Saleem Safi argues that Imran Khan has missed many opportunities to take the Kashmir issue to the next level and has failed the people of Kashmir as well as Pakistan on many levels. The reasons for Imran Khan Government’s failure according to him are as given below:
- During the rule of Parvez Musharraf, Zardari, and Nawaz Sharif, terrorism was at its peak so that they could not concentrate much on Kashmir, but When Imran Khan formed government the menace of terrorism was controlled to a great extent.
- Post Burhan Wani, the militancy situation in Kashmir has intensified and locals are joining militancy in large numbers. It has been much easier to market the issue of Kashmir at the World stage.
- However, the government has failed to unmask the Hindutva policy of the Modi government and BJP and highlight increasing atrocities against the Muslim minorities in India. Imran Khan wrongly guessed the intentions of both Modi and Trump and the final blow was given when Modi scrapped article 370 from Kashmir with the blessings of Trump.
- All this happened, when Post 9/11, for the first time, the US was in desperate need of Pakistan on the issue of Taliban, and Pakistan could have easily used this as a bargaining chip on the issue of Kashmir and contained India, but due to inexperience of Imran Khan, bad judgment skills and most importantly the choice of his core team, he was unable to do so.
Interview of Sardar Masood Khan
Question: What is your view on the governments Kashmir policy and what went wrong?
Answer: The most important thing is the attitude of the government towards Kashmir and if continues like this, then the day is not far when J&K will completely slip out of our hands one day. Kashmir is burning, lands are been taken away from the locals and the Indian government has started a mission to settle Hindus in the valley and what Pakistan does is release a political map proclaiming Kashmir as our part it has been said for a long time and if India continues its policy like this, forget Kashmir, the Kashmiris will be soon lost somewhere and will become a minority in its land.
Question: What are the options for Pakistan?
Answer: Jihad is Farz for Muslims. Jihad is a doctrine of war and probably the most humanitarian doctrine of war in the Word. If we look into history, freedom only finds mention in speeches, however, no speech has won a war. Jihad is justified for the right cause. India has stationed nine lakh armed personnel in the valley and they, not the Kashmiri people, are terrorists, who are killing innocent people in fake encounters. He underlined that the US, Russia, France, and the UK are on India’s side and we need to respect countries like Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, and China who support Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir.