Should Kashmir be independent?

Should Kashmir be independent?

Tariq A. Al-Maeena talmaeena@aol.com

At the time of the partition of the Indian Subcontinent back in 1947 by the hastily retreating British Empire, Kashmir was supposed to be acceding to Pakistan based on its overwhelming number of Muslims that made up nearly 80 percent of its inhabitants.
However, after some resistance by the ruling maharaja at the time and the subsequent foray of Pakistani forces into the territory that drew an immediate response from the Indian Army, the United Nations stepped in.
The UN Security Council passed Resolution 39 on Jan. 20, 1948, establishing a special commission to investigate the conflict. Subsequent to the commission’s recommendation, the Security Council ordered in its Resolution 47, passed on April 21, 1948, that the invading Pakistani Army retreat from Jammu & Kashmir and that the accession of Kashmir to either India or Pakistan be determined in accordance with a plebiscite to be supervised by the UN.
It has been over 61 years since that resolution was passed, and yet the people of Kashmir remain mired in Indo-Pakistan politics. The dispute over Kashmir had, in fact, led to two wars between the neighboring countries and has escalated tensions since. But recent events on the world stage such as the Middle East crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan have relegated the problem to the back burner.
Enter Muammar Qaddafi, the maverick ruler of Libya. Shattering protocol by speaking for 90 minutes instead of the allotted 15 in an address to the UN General Assembly, Qaddafi who was introduced in the General Assembly Hall as the “leader of the revolution, the president of the African Union and the king of kings of Africa” touched upon many issues, one of them being the current status of Kashmir.
Supporting the idea of an independent Kashmir, much to the embarrassment of Indian diplomats present, Qaddafi stated that “Kashmir should be an independent state, not Indian, not Pakistani. We should end this conflict. It should be a Ba’athist state between India and Pakistan.” The Indian delegation of External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, and Hardip Singh Puri, India’s permanent representative to the UN in New York, seemed obviously discomforted.
Kashmir’s pro-freedom leaders on Thursday welcomed the statement of Libyan president at the UN General Assembly and urged India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue according to the wishes and aspirations of the people. And Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Reza Gilani talking to media in the eastern city of Multan last Thursday said that Kashmir is the core issue and without resolving it no durable peace is possible in the region.
Gilani added that dialogue was the only way to move forward for resolving all outstanding issues between Pakistan and India, according to the local NNI news agency. Pakistan, the prime minister said, will take up the issue of Kashmir and water with India during forthcoming talks. All this must be music to the ears of a forgotten people.
While Qaddafi’s outbursts have often been dismissed as an exercise in triviality, this latest suggestion coming from the Libyan leader should be validated by a fresh round of political maneuvers that would satisfy the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
Let the people of Kashmir decide their future. India, a democracy must not feel discomforted by the will of the Kashmiri people. And Pakistan should not assume that the Kashmiris would automatically accede to them. The Kashmiris are a proud people and the choice must be theirs and theirs alone.

Israel committed war crimes in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS: Israeli forces committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during their assault on the Gaza Strip eight months ago, the head of a UN fact-finding rights mission said on Tuesday.
Richard Goldstone told reporters that his four-member probe panel “concluded that actions amounting to war crimes and possibly in some respects crimes against humanity were committed by the Israel Defense Forces.”
Israel reacted quickly, saying in a statement issued by its diplomatic mission in Geneva that it did not cooperate with Goldstone’s investigation. “Its mandate was clearly one-sided and ignored the thousands of Hamas missile attacks on civilians in southern Israel that made the Gaza operation necessary,” the statement said.
Goldstone, a noted South African jurist, recommended that the UN Security Council call on Israel to investigate possible crimes committed by its forces. The probe should be “independent and in conformity with international standards” and establish a committee of human rights experts to monitor any such proceedings.
If Israel fails to do so, then the 15-nation council should refer the situation in Gaza to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the summary said.
“The rocket and mortar attacks (by Hamas) caused terror in the affected communities of southern Israel, causing loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians, as well as damage to buildings and property,” it also said.
Goldstone said Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which began prior to the assault, amounted to “collective punishment” for the 1.5 million Gazans, most of whom rely on aid to survive. The summary said that Israel’s Gaza operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, not just Hamas members.
His report said Israeli forces “humiliated, dehumanized and carried out an assault on the dignity of the people in Gaza, through the use of human shields, unlawful detentions, unacceptable conditions of detention ... obscenities and racist slogans.”
It said the use of human shields is a war crime and that a court could find that the blockade of Gaza, which Israel continues to enforce, is itself a crime against humanity. Goldstone’s report also criticized Israel for firing white phosphorus incendiary shells over the UN compound in Gaza and its “intentional strike” on the Al-Quds hospital using high explosive artillery shells and white phosphorus.
The report said an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since June 2006, Gilad Shalit, has prisoner-of-war status and should be treated humanely according to the Geneva Conventions.
Following the release of the report, Amnesty International said the United Nations must act and bring those responsible to justice.
The UN Human Rights Council should endorse the report and ask UN chief Ban Ki-moon to refer it to the UN Security Council, said Donatella Rovera, who headed Amnesty’s investigation into the turn-of-year conflict.
“The UN Security Council and other UN bodies must now take the steps necessary to ensure that the victims receive the justice and reparation that is their due and that perpetrators don’t get away with murder,” she added.
Meanwhile, US envoy George Mitchell sought a deal on the thorny issue of West Bank settlements on Tuesday as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in a bid to pave the way to resume stalled peace talks.

