SPY EYES

Each year on February 5, thousands of people come out on the streets chanting slogans against Indian aggression in Jammu and Kashmir. It’s that one day of the year the state officially owns its stance against the oppression and brutalities meted against Kashmiris for more than six decades.

Parvez Imroz, in his paper Alleged Perpetrators- Stories of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir, discusses the severity of human rights transgressions in Kashmir. Cases presented in the report revealed that there was a policy not to investigate or prosecute the armed forces for human rights violations. Any violations were to be viewed as carried out in “good faith”. Imroz further writes that it is a common practice for alleged perpetrators of crimes to be awarded, rewarded and promoted by the Indian state.

On numerous occasions, over the years, Imroz writes, the governments in power [in Jammu and Kashmir and at New Delhi] have used security, national interest and public order to propagate violence, ineffectively address human rights violations, or altogether disregard the concerns of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Violations by the armed forces are disregarded and referred to as false allegations levelled to demoralize the armed forces or malign their image.

The report analyses 214 cases of abuse and highlights the role of officials in the killing of nearly 70 people and the disappearances of 8,000 people in over two decades. India’s show of democracy, peace and ‘non-alignment’ melts away before the magnitude of its hypocrisy in Indian occupied Kashmir. With inherently flawed mechanisms to seek redress and justice, the people of Indian occupied Kashmir today stand very much alone.

But not on February 5. On that day, Pakistan observes five-minutes of silence in remembrance of the Kashmiri Shuhada (martyrs). We forget our affirmations of oneness with India and remind them of their blood-smeared footprints in Kashmir. We reiterate our demand that India respect the Kashmiris’ right to self determination and follow the UN’s directions in the matter. The genocide in Kashmir has gone on ignored long enough.

Pakistan mired in its own problems of internal security and foreign interference has, over the years, also become hostage to anti-state elements. The atrocities committed on the Hazaara community in Baluchistan, the persistent threat of suicide bomb attacks in KP, sporadic IED attacks in FATA, widespread use of crackers in Karachi, the rise of militarism and Talibanisation in the Punjab, are all reminiscent of Kashmir spiralling downwards into a state of permanent peril.

This year, before we observe the traditional five minutes of silence to remember those martyred in Kashmir, let’s take out an additional five minutes of our own to remember the Pakistanis we have lost to the so-called guardians of Islam.

Blaise Pascal said ‘Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.’

February 5 this year, should be observed not by shouting in the streets and destroying public property, as has become the norm for most protests, but in introspective silence. Where are we headed and how can we stop our country from becoming another human rights violations case study?

Tacstrat Analysis