The impasse that is the land of Kashmir – which Allama Iqbal described as “heaven on earth” – has shown little signs of abating, with only escalations insight. On October 21st, thousands of demonstrators marched on a village in Kulgam, where Indian forces were battling an unaccounted number of suspected Kashmiri fighters. This led to a shootout in which Indian troops killed at least 14 youths and injured at least 30 others in the Laroo area of the Kulgam district, in an attack that included pillaging and destruction of the neighborhood, according to local police and military officials in the vicinity. Amongst the dead were two Kashmiri youths who were martyred after an unexploded bomb planted by Indian forces went off whilst they were removing debris off a destroyed house. This comes after a six-month pregnant woman named Firdousa was killed on October 19th in the Pulwama district. Prime Minister Imran Khan has strongly condemned the resurgence of violence in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) by Indian troops: India took the Kashmir case to the United Nations (UN). Nothing can be more ironic than the fact that it is India which is averse to the UN intervention on Kashmir issue. New Delhi’s denialism and […]

India’s reluctance to any third-party mediation in Kashmir is, at best, a juvenile attempt at the distortion of history and denial of context. Deliberately ignoring historicity and context, the vast sections of Indian media are narrating fairy tales on Kashmir while cashing on falsehood, provocation, propaganda, and vitriol with an aim to insult the intelligence of a common man in India and hoodwink international audiences. India took the Kashmir case to the United Nations (UN). Nothing can be more ironic than the fact that it is India which is averse to the UN intervention on Kashmir issue. New Delhi’s denialism and its corporate media’s frozen mindsets are main impediments in the Kashmir resolution. During M K Gandhi’s visit to Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, in August 1947, declared that he had, “No hesitation in saying that the will of the Kashmiris was the supreme law in Kashmir and Jammu.” – (‘The Kashmir Dispute: 1947-2012’ by AG Noorani, p. 227) On August 14, 1947, the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir were one of the 562 princely states under the suzerainty of the British Crown which were not a part of British India. On the lapse of paramountcy on the transfer of power, Jammu and Kashmir became […]