In a
massive revelation yesterday, CNN-IBN had aired footage exposing human rights violations in
Pakistan Occupied Kashmir including
Muzaffarabad, Gilgit and Kotli. It is being reported that youths
refusing to join the cause of jihad are routinely picked up by the
ISI and tortured. Protestors said on camera that the Pakistani establishment
had no right to use force on them and some went on to add that India is better!
Pakistani
establishment’s use of brutal force in order to quell the rebellion can be seen
clearly in the footage and proves that Islamabad’s claims against New Delhi’s
alleged attempts to suppress people living in the valley are nothing but hollow.
Minister
of State for Parliamentary Affairs Jitender Singh, who represent Jammu and
Kashmir's Udhampur in the Lok Sabha, pointed that residents of
Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir have been suppressed and tortured by Islamabad since
1947.
"There has been a simmering discontent among people from
PoK for a long time. It is because of the discrimination suffered by this
region as compared to other regions of Pakistan. This is not in terms of
development but also in the basic facilities provided with respect to health
care and education. Protests have taken place in
the past but powers in Islamabad managed to quell it. Now it has come to a
boiling point and it has come to surface. There had been instances and evidence
of human right violation in PoK. They have been written about but Pakistan has
been in denial mode” said Singh.
Pakistan's
National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz responded stating - "Pakistan remains committed to finding a
just and peaceful resolution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. Pakistan’s
principled position on the Kashmir dispute is based on the UN Security Council
Resolutions, which remain unimplemented to this day. India decided to try to
quell the Kashmiri struggle by use of brute force. As a result, more than
90,000 Kashmiris have been killed by Indian security forces over the last two
decades in Indian Occupied Kashmir."
The
Pakistan government further called the video shown on CNN-IBN as
"doctored". "We don't control the media in PoK." Commenting
on the video, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said, "It's a
propaganda. Pakistan has always raised the voice for the Kashmiris. Whole world
is watching how Pakistani flags are being raised in Kashmir (Indian Side). From
our side it will only be political, moral and diplomatic support for them and
that we will continue to extend but there is no answer for the propaganda."
These
can’t be called sporadic protests, as the police and Army’s presence to reign
them in is a clear indicator that these agitations are not one off and are a
force to reckon with. The rising dissatisfaction with Pakistan considerably
weakens Islamabad's Kashmir rhetoric against India. To top that, large human
rights violations and illegal detentions will now question the grounds on which
Pakistan has been claiming rights for Kashmiris.