After a long time, the fascist students organisation called Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (Islamic Students Society) is becoming active in colleges and universities of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). Meanwhile, the evacuation of people running small businesses near the Line of Control (LoC) in Neelum Valley, the Tehreek-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat conference due on April 30 in Hattian Bala in Jhelum Valley in PoJK, the visit of the frontline troops stationed at the LoC by the Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir and the sudden increase in reconnaissance and transport drones infiltrating Jammu and Kashmir carrying drugs, weapons and ammunition are all hallmarks of Pakistan Army’s attempts to stir individual terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Currently, the G20 presidency is being held by India and between May 22 and 24, sessions of the G20 will be held in the 28 states and eight Union Territories including Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan cannot swallow the fact that India is progressing at a pace previously unknown in the region. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir is being transformed into a smart city and the Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) in Srinagar is being refurbished to give it a look somewhat similar to that of the Times Square Tower in New York. All this is taking place at a time when the people of PoJK and occupied Gilgit-Baltistan are facing near-starvation circumstances.
Government servants in PoJK have not been paid salaries for the past nine months and imposition of taxes in the name of fuel charges, increased billing rates on electricity and long hours of load shedding have not only devastated the day-to-day lives of the common man and woman but has resulted in hundreds of small businesses go bankrupt, leaving hundreds of thousands of people unemployed.
As I sit down to write this piece, hundreds of protestors have taken to the streets to protest against what they consider was an unjust decision taken by the PoJK High Court against their Prime Minster Tanveer Ilyas who was disqualified on April 11 for ‘contempt of court’. Tanveer Ilyas’s only crime was that he had managed to secure a $15 million education project from Saudi Arabia that would have played an instrumental role in transforming the education sector of PoJK. Ilyas had the vision to provide computer labs and libraries in every school, repair the school buildings that remain structurally damaged since the October 2005 earthquake, issue scholarships to postgraduate students, build dormitories, toilets and clinics in every school and so on and so forth. This is something totally unacceptable to the occupying force of Pakistan. Education becomes a weapon for the oppressed when they elevate themselves from a horde of unskilled labour working in countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai, and the rest of the world.
For the past three years now, protests against human, economic and political atrocities have become the norm in PoJK and occupied Gilgit-Baltistan. Not a single day goes by without public discontent being displayed on the streets. Under these circumstances, it has been the foremost aim of the Pakistani military establishment to divert the anger of the common masses toward jihad in the Indian UT of Jammu and Kashmir. The people of PoJK and occupied Gilgit-Baltistan are now not only comparing the prices of fruit and vegetables with those in J&K but are also questioning why the Indian government is heavily investing in all sectors of J&K but Pakistan continues to ignore the strife of the people of PoJK and occupied Gilgit-Baltistan. It is in this light that the Pakistan military has begun to raise the non-issue of jihad in Kashmir once again. The Pakistan military establishment is faced with the wrath of the people for keeping them backwards in every sense of the word.
The question is whether the Pakistan military establishment is preparing for terrorist activities to resume in Kashmir on the occasion of the G20 meeting. Well, if so, it will not work in changing the perception of the people of PoJK or occupied Gilgit-Baltistan regarding the occupation of their land by Pakistan. They know the games that the Pakistan military establishment has been playing in the region. The time for Pakistan to manipulate the people of PoJK and Gilgit-Baltistan in the name of Islam is over.
Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK. Views expressed are personal.
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