Kashmir Martyrs’ Day : edit in the Nation, July 14

The commemoration of Martyr’s Day on Friday, the 81st anniversary of the firing by the state police on an unarmed crowd in Srinagar, killing 21 people should teach a number of lessons to the Indian government and its puppet regime in Srinagar. First, the lesson to be absorbed is that the indigenous struggle of the Kashmiri Muslims goes back no less than 81 years and thus predates Pakistan’s existence. Second, the history of the Kashmiri freedom struggle is written in blood, with martyrs being offered from the very beginning. Third, and perhaps what the Indian occupiers need to take most to heart, that the Kashmiri freedom struggle which was launched in 1989 will not end until it achieves the objective sought in 1931, that of the self-determination of the Kashmiri people. That struggle is intensified because a mechanism to achieve it has not just been identified, but also been approved by the Indian government of the time, but also by the entire international community, a UN-supervised plebiscite to determine the will of the Kashmiri people.

Martyrs’ Day serves as a reminder that the current struggle for self-determination is part of a continuity that began as a struggle against the Dogra Maharajas, whose misrule began with the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar. Just as much as the Dogra Maharajas imposed themselves on the state then, the Indian state imposed itself after Independence, both without reference to the people. However, just as the Kashmiri people, almost a century later, were ready in 1931 to give lives in support of their struggle against the Dogra regime, so are they ready to render sacrifices in the struggle against India, its puppet government and its occupying forces.

This commemoration will also prove a salutary reminder to the Pakistan government, that it may have veered too far in favour of India, and has neglected the Kashmiri cause too much. It must remain resolute in its commitment to the moral and diplomatic support it has promised the Kashmiri people, and must be reminded of this by this commemoration of Martyrs’ Day. Pakistan should not forget that the Kashmir issue is not just about the Kashmiri people, but an existential problem for Pakistan as well, as it is, as said by the Quaid-i-Azam himself, “Pakistan’s jugular vein”. The government must press India harder, because its present lackadaisical approach is going nowhere, least of all towards a solution.http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/editorials/14-Jul-2012/kashmir-martyrs-day