SurvivoR
08-19-2008, 01:31 PM
Kashmiris play to UN gallery
SRINAGAR: Another day, another place. Same show, same message. If the massive congregation at Pampore on Saturday was a barometer of the common Kashmiris desire for independence, the equally huge gathering at TRC ground in upscale Srinagar on Monday was its reaffirmation. The presentation of a memorandum to UN observers became another display of Kashmiri intent. And while Hurriyat leaders would be happy at the estimated five-lakh plus turnout at the rally, it is clear that common people and their sentiments are the real driving force of the movement. It isn't easy to fathom who is leading whom. As on Independence Day, authorities gave the protesters a free hand hoping to ride the storm out. Armed CRPF men stood calmly behind concertina wires as the crowd, less than 100 feet away, insistently and assertively shouted slogans like ‘Hame chayihe azadi' (We want freedom) and ‘Jiyo, jiyo Pakistan' (Long Live Pakistan). They even put up a green flag on the chowk in front of the paramilitary forces. Unlike Pampore, many banners were written in English and addressed to the UN. Some of the banners went like this: Right to self-determination in East Timor, Montenegro, Quebec and Kosovo. Why not Kashmir?; World bodies wake up for Kashmir; Is it a crime? Muslim ask for right to self-determination; UN, EU, OIC, Please save us from killers; Ban Ke Moon, Break the Silence and Peaceful Kashmiri, violent Indian troops. The slogans were far more aggressive. Some of them eulogized terrorist groups: ‘Bharat teri maut aayi, Lashkar aayi, Lashkar aayi' (India your death has come, Lashkar has come, Lashkar has come). Another slogan was ‘Bharat ka jo yaar hai, gaddar hai, gaddar hai' (The friend of India is a traitor, is a traitor) . There were some pro-Pakistan slogans too. The protestors also sang songs such as ‘Maro ya mar jao' (do or die). One slogan went like this: ‘Hum Hind se Kashmir ko azad karenge, hum qaum ke naujawan hain jihad karenge' (We will free Kashmir from India, we are the youth we will fight) . But the most popular slogans were: ‘Hame kya chahiye, azadi'; ‘Chhin ke lenge azadi' (What we want is freedom; We will snatch our freedom)and ‘Allah-o-Akbar' (God is Great). And the slogan that adorned the main stage in bold green was: We want freedom. With talks of curfew being imposed abuzz on Sunday evening, people were hesitant to step out in the morning. But by 10am, crowd started pouring into the TRC ground, barely 500m away from Dal Lake and close to the UN Observers' Office. For the next five hours, freedom songs and chants for independence were loud enough to be heard far away. Unlike Pampore, black flags were relatively fewer in number. And the green flags of several Islamic organizations far more. Some youths fiercely waving green flags arrived in motorcycle cavalcades. People also came in trucks and buses from the faraway districts of northern Kashmir: Baramulla, and Kupwara and from South Kashmir districts such as Anantnag and Pulwama. Queues of trucks and buses stretched over a kilometre through several streets around the venue. Mohammed Yusuf and Mansoor Ahmed, two apple growers from Anantnag district many Muslims refer to it as Islamabad said they left their home at 8.30am in a truck and reached the venue after four hours. “At least 100 trucks have come from our district,” he said. He added, “Everybody is talking azadi(freedom) in our villages.” Haji Ghulam Ahmed Gani from Pahalgam has a similar view. Irshad Bhat, a Srinagar taxi-driver said, he was happy that the demonstration was non-violent. “This brings out so many people together and shows the world that we are united in our demand,” he said. Despite several pro-Pakistan slogans, no Kashmiri that this reporter spoke to favoured a merger with Pakistan. They all wanted an independent Kashmir.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/Kashmiris_play_to_UN_gallery/articleshow/3378701.cms
sheroo
08-22-2008, 06:46 PM
here take a look at this first
http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight980201.html
Revolt Brewing in the so-called Northern Areas of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir
Amir Humza Qureshi says Northern Areas people facing more Human Rights Violations than anywhere else in the world
The part of the state of Jammu & Kashmir called the Northern Areas by Pakistan was annexed through an illegal attack in 1947 even before India and Pakistan became independent. This was possible due to the chicancery of the British who at that time controlled the two opposing armies. They ensured that the Pakistan flag was unfurled in Gilgit even before the British Government conferred independence on Pakistan. Ironically, the very Gilgit Scouts that unfurled the Pakistani flag in Gilgit, capital of the so-called Northern Areas, has long been disbanded because its Pakistani masters no longer trusted the people of Gilgit. While the legatees of those perfidious colonial Britishers continue to talk about justice for J&K, the people of the so-called Northern Areas continue to live in an area of utter political darkness. Even after 50 years of independence they remain a colonised people without the right to vote or exercise their democratic option in any other way. They remain shadowed in poverty and underdevelopment without recourse to basic human rights. The heirs of the same scoundrels who imprisoned Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor of India, in Burma where he did not have two "gaz zameen" for his grave, have been enlisted by the illegitimate rulers of Pakistan to espouse the cause of Kashmir in international fora.
