The participants of the Russell Tribunal on Kashmir fell into tears listening to the accounts of the Kashmiri women who had been suffering the “weaponized rape” by the Indian Occupation Forces which used it as their “primary weapon.”
Held in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Herzegovina by a Canadian registered NGO Kashmir Civitas from December 17-19, to highlight the war crimes in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Russell Tribunal was attended by the Bosnian community with over 70 foreign delegates.
The Russell Tribunal focused on genocide, de-colonization, the phenomenon of settler-colonialism including land-grabs, coercive patriotism, and the theme of nuclear war and threat to global peace. Different witnesses from IIOJK also narrated their accounts of atrocities faced by themselves of other Kashmiri people including men, women, and children by the occupation forces.
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Where is the actual focus?
“The most difficult part of the Russell Tribunal on Kashmir, for all attendees, has been listening to accounts of mass rape of Kashmiri women. Rape has been a primary weapon of the Indian army. Tribunal attendees are in tears at each account,” Mohamad H Elmasry wrote on Twitter.
Dr. Mohamad Hamas Elmasry is an Associate Professor in the Media and Cultural Studies Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He said the Indian army has weaponized rape against Kashmiris. Estimates suggest that between 8,000 to 11,500 Kashmiri women have been raped by Indian forces. “The evidence is overwhelming and the details are unspeakable. No one has been held to account,” he added.
Dr. Mubeen Shah, a prominent businessman in IIOJK, spoke as a witness at the Tribunal saying, “India is on a major propaganda offensive to convince the world that its brutal occupation and repression in Kashmir are part of the epic battle against Muslim terrorism.”
Muslims were living in the subcontinent for almost above thousand years, and have been ruling the subcontinent for almost 800 years. But, Muslims never used force to convert non-Muslims to Islam. The valid proof is that Delhi, which was the capital of most Muslim rulers, still has more non-Muslims. If Muslims have forced them to convert to Islam, today, whole India must be full of Muslims only.
Even the British ruled India for a century almost, have not forced to convert the non-Christians to Christianity. The British rulers focused only on economic and political gains, keeping religion a private matter. However, the Christian Charity, Missionaries, and preachers were running Christian schools, hospitals, and Charity NGOs, but we’re not forcing anyone to accept Christianity.
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Even, after 1947, the independence of India, ruled by the Congress party – a secular political party, has not used force against the minorities.
Unfortunately, Prime Minister Modi, who himself is a fanatic, extremist, and fundamentalist, has political agenda, to transform India into a “Pure Hindu State”. During his election campaign, his manifesto was to convert all Indians to Hinduism or expel them out of India. All Muslims and Christians should convert to Hinduism or leave India, Muslims to go back to Arab, and Christians to Europe. He gained a vote from all extremist Hindu political parties. Like RSS, etc.
PM Modi has patronage extremism and hates against minorities
He openly supports them and instigates violence, torture, and hate against minorities. The state is behind them, Army, Police, Law enforcement agencies, judiciary are all set to support extremist RSS in heinous crimes against Minorities.
The extremist political parties were existing for a long, but, we’re not in power or were not in the Government, so they could not harm minorities as much as they wanted. It is the first time when PM Modi Government is supporting and providing opportunities to humiliate, torture, and target minorities, especially Muslims.
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The crimes against humanity have crossed all records and it seems, that the people in India are desperate and it may lead to the disintegration of India. India was never a united country and was always ruled by several local Rajas, etc. And it may not remain one single country for long. It is time to turn India into many small states, like Naga Land, Khalistan, Assam, and Behar, etc.
Modi Government may be proved as a catalyst to disintegrate India soon. Injustice under his government has reached a stage, where the public is frustrated and left with no option except disintegration.
Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan, Sinologist (ex-Diplomat), Editor, Analyst, Non-Resident Fellow of CCG (Center for China and Globalization), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. He can be reached at awanzamir@yahoo.com.
The views expressed by the writers do not necessarily represent Global Village Space’s editorial policy