A Journey in Jammu Kashmir & Allied areas (JKA)............................
from Subject to Citizen
.........autocracy to democracy
.........Dogra Raaj to Awaami Raaj
.........1947 CE to...........................
#WhiteFlags
#Neutrality
#WaterManagement #MirpurtoLondonviaCentralAsia
I can welcome myself back after an enforced hiatus of 8 days. 7 days of incarceration from 0500hrs on Day 130 of 2024 to 1200hrs (midday) on Day 137 of 2024 and one day due to an enforced AJK-wide blockage of internet connectivity, which was unblocked at about midday today.
....
During our detention an important (AJK) High Court decision to quash the detainment of 2 local lawyers (namely Malik Abdul Raheem and Shah Nawaz Ali Sher) under 3 MPO (Maintenance of Public Order), on the 13th of May 2024 was made. This could have implications for future such detainments under the guise of maintaining public order, to suppress the genuine indigenous rights movement developing in AJK, under the guidance of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC). Here's a copy of the decision:
We wanted to achieve a lot today, on more than 2 fronts:
I was then prompted to make the following entry: For those of you who cannot read the FB post above, here's the text: The prisoners in prison must have their say - as the world wants to listen to them Not to India or Pakistan Here and there (Urdu): Qaidkhaaney me qaidiyo ki hi chalni chahiye...kyou ke dunya un ko sunna chahti hay. India, Pakistan ko nahi Aar aur paar Note: The photo above is from the inaugural session of 'The People's Assembly' on Sunday the 9th of February ........
Here's a hard hitting open letter to the UK delegation visiting AJK, by a young student of Neelam Valley:
Here's the translation of the letter: (Note: words in brackets are for clarification or context.) An Open Letter to the British Parliament By a 22 year old student of the Neelam Valley Assalaam u Alaikum (Greetings - Peace be upon you) We wish to put before you with all due respect that we are undergoing a lot of pain. Our people are being killed on both sides (of Jammu & Kashmir) by Indian and Pakistani firing. In such a scenario of helplessness and distress we are unable to do anything (to change our fate). (Since 1947), we have sacrificed over 600,000 lives as victims of a proxy war between these 2 countries. It is in my knowledge that you people live in extreme comfort. You have no problem whatsoever. However, who is responsible for the agony that you have imposed and left behind with us? Who is responsible for the loss of these 600,000 lives? Yes, none else is responsible but yourselves. Namely, Britain and the British parliament. I want to provide a brief reference here: If you have forgotten history, I wish to remind you of it. What happened when you were playing the game of dividing the Indian sub-continent and when you tore apart the living communities of the Indian sub-continent on the basis of religious identity? After the Indian partition the commander(s)-in-chief of both India and Pakistan were British officers. In India, you gave this duty to General Lockhart and in Pakistan you deputed General Messervy. The deputation (of these British officers) was part and parcel of this agreement (Partition plan) that took place between local leaders and the British colonialists. The purpose of this exercise was to ensure that these newly created State structures were strengthened by force and to enable them to maintain control internally. When the first war between India and Pakistan broke out in 1948 (over Kashmir), these 2 British officers had already mapped out the result of the war through mutual support (and consultation). Hence, the 'Kashmir Issue' was created by none other than Britain itself. Now, resolving this issue is also the responsibility of Britain. The British parliament along with the Labour Party - which was in power at the time - should seek forgiveness, not just from the people of Jammu & Kashmir but from all the public of the Indian sub-continent. I am writing this letter in such conditions whereby a delegation of British parliamentarians is present in Kashmir (AJK or Pakistani-occupied territory) and is engaged in meeting such people who are not even sure which century they are living in and what their priorities ought to be. I think I would like to extend this advice to the British parliament that if, in normal circumstances you are unable to meet the normal (average person), then for God's sake do not conduct photo sessions with the occupying power corridors of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Muzaffarabad, in the name of Kashmir. Conducting such programmes is akin to further disgracing the martyrs of Kashmir. We are torn asunder with multiple wounds. We feel that by coming here, you are rubbing further salt into our wounds. The very wounds that you inflicted on us before departing from this region. With deep regret, whenever I watch a debate/discussion on human rights in the British parliament I laugh out loudly in an uncontrollable manner. How can those who've acted most criminally against humanity be the vanguards of humanity? I wish to provide another reference: The East India Company's licence to trade in the Indian sub-continent/South Asia was officially sanctioned by the Royal court of the British queen on the 31st of December 1600. The fact is that the East India Company has never left this region. Only the name, faces and modus operandi have changed. Hence, how can something that has never left return once again? Once the East India Company began dominating this region, the