Pakistanis can only talk about elah - accession - and every Kashmiri group seeking help from Pakistan must promise to accede to Pakistan. Otherwise like the JKLF they will be killed and their sisters raped. This is the truth. And what is accession - it is to suffer the fate of the miserable millions in the so-called Northern Areas where even after 50 years, the Punjabi rulers and their agents continue to kill Muslims.
A prominent leader of Occupied Kashmir (only the Pakistani part of Kashmir can be considered occupied) has been abducted by the agencies and is currently under torture. His name is Shaukat Ali Kashmiri. Appeals by various individuals and organisations, including Amnesty International, have not secured his release. We appeal to you to write to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and ask him to take control of his dogs. But who will talk of all the others who have been silently killed by the Punjabis of Pakistan, who only see Gilgit as a good holiday resort? Much is happening in the last forgotten valleys of the so-called Northern Areas and by the grace of God the people of Northern Areas, shall find their destiny as a free people. They shall stand one day shoulder to shoulder with their brothers of Jammu & Kashmir and the followers of the great peers of this land, proud and free and masters of their own destiny.
Amir Humza Qureshi says Northern Areas people facing more Human Rights Violations than anywhere else in the world
Urdu daily Jasarat, the mouthpiece of the Jamaat-i-Islami, carried a long letter from emerging leader of Gilgit, Amir Humza Qureshi, rejecting the official propaganda about human rights violations in Indian side of Kashmir. "It is a fact that people of this region (northern areas) are facing more human rights violations and whenever the official media talks of repression in (Indian) Kashmir people with strong hearts laugh at this hypocritical attitude and people with weak hearts cry."
"India is not perpetrating even one hundredth part of the repression that people spread over an area of 28,000 miles have been facing for the past 50 years. The Indian Government has given people all their fundamental human rights and in spite of that they are in a state of confrontation against the government. But the people of this region (northern areas) are far behind the rest of the world in matters of fundamental human rights, justice and economic development."
The Pakistan Government says since northern areas are not a part of its territory it cannot give its people constitutional rights. But the people are not willing to stay like this anymore. The Balawaristan National Front (BNF) recently passed a resolution demanding autonomy for northern areas. Another party, the Muttehada Quami Party (MQP) wants a status like that of "Azad" Kashmir.
Shaukat Ali Kashmir Arrested & Tortured
Kashmiri political groups in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) have threatened state-wide agitation to press for the release of a pro-independence leader. Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, chairman of the United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) based in POK, was picked up by men from the Pakistani security forces near Bagh on 18 January according to the Kashmir International Front (KIF) based here.
The London group is the international office for several political groups fighting Pakistani occupation of Kashmir. UKPNP secretary general Sardar Ishtiaq Hussain addressed a press conference in Bagh following the arrest of Shaukat Ali Kashmiri to warn of an agitation if the party leader is not released
The Kashmir International Front has sent SOS messages to several governments in Europe and to human rights institutions such as Amnesty International. The Geneve-based International Secretariat of the World Organisations Against Torture, which claims to be the largest network of human rights organisations in the world, has sent a letter of protest to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Its is ironic that the world is more worried about the falling trees; they are sad that our white leopard are vanishing day by day; the dead bodies of our Markhor frightens them; they are going all out to preserve our eco system.But nobody ever thinks of the people of this land," says Raja Hussain Khan Maqpoon, editor of K2, Gilgit-Baltistan's only newspaper, a weekly. The tinge of sarcasm in his comment is obvious in his publication too.
'This land' refers to Pakistan's Northern Areas, spread over 28,000 sq. miles with a population of two million, comprising Gilgit and Baltistan on the border of Azad Kashmir-a sensitive and strategic area from Pakistan point of view.
"They Have Never Trusted Us", says PoK Leader
'Sarzamin-Be-Ain Ki Awaz' (the voice of constitution-less land) flashes from K2 masthead, a brave attempt in a region where where everything is considered suspicious by the power-that-be. Even ordinary documents are jealously guarded an attempt by to get hold of the copies of the Northern Areas Council's (see fact files) Rules of Biasness, Rules of Procedure, Legal Framework and even their annual development plan (ADP) failed. Apparently, in the Northern Areas these Apparently documents. Elsewhere in the country, similarly documents are openly accessible.
