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| The plight of PoK residents | | |
Samuel Baid |
It was surprising to see a 71-page report on the state of human rights in occupied Kashmir prepared by Human Rights Watch (HRW) of the United States. It was surprising because an organisation like Human Rights Watch remained oblivious of human misery and humility perpetrated by Pakistan's Army and intelligence agencies in this occupied territory for the past 60 years.
If the HRW was truly unaware of the human rights conditions in POK then it can be presumed that this worldwide organisation has never heard of a region where the occupier (Pakistan) does not allow its inhabitants any civil and constitutional rights—even the right to their land and its resources. It is Gilgit-Baltistan or Northern Areas as Pakistan calls it. For 60 years the people here have lived here as serfs without a national identity.
The HRW gives a reason for remaining ignorant of the human rights conditions in PoK for 60 years. According to its report, before the earthquake of October 8, 2005, in PoK, it was a region about which the world's awareness was as good as nil. It was the earthquake, which provided an opportunity to world's relief teams and media who reached here to learn about human rights violations. It then became necessary to make the world community aware of the treatment given to the local population by Pakistan's Army and intelligence agencies, the report says.
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This reasoning is strange because for years PoK 's nationalist Kashmiris have been appealing to the word's conscience to take note of their plight. Also Pakistani press, especially the Urdu press, has been writing about conditions in POK and Northern Areas. Above all, Pakistan is an open book for Americans. They cannot be ignorant of what Pakistan has been doing in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan for the past six decades. The reason for ignoring this region may be that Western and American Human Rights organisations do not want to embarrass their most allied ally.
The HRW report makes no new revelations about human rights denials in PoK. Every time there are elections in PoK, there is a hue and cry about rigging by Islamabad and about disqualification of those Kashmiris who refuse to sign an oath of commitment to Kashmir's accession to Pakistan. However, better late than never. The report can provide a lead to other Western and American human rights organisations. The HRW report has referred to mandatory commitment to accession and pointed out that Pakistan stands for a free plebiscite in whole of Jammu and Kashmir, yet it forces people in PoK to swear by Kashmir's accession to it.
The report says that under the UN resolutions, this part of Kashmir is under the "local administration" yet to enter the government or to get a government post in PoK, one has to submit oneself to the ideology of Kashmir's accession to Pakistan. Moreover, the local police or intelligence agencies of Pakistan torture those who do not subscribe to this ideology or support right of self-rule. The HRW therefore dismisses the institution of elections in PoK.
The report further says that it has been the Pakistan government's policy to suppress expression of free opinion in PoK. That is the reason why this region, though full of news, is without an independent newspaper or a source of news for outside world. As against this, the jehadi organisations, which support Kashmir's accession to Pakistan, enjoy full freedom to propagate their ideology.
According to the HRW, the common people in PoK live under strict surveillance. To a great extent the Army rules here. The report explains how jehadi groups started relief work in quake-affected areas last year in October. The HRW reached the conclusion that it was the Army's intelligence agencies which helped these jehadi groups to start the relief work before others. It said the Army used the quake as an "opportunity to craft a new image for the terror groups rather than as an opportunity to disband them." It was not possible for terror groups to take relief goods in mountainous region so quickly without the Army's support.
It may be recalled that the Pak Army, though present in PoK at the time of the quake, took three to four days to react. Had the Army men started relief and rescue work without losing time, hundreds of lives could have been saved. On the contrary, they nonchalantly refused to assist crying parents who were begging for help to extricate their children from collapsed school buildings. In the meantime, jehadi groups got worldwide publicity for doing humanitarian service. They got funds for their relief work. After the 7/7 bombing of underground rail network in London, it was said a part of these funds was used for organizing this bombing.
The HRW took note of Kashmiri nationalists' demand for independence. The Human Rights Watch demanded that all arrested Kashmiri nationalists and supporters of independence be released and the ban on rallies and gatherings of independence seekers and their propagation must be removed.
The HRW report should provide Western human rights organizations and media who often report Pakistan extensively but ignore the people who smart under its subjugation in PoK and Northern Areas. Amnesty International hardly takes note of these areas. The Urdu BBC's bulletins are incomplete without giving reports, often negative from Kashmir on the Indian side of the LoC, but it rarely reports PoK although it has a correspondent there.
The United States and the West are now paying the price of ignoring PoK even when India was crying that this Pakistan occupied territory was being used to train terrorists for infiltration into Kashmir. The 9/11 terror in USA woke up the world to the fact that PoK was training terrorists not only for Kashmir but also for global activities. The HRW report says that in PoK only the jehadis are permitted by Pak Army to preach their ideology while others, who do not toe Pakistan's line, live under strict surveillance and restrictions.
India has been complaining that Pakistan has not yet demolished terror-training camps. The HRW report confirms it when it says that infiltration of terrorists into Kashmir continues though on a lesser scale. An important inference one can draw from the HRW report is that the common man in POK is denied human rights or rather his voice so that he cannot resist jehadi or terrorist activities on his soil.
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