ISLAMABAD: Chairperson Peace and Culture Organisation, Mushaal Mullick came down hard on UN bodies and world powers for their silence over brutal militarisation, ethnic cleansing, demographic change and wave of state terrorism unleashed by Indian fascist government in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Mushaal, wife of senior detained Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik, while talking to reporters on Wednesday said that the scenic valley had been under brutal military siege since India illegally landed its troops in Srinagar on Oct 27, 1947, as over one million Indian troops have been deployed across the occupied territory to brutally suppress the dissenting voices.

She said that Indian troops have turned Kashmir into a living hell for its residents by resorting to every kind of brutal tactics, as blood and grief have become part of Kashmiris’ lives for over seven decades.

She said that fascist Narendra Modi regime further intensified its crackdown against the Kashmiris since revoking IIOJK’s special status in August 2019, as Kashmiris were witnessing extrajudicial killings, massacres, nocturnal raids, torture and rape on daily basis in the occupied valley.

Mushaal questioned as for how long would the world remain silent on brutal militarization of IIOJK. She vowed that Kashmiris’ cry for right to self-determination cannot be silenced by brutal militarisation. “It is time to highlight the endless stories of torture and agony in India Occupied Kashmir,” she added.

In its latest move to change the demography of the valley, Mushaal said that Modi regime has added 772000 new voters, majority of them non-local Hindus in the final electoral rolls of IOK aimed at benefiting BJP in the so-called assembly elections in the occupied valley.

She went on to say that Modi’s Hindutva regime was planning to seize 188 more Jamaat-i-Islami properties in IOK, adding that the occupation authorities recently seized 11 properties worth 90 crores Indian rupees belonging to Jamaat-i-Islami for supporting the freedom struggle.

She said that the IIOJK authorities have already sealed properties including schools, mosques and orphanages run by Jamaat-i-Islami.

“Sealing properties in the occupied territory are meant to bully Kashmiris into withdrawing their support to freedom movement,” Mushaal added.

She lamented that Indian troops were regularly destroying Kashmiris’ houses during violent military operations, as Modi regime was planning not only to render Kashmiris homeless but also deprived them of their identity.

She said that illegal confiscations and demolition of properties were part of India’s systematic settler colonialism campaign in the occupied territory, as Modi was using every brutal tactic to muzzle the freedom voice of Kashmiris.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2022