From 1947 till 1972 the northern areas were governed by the FCR (Frontier Crimes Regulations), denying the locals even their basic rights. There is much resentment here at the fact the FCR remained in force 25 years after independence, until it was belatedly lifted by Z.A. Bhutto.
"They (the pakistan government) have never trusted us. From day one, that is , November 1, 1947, till now we cannot govern our own land. If we are given that right, they think all hell will break lose," says the fiery Amir Hamza, a resident of Gilgit and a former SSP of Gizr district.
Amir Hamza has been fighting for the rights of the people of Gilgit and Baltistan since his college days, 1967-71, when he and his friends formed Gilgit-Baltistan Jamhoori Mahaz. His family wanted him to join civil service but he knew he wont be happy there, being inclined towards politics. His party one point demand was: allow us participation in Pakistan National Assembly or give us status like Azad Kashmir Assembly. A demand for which Hamza was jailed various times in his youth.
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Azad Kashmir" and "Northern Territories" or Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK)?
The Struggle for Self-Determination and Democratic Rights
International attention on Kashmir has invariably focused on the tensions and conflict between Kashmiri separatists and the Indian government. Any discussion on self-determination or human rights is routinely prefaced on the assumption that the situation in Pakistan-held Kashmir is "normal", that the Pakistani government is a "friend" of the Kashmiri people, and it is only the Indian government that is hostile to the "genuine interests" of the people of Kashmir.
Yet, Amir Humza Qureshi, founder of the Gilgit-Baltistan Jamhoori Mahaz, and jailed on several occasions for trying to represent the interests of the people of Gilgit (one of the districts in Pakistan-held Kashmir which Pakistan euphemistically describes as "Northern Areas") counters this view. In a letter to the Urdu daily, Jasarat, Amir Humza Qureshi, wrote: "It is a fact that people of this region (Northern Areas) are facing more human rights violations and whenever the official (Pakistani) media talks of repression in (Indian) Kashmir, people with strong hearts laugh at this hypocritical attitude, and people with weak hearts cry."
"India is not perpetrating even one hundredth part of the repression that people spread over an area of 28,000 miles have been facing for the past 50 years. The Indian Government has given people all their fundamental human rights and in spite of that they are in a state of confrontation against the government. But the people of this region (Northern Areas) are far behind the rest of the world in matters of fundamental human rights, justice and economic development."
(See http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight980201.html)
This is in stark contrast to those in the Islamic movement that see Indian Kashmir as territory that needs to be liberated from the clutches of India, and see any retreat from confrontation with India (regarding Kashmir) as a betrayal of the "Islamic" cause. For instance, an opinion piece on khilafah.com argues: "Therefore, the only way forward for Kashmir is to liberate it physically and return the rule back to Islam. This is the verdict from Islam and as Muslims we are required to accept the judgement of Allah (Subhanahu Wa ta’aala). The obligation lies on the Pakistani army to move and overthrow this illegitimate Pakistani regime (i.e. the Musharraf regime), and give its support (nussrah) to the sincere sons of this Ummah who are calling for the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah State which will work to reunite the land of Kashmir with the land of Pakistan and one day Insha-Allah, the whole of India. (Note that this view considers not just Kashmir as part of the "Islamic Khilafah State" but all of India as well.)
Rasulullah (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said in a hadith,“The killing of a Muslim is to Allah worse than the end of the World”. Now in Kashmir, Musharraf prepares to betray the Ummah yet again. America pushed Pakistan and India to the brink of a ‘war’ neither side can afford, so as to provide the cover and moral climate for Musharraf (America’s proxy dictator) to arrest, eliminate and dismantle the Mujahideen; who during the Kargil incident, came heroically close to defeating the Hindu army.
But such views are not shared by the majority of the people living in Pakistan held Kashmir. In fact, human rights leaders in Pakistan-held Kashmir describe it as "Occupied Kashmir" (POK) insisting that only the "Pakistani part of Kashmir can be considered occupied". And that is why virtually all the governments in Pakistan (military or civilian) have gone to great lengths to suppress the democratic voice of the people living in POK. Pakistan has deliberately kept the status of POK (comprising "Azad Kashmir" and the "Northern Areas") ambiguous, neither allowing them to secede, nor allowing these territories to be fully integrated into Pakistan.
