Kashmir Rises Above Pakistan’s Wicked Plans

Twitter handle Hidden Roots has exposed a whole range of anti-India propaganda campaigns across Europe and beyond that is being planned by the Strategic Communication Division of Pakistan’s foreign ministry. It is to be launched on August 5 as ‘Yom-e-Istehsaal’ (Oppression Day). A directive in this regard has already been sent to Pakistan’s foreign missions across the globe.

The purpose of the campaign is to utilize all modern digital media platforms alongside traditional protests to create maximum propaganda impact. Anti-India (read Anti-Hindu/communal two-nation theory) campaign is being launched in the western world by Pakistan under the guise of an imaginary siege of the Vale of Kashmir. In order to execute ‘Yom-e-Istehsaal’, and coordinate all acts of an anti-India hate campaign, an umbrella organisation by the name of ‘International Coalition Red for Kashmir’ has been established.

Pakistan sponsored/supported non-government organisations, lobbyists, diplomats, EU parliamentarians, US Congressmen as well as Pakistani diaspora are being mobilized all across the western world. Candle vigils and protests at the maximum number of Indian missions as well as an online Twitter storm has been planned. A Twitter handle and a Facebook page of the same name plus an exclusive email address has been set up.

The above-mentioned directives have already been sent to Pakistani foreign missions and a list of messages to be tweeted on August 5 have been issued. Some messages would read “Yom-E-Istehsal is a day to show solidarity with the struggling Kashmiris”, “Kashmir’s future lies with Pakistan” followed by “Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan” to mention a few. A total of twenty standardized tweets messages have been shortlisted in both English and Roman Urdu.

It audaciously pleads everyone to tweet that the world should come forward to stop the bloodshed in Kashmir. The fact of the matter is that Pakistan continues to commit all sorts of human rights abuses and killings of dissidents who belong to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). On July 26 just one day after the rigged elections for the legislative assembly in PoK at least one youth was killed by paramilitary forces in Sharda in Neelum valley at point-blank range and more than 25 were injured including PoK police jawans.

On June 21 a Muslim born intellectual and tireless campaigner of inter-faith harmony between Muslims and Hindus living in Indian Union territory of (Jammu and Kashmir) J-K and a great believer of Sanatan dharma, Dr Ghulam Abbas, who was a PoK-born Canadian citizen was shot multiple times at his doorstep in Kotli. He had flown from Toronto to attend the funeral of his father.

A four-page long pamphlet related to the August 5 abrogation of the special status of the state and its division into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh by India has been written for online distribution. Its text begins with a wicked communal tone which mentions Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the very first opening sentence calling the “Hindu communal forces” yet conveniently forgetting the communal basis (Two Nation Theory) on which the state of Pakistan was actually carved out of the living body of Hindustan.

On August 5 protests are scheduled at Indian High Commission in London at 13:00 and elsewhere at 14:00 hours. The London protest has been called by a vague host ‘British Kashmiris who claim to be supported by Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) which is a banned terrorist organisation in the Valley. Mass production of posters, placards and banners with inscriptions of hate speech has been undertaken by the ministry of information and delivered to Pakistani foreign missions as diplomatic baggage.

The main organisation behind Red for Kashmir is Stand with Kashmir, which is currently conducting Teach-in classes across the world to propagate disinformation and twist facts about the real Kashmir issue, which was actually created when Pakistan attacked the state of Jammu and Kashmir on October 22, 1947. The ideology that governs the whole campaign revolves around the conservative brand of Wahhabism and is allegedly generously funded by Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries.

Hafsa Kanjwal, an assistant professor at the Pennsylvania-based Lafayette College, currently acts as spokesperson for Stand with Kashmir. Lee Rhiannon, a former Australian politician, is among one half-a-dozen people who act as representatives of Stand with Kashmir. Rhiannon is among one of the supporters of Red for Kashmir. Others include Andrew Bartlett Australian politician who served as Senator for Queensland (1997-2008, 2017-2018), Mishaal Malik wife of JKLF Yassin Malik.

JKLF played an instrumental role in identifying Kashmiri Hindu Pundits and murdering eminent Hindus in the Valley that led to the genocide and later exodus of hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Hindus including Pundits. Another supporter of Red for Kashmir is Mary Scully, a USA-based ‘human rights activist’, and Claire Bidwell also a human rights activist based in Scotland. Bidwell is also the co-founder of ‘Let Kashmir Decide’ which supported the petition to release terrorist Yasin Malik from Tihar jail.

A barrage of influencers has also been lined up for ‘Yom-e-Istehsal’. They include Mary Scully, Lee Rhiannon, Andrew Barlet, UK based head of JKLF diplomatic bureau Zafar Khan, Turkey-based musical artist Turgay Evren, Altaf Wani and Mishaal Malik. A 30-second short video filmmaking competition to malign Indian role in Kashmir with a 1000 GBP prize has been initiated. And JKTV, a social media platform has also geared up its team to join the India bashing bandwagon. Indoctrination from a very young age has been the cornerstone of Pakistan for producing an uninterrupted supply of foot soldiers for the army of jihadists hence, a drawing competition for children has also been announced. The theme? Well, you guessed it right: so-called Indian atrocities in Kashmir!

August 5, 2019, was when alas Article 370 and 35-A of the Constitution of India was abrogated and after which an unprecedented era of democracy at the grassroots level and development projects of magnanimous proportions were unleashed. It was the day when gender-based discrimination against women who married to none residents was abolished and private investments began to pour in. The bloodbath that the Pakistani prime minister so fondly predicted never saw the light of the day. On the contrary, the daily occurrence of acts of terrorism that had become the hallmark of Kashmir simply withered away.

Pakistan has lost both moral and legal battle against India over Kashmir and all this hue and cry over August 5 has no more than nuisance value. We should now focus on the reintegration of PoK and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB) and unite the Hindustani nation to help rid Pakistan from Indian territories that she has usurped illegally for more than seventy years.

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Author

Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK. (Through ANI)