ALI SUKHANVER
I was searching for the hard copy of an old article of mine in my record-room, a few days back. I just came by a letter which my younger son had written to America almost ten years back. Then he himself was nine years old. The letter said, “Dear Uncle Sam! Why don’t you look at the toddlers, searching for their mothers and crying for their fathers in the burning valleys of the Indian held Kashmir? They are horrified and frightened to see blood pools around them instead of chocolates and biscuits. They are waiting for your brave son, G. W. Bush to help them out of this agonizing situation. They are being tortured and tormented by the heartless surges of an extreme terrorism at the hands of the Indian army. Why don’t you drag your so-called war against terror to India which has become now the mother of all terrorism? Don’t let the world believe that you are a part of all that cruelty, atrocity, brutality, violence and hatred which is showering the black rain of death in Kashmir.” After writing that letter, my son had asked me to post that letter but I didn’t know whom to address it and where to send. Now that letter was again in my hands. My son is now a grown up man of twenty, things around me, including my own self, have also changed a lot but situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir is still the same. The black rain of death is still showering there with the same velocity. The Indian forces in Occupied Kashmir are using the most inhuman tactics for torturing the Kashmiris who are simply demanding for a right to self-determination according to the resolution passed by the UN.
For the last few years, the Indian troops have started use of pallet-guns against the striving Kashmiris. According to a report published in the Indian Express, Pellets are loaded with lead and once fired they disperse in huge numbers. They don’t follow a definite path. Pellets penetrate the skin’s soft tissues, and eye being the delicate structure is the most vulnerable to damage. Once the pellet goes inside an eye it shatters tissues and causes multiple damages to all parts of the eye. A few days back a severely injured pellet riddled body of a boy Zahid Ahmad was found at Nawa Kadal area of Downtown Srinagar in a pool of blood. That sixteen year old boy was operated on immediately and doctors said that hundreds of pellets had pierced right portion of his abdomen. The boy was targeted him when he was returning from an examination centre. Talking to the media-men, the doctors said that many of his vital organs, especially his right kidney, had been badly injured as hundreds of pellets had entered his body. The story of cruelty and brutality does not stop here; there are more horrible facts too. The Indian troops there at Kashmir valley are using rape as a tool against the innocent inhabitants of the valley. Sex crimes are surely the most hated ones but they become more heinous when committed by an army. According to different psychologists an army gets involved in sex crimes when it is in a state of depression, when it is unable to achieve the assigned goals through the use of professional skills. Just look at the war crimes in the Indian held Kashmir; you will find a lot of examples of rape cases by the army personnel. The only reason behind is that the soldiers are in a state of depression. They know that all their efforts and struggles are not more than a sinful crime against humanity. Every day every night, so many Kashmiri women are being molested, physically tortured and sexually harassed. The sexual activities of the Indian armed forces in IOK have become a blob of shameful dirt on the face of world’s largest democracy. This brutal attitude of the Indian forces has added a lot to the miserable life of the helpless Kashmiris. The Kashmiri women are so helpless and unlucky that the government officials are never ready to pay any heed to their molestation. Usually the police are never willing to register an FIR and in case an FIR is registered, the courts show a cold response. The army, the police and the courts, all have joined hand against the poor Kashmiri women. That is the reason that molestation of Kashmiri women by BSF officers and jawans has become a common practice in the Indian held Kashmir. The poor Kashmiris in IOK have been suffering all this brutality at the hands of Indian Security forces for the last many decades. The question arises: What is the reason behind the cruel and criminal silence of international community and particularly of the USA over the Indian state terrorism in the Indian Occupied Kashmir? Is there anyone who could save the helpless Kashmiris from this life of miseries and sorrows?