The Kashmir Conflict: The Dream of Independence and the Silence of Social Media

 “ For Kashmir, to be an independent state, Kashmir meets all the conditions 

 Kashmir, hearing that word utmost people can assume the endless fortified conflict and cool mountainous region that India and Pakistan are fighting over. But behind the beauty of Kashmir is actually a source of endless conflict between Pakistan and India, two countries that were firstly called Hindustan. 

 Naturally, Kashmir is good of gems as an area with stunning panoramic views of the vale to the south from the westernmost tip of the Himalayan range. The land is veritably rich, water is sufficient throughout the time because it has numerous gutters. Kashmir has long been known as a spectacular place. 

 The disagreement over Kashmir has estranged relations between India and Pakistan since the two came independent countries in 1947. Pressures have grown over the last 7 decades, and burned up again after India abandoned Kashmir's special autonomy under Indian home. 

Reported by the Deutsche Welle runner, like numerous conflicts around the world, the disagreement over Kashmir began with independence from social powers. In 1947, Great Britain surrendered to the people of its Indian colony and granted independence. The British who withdrew left two countries the temporal Union of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. 

To this day, India sees itself as a temporal state and several persuasions attend. This makes Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim- maturity fiefdom, an important part of India's religious plurality. 

At that time, Pakistan saw itself as the home of all Muslims in South Asia. Its launching father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, envisaged Pakistan and India as separate Muslim and Hindu nations on the key. Until 1971, Bangladesh, which is located east of India, came independent from Pakistan. 

 Kashmir War 

 Kashmir's first war began in October 1947 and ended in January 1949 with the de facto division of the country along the Line of Control, an unofficial border line still honored moment. 

 At that time, the United Nations( UN) transferred spectators who are still on the ground to this day. Pakistan has controlled the northern special fiefdom of Gilgit- Baltistan and the crescent- shaped Azad Kashmirsub-region since 1949.  

 The Indian- controlled portion came the civil state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1957, with a special independent status that allows the state council to have a say-so in legislation covering all matters except defence, foreign affairs and dispatches. 

 The coming decade was marked by an arms race in both countries. India began to develop nuclear losers and Pakistan also started a nuclear program with the end of being suitable to survive the pitfalls of its neighbors. moment, India and Pakistan have an estimated 140 and 150 nuclear warheads independently. Unlike Pakistan, India has explicitly ruled out a first nuclear strike. 

Pakistan is also spending heavily on its nuclear program as it tries to insure it doesn't fall behind its neighbors militarily. 

 In 1965, Pakistan formerly again used military force to try to change the borders, but this time Kashmir wasn't at the center of the battle. rather, it was the struggle for independence in Bangladesh that sparked the war. India, which supports the freedom fighters of Bangladesh, formerly again defeats Pakistan. 

 A time latterly, India and Pakistan inked the Simla Agreement which underscored the significance of the Line of Control and committed to bilateral accommodations to clarify claims to the Kashmir region formerly and for all. 

In 1984, India and Pakistan disaccorded again; this time over the Indian- controlled Siachen Glacier. In 1999, both sides fought for control of military posts on the Indian side. In 2003, India and Pakistan inked a new ceasefire, but it has been fragile since 2016. 

  The Silence of Social Media 

On the other hand, since 2016 a number of social media similar as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have closed accounts of the people's struggle and Kashmiri activists, under pressure from the Indian government. 

 As stated by Associate Professor from Qatar University, Farhan Mujahid Chak on the Al Jazeera runner, all social media platforms for Kashmiri activists have been closed due to pressure from the Indian government since 2016. Indeed though before that time, Kashmiri activists were still suitable to state the situation in the home that Pakistan and India are fighting over.. 

Not only activists, social media accounts of intellectualists and academics who raised the fate of Kashmiris were also closed. 

Social media has also exercised veritably strict suppression of accounts venting the plight of Kashmiris. Reports by intelligencers reporting on the state of the Indian security outfit' brutality have also been blocked by the Indian government. 

Twitter has also closed accounts similar as Kashmir Civitas, Stand With Kashmir, the Kashmir Podcast, and the account of youthful Kashmiri academic Ifat Gazia. 

 The check of social accounts violates the UN Security Council resolution on Kashmir which recognizes the right to tone- determination for the Kashmi people. This condition has made Kashmir, which is the region with the most colors in the world- around 1 million Indian dogfaces-, indeed more tense and shocking. 

