Friday, August 23, 2019
By
Murtaza Ali Shah

Activist says women, children most at risk in occupied Kashmir

By
Murtaza Ali Shah
|

LONDON: The former Chairperson of State Commission for Women Jammu & Kashmir has said that the Indian government is overseeing the slow genocide of Kashmiris through an inhumane military lockdown on their liberties and dignity after revoking the Article 370 on 5 August.

After spending two weeks stuck in Indian occupied Kashmir and unable to leave, Nayeema Ahmad Mahjoor reached London and spoke to Geo News in an exclusive interview to narrate the tragedy more than eight million Kashmiris are going through after Narendra Modi’s government revoked Article 370.

Nayeema Ahmad Mahjoor, a former editor of BBC News and current affairs, author of ‘Lost in Terror; and the former Chairperson of State Commission for Women, Jammu & Kashmir, said that Kashmiri women, children and elderly are bearing the biggest brunt of violence by Indian regime.

Mahjoor, who resigned from the State Commission for Women in Jammu & Kashmir after the fall of PDP-led government, said what she witnessed in two weeks was horrific and likened it with the conditions Nazis put the Jews through in Germany in concentration camps.

“The Modi regime has turned the whole of Kashmir into a big concentration camp. My homeland is one of the biggest prisons on earth today. The vulnerable groups are today worse off in Kashmir and its a slow death for millions of Kashmiris. There is anger all around. From children to elderly people, everybody is angry and raging against what Modi and his cable has done to them. What Modi has done is a crime, its an international crime, its a massive crime against a whole nation. I have not seen anything like this all my life – the seething anger and agony, ” she shared.

Nayeema Mahjood was unable to leave the valley for two days because like millions of others she found herself in the middle of an unprecedented crackdown all of a sudden. She found herself caged, humiliated and her identity snatched just like millions of other Kashmiris.

She said: “Kashmiris are angry because the Indian government just wrote them off as insects, as worthless creatures who don’t mean anything and who have no humanity and dignity. It's for the first time that Kashmiris of all standings and all persuasions are united in hatred of India. There were divisions in Kashmir always but credit goes to Modi for uniting Kashmiris across the broad in rejection of his action to deny them their identity. The tension in Kashmir is so thick that you could cut it with a knife.”

Mahjoor said that every Kashmiri she spoke to said that Article 370 of the Indian constitution had granted autonomy to the region but Modi ended it to end Kashmiri identity, to deny them their identity and status. By putting Kashmir under complete military lockdown, India thinks that it can get away with the murder but it cannot because as soon as the lockdown is lifted millions will be out against India, she said.

Mahjoor said she was worried that militancy will go up in Kashmir because almost all Kashmiris are of the view now that the Indian government doesn’t believe in democracy, human rights and constitution. She called on the international community not to act as a silent spectator and hold India accountable.

There is silence all around and due to trade contracts the world is allowing India to do whatever it wants but there are grave implications of India’s actions, she warned and added that ignoring India will create a mess nobody will be able to control in coming times.