A fair number of people think war between Pakistan & India is the only way Kashmiris can win self-determination against India’s colonial occupation. Perhaps none have spoken so cogently on what a disaster this would be for Kashmiris & Pakistani civilians than Indian activist Satyadeep Satya. He has made a compelling case that India is provoking Pakistan to war because the introduction of massive bombing can give cover to the ‘final solution’ in Kashmir & facilitate India’s territorial expropriation of Azad Kashmir, the Pakistan-controlled region of J&K. The prospects are an Idlib scenario, an Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria kind of genocide.
Those who promote war between Pakistan & India pander to the idea that Kashmir is primarily a territorial dispute between those two countries rather than a struggle for Kashmiri self-determination against Indian colonial occupation. But above all they express a lack of confidence in the Kashmiri struggle, in the ability to inspire & build a committed solidarity movement, in the power of international political pressure on the Indian government & economic pressure in the form of an economic boycott.
We can leave aside our different assessments about the character of the Pakistani government in its unquestionable support for Kashmir–including calling national protests for Kashmir. But its associations with US-NATO & Saudi Arabia in Afghanistan, with China & Burma despite the Uyghur & Rohingya genocides are a matter of grave concern & raise the question of its motivations in Kashmir. We can leave that aside & focus entirely on what it would mean for Pakistan to respond militarily to India’s provocations. Thus far, Pakistan has rebuffed those provocations because when it comes to military might, it is not a match for the Indian government which is armed by Israel, Russia, & the US with the most sophisticated weaponry whilst the US has been cutting back substantially on military aid to Pakistan.
The last thing Kashmiris or Azad Kashmiris need is the introduction of bombing. Only corrupt Assadists & Stalinists have ever championed bombing civilians as a way to ‘liberation’ & nobody wants to end up where they are politically. Those who war monger as a solution to the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination against Indian colonialism have not thought sufficiently about what that would mean to millions of unarmed civilians in J&K.
NO WAR! Demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian troops from Kashmir.