The president of Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) Barrister Sultan Mahmood is touring Europe. The purpose of his tour is to meet with the European parliamentarians and set up parliamentary campaign groups called ‘Friends of Kashmir’ (FoK). The function of such groups will be to forward the Pakistani narrative regarding Kashmir which is designed by the ISPR or the Inter-Services-Public Relations section of the Pakistan army.
While in Birmingham in the UK, President Mahmood met up with several UK Muslim parliamentarians of Pakistani origin and announced to set up the first such FoK parliamentary group in the Irish Parliament.
On June 12 he arrived in Antwerp in Belgium where he started to hold meetings with the members of the European Parliament with the purpose of establishing FoK at the European Parliament and all across Europe.
According to President Mahmood the task given to the FoK groups will be that of highlighting atrocities committed by India in the Vale of Kashmir and campaign for Kashmir to become incorporated in Pakistan. The groups will present India as the oppressor of the Kashmiri people.
In this article I intend to bring the actuality to the attention of the conscious reader. In order to do so I am going to present hard historical facts that will not only expose Pakistan and the puppet government of PoJK but also share my fears that FoK is going to be used as a tool to promote false narrative regarding the Kashmir issue as well as providing legitimacy to Pakistan state sponsored terrorism in Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
First let us check out some historical facts regarding Jammu and Kashmir and expose the falsehood in the claim that Jammu & Kashmir is being occupied by India.
At the time of partition of Indian subcontinent on August 14, 1947, the India Independence Act passed by the Westminster Parliament in 1935 in London gave the right to more than 500 princely states in India that come partition they will have the right to choose whether they wanted to join the dominions of India or Pakistan or to be independent.
The Maharaja (King) of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, signed a Stand Still Agreement with the founder and first governor general of Pakistan, Muhammed Ali Jinnah. A similar agreement was being negotiated with the Indian government. However, on October 22, 1947, just 68 days after the partition of the Indian subcontinent, the Pakistan army along with tribal mercenaries from the then North Western Frontier Province adjoining Afghanistan, launched a surprise attack on the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
It took the Maharaja by surprise and the state forces were caught unprepared. Pakistani invaders marched through villages, towns and cities pillaging and massacring Hindus and Sikhs that soon turned into a genocide. In my district of Mirpur nearly 1,00,000 Hindu and Sikh men, women and children were killed.
A panic stricken Maharaja then approached the then Governor General of India Lord Mountbatten and Prime minister Nehru. Since the state of Jammu and Kashmir had not acceded to India, Lord Mountbatten was unable to send any troops to the state. It was at this moment that Maharaja Hari Singh decided to join the Indian Republic and on October 26, 1947 an Instrument of Accession was signed.
On October 27 the Indian troops began to land at the Srinagar airport which was the capital of the besieged state. The Indian troops successfully pushed the Pakistani invaders back, freeing numerous territories where bodies of slain Hindus and Sikhs had been piled up in the village and town squares and were found scattered across streets in the cities.
At the behest of Governor General of India Lord Mountbatten, then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru approached the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to seek its intervention. The UNSC called for a ceasefire and a UN commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) was set up.
The findings of the UNCIP made it clear that Pakistan and not India was the aggressor and that Jammu & Kashmir was part of the Indian union.
In light of the findings of the UNCIP, the UNSC asked Pakistan to withdraw its troops along with all aliens from the territories that remained under the occupation of Pakistan. Pakistan never complied.
The UNSC permitted India to station a minimum number of military personnel that would be required to maintain law and order and keep Pakistani invaders at bay.
The scope of this article does not allow me to delve into the minute details of the UNCIP report or UNSC resolutions, but it is important to note that over the past 75 years Pakistan has cocked up a narrative that paints India as the aggressor and the violator of human rights in Kashmir. The fact is that for the past 75 years Pakistan has denied the people of PoJK and Pakistan occupied Gilgit-Baltistan the right to basic economic, political and human rights.
Furthermore, Pakistan has been conducting terrorist attacks in Kashmir using its proxies like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jesh-e-Muhammed and the Hizbul Mujahideen. Today, there are active terrorist training camps and launch pads dotted across PoJK. ‘Freedom Brigade 313’ was launched in February in the city of Rawalakot in PoJK and openly conducts recruitment drives to facilitate the Pakistan army to ‘free’ Kashmir.
The realistic agenda is to seek freedom for the people of Pakistan occupied Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. And these so-called FoK groups that are being introduced into Europe do not represent the real agenda for the freedom of PoJK/GB and their pending incorporation into India. Therefore, FoK are working against the interests of the indigenous people of PoJK/GB and for the vested interests of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Moreover, these groups will be used for providing cover to the terrorist jihad conducted by Pakistan in Kashmir in the name of freedom movement.
The fact of the matter is that there is no ‘freedom’ movement in Jammu and Kashmir, but the desire to reunify our broken state.
It is time that more awareness be brought to people in key positions in European politics and to make them realise the truth regarding the so-called and Pakistan manufactured ‘Kashmir issue’.
(Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK. The views expressed are personal)
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