Colony shut in 2020 and 2021 respectively. In its 6 December online edition, the ‘Quint’ reported with the headline, “Evictions, Notices: How Kashmir Press Colony is Slowly Crumbling”   that the Greater Kashmir’s Editor-in chief was served with an eviction order “only a day after the  families of two persons killed in [Hyderpora encounter] staged a sit-in protest in the Press Enclave.”

Defenders of human rights like Khurram Parvez of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society-JKCCS- are also constrained in exposing the oppressive and anti-people policies of the Indian Government. Khurram Parvez according to the online Wire, “was arrested on November 22 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPL) and the above mentioned UAPA.

In other words Khurram Parvez, a respected human rights defender, whose organisation has consistently and objectively exposed India’s appallingly grotesque human rights record in Kashmir, is being silenced by the BJP/RSS led Government of India with the inhuman UAPA as a ‘legal’ weapon!

Excellency, India’s entire ‘legal’ edifice of oppressive laws is anti-people and inconsistent with international law. These laws are colonial with the manifest intent to force Kashmiris into complete submission. The incumbent Indian Government applies this panoply of extremely harsh and inhuman laws like UAPA, PSA and the AFSPA with a ferocious criminal haste and enormous political vindictiveness against dissenting voices in Indian occupied Kashmir.

The two reports on human rights situation in Kashmir by the OHCHR published in June 2018 and July 2019, clearly highlight the excessively repressive nature of these laws, and how India’s laws in Kashmir according to these reports “obstruct the normal course of law, impede accountability and jeopardise the right to remedy for the victims of human rights violations.” 

However it is an absolute tragic failure on the part of the OHCHR and UNHRC, and indeed the UN SC, that India has not been forced to repeal parts of these harsh and inhuman laws as recommended in the OHCHR reports. India on the other hand made her colonial laws even harsher after the reports were published.

Excellency, in July 2018 a month after the first OHCHR report was published, India amended section 10 of the PSA removing the prohibition to shift detained Kashmiris from the internationally disputed territory to Indian prisons.

Since Kashmir’s illegal annexation on 5 August 2019, amended section 10 of the PSA fits conveniently well with India’s colonial Kashmir policy. Consequently hundreds of Kashmiri prisoners now languish in India’s squalid prisons hundreds of miles from their homes. The prevailing situation makes it impossible for families of prisoners to visit their loved ones due to enormous financial costs, let alone the ability of the families to mount a legal defence for their loved ones’ release.

In any case, the harsh security laws make it impossible even to imagine that bail or fair trial of Kashmiri prisoners could take place in the Indian judicial system, which has become heavily cowed by the philosophical and ideological policies of the incumbent political order led by the BJP/RSS nexus in India since 2014.

Kashmiri prisoners are kept in harsh and squalid conditions, deprived of many basic amenities and facilities. Many of the prisoners are in jails, not for months but for years either due to mistrials or waiting for trial. We urge the OHCHR to make representations on prisoners’ behalf to the ICRC and ask the humanitarian organisation to meet with the hapless Kashmiri prisoners incarcerated in jails across India.

Excellency among many Kashmiri prisoners incarcerated in Indian jails are political leaders MrYasin Malik, Mr Shabir Shah. Ms Aasiya Andrabi and others. All are held under tramped up and politically motivated charges. These leaders are part of the solution and the BJP/RSS Government is intent upon maligning their legitimate peaceful political struggle. Mr Yasin Malik and other leaders are committed to a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue, but the Indian government has thrown them into jails with charges of ‘sedition’ which is not consistent with the historic context of the Kashmir issue.

Kashmiris are ruled without their consent and deprived of their democratic right to dissent.  Kashmir is neither part of India nor of Pakistan. The naked aggression, suppression and militarised violence in Kashmir by India is unprecedented, and a clear negation of India’s obligations and commitments made at the UN and to the people of Kashmir. The oppression by Indian state must stop and Kashmiri leadership must be released from prisons.  We are hopeful and indeed believe that poignancy of the our words will not be lost on your Excellency on this UN Human Rights Day when we have no reason to rejoice, and celebrate in Kashmir as a subjugated, oppressed and forcibly divided people.

