{"id":2816,"date":"2016-10-17T09:02:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T03:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2016-10-18T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T06:24:00","slug":"the-100-days-2016-kashmir-intifada-an-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/the-100-days-2016-kashmir-intifada-an-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"The 100 Days ‘2016- Kashmir Intifada- an Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

The 100 Days Intifada\u2019 <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Kashmir on International Turf <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

By<\/u>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Z. G. Muhammad<\/span> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"intifada-2016-1\"<\/a>The \u2018Intifada\u2019-2016 has completed hundred days. In the seven-decade-old resistance movement of the State, it has been longest uprising – something unprecedented.\u00a0 Of the hundred days, every morning in 2214 villages of Kashmir and hundreds of mohallas and colonies of Srinagar, dawned with a new tragedy. Many horrid and horrendous stories of human rights abuses added to the blood-soaked Kashmir narrative.\u00a0 The year 2016, which New York Times has described as Kashmir\u2019s year of \u201cdead eyes\u201d for blinding of children with pellets has exceeded the 2008 and 2010, Intifada so far magnitude of sufferings caused to \u00a0\u00a0people in general and children and youth, in particular, \u00a0are concerned. Since 1931, the founding year of Kashmir struggle for freedom there is not a single instance of twelve thousand people suffering bullets and pellets, half of them disabled for life and fifteen thousand arrested in hundred days. There is no example of blinding children.\"intifada-2016-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The newspapers have largely documented the human sufferings and economic losses suffered by the people during the period. Some young journalists have objectively and incisively reported from the surgical theaters and hospital wards and documented stories of unparalleled pain and agony. Some commentators analyzing the gains of the hundred days long \u2018Intifada\u2019\u00a0 have concluded that it has worked as a catalyst for bringing in desired social change in the society- doing away with marriage extravaganza and strengthened the institutions of philanthropy. \u00a0But, the common question that haunts the public mind is how far it has helped in furthering the cause at \u00a0the diplomatic and political levels. To find an answer to this question, one needs to understand that if the 2016 uprising has left a greater impact on the international opinion than the months-long 2008 and 2010 uprisings. Lydia Polgreen, of the New York Times, \u00a0was first to tell \u00a0the world in 2010 \u00a0that in Kashmir there was \u201can intifada-like popular revolt against Indian rule that includes not just angry young men but their sisters, mothers, uncles and grandparents.\u201d After the early nineties, incidents like the Sopore carnage when scores were roasted alive and killed by troops in 2010 Kashmir problem once again made it to the print and the electronic media at international level. The uprising caused over 2000 reports, editorials and columns in the international press. For the first time, the killing of 116 teenagers in cold blood pricked the conscience of some important journalists and writers. One of the prominent Indian columnists wrote, \u201cWe promised Kashmiris a plebiscite six decades ago. Let us hold one now, and give them three choices: independence, union with Pakistan, and union with India.\u201d And another opined, \u201c\u201cI reckon we should hold a referendum in the Valley. Let the Kashmiris determine their destiny. If they want to stay in India, they are welcome. But if they don\u2019t, then we have no moral right to force them to remain.\u201d It was not only the two that had broken the taboo, but there were many in the Indian civil society who held similar views. Notwithstanding, the uprising generating lots of opinion in New Delhi and internationally. \u00a0It had failed both in 2008 and 2010 \u00a0\u00a0to get required diplomatic push at the international level more particularly at the United Nations for generating a\u00a0 strong discourse for the resolution of the Kashmir Dispute. Neither, Pakistan,\u00a0 one of the party to the Dispute, nor, any of the member country of the\u00a0 OIC that invariably in its meetings has been calling for holding of a plebiscite in Kashmir raised the Kashmir issue in the United Nations General Assembly or at any other international forum.<\/p>\n

\"intifada-2016-1\"<\/a>Pakistan President Asif Zardari who succeeded General Mushraff, in his address to the UN General Mushraff in 2008 did not even mention Kashmir. For the killing of 117 children and teenagers in 2010,\u00a0 Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Minister\u00a0 Pakistan Foreign Minister, in his speech to the UN General Assembly made a brief mention of Kashmir. Condemning the killing of Kashmiri children stated that it was a dispute about the right of self-determination by the Kashmiri people through a free, fair and impartial plebiscite under United Nations auspices. Instead of calling for the implementation of the UN resolution \u00a0\u00a0he expressed\u00a0 Pakistan willingness to engage India in a comprehensive dialogue to normalize bilateral relations and amicably resolve all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.\u201d Notwithstanding, in 2010 the\u00a0 Kashmir\u00a0\u00a0 getting as favorable an international press \u00a0as in 1948 the Zardari government failed to understand \u00a0as had\u00a0 rightly been pointed out by Polgreen of\u00a0 NY Times,\u00a0 \u2018Kashmir\u2019s demand for self-determination was\u00a0 sharper in 2008-2010 than it had been \u00a0\u00a0perhaps at \u00a0any other time in the region\u2019s troubled history.\u2019\"infifada-2016-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2016, Intifada did not get as many international opinion columns and editorials as the 2010 uprising. Nevertheless, against 2010, with New Delhi denying the very existing of the problem, \u00a0Kashmir is stealthily and steadily once again generating international interest. Stories like those in the Guardian and the New York Times on the use of pellet gun and \u2018epidemic of dead eyes in Kashmir\u2019 and sympathies in Pakistan metamorphosed Nawaz Sharif\u2019s goody- goody Kashmir policy bordering on inertia. \u00a0It was because of mounting anger in his country against the human rights situation in Kashmir that his address in UN General Assembly was Kashmir-centric. Moreover, he took some diplomatic initiatives and sent envoys across the globe for generating international opinion for the resolution of the sixty-nine-year-old dispute. In fact, Nawaz Sharif\u2019s Kashmir policy has undergone a\u00a0 paradigm shift during past hundred days and has been endeavoring hard to bring Kashmir back on the international turf.<\/p>\n

To see Kashmir- a nuclear flashpoint and threat to peace in South Asia resolved, it needs\u00a0 a bigger diplomatic push. The\u00a0 OIC Foreign Ministers Council (CFM) is\u00a0 Meeting in Tashkent on 18-19 October 2016 could be a forum that could play a catalytic role in generating required international opinion . Kashmir leaders from both the sides of the LOC are invited to the meeting- those leaders from our side of the LOC are all incarcerated. In its September 20, 2016, meeting the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and\u00a0 Kashmir on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, in New York had after deliberation on Kashmir situation drafted a resolution for appropriate action at the CFM.\u00a0 It remains to be seen if Islamabad succeeds \u00a0in mobilizing the 56- strong member country organization to grow beyond adopting a ritualistic resolution on Kashmir and making OIC as an organization to come out of inertia and mobilizing international opinion for the resolution of the Kashmir- the oldest dispute on the UN Agenda.<\/p>\n

The article is published in Greater Kashmir on 17 Oct 2016<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Unfortunately some typos had persisted in the printed version due to oversighted.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The 100 Days Intifada\u2019
    \n\u00a0
    \nKashmir on International Turf
    \nBy<\/p>\n

    Z. G. Muhammad
    \n 
    \nThe \u2018Intifada\u2019-2016 has completed hundred days. In the seven-decade-old resistance movement of the State, it has been longest uprising – something unprecedented.\u00a0 Of the hundred days, every morning in 2214 villages of Kashmir and hundreds of mohallas and colonies of Srinagar, dawned with a new tragedy. Many horrid and horrendous stories of human rights abuses added to the blood-soaked Kashmir narrative.\u00a0 The year 2016, which New York Times has described as Kashmir\u2019s year of \u201cdead eyes\u201d for blinding of children with pellets has exceeded the 2008 and 2010, Intifada so far magnitude of sufferings caused to \u00a0\u00a0people in general and children and youth, in particular, \u00a0are concerned. Since 1931, the founding year of Kashmir struggle for freedom there is not a single instance of twelve thousand people suffering bullets and pellets, half of them disabled for life and fifteen …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-take","tag-zahid-g-muhammad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2829,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions\/2829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}