India Converted
Kashmir into Concentration Camps By Sajjad Shaukat (JR195 SS 66)
Massacre of the
Jews through various tactics of torture in the concentration camps, erected by
Hitler before and during the World War 11 is still shocking and condemnable. It
was a big tragedy, popularly known as the Holocaust, conducted by the forces of
state terrorism.
According to the
Zionist-controlled American leading think-tanks and media, “Genocide of 5 [or
six] million Jews was carried out at the extermination camps, using tools of
mass murder, such as gas chambers of Germany, Poland, Austria and Alsace”
But, impartial
researchers have opined: “All Jews were not killed through gas chambers, but
also due to hunger, diseases and depression.”
Renowned
historians agree that Hitler was impulsive ruler, guided by ungoverned
temper—he was the most ambitious leader who believed in the principle of “world
power or downfall.” He had a firm faith in the superiority of German race and
inferiority of other races. Anti-Semitism and the Nazi ideology played a major
role in Hitler’s thinking. He believed that the path to German greatness was
through aggressive military actions. He started a programme of enormous
armament by developing German military on modern lines.
After coming to
power, Adolf Hitler’s internal policies were authoritarian and totalitarian.
The secret police-Gestapo was formed to deal with the slightest indication of
opposition. He mixed politics with religious fervor and massacred several Jews
in the concentration camps.
Hitler and the
Nazi Party had come to power with the avowed purpose of conquering colonies and
foreign lands for the Germans. They must have a living space-‘Lebensraum’ as
the Nazis called it for the living surplus German population and find raw
materials and markets for German industrial goods.
It was due to
Hitler’s unskilled diplomacy that militarization of Germany alarmed France,
England and Russia. Thus, they humiliated the Germans, as their country was
defeated in the World War II.
Learning no
lesson from ‘Hilterite’ Germany, India converted Kashmir into concentration
camps. In this respect, Indian extremist Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s government ended special status of the Jummu and Kashmir on August 5,
this year by abolishing articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution in a
malevolent attempt to turn Muslim majority into minority in the Indian Occupied
Kashmir (IOK).
The upper house
of India’s parliament also passed a bill proposing the state of Jammu and
Kashmir which includes the Kashmir Valley and the Ladakh area—be split into two
federal territories. Jammu and Kashmir will have a state legislature, and
Ladakh will be ruled directly by New Delhi.
India which already had 500,000 troops in the Indian
Controlled Kashmir sent almost 30000 extra troops, while escalating tensions with
Pakistan.
Despite, India’s
excessive deployment of troops in the Kashmir region, expulsion of Hindu
pilgrims, tourists, closure of educational institutions, arrest of the Kashmiri
leaders and imposition of curfew, Kashmiris have accelerated the war of
liberation, being waged for their right of self-determination, which was also
recgonised by the United Nations resolutions.
In fact, India is implementing brutal scheme through
military operation to suppress the Kashmiris’ struggle. Indian forces have
already intensified state terrorism, as every day innocent Kashmiris are being
martyred. In
the recent past, Indian forces again used cluster
bombs on the Kashmiris. Many
Kashmiris have become permanently blind and paralyzed due to pellet guns shots,
including chemical weapons used by the ruthless Indian forces.
In
this connection, human rights groups and even Western media have condemned
Indian illegal measures and human rights violations which continue unabated.
The
Independent wrote on August 13, 2019: “Kashmir’s tight security and
communications lockdown remained in place…as reports emerged of daily
essentials running low. Restrictions on almost all movement in the disputed
Himalayan region were strictly enforced…With internet and phone lines still cut
off since the decision on 5 August to strip Kashmir of its special
constitutional status and the right to make its own laws, the valley has become
the setting for all-out information warfare….soldiers stopping vehicles in the
centre of Srinagar, causing a traffic jam just as a military surveillance drone
flew over….The network of barbed passageways was unprecedented…entire Srinagar
city has been knitted in razor wire to seek our silence and obedience…closure
of mosques curtailed the religious freedoms of Kashmiri Muslims…Restrictions
and curtailment of this fundamental religious freedom of millions of Kashmiri
Muslims constitutes a serious violation of applicable international human
rights law, to which India is a party.”
The New York
Times wrote on August 10, 2019: “On the streets of Srinagar, Kashmir’s
biggest city, security officers tied black bandannas over their faces, grabbed
their guns and took positions behind checkpoints. People glanced out the
windows of their homes, afraid to step outside. Many were cutting back on meals
and getting hungry….Shops were shut. A.T.M.s had run dry…internet, mobile
phones, even landlines…remained severed, rendering millions of people
incommunicado…life under lockdown in Kashmir and found a population that felt
besieged, confused, frightened and furious by the seismic event…Several
residents said they had been beaten up by security forces for simply trying to buy
necessities like milk. Many Kashmiris see India as an oppressive and foreign
ruler. Tens of thousands of troops from the Indian Army, the Central Reserve
Police Force (a paramilitary unit) and the Kashmiri State police have been
deployed in just about every corner of the valley. In some villages, even
remote ones, a soldier was posted outside the gate of each family’s home….The lockdown’s effects are visible everywhere. Schools
have been closed. Parks are deserted. Baby food is running out…At the
Lala Ded hospital, sick people had traveled more than a day to get here, only
to find a skeleton crew. Many doctors couldn’t get to work. Many patients were
curled up on the floor…Many Kashmiris fear that Mr. Modi’s sweeping decision,
which also wiped away a decades-old provision that gave Kashmiris special land
ownership rights, will encourage millions of Hindu migrants from India to move
into the valley, fabled for its stunning alpine scenery and fertile soil.
