The famous garden of Kashmir filled with tulips is spread over 30 acres of magnificent terraces. Its surrounded by the Zabarwan hills at the back and at the front looks the world-famous Dal Lake.
The garden was filled with tulips and there were the long unending lines of their beauty. But now that garden is filled with blood. The majestic tulip gardens are no more spreading the breath of fresh air that the garden bestowed them before.
This is now the conflict-torn region. The story begins after the decolonization of south Asia in 1947. At that time, the prickly states, especially Kashmir, were left unsolved.
The prince left it at the mercy of India, and then war broke out. The planned plebiscite by the UN never took place. India Wounded many promises of betrayal. Delhi sought to manage the state by the armed forces soon after the annus horribilis of 1987.
Hundreds of them seen at a glance
They all were glee
Some hundred years before
Now are they sad
Drowned in their own sea of blood
Saw the brutality of human
Killing each other
The fight of a land
Killed thousands
Now no more happiness,
Nor a glee
Just a gloomy picture of dark
Of some untold stories
The broken hearts of wounded knee
Oh! Martyrs of Kashmir
Alive thou we see
You will always stand like the tulips of Kashmir
Poem By: Ayesha
Peace Is Yet To Arrive…..
The colours of springs are no more to see in spring. The peace, the chirping of the birds, peace, tourists are now short-lived. As the flights of bullets surround the central command in Kashmir. Let’s recall the tragic conflict of Kashmir. The world must know the meaning of peace, and the place of the tulip garden where the blood has captured the beauty of paradise. Th world says peace has arrived but the tulips say, “it is yet to arrive”.
All these years of blood, innocent killings, the inflicted brutality that the world has seen over the past decades, curls back in many woven threads to the existential question of Kashmir that people posed always. This is for the very question of their future. The image reinforces an explicit image of India in the minds of the world as a brutal force that has been masquerading for the world but, in reality, occupied by military power.
In light of the dramatic developments in India-held Jammu and Kashmir — the Indian government’s unilateral revocation of the 70-year special status of the disputed territory, the detention of most of the territory’s political leadership, the beefing up of the strangulating Indian military presence there, the severing of all its communication links with the outside world and the imposition of a curfew that has put its residents under virtual house arrest —
The above lines are from the recent essay from Srinagar-born Author Mirza Waheed:
The Story Begins…..
In 1947, when the two nations have decided to part their statuses in the sub-continent, like the other princely states, Kashmiris wanted to join Pakistan. But the ruler of Jammu Kashmir decided against their will and escaped in India after handed over the state to the Indian Government.
Thus, the Indian army invaded Jammu & Kashmir, the 1948 war broke-In. In 1949, the United Nations promised and then passed a resolution to hold a free and neutral referendum to the resolve of the future of the state and would be decided by the will of people of Jammu Kashmir.
Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, assured to hold a referendum of which later on he Backtracked on his promise. So, till now, the referendum is under the clouds of discussion which was never held in Kashmir. In reality, India was not willing to recognize the Two-Nation Theory.
And if the referendum was held in Kashmir, then defiantly, the people will vote for Pakistan. That is the reason India raised her hue and cry against the referendum. But Kashmiris always have love for Pakistan.
They show their love through many emblematic gestures like cheering for the Pakistani cricket team, set Pakistan’s national anthem as their mobile ring tone and exhibiting Pakistani flags during protests. This is not enough they also celebrate Pakistan’s independence on 14th August and observe Indian’s as ‘Black Day’.
The force can never stay them back foot from achieving the sovereign independent state. India has used every trick them and when nothing answered, they used the brutality and force.
The On Seeing Brutality of Indian Force In Kashmir
Recently, Indian Army callously used pellet guns to dissolve their freedom movement, the peace and unarmed protests. These non-lethal weapons have triggered over 3,700 pellet injuries in Kashmir, among which half of them have been blinded.
Indian-Brutality-in-Kashmir
On July 13, a doctor in Srinagar hospital Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital reported Al Jazeera that patients were crowded in his section with eye injuries. He said:
“We have operated on over 90 people with injuries to their eyes. Many have multiple injuries
with pellets lodged inside their eyes, forehead, back, and abdomen. Many need multiple operations. It is very painful and gruesome.”
The world has sent down and criticized the brutality of Indian army, its excessive and brutal use of force in Occupied Kashmir. Amnesty has tempted to appeal Indian Government to stop using pellet guns on Kashmiris. Pakistan termed it as a “terrorism” on many forum platforms like SAARC.
While International Human Rights Organizations blame Indian Army of Human Right Manipulation like mass killings, imposed disappearances, torment, rape and sexual abuse and suppress their freedom of speech.
United Nations has termed the cause of Kashmir as an internationally recognized disputed territory. But the shamefaced Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh has labelled the plebiscite as ‘outdated’.
This is the must remember note for the Indian Army and government that they cannot submerge their cause of freedom. The false promises of the referendum cannot deceive the world of the atrocity in Kashmir. They cannot put free Kashmir in the ashtray and let them forget the free air by firing pellets in the eyes of Kashmiris.
The Tulips of Kashmir are born of free and they will remain there until their last breath.
