Prior to the United Na­tions Hu­man Rights Coun­cil ses­sion in Geneva, Dal Khalsa joined the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity and ap­pealed to the United Na­tions panel for im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion to halt the wave of hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions in Kash­mir. In its Open let­ter to the Com­mis­sioner, Dal Khalsa be­lieves that only with a strong stand, the United Na­tions can force In­dia to re­spect the fun­da­men­tal rights of the Kash­miri peo­ple. The ad­mo­ni­tion by UN Com­mis­sioner for Hu­man Rights of In­di­a’s con­tin­u­ing abuse of hu­man rights on the has come as a wel­come re­lief and Dal Khalsa hopes that the body will take this to its log­i­cal con­clu­sion.

DEAR COM­MIS­SIONER Ms Michelle Bachelet Je­ria: Notwith­stand­ing the pre­sent In­dian po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship’s con­tin­u­ous harp­ing on Kash­mir as an in­ter­nal leg­isla­tive is­sue and un­der­min­ing the as­pi­ra­tions of the peo­ple of Kash­mir as a law and or­der is­sue, it is com­fort­ing that, slowly but surely the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity and the OHCHR is mak­ing the right ob­ser­va­tions about the grave hu­man rights sit­u­a­tion in Kash­mir.

As the United Na­tions High Com­mis­sion for Hu­man Rights sets in mo­tion its three-day ses­sion, with a pri­mary fo­cus on Kash­mir, Dal Khalsa -as the Sikh party con­cerned about the grave sit­u­a­tion in Kash­mir -which de­spite the un­sub­stan­ti­ated ut­ter­ances of the In­dian Na­tional Se­cu­rity Ad­vi­sor Ajit Doval, writes to you seek­ing im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion.

Clearly, In­dia will not re­lent from its po­si­tion and nar­ra­tive on Kash­mir. So far, the re­sponse of the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity and the United Na­tions has been muted, ut­terly re­spect­ful of In­di­a’s stance with­out ques­tion­ing the pol­icy of the state of In­dia go­ing back on its promise to the peo­ple of Kash­mir as well as back­ing out of its le­gal and moral com­mit­ment made to the United Na­tions through the 1953 UN res­o­lu­tion on Kash­mir.

Kash­mir -the heaven on earth has been turned into a liv­ing hell. Kash­mir is on the precipice of a po­lit­i­cal and mil­i­tary cat­a­stro­phe.

Sikhs of Pun­jab are ge­o­graph­i­cal neigh­bours of Kash­mir and share po­lit­i­cal bound­aries with two the nu­clear-power coun­tries -In­dia and Pak­istan. The re­la­tion­ship be­tween the two coun­tries, al­ways on lock-horns, is at its low­est ebb, as both take di­a­met­ri­cally op­po­site po­si­tions on In­di­a’s to­tal oc­cu­pa­tion of Kash­mir by re­vok­ing the spe­cial sta­tus, which was giv­ing the peo­ple some sem­blance of their au­tonomous sta­tus, even though, in prac­tice it had huge gaps and loop­holes.  As the ten­sions es­ca­late, a war-like en­vi­ron­ment looms large in the re­gion, which is grossly feared by the peo­ple of Pun­jab.

As Kash­mir con­tin­ues to be a con­cen­tra­tion camp for all its peo­ples since the last 40 days, with zero or min­i­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion, with food and med­ical sup­plies in doubt and no in­ter­net, Kash­mir -the heaven on earth has been turned into a liv­ing hell.

With the en­tire pro-free­dom and other Kash­mir lead­er­ship in de­ten­tion, Kash­mir is on the precipice of a po­lit­i­cal and mil­i­tary cat­a­stro­phe.  An iron cur­tain sep­a­rates Kash­mir from the rest of the world. In­dia is pur­su­ing a sys­tem­atic pol­icy of con­tin­u­a­tion of its gross abuse of hu­man rights and a com­plete de­nial of po­lit­i­cal rights.