Residents of the sparsely populated, and ethnically and linguistically diverse "Northern Areas" assert that they have no legal status. They are neither a province of Pakistan nor a part of "Azad Kashmir". They are ruled directly from Islamabad through a Northern Areas Council which is headed by Pakistan’s Minister for Kashmir Affairs. An Islamabad-appointed chief executive, (normally a retired Pakistani military officer), is the local administrative head. The Northern Areas Council meets only when Pakistan’s Minister for Kashmir Affair convenes it. According to supporters of Amir Humza Qureshi, the Northern Areas were annexed by Pakistan through an illegal attack in 1947 even before India and Pakistan became independent. This was possible due to the chicanery of the British colonial authorities (who at that time controlled the armies in Pakistan and India). The British rulers ensured that the Pakistani flag was unfurled in Gilgit even before they had conferred independence on Pakistan.
Although political activity is severely repressed, political organizations such as the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) have emerged to take on the Pakistani government in the Northern Areas. The Gilgit Baltistan United Action Forum for Self Rule has been demanding the right to self-rule. Another party, the Muttehada Quami Party (MQP) wants to attain a status comparable to that of "Azad" Kashmir. Many other groups however remain underground since any overt organizing or expression of political will, even peaceful protests have led to arbitrary arrests and long jail terms. Even demonstrations by students in Gilgit struggling against high unemployment have been brutally crushed.
According to supporters of the BNF, the "Northern Areas" have no university and no professional colleges. The government has set up only 12 high schools and two regional colleges with no post graduate facilities. Very few locals are able to get government jobs, and when they do, they are paid 25 per cent less than non-native entrants from Pakistan's Punjab province. The mainstay of the economy is agriculture, but since much of the land is held by a small minority of very privileged landlords, and since the absence of democratic rights has allowed the perpetuation of feudal relations, the majority of the people live in sheer misery. In addition, poverty and high taxes have forced many of the smaller land-holders to sell their lands to rich settlers from the plains. Although there have been efforts by local NGOs to set up village schools, literacy remains very low. While 45-50% of boys are now enrolled in school in some villages, the enrolment of girls is much lower (less than 15% in many cases). 55 years after it's annexation by Pakistan, adult literacy in the Northern Areas is 14 per cent for males and 3.5 per cent for women. There are no local dailies, or local radio or television stations. According to the most recently available data, there is just one doctor for 6,000 people. Piped water supply is virtually non-existent. And two thirds of the population must do without electricity in an area where winters are extremely harsh.
K2, Gilgit-Baltistan's only weekly carries the following on it's mast-head: 'Sarzamin-Be-Ain Ki Awaz' (the voice of the constitution-less). One of the biggest obstacles faced by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan has been the systematic campaign of terror and discrimination waged against the region's Shia population. Shias who comprised over 75% of the original inhabitants of the land now risk being outnumbered due to the continuous settling of non-locals (mostly Punjabis) in the region, who now make up almost 40% of the territories' population.
Journalist Sriram Chaulia has noted how expropriation of land and residence rights of natives in POK stands in sharp contrast to strictly adhered provisions in the Indian constitution disallowing non-Kashmiris to acquire property in J&K. Far from a ‘special status’ that India’s Article 370 grants to J&K, Northern Areas of POK lack any constitutional status whatsoever.
According to an Aug 3, 2001 report in the Times of India, Abdul Hamid Khan, chairman of BNF, called upon the United Nations and the International Court of Justice to book Musharraf and other Pakistani generals as "war criminals for the genocide" carried out by them in the "Northern Areas". In his letter to the UN (a copy of which was also sent to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee), the BNF leader noted that the Pakistani government and particularly its military were settling their own armed citizens and Afghan and other terrorists besides increasing the presence of "their notorious intelligence agencies (i.e. the ISI) in Balwaristan to turn the indigenous people into a minority. Comparing Gen. Musharraf to former military ruler Gen. Zia who had played a heinous role in 1988 and 1999 by launching a "genocide campaign" against the innocent indigenous people, he further asserted that more than 900 youth had been killed, 1,000 had became disabled or wounded, while 40 were still missing and several civilian buildings were destroyed due to Pakistan sponsored terrorist activities. Abdul Hamid Khan also stated that political and human rights activities were completely denied by Pakistan as a result of which more than 100 politically active people were facing sedition cases and "no impartial judicial system existed in Balawaristan."
The situation in "Azad Kashmir" is only marginally better. Even as Pakistan's military readers keep up the sham of championing "self determination" for Indian Kashmir, for "Azad Kashmir" i.e. POK, self determination, (as inscribed in the constitution), relates only to the unconditional accession of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan. Part 2 of Section 7 of the POK Constitution states: "No person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession to Pakistan".
