SRINAGAR: Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq sent an SOS letter to Pope Francis in Vatican, the Dalai Lama, Imam Kaba, Shankaracharya and ambassadors of various countries in New Delhi, UN, EU and OIC regarding the urgent and grave situation in Jammu Kashmir.
He appealed to the international community and to civil society that they cannot remain silent spectators to what is happening in Kashmir.
“APHC believes that a war is being waged against us by the ‘democratic’ Indian state, in total violation of all democratic norms.” “The entire population of the valley is barricaded inside their homes. Mobile phones and internet connectivity was disconnected. The press has been gagged. Journalists are attacked and harassed on a daily basis. Families are in intense distress without information about their loved ones. Hospitals have been attacked and ambulance drivers shot at with grave consequences for expectant mothers and those needing emergency medical attention. Essential supplies have been blocked, and media operations banned,” the letter said.
The letter further stated, “Kashmir is similar to a tinder box at present, with extreme volatility in the political situation and without timely international intervention the consequences are bound to be ghastly. The Indian state is also making the citizens of India complicit in this brutality by obfuscating and denying them information. There is an embargo on information coming out from Kashmir. Social network sites like Facebook have been forced to remove vital information from their sites under pressure from Indian citizens. No international human rights organisation is being allowed into Kashmir for fear of exposure.”
“The Indian prime minister attempts to de-legitimise our long term struggle, which began even before India’s struggle for freedom, by equating it with terrorism, through an irresponsible and false discourse. Unfortunately, the Indian state constructs its foreign policy on this bluster. 9/11 provided the Indian state an excuse to put the Kashmir struggle under the rubric of terrorism. In the post 9/11 Islamophobic environment, it fits well with the broader narrative. Kashmir happens to be a Muslim majority territory and India is using it as a pretext to demonise people as terrorists and miscreants,” it said.
“This is a call for help to find a solution to this seemingly intractable problem, which is taking a massive human to all. India and Pakistan cannot and are not able to do this on their own,” the letter further reads.
The occupied territory is on the boil since the extra-judicial murder of Burhan Wani by Indian troops on July 8. At least 83 people have been killed while over 80,00 injured so far in the firing of bullets, pallets, and teargas shells on peaceful protesters by Indian troops and police personnel. It is being termed as the worst violence to hit the Himalayan region since 2010.
Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan along with UN-monitored line of control, but both claim it in full and have fought two wars over its control. The freedom fighters have fought with Indian security forces in Kashmir since 1989 for the independence of the region or for it to be made part of Pakistan. The conflict has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead.