Kashmir is an transnational issue that until now has not been resolved by the United Nations, indeed though around 95 thousand people have been killed since the early 1990s. 

 China's third neighbor 

which shares a long border with Jammu and Kashmir, also plays a part in this conflict. In 1962, China enthralled the part of India that borders Kashmir and entered into an alliance with Pakistan. To this day, China and Pakistan trade via the recently erected Karakoram Highway connecting the two countries via the western Kashmir region. As part of themulti-billion bone

China- Pakistan Economic Corridor( CPEC) design, the corridor is presently being expanded. 

The former clay road is presently being developed into amulti-lane asphalt trace that can be used all time round. China is investingUS$ 57 billion(€ 51 billion) in Pakistan's structure and energy systems, further than in any other South Asian country. The profitable alliance with its important neighbors has helped strengthen Pakistan's claims to the Himalayan foothills.

Rebels and attacks

However, the governments of India, Pakistan and China are not the only parties to the conflict in Kashmir. Using violence, militant groups have attempted to disrupt the status quo on both sides of the line of control since the 1980s. Their attacks have contributed to the worsening of the security situation.

At least 45,000 people have died in terrorist attacks over the past 30 years. And the total number of deaths from this conflict is at least 70,000.

Meanwhile, Kashmir which has been buried like coal between India and Pakistan. Both of them have been trying hard to restrain themselves while still claiming that the area is their territory. Meanwhile, Kashmiris, who are predominantly Muslim, still want to establish an independent state from the two. This condition is getting worse, there is a country that is now becoming a 'world giant', namely China, which is also involved in the conflict. This country is also located adjacent to the region.

For Kashmir, to be an independent state, Kashmir fulfills all conditions.

The wikipedia site records the city of Srinagar, the ancient capital of Kashmir, which is located near the Dal Lake, until now famous for its canals and houseboats. From time immemorial, Srinagar at 1,600 m or 5,200 ft has served as the summer capital for many foreign conquerors who get hot in north India. Just outside the city is the beautiful Shalimar garden created by Jahangir, the Mughal emperor, in 1619.

And of course, neither Pakistan nor India, nor China, want to lose influence there. The Indian government today insists on issuing a controversial policy that has angered the people of Kashmir. They revoked Kashmir's status as a special territory. here it seems that the Indian government wants to make this region fully its territory by giving it an autonomous status.

For local residents they protested by throwing stones at Indian security forces guarding the area. The Indian army retaliated by carrying out strict repression and cutting telecommunications networks. But anger continued to erupt as several Kashmiri figures were arrested.

Impact of the Anti-Muslim Law (UU)

Conditions in Kashmir are further complicated by the enactment of the Anti-Muslim Law (UU) or the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) which came into effect in 2019.
. One of the CAB Laws contains the possibility of non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to obtain citizenship, as reported by the BBC. Under the law, Indian Muslims will also be required to prove that they are citizens of India. So there is a possibility that Indian Muslims will lose their citizenship for no reason.

Al Jazeera wrote, the Congress party-opposition party in India-wrote this law is very discriminatory against Muslims, especially in a secular country with a population of 1.3 billion of which 15 percent of whom are Muslim.
Criticism of the CAB law is that it is part of the Hindu supremacist agenda under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government since coming to power nearly six years ago. Sanjay Jha, a spokesman for the main opposition Congress party, told Al Jazeera the law was "part of a more deeply divisive Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata (BJP) political strategy to polarize India". What is the anti-Muslim “Citizenship Amendment Bill” (CAB)? The CAB Act was first introduced in Parliament in July 2016, which is an amendment to the Citizenship Act 1955 which made religion the basis of citizenship. Meanwhile, the previous law did not make religion an eligibility criterion to become a citizen.

Gathering of citizens is a prohibited act, while residents are under curfew. A soldier was stationed outside every house in several villages. Eight million people have been cut off from the outside world and from each other. Pharmacies have run out of medicine, households are short of food, while hospitals are overflowing with injured demonstrators.

According to the author, the key to resolving the Kashmir conflict is the UN's courage to surrender the fate of the Kashmiri people to the people without the interference of India and Pakistan. Without a firm stance from the United Nations, the fate of the Kashmiri people will be worse off and isolated.