Speech at Pakistan Consulate in NY on Kashmir Black Day October 27, 2023

As-Salaam-Alaikum from DC and a special welcome to Aamer Ahmed Atozai whom I
am looking forward to meet in person soon.

 Last month, I attended an event at GWU called “1st Annual Convention on
Forgotten Genocides.” It was hosted by the International Commission for Human
Rights and Religious Freedom which is led by members of the Indian American
extreme Hindu right.
 The organization is well funded by the RSS and the Indian diaspora. Several
Kashmiri Hindus co-moderated the event. One leading participant has an
organization called HinduAction. He and several Kashmiri Pandits attacked me
once on the street after a Kashmir event at the Middle East Institute where
Masood Khan was the main guest.
 He spoke about the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus and how Kashmir would never
be able to reclaim its ancient Bharat glory until Hindu majority was “restored” in
both regions and not just Jammu.
 He also spoke about the 1971 Civil War in East Pakistan and how his group was
lobbying to have it declared a genocide of Hindus committed by Pakistan.
 Other genocides discussed were the alleged Armenian Genocide in Turkey, the
current situation of Armenians in Azerbaijan, and alleged ethnic cleansing of
Kurds by Turkey.
 There were no Kashmiri Muslims or any other Muslim groups invited. Hindutva
lobbies, Armenians, Bangladeshi Hindus, and most recently anti-Palestinian
Zionists have formed a powerful lobbying coalition in DC.
 I want to talk about this today because at every Kashmir event we talk about the
crimes against humanity in the Valley which of course have been happening
unabated for decades. But few ever talk about Jammu and its own sordid history.
 As we have just celebrated the 76 th Anniversary of the creation of AJK, it is
crucial to remember what happened in the past since many of AJK’s founding
fathers were Muslim refugees from the Jammu region.
 Having lived in the Valley and having visited AJK, I cannot stress enough the
difference between the two, and that we all must appreciate the rights people
have on the Pakistan side. Here it goes:
Jammu Genocide: The Forgotten Human Carnage
 In 1992, Bosnian soldiers stormed Srebrenica where over 40,000 people had
sought shelter from the raging war in the region. About 23,000 Muslim women
and children were deported in 30 hours, and 8,372 innocent Bosnian Muslim men
and boys were mercilessly murdered. The ‘Srebrenica massacre’ is widely
acknowledged as the biggest war crime perpetrated on European soil since WW
II, for which Ratko Mladic, the “Butcher of Bosnia”, was convicted by an
international war crimes tribunal for crimes that were “amongst the most heinous
known to humankind”.

