ISI’s attempt to forcibly abduct a local Kashmiri from Rawalakot in POK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) on October 28, was foiled due to a spirited response from the locals who refused to take down the high-handed behaviour of ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) agents. The brave people of Rawalakot encircled the ISI agent’s car and rescued their Kashmiri brethren who was being abducted on fictitious charges.
This is not the first case of abduction and certainly not the last where Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI tried to abduct a Kashmiri from POK. If the ISI had managed to abduct him then he would have been “disappeared” quietly. The mutilated bodies of such “disappeared” persons are then conveniently “dumped”. The Kashmiri who was being taken away on October 28 from Rawalakot would have met the same fate had not the locals intervened and saved him from the clutches of ISI.
“We are trying to draw attention of the world towards the violence inflicted upon us Kashmiris by the occupying state of Pakistan. It’s sad that the international community is silent to this oppression and continuous massacre of Kashmiris by the Pakistani security forces,” a local Kashmiri told News Intervention requesting anonymity.
The Pakistani state does not take into account human principles and rules while indulging in oppression of common people. It indulged in similar massacre of Bengalis in the erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and it is committing worse crimes in occupied territories of Sindh, Balochistan and Pashtunistan.
Kashmiris from the POK ask why army brigades and military barracks are present across the ten districts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (ironically Pakistan calls it ‘Azad Kashmir’). “There is no rationale for this heavy military presence in these so-called ten districts of “Azad Kashmir”. Where is our Azadi (freedom)? These Pakistani army brigades and military barracks occupy each city’s entry point from all four sides. What is the main reason for such a heavy siege on every city? Why have we been taken under this siege? This siege is only to suppress the Kashmiris’ voice of freedom, demand for liberation and people’s rights,” the Kashmiri said, her voice shrill with anger. She further added that whenever people in POK start getting organized the occupying Pakistani forces leave no stone unturned to suppress it.
Pakistan’s ploy has been to prevent issues in POK and Gilgit-Baltistan from being discussed at international forums. Pakistan uses all kinds of stratagems to stop news from POK and Gilgit-Baltistan from being published by mainstream media organizations. Both Rawalpindi and Islamabad know quite well that the only way they can keep POK under its belt is through brute force and that is why there’s extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearances on a massive scale across POK and Gilgit-Baltistan.
“The time has come for us to demand an end to this heavy siege of all the cities by the Pakistan Army and an immediate withdrawal of military barracks and brigades. We are under siege in the name of security. There is no peace in POK, rather a peaceful siege. We are made to believe that slavery is freedom but it’s time to call slavery a slavery and it’s time to demand freedom from occupying forces of Pakistan,” a Kashmiri student from Rawalakot told News Intervention, requesting anonymity.