Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz said, “We condemn such measures as complete violation of international law and United Nations Security Council Resolutions and call upon India to desist from taking any action that could alter the demography of IoK.
He said July 8, 2016, which marks the extra judicial murder of young Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani at the hands of Indian occupying forces has proven to be a pivotal turning point for the Kashmir freedom movement.
200,000 people who attended his funeral inspired the entire population of IoK to recalibrate their march towards Azadi, despite a reign of terror unleashed by Indian occupation forces.
Since then, he said, Indian forces have used live ammunition and pellet guns on the unarmed Kashmiri civilians with impunity, leading to scores of deaths and injuries.
Due to pellet injuries, thousands of people have sustained severe eye injuries, leading to partial or permanent blindness, he added.
“There was unanimity, even in India that the present wave of uprising is indigenous and cannot be brought under the convenient label of so called “cross border terrorism”, he said.
Former Indian NSA M. K Narayanan wrote in The Hindu on October 10, 2016 that Kashmir freedom movement is “home grown and cannot be blamed on Pakistan or outsiders”.
Sartaj Aziz pointed out that the educated and tech savvy youth of Kashmir were leading this uprising.
This new leadership was effectively using social media and information technology in a peaceful manner.
The Indian Express notes that “a new generation”, mostly from prosperous families, is increasingly taking centre stage of the Kashmiri uprising, he noted.
The movement, he said, has sustained itself for five long months, despite unprecedented coercion by Indian forces. The “protest calendar” issued by Hurriyat leadership is earnestly followed with constant ‘Hartals’ (shut downs) and boycotts, he added.
There is growing realization in India on the nature and the scale of draconian measures adopted by the Indian government in IoK, he said adding that pictures of blinded youth have touched everyone.
He quoted one Indian expert who termed it “extreme suppression of civil liberties”, which has united Kashmiri public as” nothing unites people like shared persecution”.
Another notes that “each death, of a protestor, has become a celebration of this defiance, triggering more protests, adding more grievances and increasing the alienation” of India, he added.