Pakistan a fake democracy, India needs to break Pak’s nexus with China: Self-exiled Uyghur leader

According to a senior Uyghur leader, China has to be stopped from backing Pakistan and India can play a vital role when it joins other local superpowers in doing so.

“Only when China-Pakistan nexus is broken can the issue of Kashmir between India and Pakistan solved,” said Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, Director of the Chinese Affairs Department of the World Uyghur Congress

He also went on to call Pakistan “a fake democracy, living in the Middle Ages”.

Releasing a 48-page Report on ‘Comparative Study of Human Development and Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan’ done by Delhi-headquartered think-tank Law and Society Alliance, Kokbore said, “If we can stop China backing Pakistan, then the question of Jammu and Kashmir can be peacefully solved”.

“For finding a solution for Uighur and Jammu and Kashmir issues, we need to stop China. The route is in China and this is the number one threat to humanity,” Kokbore added. “I don’t think without China’s support, Pakistan can continue its terrorism. If we counter China, Pakistan will come to the table to find a solution to the Jammu and Kashmir question.”

Other speakers at the webinar included Kashmiri-origin senior journalist Aarti Tikoo, social activist and political analyst Yana Mirchandani, and Chairman of Sunrise in Kashmir Faaiz Dijoo.

For countering counter China, Kokbore said India must support the cause of democracy in China, particularly the movements in Hong Kong, Tibet, and East Turkestan. “We shall find a solution to the Uyghur issue if China becomes a democracy. And India could find a solution to the border issue.”

Kokbore, while criticizing Muslim-majority nations for their silence on the persecution of Uyghur’s, said that the world has resorted to appeasement of China.

“Countries like the US, Europe are speaking, India has started to speak, we have not heard anything from the Islamic and Turkic world. They are all silent and are going into bilateral agreements with China. We are left with no choice,” he said.

Aarti Tikoo quoted the Freedom House Index to highlight that people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan were not enjoying freedom at all, while the people of Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed much more freedom. She blamed Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir for the security-related curbs to freedoms.

“Pakistan has ensured a rapid demographic change in PoK and G-B through laws and by settling down populations from other parts of Pakistan. In the last 70 years, India ensured that there is no demographic change in the population in J&K and it continues to maintain a Muslim-majority character. The only community that was ethnically cleansed were Kashmiri Hindus. Hence, Pakistan was able to ensure a demographic change in PoK & G-B, and the Indian side of J&K as well,” she said.

Dijoo, in his remarks, argued since the Article 370 of the Indian constitution was rendered ineffective by the Indian parliament there should be relaxing the communication curbs that include lack of 4G mobile phone connectivity, and for reopening of schools and colleges that have remained closed.

He suggested the Indian government needs to create avenues to produce revenues. “The entire Kashmir is being trapped in drugs abuse now. We need to engage and address the youth. That is how we are going to make a change.”

Yana Mirchandani argued that in Jammu and Kashmir, the earlier regimes gobbled up funds allocated by the Indian government. “

The politicians of the erstwhile state and Article 370 of the Indian constitution did not allow the people of Kashmir to bond with the Indian state. That was the reason the Indian parliament had to do away with Article 370 and the discriminatory Article 35A.”

“Personal vendettas between two locals that result in crimes are blamed on the Indian Army and the force that is there to protect us is being painted as the villain,” she said, adding, “Indian Army that was deployed to protect the local population from terror attacks are being stone-pelted by vested interests in the state.”