KASHMIR BLACK DAY

KASHMIR BLACK DAY

1. First of all, thank you very much for inviting me to share some thoughts on this solemn occasion – in commemorating the Kashmir Black Day which essentially marks the beginning of the occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir by India since 1947.

2. It has indeed been a very long time since the occupation started and recent treatments of India on the occupied territories do not reflect that it plans to reconsider its occupation let alone end it anytime soon.

3. In fact, India is forcefully bullying any opposition to its occupation while at the same time tightening its grip on these territories.

4. And woe upon us that while the border politics are being played out, atrocities committed on the Jammu and Kashmiri populace persists and we and all those who are concerned, watch helplessly on the side lines.

5. I do not like to draw parallels to acts of injustice and crimes against humanity as the sufferings of the victims cannot be equated from one to another.

6. And we can never really fathom the depths of these sufferings, the pain and scars that remain etched on the victims and their kin for as long as they live.

7. But parallels in the hypocrisy, the double-standards, deceptions and lies committed by perpetrators of these atrocities are similar. It is only the scale that may differ at times – as each tries to outdo the other when they terrorise their victims relentlessly and with impunity.

8. What are their hypocrisy, lies, deceptions and double-standards?

9. On the one hand, these ruthless regimes proclaim to be advocates of democracy while they commit apartheid. They express anger and disgust when their victims retaliate and hit back at them, usually on minute scale, disproportionately compared with their vicious attacks.

10. They label freedom fighters as terrorists, hiding the fact that their apartheid policies, genocide and ethnic cleansing activities for decades cannot, but spawn aggressive retaliation from those occupied.

11. And why do these occupied people resort to militancy and aggression?

12. Isn’t that to be expected from a people who had been bullied, stripped of their dignity and witness to the murders of their loved ones while the rest of the civilised world turn a blind eye.

13. Don’t all these narratives sound the same – be it in Palestine, in Jammu/Kashmir, South Africa or even Ireland in the not too distant past?

14. For that matter, most of these problems are inherited from the colonial past as they divide and carve up their former colonies and distributed them at their whims without considering the interest of the populace.

15. Unluckily today, despite contributing to the crises, the former colonialists and their allies chose to support the new occupiers and the results as we witness today are the massacres and genocide of the occupied.

16. Right now, the world watches in horror as Israel unleashes its military might on helpless Palestinians, justifying it as retaliations to terror acts committed by Hamas.

17. Israel intends to choke Palestinians in Gaza out of existence by cutting off all basic and essential supplies and at the same time suggesting that civilians in Gaza move out of the occupied territories so that it can then hit only at Hamas target and not the civilians.

18. While Israel blames Hamas for its attacks on Gaza, it does not explain why the murderous Tel Aviv regime attacks West Bank which is devoid of Hamas.

19. In fact, for the past seven decades, of which almost half of that period was without Hamas, Israel had been attacking and killing Palestinian civilians including babies with impunity.

20. Hamas and other Palestinians who decide to take up arms and fight against Israel are children and grandchildren of Palestinian civilians the Israeli regime had murdered in the past.

21. Using the same playbook, India is justifying its invasion and occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as part of an effort to eradicate militants and terrorists and to protect its border.

22. India’s revocation of Jammu/Kashmir’s autonomy unilaterally four years ago saw the deployment of hundreds of thousands of soldiers into the illegally occupied territories of Jammu and Kashmir. Along with that atrocities were committed, while placing the whole population under siege.

23. International bodies had reported that an atmosphere of fear and reprisal had ensured silence.

24. We have also heard reports of how India is attempting to change the demographic composition of Jammu and Kashmir by settling non-Muslim outsiders in the Muslim majority areas.

25. In many ways, it is not different than the Israeli settlers who forcefully evict Palestinians from their homes in land grab activities sanctioned by the Tel Aviv regime. And to ensure that the process is successful, it deploys the IDF to accompany the settlers.

26. Resistance were met with such viciousness that some helpless Palestinians just submit themselves to the mercy of the occupying forces.

27. But there are Palestinians, as in the case of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir who would not leave their fate in the hands of providence.

28. They retaliate and fight for their freedom and liberation by any means available to them, most times unconventional.

29. The minute they retaliate and any casualties are inflicted on the occupying forces, a prepared narrative emerges almost immediately – militants from these occupied territories had committed acts of terror on the occupiers.

30. With that the Western powers which had decades of opportunities to put a stop to the occupations and assist in the liberation of the occupied peoples, side with the occupiers and regurgitate the convenient labelling of terrorists and terrorism at the freedom fighters.

31. It is indeed baffling that these leaders of the so-called civilised West cannot even understand the meaning of the term occupied territories. And they do not seem to be able to comprehend a simple concept that those standing up against the occupation are the heroes and that the occupiers are the villains.

32. What can we do against the oppressive occupiers and the powerful backers?

33. Not much actually other than continue voicing our anger and disgust to what is happening in these occupied territories.

34. We must persist in exposing the cruelties, the atrocities and the hypocrisy of the self-anointed guardian of global morality when they are actually the perpetrator of evil and backers of greater evil.

35. It seems their hypocrisy and cruelties are bottomless as when we think we had witnessed the worst there is in mankind, they come up with atrocities we can never imagine before.

36. To the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We remember you and we feel for you. We pray for your deliverance and may Allah liberate you from the tyranny.

Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Thank you.