The 20-Year Long Holocaust of Kashmir

The Holocaust near India you possibly don’t know about, is the forgotten conflict in Kashmir that has been going on for decades.

The Kashmir dispute is the oldest unresolved international conflict in the world today. Pakistan considers Kashmir as its core political dispute with India. So does the international community, except India.

India’s forcible occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 is the main cause of the dispute.

India claims to have ‘signed’ a controversial document, the Instrument of Accession, on 26 October 1947 with the Maharaja of Kashmir, in which the Maharaja obtained India’s military help against popular insurgency.

However, the people of Kashmir and Pakistan do not accept the Indian claim. There are doubts about the very existence of the Instrument of Accession.

With the exception of India, the entire world community recognizes Kashmir as a disputed territory, including the United Nations.

The fact is that all the principles on the basis of which the Indian subcontinent was partitioned by the British in 1947 justify Kashmir becoming a part of Pakistan.

The Kashmir State had majority Muslim population, and it not only enjoyed geographical proximity with Pakistan, but also had essential economic linkages with the territories constituting Pakistan.

However, since 1989, India has maintained a military occupation of the Kashmir Valley by more than half a million soldiers, police, paramilitaries, and other armed “security” forces brought in from outside Kashmir.

Covering disasters is not easy. Journalists sign up for it because there are stories worth telling. But what happened in Kashmir while covering the floods has been disturbing and heart-breaking.

The unsung heroes of the tragedy? The volunteers, students and shikarahwallahs, who not only helped the journalists but also ferried the tourists and locals alike to safety.

Paradise was under water. The only way to move around was with the military forces in army trucks and boats, but the constant attacks made it difficult for many of us to venture out as often and as freely as necessary to record that massive humanitarian crises.

News Punch.com / ABC Flash Point News 2019.