Freedom fighters, not terrorists

The POST, Sun, March,25, 2007.

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema

It has been reported that India has been asking for Kashmir’s inclusion in the anti-terrorism talks at the platform of Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism ever since the two sides agreed to set up the body in September 2006. However the Pakistanis have made it abundantly clear to the Indians that freedom struggle in Kashmir cannot be bracketed with terrorism. The issue was once again raised by the Indians in recently held meeting of Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism at Islamabad but the Pakistanis once again rejected it. Besides it has been made clear to the Indians that any further attempt to raise the issue could jeopardize the joint efforts to deal with the menace of terrorism. 

It is not surprising to learn that the Indians still continue to brand the Kashmiri freedom struggle as a terrorist movement. Not only the majority of the international community has already recognized the Kashmiri’s movement as a genuine freedom struggle, but even the regional and international organizations also view the struggle in Kashmir as a freedom movement. However, there are few who continue to adhere to the Indian interpretation of events inside Kashmir primarily because of their economic and political interests that are closely linked with India.

Who is a freedom fighter and who is a terrorist is a question that needs to be discussed here? The answer really depends upon whose point of view you are looking at. A freedom fighter is a politically motivated and committed individual who joins the collective struggle for securing independence for what he believes to be his nation. The opponents often dub this movement as political separatist efforts to break away from the legal authority or some even go to the extent of describing them as terrorists. Almost all Indian analysts, academicians, journalist, bureaucrats and politician have demonstrated a tendency to dub the freedom struggle in Kashmir a as terrorist movement. Undoubtedly there are very few Indians who can be appropriately called as realists as far as Kashmir is concerned.

Similarly the Israelis also tend to regard almost all actions of the Palestinians as acts aimed at terrorist activities. The Chechen freedom struggle was even dubbed as a movement of bandits. It is indeed very difficult to find convincing and logically argued articles in these countries describing the freedom struggles in their true perspectives. What is even more amazing is the fact that most of the ongoing freedom struggles are being waged in democratic countries such as India, Israel and Russia.

These states have employed terrorism as an instrument of its policy irrespective of the nature of the regime. Since democracies are deemed to have an inbuilt mechanism for accountability, it is believed that democracies are less likely to employ state terrorism. Contrary to general belief that democracies are unlikely to indulge in such terrible pursuits, one is surprised to find out that so many democracies are actually practicing terrorism as a state policy. But for obvious reasons none of the democratic regime would acknowledge that they are indulging in terrorism. One distinction, which needs to be highlighted here, is that in some democracies there may be one or two developments that would fall in the categories of terrorism whereas some other democracies may have adopted sustained policy of state terrorism.

There exist long lists of democracies that are involved in some of the worst forms of state terrorism. Among the democracies that are constantly engaged and blatantly practice state terrorism targeting freedom movements include Russia, Israel and India. However there are others who have employed terrorism intermittently or few of their developments could be regarded as part of state terrorism. Following what has happened to Iraq many consider USA as the biggest terrorist, which does not even care for the collective will and has bypassed the universal organization like the UN when it suited its policy pursuits.

Interestingly in all these three above-mentioned cases the instrument of state terrorism is applied against the freedom fighters. All of these states are experiencing intensified freedom struggles. To opt for state terrorism reflects ruler's inclination towards fascism and gross violation of the essence of democracy.  India is such a state that has regularly employed terrorism as an instrument of its policy against freedom fighters.  

The Kashmiris have been engaged in their freedom struggle since 1947 but the struggle intensified following the end of the Cold war. For years India has maintained and still continues to maintain over 700,000 security forces in Kashmir. The brutalities committed against the freedom fighters have been regularly recorded by almost human rights associations. Even some of the Indian organizations have courageously highlighted the terror tactics employed by the Indian security forces in Kashmir.

During the last seventeen years thousands of ordinary civilian Kashmiris have been maimed, injured and killed. Although the official Indian sources have always demonstrated a tendency to minimize the numbers arbitrarily, reports by independent agencies invariably put the numbers of dead beyond 50,000. In fact the Chief Minister of Indian Occupied Kashmir himself once quoted in an interview that over 50,000 Kashmiris have been killed. The Kashmiri sources, of course, stress that over 100,000 have been killed including the custodian killings and over 100,000 have maimed or grievously injured. The intriguing aspect of the death toll is that out of the 80,000 dead 90% were civilians.

Despite the repeated reminders of international human rights organizations for need to stop the indiscriminate killings and blatant human rights violations, the Indian security forces disregarding such advices have continued to opt for the killings and human rights violations.It appears that India really does not care or respect the sane voices regarding the human rights violations especially in Kashmir. Despite consistent reminders to stop the undesirable policy pursuits, not only the blatant human rights violations in Kashmir continue to appear on the pages of newspapers and almost regularly aired by the electronic media. 

While India is seeking a military solution of the Kashmir dispute, history taught many nations that a political problem should be resolved through political means. Unable to read the lessons of history so clearly written on the wall, India continues to dwell heavily upon the military means on one hand and continuously blaming Pakistan for cross border terrorism on the other. Blaming Pakistan is indeed part of well thought out diversionary strategy and policy of India.

To insist on the inclusion of the Kashmiri freedom fighters to the list of terrorists amounts to no more than a crude attempt to distort the facts and project Kashmiri’s freedom struggle as a terrorist movement. Pakistan’s refusal certainly appears to be just and rational. It is time that India should recognize the ground realities and treat the struggle in Kashmir as part of a genuine freedom movement.

The writer works for Islamabad Policy research Institute.