N. P. Upadhyaya (Aryal)
Kathmandu: In essence, the US Ambassador based in Islamabad, Donald Blome had already set the ball rolling, in early October, which brought the India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir issue for the perusal and focus of the global audience.
Much ahead of the US envoy’s daring visit to Azad Kashmir the daring U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar had travelled to the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir, on April 21, and had promised to push Washington to pay more attention to the disputed region, drawing swift criticism from India, Ayaz Gul for the Voice of America-the VOA reported.
Omar’s travel to Azad Kashmir, needless to say, irritated India and the Indian negative reactions followed as usual.
The fresh and sudden rush of the US Ambassador Blome to Muzaffarabad sent several signals to India and the countries across the globe that visibly favor Indian stances on Kashmir including the UN Security Council which has already made several resolutions in the past on amicable solutions to the Kashmir imbroglio but all in vain so far.
Some even say that the entire UN system is under the visible influence of the Indian officials posted at the UN system. Indians work hard comparatively.
The unexpected arrival of the US Ambassador Donald Blome to Pakistan-administered Kashmir has come at a time when New Delhi has no US Ambassador or say the Ambassadorial appointment to Delhi has not yet been made by the US Administration.
The post is still vacant. This then doubles the “meaning” underneath.
Our own sources in Washington say that most likely the sitting Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti shall be upon congressional hearing sent to India as the new US envoy.
Thus, Islamabad based US envoy’s “calculated” trip to Kashmir does tell that “after PM Imran Khan’s ouster” from the Prime Ministerial post, the US has not only tried to “improve” its ties with Islamabad but has also in mind that the Kashmir dispute needs third party mediation to which Pakistan agrees but India denies tooth and nail.
To recall, President Donald Trump had personally told the visiting Pakistani PM Imran Khan in the White House that if “you both India and Pakistan” need my (the US) mediation, I am ready to extend my good offices.
That the strained Washington-Islamabad ties have improved to a greater degree gets testified when the US in recent months has supplied military hardware and fighter aircraft much to the disapproval of the South Asian hawk, Indian regime.
US Ambassador’s October 2-4, 2022, visit to Azad Kashmir also signals India that “henceforth Pakistan shall also be in the good book of the US Administration”.
To the utter dismay and anger of the Indian command, the US envoy Donald Blome is on record to have repeatedly referred to PoK as AJK (Azad Kashmir, the contentious term used by Pakistan to refer to the area) during his tour there.
Later a press statement, to add insult to injury, issued by the US embassy in Islamabad had said, “Ambassador Donald Blome visited Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) October 2-4 to promote the U.S.-Pakistan partnership.”
A great signal to India indeed. Diplomatic conducts never remain static.
That was not all.
The US envoy Blome had also met in a rare gesture with Pakistan army officials deployed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to discuss assistance activities to help the local communities.
“It is highly unusual for a U.S. Ambassador to visit Pakistan-administered Kashmir and discuss US’s investments in the region”, writes Umair Jamal for the Diplomat. This has several unspoken messages to India.
Pakistani diplomacy has certainly attained a new stature after the exit of PM Imran Khan who was freshly shot in early November with an intention to wipe out the political persona of PM Khan, however, he was saved.
Let’s not dwell more on Pakistan’s internal affairs for several seen and unseen political counts. It is of our concern as a global family, but poking into the internal affairs would not be an act of wisdom.
Yet Imran Khan’s comeback to the power corridors is guaranteed.
Observers in Nepal recall US Minister Donald Lu saying in Washington to the Pakistani envoy early this year that “the US-Pakistan ties will remain strained till Imran Khan is in power”.
Visibly, with Imran Khan’s callous ouster, the US-Pakistan ties appear to have come to their original track.
Donald Blome’s sudden trip to Azad Kashmir, it appears, encouraged the German government in Berlin as well.
An October 13 news posted by Umair Jamal in the Diplomat says that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a joint news conference on October 7 in Berlin together with her Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari that Germany has a “role and responsibility with regard to the situation of Kashmir”.
While the German Minister was talking to the German press, her Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto too was listening by her side.
It was a joint press conference indeed.
Islamabad has immensely gained on the diplomatic front with the US Ambassador’s visit to Azad Kashmir and the fresh comments made by the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock which also in an indirect fashion tells that “all is not well between the Western countries and India” at the moment.
What was most painful to the Indian regime, we guess, was that the German Minister Annalena also sought the UN’s role and also talked of “political dialogue” between the two nations who claim their sovereign rights over Kashmir.
Thus, the Minister had both carrots and sticks for India and the UN system.
Annalena’s talk of the UN body’s effective role also could be taken as a fitting satire to the UN Security Council whose previous “resolutions” taken on the settlement of the overly stretched Kashmir issue remain shelved apparently under Indian influence.
As if these unexpected, humiliating and mind-boggling comments that emanated from the US and the German establishment, some more have come from Australian big shots in a series that must have enormously jolted the Indian Islamophobic rule led by PM Modi.
The month of October this year appears not to have gone in favor of the Indian establishment which has kept the Kashmiri population in the occupied territory under the military boots wherein volleys of pellet guns are pumped into the Kashmiris who come to the streets against the Indian occupation which is also associated with excessive repression and oppression.
In October, the US Ambassador visited Azad Kashmir and in the same month, the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at a joint Press conference took India to task on the Kashmir dispute.