Clearly, In­dia will not re­lent from its po­si­tion and nar­ra­tive on Kash­mir. So far, the re­sponse of the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity and the United Na­tions has been muted, ut­terly re­spect­ful of In­di­a’s stance with­out ques­tion­ing the pol­icy of the state of In­dia go­ing back on its promise to the peo­ple of Kash­mir as well as back­ing out of its le­gal and moral com­mit­ment made to the United Na­tions through the 1953 UN res­o­lu­tion on Kash­mir.

In Sep­tem­ber 2018, when you as­sumed the of­fice of this au­gust in­sti­tu­tion, we wrote to you with hope as you had even then called upon In­dia and Pak­istan to re­solve the Kash­mir con­flict. It is ev­i­dent now that like at all times, In­dia ig­nores all in­ter­na­tional and UN ad­vice and sug­ges­tions. Your of­fice is also cred­ited with is­su­ing the first-ever de­tailed re­port on gross abuse of hu­man rights in Kash­mir. How­ever, in­ter­na­tional op­pro­brium on In­di­a’s track record of rights of hu­man rights de­fend­ers and its in­tol­er­ance of dis­sent­ing me­dia has had no ef­fect on the psy­che, at­ti­tude or work­ing of the In­dian es­tab­lish­ment. In­di­a’s Naren­dra Modi regime has pushed Kash­mir back in time and re­verted it to its pre-1953 sta­tus, fla­grantly evad­ing In­di­a’s in­ter­na­tional oblig­a­tion.

Dal Khalsa un­am­bigu­ously en­dorses the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion of the peo­ple of Kash­mir, Pun­jab and all other strug­gling peo­ples who fight for this in­alien­able and in­ter­na­tion­ally-rec­og­nized right safe­guarded un­der the UN De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights.

The sub­ju­ga­tion of Kash­mir must stop. Stray voices of con­cern on Kash­mir are not enough. Ac­cept­ing In­di­a’s fraud­u­lent stand on the ab­ro­ga­tion of Ar­ti­cle 370 of the In­di­a’s con­sti­tu­tion and the Kash­mir is­sue as an in­ter­nal is­sue, not even a bi­lat­eral one, will fur­ther push Kash­mir to be an­other Bosnia Herce­gov­ina or Rwanda.

The five coun­tries of the Se­cu­rity Coun­cil, for rea­sons of eco­nomic in­ter­est, have to­tally over­looked the is­sue of hu­man rights in Kash­mir and other parts of In­dia, grant­ing the whole state ap­pa­ra­tus im­punity to ha­rass, de­tain, maim and kill dis­sent­ing in­di­vid­u­als, groups, re­gional iden­ti­ties and na­tions.

Dal Khalsa un­am­bigu­ously en­dorses the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion of the peo­ple of Kash­mir, Pun­jab and all other strug­gling peo­ples who fight for this in­alien­able and in­ter­na­tion­ally-rec­og­nized right safe­guarded un­der the UN De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights.

The sub­ju­ga­tion of Kash­mir must stop. Stray voices of con­cern on Kash­mir are not enough. Ac­cept­ing In­di­a’s fraud­u­lent stand on the ab­ro­ga­tion of Ar­ti­cle 370 of In­di­a’s con­sti­tu­tion and the Kash­mir is­sue as an in­ter­nal is­sue, not even a bi­lat­eral one, will fur­ther push Kash­mir to be an­other Bosnia Herce­gov­ina or Rwanda.

It is time to rec­og­nize that rights of Kash­miris, the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing geopo­lit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion in South Asia, can­not be a bi­lat­eral is­sue. Your of­fice has the omi­nous task of seiz­ing the sit­u­a­tion, hold­ing the mir­ror to In­dia and en­sur­ing re­spect for hu­man rights and jus­tice in Kash­mir.

It is our hum­ble sub­mis­sion that the UNHRC will be fail­ing in its duty to­wards a peace­ful world, should it not play a proac­tive role in this cru­cial hour.

Sin­cerely

Kan­warpal Singh
Spokesper­son, Dal Khalsa