The Suffering of Kashmir, Does it not have an End?

By: Bilal Al-Muhajir – Pakistan*
(Translated)

Violent clashes took place between hundreds of demonstrators and government forces on 13 May in Indian Occupied Kashmir, after the killing of 25-year-old Mahruddin Bir Shah. He was driving, when Indian paramilitary forces shot him, near a checkpoint on the outskirts of Srinagar, the capital of Occupied Kashmir. Shah was shot, as the police claimed, because he refused to stop at a checkpoint! However, his father, Ghulam Nabi, denied the police statement and said that “his son was shot in cold blood.” The killing of this young man, Mahruddin, came amid the escalation of tensions in the Muslim-majority Occupied Kashmir, after New Delhi abolished the autonomy of Kashmir, imposing a curfew on since November 1, 2019, to control the unrest. This comes in the light of the complete lockdown in India, to fight the spread of the novel Coronavirus, as thousands of army and police personnel have been deployed at checkpoints, to limit movements.

Previously, the commander of operations of the largest jihadi organization in Kashmir, Hizb ul Mujaheedin, was killed on 6 May 2020, after a long clash with the armed forces of the terrorist Hindu State. Hundreds of Indian soldiers launched a military operation after receiving information from intelligence that Riad Naik, the commander of Hizb ul Mujahideen, was hiding in a village of Pulwama district, south of Kashmir. Over a period of less than two months, the terrorist Indian army have killed 36 fighters. Occupied Kashmir has been witnessing fierce and continuous resistance for decades, leading to over seventy thousand martyrs. In Azad (Liberated) Kashmir, one soldier and two women were killed after Indian forces targeted the observation posts and villages. A statement by the Pakistani army accused India of “an unjustified violation of the ceasefire agreement.” The attack also wounded a child and another woman.

In response to these crimes that India has committed against the rights of Muslims in Occupied Kashmir, violating the Line of Control and killing Muslims on the Pakistani side, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian high commissioner to express “its objection and rejection to the breach of armistice that threatens the peace process in the region”!!! This weak response is in line with what successive governments of Pakistan have brought us to. They have never taken an action that is consistent with the nature of conflict between two countries and such weak responses are not commensurate to the Jihadi nature of the Muslims of Kashmir and Pakistan.

The Muslims of Pakistan and Kashmir were brought up to love Jihad and fighting in the Path of Allah (swt). Hostility towards the Hindu State is sown in them and they are prepared to fight against Hindus who occupy Kashmir. Indeed, they are ready to liberate all the oppressed Muslims in India, not just Kashmir alone. Many Muslims of Pakistan consider themselves as immigrants, who migrated from their lands to Pakistan, after the division of Pakistan, from the Indian Subcontinent. Pakistan was established originally as a state with two flanks, one of which is the former West Pakistan, which is now Pakistan, and East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh. Most of the people in the largest city of Pakistan, Karachi, that has a population of about twenty million, still consider themselves as immigrants, with many of their families still divided between two countries. Therefore the ideological and historical motive amongst the people of Kashmir and Pakistan is sufficient to declare war on India, not only to put an end to the crimes of India against the rights of Muslims in Kashmir, but also to liberate all the rest of Muslims in India who are under the oppressive rule of Hindus.

The reality of the Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent, including Pakistan, Kashmir, Bangladesh, and also Afghanistan, is a painful reality. They are of the best people of the Ummah and have proven to be more than capable over and again to face difficulties to overcome occupiers. Their history of fighting against the colonialist British Raj bears testimony to this fact. They forced the Imperial British Army to leave the region, never daring to return as an occupying force again. Whilst it is true that Britain had installed its agent rulers in the region, instead of direct military colonization, Britain was forced to choose this due to the intensity of fierce resistance it faced. Another example is the victory of the Muslims of Afghanistan, assisted by the Muslims of Pakistan, against the Soviet Russian occupation. The reality is that Muslims have never faced any aggression in the region, except that they were able to defeat it, even in the short conflicts that occurred between the Muslims in Kashmir and Pakistan on one side, and India on the other. All of these resulted in victory for Muslims, and defeat and humiliation for India. An example of such short conflicts, is the 1999 Kargil conflict, where the Indian army suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Pakistani Army. Had it not been the treachery of Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf, who submitted to the orders of the US, Occupied Kashmir would have been liberated at that time.

It is true that the Muslims of Kashmir are in great trouble and persecution at the hands of India, since partition in 1947. However, India is also engaged in a war of attrition there, which is a severe drain on the Indian economy. A simple example of this is that India has lost about a billion and half dollars, over the first three months of the curfew that has been imposed on Kashmir, since November 1, 2019. As for their military loss, it is also very large, and those losses are calculated according to the battle they are engaging in. More significant than these losses in confronting India, is the growing confidence of Muslims in the region in their capacity to confront India and defeat it. However, what prevents them from achieving this are the rulers of the region, particularly the rulers of Pakistan, who always desert and misguide in their attempt to persuade the people to accept the “peace process” which America wants to impose upon the two countries. The US plan is to enable both the rulers of Pakistan and the Hindu State are free to devote themselves entirely to confront America’s strongest eastern competitor, China, as well as the emerging revival of the Ummah that works hard to re-establish Khilafah (Caliphate) upon the method of the Prophethood in the region. However, what the Kafireen desire is far, far away. America and its rulers have failed to dissuade Muslims in the region from desiring liberation from the grip of America and India and those who collaborate with them from amongst the ignoble rulers of Muslims. Indeed the Muslims have etched in their hearts the Hadith of Messenger of Allah (saw) that give glad tidings to them about the liberation of all of India, not just Kashmir alone.

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ قَالَ: «وَعَدَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ غَزْوَةَ الْهِنْدِ فَإِنْ أَدْرَكْتُهَا أُنْفِقْ فِيهَا نَفْسِي وَمَالِي وَإِنْ قُتِلْتُ كُنْتُ أَفْضَلَ الشُّهَدَاءِ وَإِنْ رَجَعْتُ فَأَنَا أَبُو هُرَيْرَةَ الْمُحَرَّرُ»

“It was narrated that Abu Hurairah said: "The Messenger of Allah (sal) promised us that we would conquer India. If I live to see that, I will sacrifice myself and my wealth. If I am killed, I will be one of the best of the martyrs, and if I come back, I will be Abu Hurairah Al-Muharrar (Al-Muharrar: The one freed from Hell Fire)”. [An-Nasai]

Written for Al-Rayah Magazine Issue 287