Iqbal Khan

Imprisonment and torturing of Muslim Kashmiri leaders on the premise of their political ideology and struggle against illegal Indian occupation can be termed a true reflection of the extremist mind-set of the RSS-BJP regime that has no respect for the human rights, especially religious tolerance.

India is committing war crimes in India Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) by violating Article-82 (2b, VIII) of the Rome Statue of International Criminal Court (ICC) and article 143 of Geneva Convention-IV.

Several senior Muslim Kashmiri leaders, including Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, are also under house detention, while other prominent leaders, such as Aasiya Andrabi, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah and Masarrat Aalam Mutt are in New Delhi’s notorious Tihar Jail. Andrabi like other Kashmiri leaders has been illegally arrested over malicious, false and fabricated charges by the Indian government through invoking draconian laws promulgated in IIOJK.

Dr. Asiya Andrabi, founder of Dukhtraan-e-Millat is facing inhuman treatment by the Indian government during imprisonment with deteriorating health conditions. Indian government is setting stage for judicial murder of Asiya Andrabi in coming weeks. Indian government is using all its force to suppress the voice of Kashmiris.

Indian government arrested the Asiya Andrabi and her associates Famida Sufi and Nahida Nasreen in Oct 2016. Their sin was to raise voice for the rights of women and right of self-determination for the people of Kashmir. Indian government charged them with act of terrorism and other draconian laws under public safety act. Later, they were transferred to Tihar jail.

Under Geneva Convention IV, Article 49, it is prohibited to transfer an individual or group of “protected persons from occupied territory to the occupying power, regardless of their motives”. India had violated article 49 multiple times by transferring Kashmiri leaders including Asiya Andrabi, her husband Dr. Ashiq Hussain Faktoo and other leaders from Kashmiri prisons to notorious Tihar Jail. Dr. Faktoo is in Indian Prison serving life sentence for 27 years.

India is also violating Article 76 of Geneva Convention IV, while not allowing the delegate of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit the prison. This article also calls that women shall be confined in separate quarters and shall be under the direct supervision of women. According to Dr Shireen Mazari, Minster for Huma Rights, it is the binding duty of India being the signatory of International Human Rights Law and Humanitarian Law of the United Nations World Summit in 2005.

Against all norms, Indian Supreme Court defined the term “death imprisonment” as the imprisonment till death of the individual during a verdict in 2012. Presently, Indian government is using this verdict to penalize Asiya Andrabi to kept her behind bar till her death. It is just like a judicial murder of an individual.

International human rights organizations need to come forward play their role to end this draconian law and save the life of a human rights and women rights defender of IIOJK.

Designation of Pakistan as a “country of particular concern” by the US under its “International Religious Freedom Act of 1998”   is completely against the realities on the ground and raises serious doubts about the credibility of the exercise. Pakistan and China were among several countries designated by the State Department as countries of “particular concerns” regarding religious freedom on the recommendation of the US International Commission on Religious Freedom (USICRF). However, the State Department rejected the proposal to place India in the list as well.

The findings and recommendations of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as well as the US Congressional hearings on the maltreatment of minorities in India and the violation of religious freedom all over the country including in the Muslim-majority IIOJK (Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir) were mischievously ignored by the US State Department. The glaring omission of India, where the RSS-BJP regime and their leaders openly disregard religious freedom and discriminate against minority communities in an institutionalised manner, is unfortunate and puts the credibility of the US report into question.

Pakistan has aptly rejected the US State Department’s “arbitrary and selective assessment” on religious freedom, terming it counterproductive to promote bilateral relations. Pakistan and the US have been constructively engaging on the subject at the bilateral level, a fact regrettably overlooked by the US.

During the year 2020, Indian Army violated the Line of Control for more than 3,000 times. As a consequence, 30 innocent civilians were martyred and more than 180 others including over 90 women and 67 children, got injured or became disabled—all Muslims. It was the bloodiest year in terms of the Indian brutalities.

Incident of killing of three innocent young Muslim labourers at the hands of Indian Army in Shopian district of occupied Kashmir and later placing weapons on their corpses to declare them militants and terrorists, as exposed by the Kashmir police after an in-depth investigation, should serve as an eye-opener for the United States. And the United Nations should constitute a commission of inquiry to visit IIOJ&K and look into human rights violations there.

India has been using the tools of oppression and ill-treatment to spread a sense of fear among the unarmed and innocent Muslim people of IIOJK for the past over seven decades. Thousands of Kashmiris including innocent youth, members of civil society, journalists and Kashmiri leaders remain incarcerated in Indian prisons, several of them at unrevealed locations and aloof from their families. The Indian forces still operate in the illegally occupied territory with complete impunity under draconian laws like Public Safety Act (PSA) and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

Systematic demonization, dispossession, marginalisation and targeted violence against Muslims using the communal slur of “love jihad” in Hindutva-inspired India has become commonplace. It is no secret that attacks by cow vigilantes and mob lynching of Indian Muslims take place regularly, with complete impunity for the perpetrators. State complicity in organized violence against the Muslim minority in India is a matter of record.

Recently, at the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) held at Niamey, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) has called upon the Indian government to take immediate steps  “[It also calls upon New Delhi to] fulfil its responsibilities under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments including the recommendations of the OIC.”

Silence of the so-called human rights champion is rather intriguing after the Indian occupational army has itself confessed that it had killed the ordinary Muslim civilians in fake encounters in Indian illegally occupied Kashmir, and later declared them terrorists. Most of the encounters taking place in the occupied territory are fake. It is no longer a secret that the Indian Army is engaged in naked terrorism and ethnic cleansing of innocent Kashmiri Muslims in the occupied territory.

