Pakistan tries to stoke flames of unrest in Kashmir

Arun Joshi
Jammu, July 13  

Pakistan ‘s top leadership , including Prime Minister  Imran Khan, took to social media on  Monday  to recall the “martyrs day” of July 13, 1931, to show solidarity with Kashmiris, but that was a clear attempt to  instigate the people of Kashmir to  clash with the security forces to create a violent  situation .

Amidst contradictory versions of the events and the circumstances that surround the death of scores of Kashmiris killed in police firing 89 years ago, Imran Khan led this campaign with his series of tweets in which he called the Kashmiris killed on this day in 1931 the “forefathers of today’s resistance.”

Pakistan calls armed militants as “resistance leaders”---an expression it uses for the militants and their commanders. It highlighted this expression when the Hizb-ul-Muajhadeen’s top Commander Riaz Naikoo was killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral area of Pulwama district in May this year. The previous Pakistan establishment during the premiership of Nawaz Sharif in 2016 had called militant commander Burhan Wani as a “youth leader”.

In his tweet, Imran, while referring to the “martyrs” of July 1931, wrote: “Today, on Yaum-e-Shahuada-e-Kashmir, we salute Kashmiris for their continued struggle against the illegal& barbaric Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir”. And he went on to add that the “martyrs” of 13 July, 1931 were the “forefathers of today’s Kashmiri resistance”.

Pakistan Prime Minister has played a mischief by linking the situation of 1931 with that of today in Kashmir. This is a deliberate attempt to stoke troubles, as he has tried to tell Kashmiris that they should go by their history of coming out on streets and facing bullets.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi  in his tweet said: “Kashmiris continue to fight for their right to self-determination till this day”, giving the most mischievous and trouble-stoking twist to the whole thing, ignoring that Kashmir had participated in the elections and elected its representatives in the  difficult times of Pakistan imposed militancy and violence on the people in the Valley.

Apart from the leaders of Pakistan government, the Pakistani opposition leaders, including party’s leader in Pakistan senate Sherry Rehman also tweeted in a quite mischievous manner.

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