 What is completely forgotten by genocide scholars is that Jammu & Kashmir had
witnessed the worst human carnage long before the ‘Srebrenica massacre.
 In November 1947, thousands of Muslims were killed in what is commonly known
as the ‘Jammu genocide’ by paramilitaries led by the army of Dogra ruler Hari
Singh and aided by the RSS. The death toll in this genocide was 28 times higher
than in Srebrenica.
 This pre-planned ethnic cleansing was carried out to secure an area bigger than
Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia put together for India.
 The Times of London reported then that “237,000 Muslims were systematically
exterminated by the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja in person
and aided by Hindus and Sikhs. This happened in October 1947, five days before
the Pathan invasion and nine days before the Maharaja’s accession to India.”
 Muslim subjects from different parts of Jammu were forcibly displaced by the
Dogra Army in a pogrom carried out over three weeks between October-
November 1947.
 The massacre of more than two lakh Muslims was state-sponsored and state-
supported. The forces from Patiala Punjab were called in; the RSS was brought
to communalize the situation and kill Muslims,” wrote PG Rasool, author of ‘The
Historical Reality of the Kashmir Dispute’.
 Late Ved Bhasin, a renowned journalist from Jammu, experienced first-hand the
large-scale killing of Muslims by communal marauders throughout Udhampur
district and even in Bhaderwah.
 According to Bhasin, the RSS played a key role in these killings. Muslims were
also massacred in Chhamb, Deva Batala, Manawsar and other parts of Akhnoor.
 In Kathua district, there was large-scale killing of Muslims and reports of women
being raped and abducted.
 Terrible carnage took place later when the Muslims of the Talab Khatikan area
were asked to surrender. They were shifted to the police lines at Jogi Gate,
where the Delhi Public School is now situated. Instead of providing them with
security, the administration encouraged them to go to Pakistan for safety.
 The first batch of several thousand of these Muslims was then loaded in about 60
lorries to take them to Sialkot. Unaware of what was going to happen, these
families boarded the buses. Troops escorted the vehicles. However, when they
reached the outskirts of Chattha on the Jammu-Sialkot road, a large posse of
armed RSS cadre and Sikh Muslims pulled the Muslims out of the vehicles and
killed them mercilessly, with the soldiers either joining in or looking on as idle
spectators. The news about the massacre was kept a closely guarded secret.
 The next day another batch of Muslim families was similarly boarded into
vehicles only to meet the same fate. Those who somehow managed to escape
reached Sialkot to narrate the horrific tale.
 Bhasin recalled an incident where Mehr Chand Mahajan, the Maharaja’s Prime
Minister of JK, told a delegation of Hindus who met him in Jammu to demand parity with Muslims. One of them asked him how they could demand parity when
there was so much difference in the population ratio.
 Pointing to a pile of Muslim bodies he said, “The population ratio too can
change”.
 As a result of this planned ethnic cleansing, Muslims who had been a majority
(61 per cent) in the Jammu region became a minority.
 The Jammu massacre was undoubtedly a long-planned event. The coordination
of the State forces with the RSS and forces from Patiala clearly point towards
coordination at the highest levels in India.
 The third generation of refugees in AJK still lives under the shadows of the 1947
genocide and the sense of deprivation vis-a-vis their homeland of Jammu. The
Indian-sponsored propaganda machine continues to highlight the right of
Kashmir Hindus to return to their homeland after their alleged forced migrations
but does not mention a word about the right of Jammu massacre victims to return
to their ancestral properties and the graves of their forefathers.
 After the genocide in Jammu 76 years ago, the Indian government is now
executing a similar pattern through settler colonialism in IIOJK. Since Aug 5,
2019, they have normalized a settler colonial project by uttering in a massive
changes in the constitution and other laws which have paved the way for non-
Kashmiris to settle, buy land, and seek jobs in Muslim majority regions of the
former state.
 Meanwhile, the crimes against humanity committed in Jammu in 1947 still await
an independent and impartial international probe to reveal the actual loss of lives,
the number of rapes, the quantum of torture, the number of plundered properties
and their present status, and the number of refugees to measure the real
miseries and sufferings faced by the Muslims of Jammu.
Why is this still important today?
 The 76th anniversary of AJK’s founding day was just celebrated on October 24.
Meanwhile, in IIOJK, the governor reiterated what India’s Defense Minister
Rajnath Singh keeps saying: that the Indian government’s northward journey will
only be complete after incorporating AJK and GB and restoring to India all of
Jammu and Kashmir’s boundaries to those once enjoyed by the Dogra State.
 India says both AJK and GB are part of Indian territory, and Delhi has been
demanding that Pakistan vacate it. India says under Modi it would finally
implement the resolution declaring AJK and GB Indian territory passed
unanimously by India’s Parliament in 1994. Most Hindus in Jammu support this.
 Among other things, the coalition of Hindutva and other anti-Muslim lobbies in the
US has begun advocating this as the final solution to the Kashmir Dispute.
 Farfetched, you may think. But that is what most of us thought about the
abrogation of Article 370 in August of 2019.

 It is imperative that all of us never lose our eyes on the ball which is to
consistently advocate the Right to Self Determination of the Kashmiri people,
including of the Muslims refugees of Jammu and their families who were forced
to leave their homeland in 1947.
 And like the Hindutva lobbies have already done here in DC, I urge all of you to
reach out to other communities who have suffered like the Kashmiris or
sometimes even worse and would be willing to join our advocacy efforts.
 This may include Turkish diplomats, Black Lives Matter, and Freedom for
Palestine lobbying groups, among others. Many marched with us in 2019 when
we had huge protests in DC and NY and hearings in Congress.
 Let’s learn from what the Hindutva groups are doing and stop sitting in our silos.
Many Kashmiris say that only Kashmiris should speak for Kashmiris. I disagree.
Democracy is a number game and we desperately need to increase ours.
Today, I wanted to especially thank my close friend Madiha Shakil Khan from
Rawalakot who lectures at Muzaffarabad and has written extensively about the
Jammu massacre. She provided many of the details. She has not only been
my eyes and ears but is a never-ending inspiration for me. She told me earlier
this week:
 “The current movement in AJK began with protests over electricity bills and inflation.
These were sensitive governance matters that various sub-nationalist groups started
rallying against. To support these protests, funding was required, and individuals
with connections to “RAW” stepped in. They managed to give this “movement” a
higher profile than necessary. Additionally, some nationalist groups also began
working to undermine Pakistan through this movement.
 News about the actions of these nationalists has been circulating on Indian media.
However, this does not mean people from AJK are voicing anti-Pakistan sentiments;
it is the result of Indian funds working behind the scenes. People residing outside
AJK engage in activities aimed at tarnishing Pakistan’s image globally. They use this
protest at the UNHRC to say people are turning against Pakistan. While it’s true that
inflation has significantly increased, this issue is not unique to Pakistan; it’s a global
concern, as evidenced by the statistics.”

Thank you so much for having me here.