Sincerely,

Zafar Khan

Chairman- Diplomatic Bureau of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front-JKLF
International Secretariat 119-123 Cannon Street Road North Basement London E1 2 LX
Email: zafargk@aol.com
Central Information Office-CIO: 
B-144 Satellite Town Murree Road Rawalpindi Pakistan.
Email: jklf1977@gmail.com

Copied to: 

Ms Michelle Bachelete UNCHR, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, The UN SG HE: A Guterres.  Rt Hon’able Ms Liz Truss MP UK Foreign Secretary. Hon’able Sec. Antony Blinken. Hon’able Joep Borrell EU’s Foreign Affairs. Rt Hon’able Debbie Abrahams MP Chairperson appg on Kashmir.  OIC. ICRC .Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch

Zafar Khan, who is also an academic and has produced vast academic work on Kashmir and ethnicity, said India’s policy was designed to bring about demographic change.

He said since the illegal annexation of Kashmir, almost four million domicile certificates had been issued to non-Kashmiris, adding it would be used by the Modi’s ultra-nationalist BJP for the 2024 general election to “heighten majoritarian extremism”.

Zafar Khan pointed out India’s illegal actions not only betrayed the people of Kashmir but also defied the UN by showing utter contempt for its numerous resolutions regarding Kashmir’s political status.

He hoped that Pakistan would not follow in India’s foot steps to make similar changes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.He said to de-legitimise Kashmiris’ internationally-recognised right to self-determination, India had projected their freedom struggle as a struggle for Muslim religious rights.

Zafar Khan expressed disappointment towards world powers over Kashmir. “Despite an unabated militarised violence, and the ongoing siege, Britain and other major powers like the USA, and France, the three countries, that are in the vanguard of the worldwide human rights advocacy, have shown no interest in the effect of the siege in Kashmir.

“With the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of Kashmiris are under double lockdown since March 2020, which is enforced by 900,000 Indian troops. Human rights violations including the right to life itself, are all too frequently disregarded by Indian forces, which operate with total impunity under Armed Forces Special Powers Act AFSPA.”

He also highlighted the plight of Kashmiri political prisoners and suffering of their families: “Pro-freedom politicians, dissenters and activists, languish in prisons across India on charges, which are concocted, vindictive and politically motivated.” He added: “Since the illegal annexation on 5 August 2019, the economy and livelihood of the relatively well of State has nose-dived drastically.”

He said Kashmiris wish to see their State become a crossroad of peace to unlock prosperity, and amity in the region. All that is required is to take the first step based on the inherent and inalienable sovereign right of more than twenty two million Kashmiris in accordance with the UN Charter and relevant resolutions of the UNSC, he added.

He said Britain, with its historic links in the region, was well placed to take that step. The PRC as the region’s major power, along with P5 nations, must encourage India and Pakistan towards a people-centric solution to the issue, he added.

Source:  https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=24931

In order to resolve the 74 year old Kashmir conflict, JKLF diplomatic Bureau  urges UN to appoint  an administrator to work towards a plebiscite in Jammu Kashmir state. 

His Excellency Mr Antonio Guterres
United Nations Secretary General
UN HQ 1st Avenue at 46^th Street
New York, NY 10017 USA.

Date: 8 October 2021

Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir) unresolved, and under siege: UNSC urged to appoint Plebiscite Administrator for the resolution the Kashmir conflict.

Excellency just over twenty six months ago on 5 August 2019, the BJP/RSS led India committed naked aggression against the internationally disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir- generally referred to as Kashmir. It is sadly ironic that for the month of August in 2021 India presided over the UNSC while exactly two years earlier she annexed and bifurcated the State into two so called union territories to be are ruled directly from New Delhi. With this illegal act of annexation the Indian Government displayed an utter contempt, and arrogance with blatant defiance of the UN and its resolutions which called for a plebiscite to determine the status of the disputed State.

Excellency two years on, the suffering inflicted on the defenceless people continues with greater intensity, especially in the valley of Kashmir, the Chenab valley, and the region of Pir Panjal. For the past two years India has turned the illegally re-occupied Kashmir into a gigantic open prison with millions of people under siege by 900,000 Indian soldiers.

Freedom of movement within and out of the occupied territory is curtailed for Kashmiris. In order to obtain Indian passport, a Kashmiri is expected to have lived a secluded and monastic existence. And throughout his/her life is expected, not have uttered a word or participated in an activity such as a protest meeting about any issue of social, political, and economic aspects of Kashmir; it is only then that he/she would be considered a model citizen to qualify for the ‘privilege’ to obtain an Indian passport for travel.

This then is India of 2021 in Kashmir, the so called largest democracy in the world, which is being allowed by the UNSC to get away with terrorising an entire nation, and depriving it of its internationally recognised right to self-determination along and all other human rights. And yet Prime Minister Modi of India in his address to the 76 UN General Assembly session last month, eulogised his country as the “mother of democracy.”

