Kashmir is called a paradise on the earth and Switzerland of South Asia due to its eternal beauty. This beautiful and scenic land is deprived of peace for the last seven decades. The tale of Kashmiri’s miseries is full of pain and suffering and shattered promises. Uncertainty and chaos have become a part of IIOJK people due to the countless atrocities by the fascist rule of the Modi-led BJP’s discriminatory policies against Kashmiri Muslims. Kashmiris are imbued with Jihadi spirit for their constitutional right of self-determination and have been rendering sacrifices with their lives against the continuous forcible occupation of their land by India. A tradition they keep alive. According to Kashmir Media Service, almost 100,000 Kashmiris have been martyred since 1989. Brutalities have left 11244 women raped, 22928 women widowed, and 107824 children orphaned. Additionally, 4577 men, women, and children have suffered eye injuries due to pallet-gun use by the security forces.
Continuous torture, killings of innocent civilians, and draconian laws in the form of AFSPA and PSA, have created discontent among Kashmiris forcing them to join groups fighting against the Indian rule in the valley. Burhan Muzaffar Wani was among those youngsters who joined Hizbul Mujahedeen as a commander and contributed his services in IIIOJK for the freedom struggle and became a symbol of Kashmiri resistance against the occupied forces. He wielded massive popularity among the Kashmiri populace, especially the youth, due to his social media outreach. Burhan joined the armed struggle on October 16, 2010, to avenge the humiliation when he was severely beaten by Indian troops. He was martyred by the Indian Army on July 8, 2016.
More than one million people gathered at Eidgah Tral and offered 40 funerals of Burhan. He was laid to rest close to the grave of his elder brother Khalid Muzafar Wani. Following Burhan’s martyrdom, wide-scale protests took place all around the valley. In order to contain the protests, Indian forces resorted to firing on innocent civilians killing more than 60 persons and wounding over 5,500. Analysts believe that Burhan’s martyrdom would inspire more people to join the armed rebellion and would spur the renewed Kashmir freedom movement. Wani was the face of Kashmiri’s resistance to the Indian Army’s brutal tactics. He alone re-energized the Kashmiri freedom struggle. Burhan had grabbed a huge following due to his social media outreach and symbolically he had gained a pedestal that was worrisome for Indian occupying forces and remained a threat to Indian armed forces.
Burhan used modern technology and the internet to promote the Kashmiri cause on social media sent shock waves across the top ranks of the Indian army in New Delhi and gave sleepless nights to the New Delhi’s security establishment for more than six years. Burhan was a smart Kashmiri freedom fighter with political guts and was completely following the line of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) to promote the Kashmiris’ struggle. He had his own agenda for armed life. Burhan and his colleagues used to sleep in the day and moved from one area to another at night to change their location in south Kashmir. He broke more than 20 Indian army crackdowns with the help of local people who came to rescue him while pelting security forces with stones during the siege and search operations showing the popularity and love of the people for Burhan in IIOJK.
Therefore, Kashmir is one of the most heavily militarized places in the world. The Indian Army has been given immunity to commit human rights violations in Kashmir in the form of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA).UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged India in May 2021 in a UN report to stop the use of pellets against children, ensure children are not associated in any way with security forces, and endorsed the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration and the Vancouver Principles. Kashmiris have suffered incalculable social, economic, and psychological distresses. When a bread-earner dies, it shakes the whole family system. Difficult economic conditions, coupled with inhumane treatment of Kashmiris by the Indian forces, impels grieved youth to take up arms against their oppressors.
Tens of thousands of people in India illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have been deprived of their family members for spearheading the struggle for the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people. The freedom struggle of Kashmiris is adorned with the blood of martyrs and therefore no power on earth could defeat it through oppressive measures because Kashmiri’s lives matter. Kashmiri leaders strived and sacrificed their lives for this sacred cause and got their names written with honor and dignity in the annals of Kashmir history.
