Kashmir Endless Conflict and Suffering

The Muslim majority in Kashmir is facing, for the first time in seven decades, an existential threat and a systematic demographic change, as a result of recent Indian legal and military measures, which seek to integrate Kashmir by force after it was semi-independent.

It is strange that the UAE has pumped the billions necessary to complete this scheme, by signing major economic agreements with New Delhi, entitled investment and the reconstruction of this inflamed geographical spot, which is a blessing for the Indian endeavors to acquire the region.

Many observers have compared the Kashmiri narrative to its Palestinian counterpart, especially with regard to the policy of cleansing and settlement, with the genocide and forced displacement of the indigenous population on the one hand, and bringing and replacing settlers on the other hand.

This analogy is valid, and it is not limited to the aforementioned two issues. Rather, it occurred a lot in the last century in the Islamic world, starting with the Philippines, Turkistan and East Timor, passing through some republics of Central Asia, the Central African Republic, and reaching Iraq, Syria and Yemen in recent years.

Historically, Islam reached the borders of Kashmir with the conquests of the young leader Muhammad ibn al-Qasim al-Thaqafi at the end of the first century AH. immigrants from Central Asia.

By the eighth century AH, Muslims had become a numerical majority, and the rule of Islamic countries continued for five consecutive centuries, until the last of them fell in 1819 AD, and despite the occurrence of several bloody massacres against Kashmiri Muslims, they are still the majority to this day.

Kashmir between India and Pakistan

The roots of what is happening now in Kashmir go back to the middle of the twentieth century. With the departure of the British occupation and the division of the Indian subcontinent into two states, India and Pakistan, it was agreed at the time that the state of Pakistan would be formed from the Muslim-majority regions, and in return the Hindu-majority regions would join to establish the state of India.

Kashmir was classified within the first group, however, India entered it militarily to suppress popular protests against the request of the ruler of Kashmir, Maharaja Gulab Singh, to join India, so Pakistan in turn intervened to defend the Kashmiris through tribal and military forces, and a war broke out on the second of November 1947 for two years between the two parties At that time, the matter ended with one third of Kashmir remaining under the Pakistani administration, called “Azad Kashmir,” and two thirds of it under Indian military influence, called “Jammu and Kashmir,” with semi-autonomous rule for the Kashmiris, and legal and legislative guarantees not to tamper with the demographic composition of the only Muslim-majority region in India, through Prohibition of ownership and settlement of non-Kashmiris.

Despite the issuance of many UN resolutions recognizing the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people, none of them has been implemented over the past seventy years. In fact, on August 5, 2021 AD, the Indian authorities abolished Article 370 of its Indian Constitution, which stipulates the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir.

It announced a new stage, entitled the change of the Kashmiri identity and the complete elimination of the semi-autonomous state with all its social, political and administrative representations. The UAE was quick to bless this decision through its ambassador in New Delhi, Ahmed Al-Banna, who saw it as a cause for stability and peace.

As for the Kashmiri Muslims, they organized a wide protest movement throughout the region. The Indian authorities confronted it with exceptional measures, the first of which was a violent crackdown at various levels, killing hundreds, arresting, torturing and wounding thousands like them, imprisoning local political leaders, and trying to isolate Kashmir from the world by silencing mouths and cutting off all other means. Communication and broadcasting.

Then, in just two years (from the end of 2019 to the end of 2021), India issued, as part of its plan for demographic change, more than four million residence permits for Indians wishing to move to live and own land in Kashmir, a very large number compared to the number of Muslims there, who They do not exceed eight million people.

Regarding government functions and the new political process within the region, after the removal of the previous Kashmir constitution, they were arranged in ways that ultimately benefit the Hindu parties and parties.

On the other hand, Pakistan seems the loudest and most affected by India's attempts to annex Kashmir, as the issue for it is national security. It has fought three wars with India for this cause, in addition to its support for anti-India Kashmiri resistance movements in the 1990s. Two years ago, following India's decision to annex Kashmir, Pakistan expelled India's ambassador, halted its commercial relationship with it, and shot down two planes, and things almost escalated into a war, but the issue was resolved diplomatically.

Taliban and Kashmir

India fears a recurrence of the Kashmir uprising after the withdrawal of the United States and its allies from Afghanistan, as the Kashmiris were previously affected by the two experiences of the Afghan jihad that began in 1979, and then the first Palestinian uprising that erupted in 1987.

It is certain that the Pakistan-friendly Taliban assuming the reins of affairs in Afghanistan will give it support and strategic depth in confronting India, hence the link in regional security between the two issues. With the return of the Taliban to power following the defeats of two successive allies of India (the Soviet Union and the United States), the Afghanistan-Kashmir syndrome returns to the attention of international powers that were unable to find a peaceful solution to Kashmir or an international consensus in Afghanistan.

Perhaps this is what prompted India to hold a dialogue with some Kashmiri leaders last June, with the aim of searching for ways to end the tension in Kashmir. The Indian Prime Minister negotiated with 14 Kashmiri leaders, which was considered a major retreat from Modi's hard-line policy and his iron fist in Kashmir.

On the other hand, we find that the Trump administration has ignored the Kashmir file, and contented itself with warning India and Pakistan not to go to war, while ignoring the human rights violations committed by India in Kashmir. The Biden administration may continue the same policy as its predecessor, and its focus remains on no war between the two nuclear-armed neighbors in the Indian subcontinent, especially since the United States will not be seen as a neutral mediator if it seeks to intervene and reach a settlement.

Despite the sympathy that the Kashmir issue enjoys among the Muslim peoples, it did not receive sufficient support from the countries of the Islamic world, and the governments and official organizations did not provide the necessary support to the people of Kashmir so that they could decide their fate and achieve their choices. Rather, many countries stood with India and supported it politically and economically.(Karam Al Hafian)