Islamabad, Sep 16 (IANS) Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's (PoK) Rawalakot has been living under an iron siege for 100 days as the region has been cut off from food, medicine and communication. Despite facing all these problems, the people of Rawalakot have refused to kneel, a report has detailed.
"For one hundred days, Rawalakot has lived under an iron siege. And that’s not a metaphor, but literal encirclement by one of the world’s most militarised states. A town of teachers, farmers, students, shopkeepers has been cut off from food, medicine, communication, life’s basic rhythms. Yet through bullets, starvation, and terror, Rawalakot stands. The Kashmiri spirit refuses to kneel," Murtaza Shibli wrote in an opinion piece for Kashmir Times.
These 100 days, wrote Shibli, are a testament to people who seek dignity while each instrument of the Pakistani state is being used to crush them. It also tells a story that Pakistan is trying to hide under blackout, fear and blood.
On June 7, the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) began the protest against the reservation of 12 refugee seats in PoK's Legislative Assembly and called for providing affordable electricity and flour at subsidised prices to the people of the region. The group called for representation for local residents, affordable food, and an end to the exploitation of PoK, which produces cheap hydropower while residents freeze in the dark.
Two days before the protest, Pakistani authorities imposed a ban on JAAC under anti-terrorism laws. When the people held protest despite the ban on the JAAC, Pakistani security forces were deployed on the streets with orders amounting to a licence to kill. As many as 90 civilians were killed in PoK until late July.
In one 48-hour period, at least 24 unarmed protesters were killed in PoK's Mirpur and Rawalakot. In order to stop a procession of hundreds of thousands of people marching towards Muzaffarabad, Pakistani security personnel first fired tear gas and then live fire. A shopkeeper was killed while handing out water while 17-year-old was shot dead while he was protecting his sister. According to the report, all of them were "victims of state-sponsored murder."
According to the report, Pakistani authorities have imposed a complete internet blackout in PoK since the unrest started, which has been partially restored a few days ago. Roads have been blocked, movement has been restricted, food and medicine has been deliberately stopped from entering Rawalakot, according to the report.
"JAAC described the blockade as collective punishment, which it clearly is. But Pakistani generals fear no one while they remain darlings of the Western project that seeks to dismantle true people’s representation in Muslim countries for whatever fear, usually irrational," the opinion piece in Kashmir Times emphasised.
"The Pakistan state is laying siege with a deliberate attempt to starve and terrorise a population into submission. This regime has killed nearly hundred civilians, injured hundreds more, and imposed a blockade denying food and medicine to hundreds of thousands. Yet the protests continue. Sit-ins at Rawalakot’s main entry points remain. Long marches keep forming. The people have not broken," it added.
In July, Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif defended Islamabad's brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in PoK, saying he considers the demonstrators as "enemies like India."
"I put them (protesters) in the same category as India and consider them also as enemies like India," Asif said in a video that went viral on social media.
--IANS
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