In reality however, the RSS supported BJP Prime Minister of India has no respect for democracy in Kashmir and democratic rights of the people of Kashmir. His rise to political power during the past two decades, first as the Chief Minister of Gujrat and since 2014 as Prime Minister of India, can only be attributed to extremist majoritarian politics, underpinned by the supremacist religious Hindutva ideology. Kashmir is being used by the BJP/RSS Modi Government as a laboratory to infuse and galvanise its extremist majoritarian political base in India for electoral advantage.

Excellency the UNSC is the Apex law making body in the world which has the power to enforce the UN Charter and its resolutions. It is a grievous injustice inflicted on the people of Kashmir that the UN SC has utterly failed to enforce the UN Charter and its resolutions to assert, and defend the inherent, inalienable unfettered sovereign right of 22 million Kashmiris. As the collective conscience of the world, UN has the obligations and authority, which your Excellency has a duty to exercise, to protect and assert the rights of Kashmiris, whose consent has been thwarted from being exercised on the status of their homeland for more than seven decades. We demand that the UNSC appoints a Plebiscite Administrator for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. We urge your Excellency to engage with India and Pakistan to ensure that both countries facilitate the UN Plebiscite administrator.

Kashmiri leadership committed to a peaceful political resolution of the dispute is thrown into jails, with charges of ‘sedition’ that are nothing other than the actions of a colonial power. Kashmiris are ruled today on both sides of the 1949 CfL without consent and their democratic right to dissent has been taken away. The naked aggression, suppression and militarised violence in Kashmir by India is unprecedented, and a clear negation of India’s obligations and commitments made to the international community and the people of Kashmir. The oppression by Indian state must stop and Kashmiri leadership must be released from prisons as well as from under house arrest.

Excellency the Modi Government has banned political parties like the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front-JKLF- and the Jamat-e-Islami. Political leaders committed to a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue are illegally incarcerated with trumped up charges. The Chairman of the JKLF Mr Yasin Malik for example is accused of supporting militancy, which he and his party gave up more than twenty five years ago to embark upon a political, and peaceful revolutionary struggle for self-determination. Mr Yasin Malik seeks active and constructive participation of India and Pakistan along with Kashmiris under auspices of the UN for an equitable resolution of the issue and the conflict.

The history of Kashmir issue is full of betrayals, and broken pledges by India in particular, and indifference to, and abandonment of Kashmiris’ basic rights by the big powers. One such solemn Indian pledge was made by Gopalswami Ayyangar at the 227th meeting of the UNSC on 15 January 1948 when he stated the following:  “whether she should withdraw from her accession to India, and either accede to Pakistan or remain independent with a right to claim admission as a member of the United Nations- all this we have recognised to be a matter for unfettered decision by the people of Kashmir after normal life is restored to them.”  

On 2 January 1952 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime minister of independent India, reiterated India’s policy on Kashmir in a statement in the Amrita Bazar Patrika of Calcutta by stating that: “Kashmir is not the property of India or Pakistan. It belongs to the Kashmiri people. When Kashmir acceded to India, we made it clear to the leaders of the Kashmiri people that we would ultimately abide by the verdict of their plebiscite. If they tell us to walk out, I would have no hesitation in quitting Kashmir.”  He continued by affirming that: “We have taken the issue to the United Nations and given our word of honour for a peaceful solution. As a great nation, we cannot go back on it. We have left the final solution to the people of Kashmir and we are determined to abide by their decision.”

Excellency it appears that Gopalswami Ayyangar’s words at the 15 January 1948 UNSC meeting, and those of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s above, were words of a great deception by a UN member state described as a great nation’s “word of honour” by Pandit Nehru.  For its credibility the UNSC must call out India’s deception and betrayal over Kashmir.  As a non-permanent member of the UNSC, India’s presiding over the UNSC for the month of August 2021 reflected the real meaning of the phrase ‘poacher turned game keeper!’ The recommendations made in the two UNHCHR reports of June 2018 and July 2019 on the human rights situation in Kashmir still await appropriate action by the UN as it has not been allowed a visit by either India or Pakistan in the divided State. Clearly the UN once again has failed to protect the basic rights and interests of the people of Kashmir as the reports address human rights issues and violations on both sides of the CfL. The only ray of comfort in the past two years, is the cessation of hostilities on 25 February 2021 between armies of India and Pakistan deployed eye-ball to eye-ball across the five hundred miles long  CfL since 1947. Both countries have strictly controlled movement across the de facto border for hundreds of thousands of separated families, and Kashmiris in general to move across the CfL freely which Kashmiris consider as their fundamental right.  