Under Section 5(2) (vii) of the POK Legislative Assembly Election Ordinance 1970, a person would be disqualified for propagating any opinion or action in any manner prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, the ideology of POK's accession to Pakistan, or the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan. The same caveat applies to anyone who "defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary of AJK, of Pakistan, or the Armed Forces of Pakistan".
In 1991, POK's " Prime Minister", Mumtaz Rathore was dismissed, arrested and flown by helicopter to a Pakistani prison in 1991. In the 1996 elections in POK, parties and candidates who wished to participate on the platform of independence and refused to sign the declaration calling POK’s accession to Pakistan an article of faith, were denied the right to field candidates. The oath of office for the President, PM, Minister, Speaker, MLA or MLC of POK clearly includes the following clause: "That I will remain loyal to the country (Pakistan) and the cause of accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan".
But such oaths are completely one-sided since the residents of POK are given no rights in Pakistan - they may neither vote in Pakistan's general elections, nor take their grievances to the Pakistani Supreme Court. Nor may they hold any public office in Pakistan. Nor do they have any rights on the Pakistan National Budget. But even those who go along with such insulting inequities are then treated shabbily by the Pakistan authorities. After the elections in June 1996, the "President" of POK, Sikander Hayat Khan, was removed through a voice vote in the Assembly.
It has been further pointed out that the POK legislative assembly lacks few powers since it requires Islamabad's prior approval for all enactments of statutory rules, appointments, public property, budget, loans, taxes, internal security and civil supplies. Administrative justice handled by an Executive Council of 15 (7 of them non-Kashmiris) that is directly responsible to the Pakistani government.
Dissident voices have been continuously suppressed. Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, chairman of the United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) based in POK, was picked up by men from the Pakistani security forces near Bagh and reportedly tortured. The London-based Kashmir International Front (KIF), which is the international office for several political groups fighting Pakistani occupation of Kashmir, sent out appeals for his release.
After his release, Shaukat Ali Kashmiri (who has now taken refuge in Switzerland) condemned the killing of innocent villagers by the Pakistan-backed terrorists, observing: "What kind of freedom struggle is that which kills its own people. We cannot continue like this where the foreign mercenaries continue to kill the local inhabitants". He also criticized the Pakistan Government for detaining several leaders of Balwaristan, Gilgit and PoK for speaking against Gen Pervez Musharraf.
Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Peace Committee, Anwar Khan, pointed out that Pakistan had been regarded as the aggressor in the region by earlier UN resolutions and hence should vacate the occupied territory. The Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Movement (JKHRM) has stated that the Pakistani army intelligence and Pak-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) authorities were committing inhuman atrocities and large scale repression on political parties and workers demanding withdrawal of illegal Pakistani army occupation the area. Justice (Retd) Mohd Akram, president of the JKHRM has listed specific human rights violations by Pakistan intelligence agencies and PoK police noting that Saloom Awan, vice president of NAP had been subjected to inhuman torture by Pakistan ISI and state secret agencies and had to flee the country as his life was in danger, Justice Akram said, adding there were several "examples of physical elimination of political leaders in PoK."
Toronto based 'Council of Advocates International' released a report on human rights violations in PoK last year in which it pointed to how terrorist groups harassed and blackmailed ordinary residents. It specifically noted how Mushtaq Ali and Naseer Khawaja were contacted by a group of Muzaffarabad-based "militant" leaders. The two were asked to transport arms across the border into India. But when they refused, the two were threatened with dire consequences. The next day they were arrested by the ISI and held incommunicado in a house for ten days. They were brutally tortured and humiliated. After their release the local police started harassing them and threatened to charge them with theft, arms trading and other
criminal acts. They were forced to leave Muzaffarabad and are now in hiding. The report also cites cases of sexual assault and repeated rape.
It is little wonder that Amir Humza Qureshi has said that people of the Northern Areas "face more Human Rights Violations than anywhere else in the world". Most recently, Altaf Qadiri, secretary general of the Hurriyat Conference's Pakistan chapter was quoted by Pakistani newspaper Daily Times as having told reporters: "...The present government in PoK is worse than the Farooq Abdullah government (of Indian Kashmir)" (As reported on July 26, in the Indian Express)
That such a statement should emanate from a group widely perceived as being anti-Indian, and who for long was considered the main, even sole "legitimate" voice of the Kashmiri people ought to be the greatest indictment of Pakistan's claim to be the greatest "upholder and champion of Kashmiri self-determination". Contrary to all the rhetorical bombast, the Pakistani military is, in fact, one of the greatest hindrances to the realization of self-determination in multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious Jammu and Kashmir.
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