Arun Joshi
Pakistan has unleashed a reign of terror in its occupied territories of Jammu and Kashmir , where people are protesting against heightened prices of wheat and inflated electricity bills without no electricity .The protestors have been fired upon by Pakistani Rangers , killing three and wounding several others , leaving the POJK residents angry . They have risen in revolt against Pakistan and its establishment, refusing to be placated by subsidies announced by Pakistani government .
It is a beginning of a process of POJK snapping its ties with Pakistan , and returning to the Indian fold to enjoy the real freedom and end from hunger and atrocities of Pakistan army . It’s a beginning that would soon show the results as the people there are in no mood to relent or bow to the atrocities of Islamabad- Rawalpindi
Things deteriorated in POJK in preceding months , which Pakistan fondly calls “ Azad Kashmir” or “ Free Kashmir” as the people are angry with Pakistani establishment and army . Pakistanis have started taking the people of the region for granted , inflicted one misery after another . As of this was not enough that Pakistan army and spy agency ISI were using the PoJK territory to train and arm terrorists , drawn from various backgrounds, most of them criminals, Islamabad started imposing high taxes on power and raised the wheat prices much beyond the reach of more than four million people .
The POJK residents could not bear the brunt , and they took to streets to protest against this highly discriminatory and harsh attitude of Pakistan government and army toward them . The protests were spontaneous and widespread , engulfing the whole territory . Pakistan government sought to quell the protests by using force against them , clashes became frequent between protestors and paramilitary forces , particularly Pakistani Rangers .
The protests were born out of a sense of betrayal . People felt cheated when Pakistani government did not honour its agreement to provide subsidized wheat and electricity . This agreement was signed in February this year after months of protests since August last year . And when the things reached the point of extreme frustration , the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Action Committee to press the government to honour the agreement , gave a call for “ shut down and wheel jam” for May 11. But before that Pakistani forces started crackdown on activists. Dozens of them were arrested on Friday ( May 10), according to Pakistani media reports .
In response to the crackdown , the Action Committee preponed its protests from May 11 to May 10 . Thereafter a series of clashes started taking place. The uncontrollable situation made Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to announce Rs. 23 billion subsidy for the region . Much before the subsidy could sink in , Pakistani Rangers fired at the civilians and killed three of them on Monday. It has reached where people are preparing for more protests. The original demands have also been replaced by the action against Pakistani establishment for unleashing reign of terror on the residents.
The violent protests against Pakistan government in POJK have many portents . It has exposed Pakistan government’s claim that the people in “ Azad Kashmir” were free and they were with Pakistan out of their own volition . It has effectively reversed the two-nation theory which had prompted Pakistan to invade the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in October 1947, then under the rule of Maharaja Hari Singh . The Maharaja had signed instrument of accession , acceding the state to India. That made the whole of the state of Jammu and Kashmir part of India . The Indian army was summoned to repulse Pakistani raiders and invaders who had come close to outskirts of the capital city of Srinagar. The mission to recapture all the territories came to halt when India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement in 1948, leaving at least one third of the area of the state under Pakistan occupation. With the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, the process of the integration of the state, now divided into two union territories of J&K, and Ladakh, has been completed .
The protests in POJK are not just for the subsidies , there is a larger thing to be reads. It’s a revolt against Pakistan and its ways of keeping the territory under its occupation . The people there have seen how Jammu and Kashmir is progressing and developing and they compare their fate as slaves of Pakistan .
It is a beginning of process of protests that Pakistan may not be able to withstand by the use of army boots . POJK is on path of liberating itself from Pakistan’s atrocious rule . It is not hyperbolic rhetoric but the fact that may surface soon when POJK people seek their return to Jammu and Kashmir , which is integral part of India.
Arun Joshi is author of “Eyewitness Kashmir; Teetering on Nuclear War and senior journalist based in Jammu and Kashmir, writes on South Asian affairs)
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