World must stop equating Kashmir with strategic relations, urges Washington Post op-ed
October 24, 2019
The world must hear the deafening silence from occupied Kashmir and stop looking the other way on the issue in order to protect strategic interests in India, said renowned author Rana Ayyub on Thursday.
In an opinion piece for the United States-based news publication The Washington Post, Ayyub urged the intentional community to wake up to the rights abuses being carried out by India in occupied Kashmir.
Ayyub, who is an Indian journalist and writer documenting the rights violations of the Indian government in the occupied valley, further said that Kashmir and her children were waiting for justice.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had revoked the constitutional autonomy of occupied Kashmir on August 5 this year and imposed a military curfew in the area, imprisoning millions of people.
Thousands of political leaders, businessmen, rights activists and other ordinary citizens were detained after the move. The detained included former chief ministers and the mayor of Srinagar.
Widespread allegations of torture and abuse of these detainees by the Indian security forces were published by the international media in the following weeks. These reports still continue to pour in, as the curfew nears three months.
Also read: Occupied Kashmir: Modi government makes post-curfew plan
In her opinion piece, Rana Ayyub highlighted how the curfew had silenced and paralyzed entire communities in the occupied region because of the continued communications blackout that accompanied the curfew.
She also referred to specific cases in which the brutality of the Indian forces was on full display. For example, Indian forces picked up several minors in the Shopian district on October 14, without charges.
According to the Indian journalist, when she questioned the local police about the arrest, they refused to have even made the detention, and instead said that they were in a communications blackout too.
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A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Imran Khan had also penned an opinion piece for an American publication, urging the world to recognize the fascist tendencies of Indian PM Modi.
He also expressed fears of an impending bloodbath in the valley when India lifted the curfew. According to the premier, the people of Kashmir could not be expected to stay silent while their rights were trampled.
India has refused to lift the curfew in the occupied valley, and even though communication restrictions were partially lifted last week, they have since been reimposed, suggest reports.
