ON Aug 5, the Bharatiya Janata Party abrogated Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution in occupied Kashmir to annex the land, while the Indian army unleashed a reign of brutal terror. Since that fateful day I have been wondering as to what ever happened to the world’s vow of ‘never again’.

When the victorious allied powers learned of the horrors that Nazi Germany had wreaked in its concentrations camps, the governments of these nations had vowed to ‘never again’ allow a fascist regime commit genocide of a defenceless people. The question is: why is the world silent when another fascist and a more ferocious one to boot is carrying out a bloody and brutal genocide of the Kashmiri people in which more than 50,000 Kashmiris have lost their lives.

The world needs to be reminded of its ‘never again’ promise. I pen these lines to shake the collective conscience of this planet’s inhabitants. In World War II the Jews were subjected to horrendous crimes and six million of them perished. How can they and their powerful lobbies remain silent when similar atrocities are being committed in Kashmir?

How can a billion plus people in India stay silent when their government has imposed an unending curfew in occupied Kashmir? The people of Kashmir deprived of food and medicines leave homes to find succor for their children and are humiliated and killed in the name of law and order. How can the Indian army fire upon unarmed civilians protesting against repression?

It is the United Nations’ responsibility to take notice of the gross human rights violations in occupied Kashmir. If the UN can take action in South Sudan, Rwanda, Bosnia, Papua New Guinea, Iraq and Kuwait why not in India-occupied Kashmir? What is preventing them from putting a stop to the ethnic cleansing being done by the Indian army?

The world and Arab countries have every right to protect commercial and political interests but not at the cost of genocide.

M.I Sayeed

Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2019