FOUR MUSLIMS SLAUGHTED FOR OBTAINING FAVOUR FROM A DEVIL POLITICIAN

Body of Ishrat Jahan and other three Muslim men executed by Indian Police

Mother of Ishrat Jahan besides her lifeless body says She'll fight for Justice,Still justice is too far until the killers are hanged

I still remember that ill fated day in June 2004 when switching on the TV a flash news came showing body of Ishrat Jahan a girl of 19 yrs age and three other Muslim men lying on a road ,blood soaked and a car nearby.The slum dog police claimed that these hapless people were associated with a so called terrorist organization and were on a mission to kill the devil in the shape of a human , the Gujrat C.M ,the C.M on whose behest 3000 Muslims were slaughtered in a matter of days in Gujrat.About which the ex Foreign Minister of India Jaswant Singh said that the event was such painful for the then Prime Minister Vajpayee that He wanted to resign.
It has become a routine affair in India and Kashmir in particular that staged encounters are made to receive gallantry awards and promotions from the regime.The soft target for this is the BLOOD OF MUSLIMS ,you can dupe any Muslim as a terrorist and no body will question you until it is verified seriously as Ishrat jahan’s cold blooded murder was.How creul can a man be to kill another human being just because to gain some materialistic worldly gain.Such people cannot be humans but demons.In Saudi Arabia we behead such beasts in public so that others will see and refrain from such beastly acts.I remember a few months back we beheaded a rapist in Public and all were a praise for the King Abdullah and the Islamic sharia his government is practicizing
Iahrat's mother and family is happy, Indeed she should be.She would have been made an untouchable by the Hindus who first executed her daughter in cold blood and then labeled her a terrorist.But the real EID will be when her killers will be hanged in gallows or in Public.Ishrat may have attained Janna Inshallah but our Muslim pride demands us to fight until these demons and suckers of Muslim blood are humiliated and hanged like stray dogs.

I always knew it was a fake encounter. The judicial probe report does not surprise me at all. My son was not a terrorist. The cops did it to give Modi a political mileage and receive promotions,” says Gopinath Pillai, 72, the distraught father of Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai who was killed by the police along with Ishrat Jahan and two others near Ahmedabad airport on June 15, 2004.

INDIA IS THIS YOUR ARMY YOU ARE PROUD.....! SHAME

It came of no surpise to us Kashmiris that Slum Dog occupational army beated a station house officer of J&K police.If police has stopped assisting them in joint operations against the insurgents now will not change anything on the ground.Not long back in Hazratbal a constable Mushtaq ahmed was arrested by the occupation army and they brutally executed in custoday.That time J&K police really came out against the occupation army and gave them a befitting reply.What happened afterwards we all know.Indian stooges and their masters created unofficial militias and 1500 rupess salaried bandits namely special operations group.They leashed a rein of terror along side with occupational army.Inflicted such wound on Kashmiris that History will never forgive them.Only some days back one of them was awarded death sentence by hanging by a court in Kupwara for killing men women and children of a family and a J& K police constable.The system and the men on whoose behest this butcher slaughtered those hapless people did not help him.Why should they.Traitors always get this type of treatment.If they cannot be of their own people how come they'll be of any benefit to the occupation forces .By getting him hanged they will get a change to misled the world that they did justice.