Very freshly, one influential Australian lady-politician ‘Lee Rhiannon while expressing solidarity with the Kashmiri people on October 27, as reported by the Kashmiri media service, the day which is being observed as Black Day by Kashmiris in India illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the world urged the international community to globally remember those were killed and suffered at the hands of Indian occupation forces in the territory.
Lee Rhiannon said that “on this day (October 27), 75 years ago, India forcefully landed its troops and established settler colonial rule effectively denying the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. “Innocent Kashmiris were killed, properties destroyed and ugly atrocities were committed. We also noted that this barbarity perpetrated by Indian military forces has significantly increased since August 5, 2019, when the Modi regime suspended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, which was previously recognized under the Indian constitution”, the lady Australian politician observed.
Lee Rhiannon went on to say that “October 27, is Kashmir Black Day to reiterate “our commitment to stand with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and to step up international solidarity” in order to raise mass movement for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
This means that the Australian political leadership too has understood how the Kashmiri population were living a hellish life in the occupied territory.
Similarly, yet another Australian politician and senator David Martin Shoebridge said on October 27 that this day (October 27) marks 75 years since India illegally and immorally took control of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to KMS, the Kashmir Media Service, David Shoebridge, who is a member of the Australian Greens and was elected to the Senate as the party’s lead candidate in New South Wales for a term beginning on 1 July in a video message said, since October 27, 1947, “Since then, Indian occupation troops repeatedly committed human rights violations including destruction of properties” to stifle voices for the right to self-determination.
What was most important in his message while observing the Kashmiri Black Day was the suggestion to his government that “the Australian government has the obligation to raise the attacks on [the people of] Jammu and Kashmir in all of its engagements with India.”
Shoebridge further said that “Jammu and Kashmir is one of the most militarized zones of the world and the harrowing site of the ongoing Indian military occupation,” he added.
Winding up his Black Day message, the Australian senator added that, today (October 27) was correctly observed as Black Day by the Kashmiris because it is the day of mourning for the people of Jammu and Kashmir as well as the expats in Australia and around the world”.
The senator said, “we speak in solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and assure the Kashmiri people on behalf of the global community that this ongoing tragedy will not be forgotten. He said that human rights violations and Kashmiris’ right to self-determination must be on the international agenda”.
This Australian senator assures the Kashmiri people that “Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination must be high on the international agenda”.
How far he can succeed in his call for making the Kashmir issue an international Agenda is difficult to guess at this point of time, however, what could be perfectly said is that the Australian senators’ call shall apparently see a triumph as political veterans from the US, Germany is also in the same page who have taken up the Kashmiri Indian occupation in a manner unprecedented if one could claim it so.
November 7 new reports made in some international and South Asian regional media outlets claim that the People’s Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti has announced to boycott elections in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) under Modi’s communal regime.
Talking to local media men in Srinagar, she said an atmosphere of fear, hatred and uncertainty has been created in occupied Kashmir, so contesting elections in such conditions is not her priority.
She said the BJP wants to impose its communal agenda in India Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir by erasing cultural, social and political identity.
To recall, a July news states that the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, President Mehbooba Mufti had urged Indian Prime Minister Modi to declare Jammu and Kashmir a peace zone and make it a model of SAARC cooperation by opening all routes across the Line of Control (LoC) and allowing every member country to invest in the region”.
It is just wishful thinking of Mrs Mufti who perhaps needs to be told that the original regional body of the SAARC has already been slaughtered by PM Modi.
As stated in our earlier issue, the Kashmiri black day program was also observed in Barcelona, Spain, says a Pakistan Today news outlet on October 30 which claims that a large number of students had converged at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) to learn about the latest situation in Indian illegally occupied Kashmir.
On the occasion, addressing the attending Spanish participants/students, Muhammad Shafiq Tabassam, the President, Tehreek-e-Kashmir, Spain, expressed his sincere appreciation to the students for taking time during their hectic schedule.
Interestingly, though at a delayed program but yet the Kathmandu-based Pakistan embassy, on October 31 observed the Kashmiri Black Day program at its embassy premises.
After the departure of Ambassador Haider Shah, the officiating Charge d’affaires Umair Ali recalled the genesis of the long-festering dispute and numerous UNSC resolutions which enshrined the promise not just from the United Nation but from the international community to the people of Jammu and Kashmir about their right to self-determination.
The non-implementation of these resolutions had subjected several generations of the people of IIOJK to grave injustices, and sufferings and jeopardized the peace and stability of the entire region, added the Pakistani official.
To sum up, “ever since the Indian forces landed in Srinagar to occupy Jammu and Kashmir more than seven decades ago, the repressed, traumatized, terrorized, oppressed and brutalized people of the Valley are looking towards the international institutions for justice.
In essence, the non-implementation of those UN Security Council resolutions has compounded the entire affairs giving space to suspect the very neutral /political credentials of the entire UN system itself.
However, a glimmer of hope is on the horizon as powerful countries like the USA, Germany and very freshly Australian senators too have joined the issue of the Kashmiri dispute and have forcefully demanded the international community to make it an “agenda” of sorts and put pressure on the incumbent Islamophobic Indian government led by PM Modi.
Beginning with Ilhan Omar, the sudden dash of the sitting US Ambassador, Donald Blome to Kashmir and then the strong-worded statements made by the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock which just followed a few powerful Australian senators demanding the international community to impress upon the Modi government to halt its repression and continued oppression of the India occupied Kashmir territory, signal that India’s forceful occupation of Kashmir under the military boot is nearing an end.
That’s all.