Statement
by Diplomatic Bureau of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front
JKLF leadership will never compromise on the sovereign
right of Kashmiris to freedom
Meaningful
dialogue over the status of Kashmir only possible under UN auspices
Modi
government must release Yasin Malik from incarceration
JKLF
has the capacity and the will to mount a concerted diplomatic/ political
campaign to expose India’s oppressive occupation of Kashmir
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London-27
June 2019: Meeting at its International Secretariat
in London, the Diplomatic Bureau of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front-JKLF- called
on the Indian government to immediately release its Chairman Mr Yasin Malik who
is illegally incarcerated, in India’s Tihar jail.
Chaired
by its head, Professor Zafar Khan, the Bureau’s meeting took full stock of the
situation arising out of the initial arrest of Mr Yasin Malik under the
draconian and oppressive Public Safety
Act- PSA- in February, and the ban imposed on the JKLF in March ,and subjecting him to India’s
National Investigation Agency- NIA’s- strong arm tactics, and Modi government’s
continuous malicious campaign to malign and subvert the legitimate and political struggle, and peaceful dissent of
the JKLF, its leadership, and that of the Joint Resistance Leadership, the JRL in Indian occupied Kashmir.
In
a statement issued to press and media the
diplomatic Bureau strongly condemned the
inhuman, and ill treatment meted out to the illegally jailed leader by calling it
Modi government’s policy of intimidation, and a deliberate attempt to subject
the head of JKLF to physical and mental torture in solitary confinement. The
statement noted with grave concern at the rapidly failing health of Mr Yasin Malik
as a consequence of inadequate medical care, and noted that the severe
infection in one his eyes that requires urgent treatment, was a glaring example
of Indian government’s policy of
callousness towards Mr Malik to force him into submission.
The
statement warned the Indian government that the JKLF and the people of Kashmir
across both sides of their forcibly divided country between India and Pakistan,
are observing India’s cruel and callous policies towards the JKLF and its
Chairman, with great restraint as well as with serious concern.
Peaceful
dissent, noted the statement, is stifled with prominent leaders and activists
incarcerated under laws like the PSA, and political parties committed to a
peaceful resolution of the Kashmir conflict, are banned. The statement noted that
as well as stifling and silencing peaceful political dissent in Indian occupied
Kashmir, India’s policy in Kashmir of total impunity refuses to allow any scrutiny
of state oppression by independent observers, the international media and human
rights organisations including the United Nations. The recent refusal by the
Modi government to Amnesty International’s representatives to hold a meeting in
Srinagar, capital of Kashmir, to address India’s excesses arising out of
arrests and denial of civil and political liberties, is a clear example that
India and its occupation apparatus in Kashmir operates with impunity against the JKLF, its
leadership and hundreds of political leaders and activists, who like the JKLF
and its leadership, are committed to a just and peaceful resolution of the
Kashmir issue.
The
Bureau’s statement added that the JKLF as a political movement has the capacity
and the will, to mount and embark upon a concerted political and diplomatic
campaign throughout the world to expose India’s real face of militarised
oppression in Kashmir with her deployment of 780,000 military and paramilitary troops,
and her callously oppressive and vindictive policies towards political leaders
like Mr Yasin Malik who seek a just and equitable resolution of the 72 year old
Kashmir issue.
The
statement added that the JKLF is in an active engagement with human rights
organisations and interaction with various governments and political forces
across many countries to convey the reality of Indian occupation and oppression
in Kashmir; as well as to seek support against Indian government’s treatment
and continued incarceration of Mr Yasin Malik.
The
statement called on the international community in general, and the leading
powers, including the permanent members of the UN Security Council in
particular, to play their rightful role in resolution of the Kashmir issue, in
accordance within the principle of Kashmiri people’s sovereign to decide upon
their political status in a free, fair and democratic referendum under the
auspices of the United Nations. The statement continued that the conflict in
Kashmir has existed for more than seven decades, and remains a serious bone of
contention between the nuclear armed neighbours, India and Pakistan. Both
countries have fought wars against each other over this period, and came
perilously close to a potentially catastrophic war in February and March of
this year, when their Air Forces attacked each other soon after the Pulwama
suicide attack.
India
and Pakistan deploy thousands of their troops across the Line of Control-LoC-
or the ceasefire line -CfL-that forcibly divides Kashmir, and its people under
the 1949 UN sponsored armistice. Even when India and Pakistan are supposedly at
peace, their forces present an existential threat to lives and livelihood of
the civilian population with daily exchanges of fire, across the CfL. The
statement added that the on-going pro freedom political dissent in Indian
occupied Kashmir, has resulted in immense suffering and hardships for the
population. Actions by the Indian military and paramilitary forces, and the use
of repressive laws like the PSA and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act AFSPA,
that provide the Indian forces of occupation with an umbrella of total impunity
against the people, are a serious cause
for concerns by the JKLF leadership and the people of Kashmir.
The
statement reiterated JKLF’s position that its leadership will never compromise
over the fundamental and inalienable sovereign right of 20 million Kashmiris
across both sides of the LoC/CfL, and in the Diaspora spread across the world. The
statement added that the JKLF wishes see Kashmir as a bridge of peace rather
than a bone of contention in South Asia, and seeks a meaningful dialogue with
both India, and Pakistan under the auspices of the United Nations.
The
Bureau’s statement however, re-emphasised, that Indian government must release the
JKLF Chairman from illegal incarceration and lift its vindictive and
politically motivated ban on the JKLF and allow normal political activities to
take place in Indian occupied Jammu Kashmir. The statement strongly stressed on
the fact that Kashmir is an international issue, and not an internal matter for
India. Therefore, there can be no bi- lateral dialogue under the ambit or
constitution of the Indian state over the legitimate sovereign right to freedom
of Kashmiris divided between India and Pakistan, and can only exercise their
inherent and inalienable sovereign right under the supervision of the United
Nations ended the statement……
Prof
Zafar Khan
Head
of Diplomatic Bureau -Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front-JKLF:
International
Secretariat-119-123 Cannon Street Road- London E1 2XL
