MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiri leadership and activists on Monday vehemently condemned the Indian Supreme Court’s judgement on abrogating the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, warning that the “politically manipulated verdict would also fail to change the ground realities in the presence of the United Nations (UN) resolutions on the longstanding dispute”.

As the court’s judgement became public, a group of devoted Kashmiri activists assembled on a bustling roundabout near the Press Club with black flags in their hands.

“People of Jammu and Kashmir reject the biased decision of the Supreme Court of India,” read one of the banners.

The activists, led by Uzair Ahmed Ghazali, stayed there for more than two hours, chanting slogans against India’s fascist BJP government and its top court.

“This is a cruel, biased, and unjust decision, reflecting the worst form of exploitative justice. Kashmiri people on both sides of the ceasefire line condemn and reject it outright,” Mr Ghazali said.

“According to the UN Security Council resolutions, the state of Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory, and neither the Indian government nor the Indian Supreme Court has any powers to unilaterally change this status,” he added.

The Indian-occupied Kashmir-born activist further said the people of Kashmir would continue their resistance movement against Indian oppressors and tyrannical regimes for their freedom and secure future.

“We remind the UN that the Kashmiris have been pledged the right to self-determination through as many as 16 resolutions, but why has the world body not been able to implement those resolutions,” he added.

Usman Hashim, another participant in the demonstration, said the decision was despicable, but it had not surprised the people of occupied Kashmir because of the track record of Indian courts.

“Indian courts have long been dispensing the so-called justice, not to meet the ends of justice but to satisfy the collective conscience of Indian society,” he said, in reference to the August 2005 judgement awarding the death sentence to Afzal Guru.

The protesters also placed tyres and an Indian flag on the road, imprinted with a big cross on the Ashoka Chakra (wheel) and the slogan ‘Go India, Go Back [from Jammu and Kashmir]’. They also burned the flag and tyres amid loud anti-India slogans towards the end of the protest.

Ironically, none of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) cabinet or assembly members turned up at the protest, much to the exasperation of the protesters.

However, leaders of mainstream parties took to social media platforms to voice their rejection of the blinkered judgement.

“Today’s decision… cannot change the ground or historical facts. The disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir was never a part of India and will never be. Its future has to be decided through a referendum, and if India believes in the truth of its claims, it should agree to holding a UN-supervised referendum across the state instead of elections by changing the population ratio in the occupied territory,” said former AJK premier and regional president of Tehreek-i-Istehkam Party Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on X (formerly Twitter).

He added, “It is regrettable that the Indian judiciary has once again presented itself as a fundamentalist court that tramples constitutional, legal, and historical facts and takes decisions for the contentment of the extremist regime.”

At a press conference, former AJK premier and PML-N leader Raja Farooq Haider pointed out that the judgement ran counter to the UN Security Council resolutions and had no international status.

Mr Haider recalled that in 1957, the legislative assembly of occupied Kashmir adopted a resolution in favour of the disputed territory’s annexation with India. However, after Pakistan raised the issue, the Security Council rejected the so-called accession, maintaining that no resolution of an assembly could be a substitute for the UN-sponsored referendum.

“There is an opportunity for the government of Pakistan to remove the anger and frustration among the Kashmiris over its weak stance on India’s unilateral August 5, 2019 move through a cogent, convincing reaction to the Indian apex court’s politically manipulated judgment,” he said.

“However, instead of any hasty or momentary reaction, Islamabad should take calculated and long-term measures in consultation with Kashmir’s leadership to frustrate India’s offensive moves,” Mr Haider added.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2023