Kashmiris fear they will be turned into a minority in their own land.”
On August 12,
2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) demanded the Indian government to lift the
communications blackout and step back in Kashmir. In a statement, the HRW South
Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly said since one week Kashmiris remain mostly
under lockdown and their leaders are under arrest.
In a press
release on August 13, 2019, Amnesty International condemned a decision by
India’s Supreme Court to allow New Delhi to continue a security crackdown
and communications blackout in Kashmir. Urging New Delhi to ease restrictions
imposed in Kashmir, Amnesty warned that “a complete clampdown on civil
liberties is only likely to increase tensions, alienate the people and increase
the risk of further human rights violations”.
Notably, various
forms of state terrorism have been part of a deliberate campaign by the Indian
army and paramilitary forces against the Muslim Kashmiris, particularly since
1989. It has been manifested in brutal tactics like crackdowns, curfews,
illegal detentions, massacre, targeted killings, sieges, burning the houses,
torture, disappearances, rape, breaking the legs, molestation of Muslim women
and killing of persons through fake encounters.
Besides Human
Rights Watch, in its report on July 2, 2015, the Amnesty International has
highlighted extrajudicial killings of the innocent persons at the hands of
Indian security forces in the Indian Held Kashmir. The report said, “Tens of
thousands of security forces are deployed in Indian-administered Kashmir…the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act allows troops to shoot to kill suspected
militants or arrest them without a warrant…not a single member of the armed
forces has been tried in a civilian court for violating human rights in
Kashmir…this lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious
abuses…India has martyred one 100,000 people. More than 8,000 disappeared
(while) in the custody of army and state police.”
It is of
particular attention that in 2008, a rights group reported unmarked graves in
55 villages across the northern regions of the IOK. Then researchers and other
groups reported finding thousands of mass graves without markers. In this
respect, in August, 2011, Indian Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights
Commission officially acknowledged in its report that innocent civilians killed
in the two-decade conflict have been buried in unmarked graves.
Foreign sources
and human rights organisations have revealed that unnamed graves include those
innocent persons, killed by the Indian military and paramilitary troops in the
fake encounters, including those who were tortured to death by the RAW. In the
recent past, more unmarked graves have been discovered.
In this regard,
in its report, China’s leading News Agency Xinhua has unearthed more unnamed
graves in Poonch of the Indian Controlled Kashmir. The report quoted the
statement of Sofi Aziz Joo, caretaker of a graveyard as saying, “Police and
Army used to bring those bodies and direct me to bury them. The bodies were
usually bullet-ridden, mutilated, faces disfigured and sometimes without limbs
and heads.”
It is noteworthy
that in a series of tweets on August 12, this year, Pakistan’s Prime Minister
Imran Khan has likened India’s abrogation of
Jammu and Kashmir state’s autonomy to Nazi ideology, and warned the
international community that inaction would be similar to appeasing Hitler Munich.
Prime Minister
Khan further stated: “The ideology of Hindu Supremacy, like the Nazi Aryan
Supremacy, will not stop in Kashmir…the Hindu Supremacists version of Hitler’s
Lebensraum would lead to the suppression of Muslims in India and eventually
lead to targeting of Pakistan…Attempt is to change demography of Kashmir
through ethnic cleansing”.
Addressing the
session of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad on
August 14, this year, Prime Minister Imran Khan said: “He has assumed
responsibility of raising the voice of Kashmir in the world by exposing the
true face of RSS ideology dominant in India is dangerous for all…he has tried
to fully expose the true face of BJP and its leader Modi before the world in
his statements and tweets…ideology of RSS which was inspired from Nazi party of
Hitler. RSS followers considered themselves superior to other nations in India.
The RSS ideology hates Muslims and Christians for their ruling of India. In
their agenda, ethnic cleansing of Muslims is also included…the extremist
mindset and ideology of Hindus was responsible for killing of Mahatma Gandhi.
This ideology also showed its ugly face in Gujarat carnage of Muslims…the
intensity of violence against Muslims in Occupied Kashmir during the last five
years is also due to this fanatic ideology”.
The premier also warned that Pakistan will respond with full
force, if India launches any aggression against Pakistan, and said, “not only
our valiant armed forces, but the whole nation is ready to defend the
motherland”.
Taking
cognizance of revoking special status of the Jummu
and Kashmir by New Delhi, including restrictions on the Kashmiris, Pakistan
celebrated its Independence Day on August 14 in showing solidarity with the
Kashmiris and observed Indian Independence Day on August 15 as the Black Day in Pakistan.
It is because of
joint efforts of Pakistan and China that the United Nations Security Council will
hold a session to discuss the situation in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir
and India’s decision to revoke the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir
on Friday (August 16, 20119).
Undoubtedly, we
can conclude that India converted Kashmir into concentration camps.
Sajjad Shaukat
writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic
Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International
Relations