Writer is a freelance columnist; email: [email protected]

Wajeeha Bilal

We all possess a centered place of wisdom, affection and stability within us but the truth is that we all swing away from that place, from time to time. In life it is essential that we acquire a path adjusting device for our balance that can guide us back to our purpose.

There are many models of faith, beliefs and convictions who offer different experiences in life and then there is the way of a man who has love for his Creator, and everything created by Him. He finds everything around him to be an expression of that love and compassion. One such model is the great mystic poet, Maulana Rumi, whose six-volume “Masnavi” is a collection of inspirational verses and one of the most influential works of mysticism.

The world is familiar with Rumi and his works. I would like to share my own experience of being one of those who keenly wished to visit his city. I remember visiting his tomb as a child while living in Turkey, but at that time I had no idea of what the religion of love and compassion was really about. It wasn’t till I grew up and started exploring life’s real purpose, that I realized the power of living with compassion. Life will definitely have an impact on you if you are in search of truth and its experience flows through you like the light of knowledge. Every time I read about great thinkers and their works, I would think of the time I had gone to Maulana’s mausoleum as a child, and wanted to experience that once again, but this time fully aware of my presence at this respectable place. Reading through his poetry has always been like walking with a navigation of verses to guide us.

This time while visiting Turkey, I planned to visit Konya, too, and I was glad that life had given me this opportunity to pay homage to this great poet that I admire so much. I heard that once you visit the Maulana’s tomb in Konya, you are bound to go there seven times or as people say that Rumi calls you seven times if you go to visit him once. Well, that’s definitely a fun saying made by his followers or something my brother makes sure everyone abides by, but I really enjoyed it because I would love to go there again and experience the presence of love and affection.

Standing there I felt like it is not only the city that is dedicated to him, but you can see his influence throughout the country where the people are the politest and respectful. I had lived in Turkey as a child and still love going there due to the love and respect that people have, which is only a strong conviction of the fact that “the religion of love and unity is beyond all faiths.”Rumi died on December 17, 1273. He had been a devout Muslim for all his life, praying five times and keeping all the required fasts while writing about belief in a “religion of love” that crosses over traditional boundaries of the faith system.

I reflected on how Rumi’s message of love and peace offers a life of love and purity while the faiths that enforce violence in the name of religion only to spread terror, have nothing to offer other than hate and fear. Through my reflection I have come to realize the power of words in uniting or dividing the humankind and commit to doing the former. One of the most beautiful expressions of love that I found in Turkey was the plantation of trees by the Turkish government at the Kecioren Park memorial site in Kartaltepe. Trees are planted to honour the martyrs of Peshawar School (16^th December 2014 terrorist act). I feel compelled to share this because it is merely unfortunate that there is no mention of this worthy forest on Google or any other social network. At least not one that I could find easily while every other tiny jiff can be googled easily.

Rumi gave his followers instructions to treat the night of his death like a joyous night of union. For Rumi, the presence of the performers specified that the deceased was both a Muslim and a lover of his Creator. But there were also Jewish rabbis reciting psalms, and Christian priests reading from the Gospels at Rumi’s funeral. It was clear that Rumi had become a well-respected figure within other holy communities. Rumi’s poetry that is largely tolerant of all people and other faiths still continues to touch hearts across the world. “When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.”

Allama Iqbal is not only our national poet but one of my favourites, too, and the inspiration that Iqbal derived from Rumi is mirrored in his work ‘Pir-o-Mureed‘ (1935). It is a dialogue between Iqbal and Rumi written in both Urdu and Persian, and in one of the verses, Iqbal (mureed) says to Rumi (pir), “You, the leader of the lovers of God; I do remember your exalted words.” The earnest form of love for Rumi, as a mystic, involves escape from the self-centered whims of the ego. His inspiring words remind us how poetry can be a nourishing part of everyday life.

For me Rumi’s divine literature is a strong testimony of the powerful impact that words and poetry can have in our lives and on our souls. So, we need to share a purposeful life with your friends and family to create unity and awareness.
(Wajeeha is author of “The Conscious Ego” and “The Beautiful Present”

By Muhammad Omar Iftikhar  

The tussle in diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Qatar took a drastic turn in 2017 when Riyadh disengaged all diplomatic ties and transport connections with Qatar. The UAE was also a part of Riyadh’s plan as the latter accused the government of Qatar to sponsor Islamist groups. Riyadh also viewed it as a matter of concern for Qatar edging closer with Iran. On January 4, 2021, Riyadh announced that it is resolving its dispute with Qatar and ordered to open all borders and air links with Qatar. In a televised address aired on Monday, January 4, 2021, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Ahmad Nasser Al-Sabah said, “Based on [Kuwait’s ruler Emir] Sheikh Nawaf’s proposal, it was agreed to open the airspace and land and sea borders between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Qatar, starting from this evening.” Over the last three years or so, the government of Qatar was denying all allegations. It even said that there were no legitimacy to such blame that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi had imposed on Qatar.

Now that the relations with Saudi Arabia and Qatar are moving towards normalcy, one must wonder about the future of their ties and their impact on the Middle East region. In this regard, the opinion of the US President will also come into play. President-elect Biden and his Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris, will create a strategy to create allies, counter conflicts, resolve issues, in various regions of the world following their oath-taking on January 20, 2021. In this regard, the regions of the Middle East, South Asia, Far East, Central Asia may be on top of their list. As far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, the Kingdom has had a fruitful tie with all previous US administrations. Time will tell what diplomatic strategies will the Biden administration have for Qatar. In the meantime, it is expected that the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Qatar will create regional harmony in the Middle East. The future, however, is still unknown.