Based on policies of India and Pakistan it is widely suspected by Kashmiris that the cessation of hostilities across the CfL could well be a prelude to disregard the plebiscite, and turn the CfL into a formal border over the heads of 22 million citizens of the forcibly divided State. If that were the intentions of India and Pakistan to settle the issue with permanent division of Kashmir, such an outcome without a doubt will not be welcomed by the Kashmiris.

Instead of resolving the long standing issue with a free, fair, transparent and democratic plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations, formalising division and annexation of Kashmir by either one or both of the countries, will not constitute a democratic solution as such an enforced solution would be against the inherent and inalienable unfeterred right of the  Kashmiris to self-determination; and would also contravene the UN’s mandate entrusted to India and Pakistan under UNSC resolutions.

Excellency, India has blatantly reneged on her solemn pledges and commitments made with Kashmiris, and the United Nations, and yet she demands a permanent seat on the UNSC to become a custodian of the organisation’s values despite defying the UN over Kashmir. We very much hope however, that Pakistan will not move away from its UN mandated role on the Kashmir issue, and will not follow India by integrating territories of the state into Pakistan, which it controls directly as in the Gilgit Baltistan-GB and indirectly in Azad Jammu and Kashmir-AJK.

Resolution of the Kashmir issue and the conflict, without a doubt, is central to unlocking the full human potential of 1.5 billion inhabitants of South Asia. Kashmiris desire peace, in fact Kashmiris demand peace with justice and dignity, so that as a free people Kashmiris can also prosper and contribute by unleashing the boundless energy coupled with the spirit to climb new heights, which is embedded in the culture of enterprise among the diverse people of Kashmir. Being sandwiched between two nuclear powers who have not overcome hostility against each other since their independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, has inevitably inhibited our progress, prosperity and spirit of innovation and achievement.

Excellency the policies of successive Indian governments have always been hostile to Kashmir’s identity, history and the desire to be free. In the BJP/RSS led government however, the level of political, ideological and authoritarian venom and vindictiveness towards Kashmir, and its free spirit, and the struggle for self-determination, has been unprecedented. Since coming to power in 2014 the Modi led BJP/RSS Government has taken away everything which defines the historic, social and cultural identity of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. It continues to dismantle the institutions and laws of the State that have defined its collective and individual character and made the diverse State as a beacon of communal harmony and affirmation and respect across faiths and diverse communities of the State within South Asia.

Modi Government’s policy of “all out” submission of Kashmiris’ legitimate resistance has left no political space in Kashmir. Prime Minister Modi is more interested in colonial settler project in Kashmir to reduce the Muslim majority into an inconsequential minority by the time his party goes into the 2024 Indian General Election. He does not appear to worry about the economic woes of the Kashmiris, whose economic situation has not improved at all since 2014. He is also not interested in the communal cleavage his policies are creating in Kashmir as this suits his political and ideological majoritarian Hindutva agenda for India even though it is having a grave impact on the diverse socio- cultural and political fabric of Kashmir.

Excellency we strongly urge you to defend and assert the rights and aspirations of the people of Kashmir, and urge you to call upon the leaders of India and Pakistan for their co-operation with your Excellency and the Plebiscite Administrator, for a just, equitable and lasting peaceful resolution of the more than seven decades old Kashmir conflict which is, and has been, a threat to peace, and prosperity of the South Asian region, and the world. We urge your Excellency to call upon the Indian government to immediately release all political prisoners including Mr Yasin Malik, Mr Shabir Shah, Ms Aasiya Andrabi and many others from detention. These Kashmiri leaders are part of the solution, and must be engaged with for a peaceful and lasting resolution of the conflict, which will unleash a new era of peace, and prosperity for the entire South Asian region and beyond.

Sincerely,

Zafar Khan

Chairman- Diplomatic Bureau of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front-JKLF
International Secretariat 119-123 Cannon Street Road North Basement London E1 2 LX
Email: zafargk@aol.com
Central Information Office-CIO:
B-144 Satellite Town Murree Road Rawalpindi Pakistan.
Email: jklf1977@gmail.com

Copied to: Her Excellency Ms Michelle Bachelete UN High Commissioner on Human Rights