Qazi Mizan: India is trying to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiris by opening Cinema Halls in IIOJK. The Kashmiris have totally rejected the Indian initiative by dismissing the Indian Idea with a strong argument that their only demand from Indian government is right of self-determination and not opening of Cinema Halls.
Concurrently India is continuously assaulting on the distinct Kashmiri culture and identity by imposing its Hindutva ideology, Muslim students have been forced to sing bhajan (Hindu hymn) in schools of IIOJK.
The Kashmiri leadership has shown their serious concerns on the Indian act which falls in the category of religious persecution.
Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister of J&K has also invited the attention of international community on the forced singing of a bhajan (Hindu hymn) at a school in Kulgam and elsewhere. A video of Muslim students singing the bhajan circulated widely on social media, prompting fierce protests from Muslim organisations.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Ulema, comprising 30 Kashmiri organisations, denounced the action and said it was designed to accelerate “the so-called integration of the younger generation with the Hindutva idea of India”. It called this part of efforts to erode the region’s Muslim identity.
Kashmiri leadership has termed such blatant violations of religious rights as highly provoking and intended to create law and order situation in already disturbed region.
The Indian illegally occupied Kashmir has recently witnessed friction after some prominent religious
Scholars (Ulema) were arrested and charged under the draconian public safety act in a crackdown on Muslim groups in Kashmir.
These arrests were strongly condemned by Pakistan. A Foreign Office statement described the illegal detention of Islamic scholars as “yet another Indian attempt to rob the Kashmiri people of their distinct religious and cultural identity”.
The leadership and people of IIOJK are perturbed on the series of religious persecution actions/ events intimidating the Muslim majority segment of region.
In a highly controversial act the BJP has taken control of the J&K Waqf Board and thus all its properties across the region including Srinagar’s Eidgah, a historic ground for congregational prayers.
Kashmiri leaders termed it as part of the BJP’s efforts to occupy prominent places of religious significance for Muslims throughout the occupied territory.
Similarly, for the past 100 years or more, Urdu was the official language of J&K. But in 2020, India’s ruling party ended Urdu’s exclusive status by legislation that made Hindi, Kashmiri and Dogri official languages in IIOJK, in addition to Urdu and English.
There are moves afoot to change the script of the Kashmiri language from Nastaliq to the Devanagri script. Kashmiri sources in the occupied Valley say this has already been done unannounced and unofficially.
BJP is trying to disempowering Muslims and erode their religious and cultural identity in the occupied region. A series of actions to disempowering Kashmiris and change the Muslim identity of Kashmir have followed India’s illegal annexation of IIOJK on 5 Aug 2019.
These illegal and deliberate actions by Indian occupational government have in fact only intensified anger and resentment among the people of Kashmir and reinforced their will to resist the injustice of occupation.
India is trying to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiris by opening cinema halls. But, looks like Kashmiris have totally rejected the Indian initiative of opening these cinemas. The Kashmiris have dismissed the Indian Idea with a strong argument that there only demand from Indian government is right of self-determination and not opening of cinema halls.
