Prime Minister Modi, during his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort on Monday, raked up the issue of Balochistan, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan and announced his support to the causes of people of these regions.
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Baluchistan is a Pakistani province that has been plagued by an unending cycle of violence and underdevelopment since India and Pakistan were partitioned upon gaining independence in 1947.
Bugti said Pakistan’s destructive role in Kashmir and its direct involvement in terrorist attacks in India such as Mumbai and Pathankot has been a very well exposed fact.
“Pakistan is obviously rattled and it is so because India has not offered a dignified and restrained verbal response like always on the issue of Pakistani provocations”.
The Times said there was “sadly. nothing new about any of this as Pakistan and India have long held intransigent positions, and indulged in political point scoring that has effectively precluded the possibility of any meaningful progress (in negotiations)”. This was an obvious reference to Wani who has been hailed as a martyr by Pakistan. Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir shot and killed four civilians and injured at least 15 others Tuesday as clashes intensified with anti-India protesters in the troubled region, police said. Anti-India feelings run strong in the Muslim-majority region, where most people favor independence or a merger with Pakistan.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in India-administered Kashmir since fighting peaked in the late 1980s.
The Prime Minister asked the worldwide community to judge the behavior of India and Pakistan in the context of terror attacks in each other’s country.
India is set to politely reject a UNHRC move to send a team to Jammu and Kashmir, pointing out that the domestic human rights panel was already at work while other institutions like Parliament and the Supreme Court had also discussed the situation in the state.
“(The) Congress and UPA government have condemned the human rights violations in Balochistan as also in PoK by Pakistani forces and establishment on multiple occasions in the past”, party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, noting that the first time the UPA did so was on December 27, 2005. But unfortunately Congress party is not speaking in one voice.
In a parallel development, United States has stated that Kashmir is India’s internal matter.
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Today, underscoring that addressing terrorism is “central to our engagement”, External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said, “Unlike in the past, we can’t agree that dialogue with sponsors and supporters of terrorism should carry on without being linked to action in that regard”.
