The Kashmir Mirage

Speaking on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day charade last year, Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces [CDF] Field Marshal Asim Munir tried to play Nostradamus by saying, “Without any doubt, Kashmir will be free one day and part of Pakistan as per the free will and destiny of the people of Kashmir.” Though the self-appointed Field Marshal’s pompous utterance was pregnant with contradictions, no one cared to point out the same-simply because it’s his wont to speak through his hat.
While addressing the Overseas Pakistani Convention a few months later, he haughtily declared that “Our stance is absolutely clear, it [J&K] was our jugular vein, it will be our jugular vein- we will not forget it.” Today, the Field Marshal who is heading Pakistan’s “hybrid regime” must be realising that instead of worrying about the ‘jugular vein’ called J&K that his army has failed to seize despite having waged war- not once but twice, the need to arrest burgeoning anti-Pakistan sentiments in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir [PoJK] is more critical.
Hence it must be indeed very embarrassing for a person who just a year ago waxed eloquent about Kashmiris joining Pakistan as per their “free will” to be using brute force including live firing to quell peaceful protests by residents of Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir [PoJK], which Islamabad ironically refers to as “Azad [independent] Kashmir.” And this is what makes Field Marshal Munir’s prognosis about Kashmiris wanting to become a part of Pakistan, rib-tickling.

‘Azad’ Kashmir’s Reality

Knowing that its claim to J&K lacks substance, Pakistan invests heavily in trying to peddle propaganda of excesses in J&K while portraying PoJK as a place where the people are completely free and content. In 2011, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, an American citizen of Kashmiri origin running Kashmiri American Council in the US pleaded guilty to receiving USD 4 million from Pakistan army’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence for influencing lawmakers into supporting Islamabad’s Kashmir narrative.
A decade later, cash-strapped Islamabad covertly organised a fully paid up trip for US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar who [expectedly] reciprocated this magnanimity by making pro-Pakistan and anti-India statements. However, with the people of PoJK repeatedly taking to the streets since 2024 demanding basic facilities, an end to exploitation of natural resources and political manipulation by Islamabad to subjugate locals, the illusion of idyllic conditions and prosperity in PoJK conjured by Islamabad has collapsed like a house of cards.

Rawalpindi’s Role

Thanks to its highhandedness and perceptible lack of concern for locals, the Pakistan army was never popular in PoJK and this isn’t an unsubstantiated allegation. After the massive 2005 earthquake that hit the area, Human Rights Watch [HRW] compiled a report in 2006 titled “With Friends Like These…” Though two decades old, this report is important as HRW has itself observed that “The earthquake put the international spotlight on Azad Kashmir [PoJK] for the first time. Previously, attention had been almost wholly on Jammu and Kashmir state in India, which since 1989 has endured a brutal insurgency and counterinsurgency.
Its title is inspired by a Muzaffarabad resident’s remark made to HRW that “Pakistan [army] says they are our friends and India is our enemy. I agree India is our enemy, but with friends like these, who needs enemies?” And this observation aptly sums up the overall situation prevailing in PoJK. Some specific instances mentioned in the report that expose the sorry state of affairs in PoJK:

Many Kashmiris told HRW that the Pakistani military kept a close watch on the population to ensure political compliance and control and this was facilitated by placement of military installations frequently in close proximity to populated areas.
In the context of a military presence, that was more abuser than protector, and domineering Pakistani political control, the failure of the authorities to respond quickly and more humanely to the aftereffects of the earthquake in PoJK came as little surprise.
The Pakistani government in Islamabad, the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence services [Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI] control all aspects of political life in PoJK. Arbitrary arrest and detention and torture at the hands of the Pakistani military and the police; and discrimination against refugees from J&K state is commonplace.
For those expressing independent or unpopular political views, there is a pervasive fear of Pakistani military and intelligence services-and of militant organizations acting at their behest or independently.
The HRW report also noted that the 2005 earthquake exposed “The poor response of the Pakistani government and military to the [2005] earthquake, and the attendant further loss of life...” and a few instances recorded in the HRW report that buttresses this observation:
In the first seventy-two hours after the earthquake, thousands of Pakistani troops stationed in PoJK prioritized the evacuation of their own personnel over providing relief to desperate civilians.
The international media filmed Pakistani troops standing by and refusing to help because they had “no orders” to do so even as locals attempted to dig out those still alive, sending a chilling message of indifference from Islamabad.

Complete Immunity

The HRW report mentions that it “knows of no cases in which members of military and paramilitary security and intelligence agencies have been prosecuted or even disciplined for acts of torture or mistreatment.” It has also documented “incidents of torture by the ISI, and by PoJK police acting at the ISI’s and the army’s behest” that have not been investigated. Such a serious lack of accountability has made the army law unto itself and this is the prime reason for its cavalier ways.
Another thing that has enraged locals is the creation of terrorist infrastructure in PoJK by the Pakistan army and luring Kashmiri youth to pick up guns and fight its proxy war in J&K. That’s why Sardar Aman Khan, a leader of the Joint Awami Action Committee [JAAC] spearheading the ongoing peaceful protests, mocked the establishment for proscribing this grass root rights organisation by saying, "They say they were terrorists. Look, it was the Pakistan Army that put guns into the hands of Kashmiris. Kashmiris had guns because the Pakistan Army gave them those guns. The entire Pakistan Army did it. And today, they have the audacity to call us terrorists!"

Reality Check

It would do the self-appointed field marshal a lot of good if he stops hallucinating and accepts ground realities. The ongoing protests in PoJK rubbish his puerile prognosis that Kashmir will one day become “part of Pakistan as per the free will and destiny of the people of Kashmir.”
Furthermore, having failed not once but thrice, threatening to fight ten more wars for Kashmir in order to secure what he perceives to be Pakistan’s “jugular vein,” he needs to first prevent PoJK from breaking away. The first of the ten wars promised by Field Marshal Munir has started – unfortunately, it’s not against India to wrest control of Kashmir, but being waged against the defenceless people of PoJK.
What could be more embarrassing than this?

Email:---------------nileshkunwar56@gmail.com