looting via extraction of resources from here reached its peak. To the extent that the East India Company's military force doubled in number that of Britain's own (State) army. Historians (of South Asia) such as John F Richards have given mind-boggling statistics for how much income was generated by the East India Company from the Indian sub-continent. In 1858, the British State nationalised (brought under State control) the East India Company and later in 1874 dissolved it. However, there was no let up in the looting (of resources) or colonial oppression despite Britain taking on direct control of the Indian sub-continent. Neo colonialists such as Britain riding on the back of an industrial revolution played a front-line role in the looting of colonies that came under their control. These Western countries gave a perception that this lightning increase in sustenance was a direct virtue of capitalism. It should be understood that this sustenance was developed by utilising the blood of many tens of millions of average people, residing in regions such as the Indian sub-continent. Utsa Patnaik (An Indian Marxist economist) in a recently published article by Colombia University Press has given an estimate - in today's money terms and in US dollars - that the British colonialists extracted over $45 trillion from the Indian sub-continent. On a grand level, these heists paved the way for famines - most notably in 1770 and 1943 (in Bengal) - in which many tens of millions of people died a slow and painful death of starvation while the crops produced here were exported elsewhere. Today, when the world is (rapidly) changing so should you. You have to resolve the issue of Jammu & Kashmir which you yourself created. You must apologise for the human rights violations and mass killings that take place on both sides of the divide (in Jammu & Kashmir). Irrespective of whether you apologise or not, we are fighting for our right to freedom with great vigour and gusto. I am now certain that our struggle will not go to waste. We will free ourselves from the enforced occupation of India and Pakistan soon. The ornament of slavery that you placed around our necks will soon be taken off and thrown away. As we have nothing more to lose and the whole world to gain. Wasalaam (Farewell with peace) Freedom Aspirant Khawaja Mujtaba Bandey - Pakistani-occupied Kashmir ....End of translation..... .......
Its another day and another battle. Now, that we've completed our first phase of the People's Assembly we can now concentrate on the judiciary. We have been preparing a writ petition on fundamental rights for the past few months but have yet to submit it to the High Court of AJK.
Now is the time! ....... Meanwhile, the human rights angle is still way too under-reported from a researcher's point of view. Here's an example:
This photo of Hamza Imtiaz, who is from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, found his deadbody in Rawalpindi. The so-called Azad Kashmir is also receiving the bodies from Rawalpindi. But no culprit is caught or no one has been punished till date #InDo_PakIlegalOccupationInJKhttps://t.co/3l8OLsG15Cpic.twitter.com/D8gmndwwLZ
...... Earlier, I spent most of the working day at the High Court of AJK to listen to the arguments in reference to the right to life, right of water and right of electricity and the competing claims of the people of Muzaffarabad and WAPDA (Water & Power Development Authority - in Pakistan). Both can be considered euphemisms for the State of AJK and the State of Pakistan respectively. The arguments couldn't be completed in today's session and the court has been adjourned till tomorrow morning. Here's the traditional photo-shoot conducted after each hearing at the High Court:
....... This was followed by a visit to JKLF's awareness camp at Upper Adda as they prepare for perhaps the biggest event in their history on the 4th of October:
From Left to Right: Khwaja Saif Udeen, Saajid Siddiqui, Yours Truly and Bashir Lone
My eyes are not deceiving me or you. This is Ghanta Ghar at Laal Chowk in Srinagar being replicated here at Upper Adda, Muzaffarabad:
The JKLF flag hovers above
....... Meanwhile, in Mirpur we appear to be well on the road towards OBMs (Ownership-Building-Measures) it seems....Encouraging if so:
At a briefing in #Mirpur, @farooq_pm tells @ImranKhanPTI that #AJK govt can take the lead role in reconstruction process owing to its experience n lessons learnt after the devastating 2005 #earthquake.
The following is a letter written by Quayyum Raja to the judiciary in AJK, which has recently claimed that it operates at a world class standard:
Quayyum Raja
WHO WINS THE HEARTS AND MINDS?
We all perform some sort of responsibility, but an extra mile taken to help others in difficulties is what counts most. Here is an example:
A fellow Kashmiri Muhammad Riaz and I were tried by a British Crown Court in 1984 in Mhatre Murder case, an Indian diplomat captured by fellow Kashmiris to prevent India from hanging the father of Kashmiri Movement Muhammad Maqbool Butt. The killer escaped and the two of us were charged and sentenced secretly. The British Home Secretary said he would inform us of the final decision, but years went by and he did not.
We were held in top security and refused access to legal representatives. I had no choice but to smuggle a letter to the then British Lord Chief Justice, asking him why we were tried by a court but sentenced by politicians. The Lord Chief Justice in his response, asked me to write a summary of my case and if he saw legal weight in it, he would reopen my case.
