I spent the early hours of last night watching this event live (on facebook) from Limerick in Ireland. The concluding speech by the chief guest - Lord Nazir of Kalyaal and Rotherham - made me livid and unwilling to further tolerate lies in favour of an occupier by a public official, more so by a member of the British House of Lords propagandising on behalf of Pakistan.
I'm sure he has done a lot of good work in his life but deceiving the AJK diaspora to cover the crimes of Pakistan can no longer be tolerated.
I've said my bit in the facebook update to which this following video is attached and I'll re-produce it after the embed:
Lord Nazir's bullyish behaviour towards Shams Rehman in particular and his lousy propaganda in favour of Pakistani occupation in Jammu & Kashmir in general, needs to be addressed in the context of freedom of speech in AJK and GB, global counter-terrorism strategies and the battle of public narratives vying for authority in these fiercely contested spaces.
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| Lord Nazir Ahmed (Politician - Businessman) |
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| Shams Rehman (Researcher - Activist) |
We cannot tolerate being lied to or being presented with the negativities of India as some sort of moral victory for Pakistan,
We are taught to hide our own
frailties to pretend a facade of Muslim unity driven by the Pakistani military,
which is going to wrestle the Valley of Kashmir from India in favour of
Pakistan. We are taught that the international community will finally be
ashamed into action to address Indian human rights violations in the Valley.
This will enable Pakistan to emerge
as victors...even though Pakistan may run itself into the ground in the
process.
Its a convenient narrative except
that it hasn’t worked so far, it involves the suppression of other views –
especially those that want a genuine internal local narrative to emerge – and
more seriously involves citizens of the Valley losing their lives at frequent
intervals.
Thus, conflict breeds further
conflict and grievances of the locals reach insurmountable levels
Peddling propaganda as Lord Nazir
does is criminal.
Isn't it odd that both countries have
a convenient alibi in the other to justify their presence here?
Pakistani infiltration and Indian
suppression cannot exist without the other.
Both describe the other as barbaric
terrorists.
Who does the world listen to?
When a cycle repeats itself, decade
after deacde..familiar patterns should emerge.
Unless you're blind, ignorant or
profiting from conflict.
A negative of India does not
necessarily mean a plus for Pakistan just as a Pakistani plus does not necessarily
mean a negative for India.
Both countries are bound into
agreements which - at each point in our 71 year old shared history - provide
evidence of collusion between India and Pakistan at the cost of the citizens of
Jammu & Kashmir.
Any violation of human rights that
India commits, Pakistan does the same if not worse, given similar
circumstances.
Does anybody know the history of
‘armed struggle’ within AJK?
Yes, the Indians do kill peaceful
protestors but the Pakistanis do too.
Has anyone heard of Naeem Bhat and
what happened to him on the 16th of March 2018?
On a personal level, I can no longer
tolerate falsehood which directly impacts our lives here in AJK.
How can Shams Rehman be "mixing
things up about the occupier/s," according to Lord Nazir: when the former
has conducted over 30 years of independent research, mostly without
remuneration. As for the Lord of Kalyaal, he has handsomely gelled business
with politics over the decades - and who may not have much time to research,
let alone spend a reasonable amount of time in AJK – yet he has so much bullish
clarity about who the occupier is?
We must peacefully assert the freedom
to express our ideas. Even though they may not reflect the interests of China,
India and Pakistan as they perceive them.
Most of all, we want respite from the
shedding of the innocent blood of the citizens of Jammu & Kashmir.
- We’ve had 71 years of
dysfunctionality and dystopia.
- We don’t want to be force-fed ideas
anymore.
How all 3 countries manage water is
going to incite further conflict if our local, indigenous ‘riyasati’ narrative
is not allowed to bloom on its own soil.
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