ISLAMABAD, FEB 04 (DNA) – India and Pakistan, as nuclear-armed neighbors, have to revert to a negotiated settlement of Kashmir.

With the rise of Hindu fascism in India, collective international intervention from major powers and the international community in an urgent need of the hour.

The Kashmir issue, one of the mainstays of Pakistan’s foreign policy, 70 years later still remains the oldest unresolved dispute in the United Nations because of India’s criminal denial of the right of self-determination to the valorous Kashmiris.

The RSS’s fascist narrative and actions will result in far more devastation if the world does not recognize their true face and heinous agenda.

Speakers today at the symposium on “Situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir: Exploring Policy Options for Pakistan” organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute shed light on the security, military and diplomatic dimensions of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

Delivering his Keynote Address, Senator Mushahid, Chairperson, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senate of Pakistan, highlighted the extreme conditions being faced by the Kashmiri people since the August 5, 2019 lockdown.

He lamented that those who brave it out to peacefully demonstrate against the August 5th revocation even after 184 days are either jailed or are fired upon by the rogue Indian army. Discussing the transformation of India from a secular, pluralistic state to a dangerous, monolingual, monofaith authoritarian country, he warned that the world never saw the evil of Nazism just like it is blind to the viciousness of the Sangh parivar.

He outlined how the Nazi-inspired RSS have captured state power and use its full capacity to further their goals, especially in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Modi’s fascist regime is sticking to the exercise of smoke and mirrors while banning more than two million prepaid mobile connections.

Moreover, the Indian army refuses to reduce the number of boots on the ground, Senator Mushahid remarked. He highlighted that under battered police vehicles, checkposts fortified with sandbags, the besieged Kashmiris are living a life of fear and anger, struggling to have access to something as basic as a carton of milk, a scenario reminiscent of an Auschwitz camp.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Vice Admiral (R) Khan Hasham bin Saddique, HI(M), President IPRI, highlighted  that with the presence of more than 800, 000 security forces, Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is virtually a garrison with the largest concentration of security forces anywhere in the world. He outlined the factors undermining peace in the region including the absence of  an effective regional security mechanism; lack of regional economic and cultural integration caused by the hegemonic inclinations of India; and absence of reliable dispute resolution bodies.

President Saddique was of the view that the impact of Jammu and Kashmir dispute on regional and global security is undeniably multifaceted; and warned that recent Indian attempts to alter the ethnic, religious and social demography of IHK will entail serious consequences for world peace.

He cautioned that India’s obstinate strategic adventurism may turn nuclear-pessimists’ nightmare of Kashmir becoming a nuclear flashpoint a horrible reality.  “The comity of nations cannot afford to be bystanders since the stakes and costs are both too high,” he urged.

Discussing the impact of Hindu nationalism on Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Ambassador (R) Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi Qureshi, Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Bhutan & New Zealand, highlighted that history suggests that India does not pay heed to international law and norms by manifesting textbook bigotry, especially under the manifestations of fascism and Nazism  espoused by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh now adhered to by the Indian government. He discussed how RSS played a critical role in the bloodbath in the Gujarat pogroms and how they are playing the same role in IOJ&K.

Giving a brief historical overview of the organization, he said that the RSS is a Nazi-inspired movement based on the use of paramilitary forces for extra-legal blackmail and violence.

He was of the view that while Hitler floated the idea of nationalistic nationalism, the world today is heading towards religious fascism and India under the RSS’s fascist rhetoric now faces an existential threat.

From institutionalized rape and mass graves as an instrument of control to cajoling Kashmiris with false developmental schemes, have all failed to wobble the resolve of the Kashmir people, he said.

Ambassador Qureshi urged that Pakistan needs to work on a more robust and cohesive policy on Kashmir, articulating Indian barbarity at every international forum available to us. In addition, Pakistan needs to move forward from just highlighting the issue in various capitals around the world to lobbying for legislators, human rights activists and the international media to play an active role in the peaceful struggle of Kashmiris’ against Indian fascist designs.

In the interactive discussion attended by international diplomats from Africa, Nepal, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan etc., students and journalists shared serious concerns about the uncertainty that looms over the Kashmiris, as the BJP government initiates settlement of Hindus in the occupied Valley.

It was pointed out that the RSS, one of longest-running continuous fascist movement in the world,  presents itself differently to the outside world, but under the BJP administration, its followers openly harass Kashmiris in Jammu and Kashmir and Muslims in India on a daily basis with reports of a surge in detentions, rape and state terrorism.=DNA

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