The London High Court quashed our extra-judicial sentences in 1994 but the British Home Minister still refused to release us. I wrote to Chief Justice Lord Bingham on this occasion and he replied to me too, just like his predecessor.
Our case went to the European Court of Human Rights, which ordered our release in August 2004 but because I wanted to return home to AJK via Pakistan, the British and Pakistani governments delayed the administrative process. I was told that the judges were on summer holidays and there was no judge to sign my release until autumn 2005. I was shocked and wrote to the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf. Lord Woolf loved by most ordinary people in the UK, immediately cancelled the holiday of a judge and ordered him to finalise the process.
I was brought to Pakistan by a team of special security from Britain. While there was some provocation at the gate by prison security staff just to see my last reaction, a lady doctor approached me and said, “I know you are going to be very busy with your family and friends and may not have time to buy your medications. This pack of medications is for six weeks and I hope your doctor in Pakistan would arrange for you by then.”
I had left my home territory (via Pakistan) at the age of 18 and was returning at the age of 46, with little idea of what awaited me here in AJK. Ever since my release, I have been working on human rights while trying to help both individuals as well as reforming our national institutions.
I have recently set up a Human Rights Commission and made some recommendations for education, health, judiciary and democracy. However, it is unfortunate that institutions are neither responsive nor responsible. The main reason is that they are not the right people for the right job. We hardly find officials including judges on their seats, let alone replying to personal letters the way the top British judges replied to me.
I filed a petition in the AJK High Court to include Kashmir studies into the curriculum. One year on, the government has not as yet responded to the court notice, partly because judges are often absent.
This is not just one person’s job. We all have to play our role to improve the system.
Quayyum Raja
President Human Rights Commission AJK-GB
Contact: 03448909960
Email: aqraja75@gmail.com
I will write some notes in relation to the above video and also provide an audio explanation of what I have written..
Meanwhile, today was significant in other respects too:
The citizens of AJK have increasingly voiced their concerns about the region's education curriculum not reflecting the local environment, its geography or its history. One citizen in particular - Quayyum Raja - has been struggling for years for such a curriculum where the history of Jammu & Kashmir be taught as a compulsory subject to its children.
His struggle - assisted by the citizens of this territory - made a leap today:
Quayyum Raja
AJK HIGH COURT CHIEF ALLOWS
JK NASAAB PETITION
On 3rd of October 2018, the
Honourable Chief Justice of Azad Jammu Kashmir, Mr. Aftab Tabbassam Alvi, has
allowed a writ petition filed by one Abdul Quayyum Raja demanding the history
of Jammu Kashmir to be included in the National Curriculum as a compulsory
subject. Mr. Raja argued that:
1.
The
Government of Azad Jammu Kashmir Textbook Board was established in 2014 as a
result of a public campaign led by petitioner
Abdul Quayyum Raja, whose first demand was the textbook board and the second
was the inclusion of the history of Jammu Kashmir. (The petitioner served 22 years of
his life in British jails as a political prisoner campaigning for the
reunification of Jammu Kashmir). The petitioner met with the first chair person
of the Azad Jammu Kashmir Textbook Board and asked why the history of JK had
not been included. The chair person promised to comply with the request, but
five years on, nothing has happened. Instead, the fabricated history and
controversial ideas are being inserted in and imported texts that only confuse
the children of the state of Azad Jammu Kashmir. That after 70 years of the
creation of present state of Azad Jammu Kashmir, we are still relying upon the
Punjab Text Book Board, which is unable to fulfill the requirement of the
Kashmir Studies. The bewildered Kashmiri children ask a burning question as to
why they have to learn about the other nations but not about their own nation.
2.The
petitioner met with the Education Minister and Nasaab Office on 14th
of November 2017 and pointed out with certain text books on which the label of
Azad Kashmir Textbook Board was being used, but the texts include nothing about
Jammu Kashmir history, geography and culture. This is certainly not a
negligence, but cheating. The petitioner therefore handed in a written request
to stop cheating and include the history of Jammu Kashmir into National
Curriculum. A letter with the same request had been submitted to the President
of AJK, Prime Minister and Secretary Education by the petitioner, but no
response was received from any of the parties (copy attached).
3.Muhammad
Azeem Dutt Advocate on behalf of petitioner, sent a legal notice to the Chief
Secretary, President, Prime Minister, Education Minister, Secretary Schools and
the Chairman Nasaab Azad Jammu Kashmir. The acknowledgement of the said was
received, but three months on, no response or a promise to respond has been
given by any party (copy of acknowledge is enclosed herewith).
As a result, the petitioner filed a
petition in the High Court, which was approved by the Chief Justice who orderd
the Government to appear before the court on the 23rd of October. The petitioner and
his counsel Malik Asghir Sethi appreciated this decision by the Chief Justice.
