London, Jun 27 (KNO) : Meeting at its International Secretariat in London, the Diplomatic Bureau of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) called on Government of India to immediately release its Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik who is ‘illegally’ incarcerated in Tihar jail.
Chaired by its head, Professor Zafar Khan, the Bureau’s meeting as per a statement issued to KNO took full stock of the situation arising out of the initial arrest of Yasin Malik under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in February, and the ban imposed on the JKLF in March ,and subjecting him to India’s National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) strong arm tactics, and Modi government’s continuous 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 Kashmir.
The diplomatic Bureau strongly condemned the ‘inhuman and ill treatment’ meted out to the 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 Yasin Malik as a consequence of inadequate medical care, and noted that the severe infection in one of his eyes that requires urgent treatment was a glaring example of Indian government’s policy of callousness towards Malik to force him into submission.
The statement warned the government that 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 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.(KNO)