We write to your esteemed self, with regards to the pitiable and deplorable state of human rights and norms in the occupied State of Jammu & Kashmir. The denial of the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu & Kashmir and the inadmissible Indian attempts to perpetuate and legitimize its occupation of J&K through invented pretexts and suppression over a period of four decades have exhausted the patience of the people of J&K. Disappointment and despair at India's refusal to fulfill its legal and moral obligations to them and the world at large, left them with no choice but to rise in a righteous struggle for the realization of their internationally acknowledged right to self-determination. 

Respected Sir. In order to understand the present conflict, it is appropriate to consider the manner in which the so-called accession of Kashmir to India took place. At the time of the British withdrawal from the Sub-continent and its partition, into India and Pakistan, the numerous princely states like Kashmir, Hyderabad and Junagadh were given the option to join either India or Pakistan. States in which rulers were from the same religion as their populace had no trouble deciding. Hindu states acceded to India and Muslim states naturally went to Pakistan. However in the aforementioned states the rulers belonged to a different religion than that of their respective populations and there was a clash of interest. The Muslim rulers of Hindu Junagadh acceded to Pakistan and that of Hyderabad wanted to remain independent. But the Indian army soon overran these states and annexed them. 

The Hindu Maharajah of Muslim Kashmir wanted to remain independent but his people wanted union with Pakistan, which had come into existence as a result of a union of the Muslim majority areas of pre-partition India. Maharajah's refusal to do so led to disturbances and widespread protests and his subsequent flight from his capital. His subsequent attempts to effect a crackdown failed and he turned to India for help, which immediately invaded the state (27 Oct, 1947). Later the Indians claimed that the Maharajah had acceded to India. There was no public comment from the Maharajah. He vanished and later died in mysterious circumstances in Delhi. 

However as Alistair Lamb, a journalist of world repute, reports in his in-depth study of the dispute (Jammu & Kashmir; summary of which is available as "The myth of Indian claim to Jammu & Kashmir"), the chronology of events as reported by the Indian government leading to the signing of the "Instrument of Accession", is fraught with obvious inaccuracies and lies. In fact, to date, no satisfactory original of the "Instrument of Accession" has been produced. Realizing the dubious nature of the 'accession' would spark world-wide protests, Indians declared that the "Instrument of Accession" executed by the Maharajah was "provisional" and subject to a "reference to the people". Indeed in a broadcast on 

Sir, how ironic and sad is the fact that this pledge, given by the first prime minister of world's largest democracy and further mandated by the United Nations, as is clear from the statement the President of Security Council of the UN made on 28 January, 1948, remains unfulfilled to this day 46 years later. The above mentioned address by the President of the Security Council reflected the various General Assembly and Security Council resolutions which emphasized that the accession of Kashmir to either India or Pakistan shall be decided by a fair and impartial plebiscite conducted under the aegis of the United Nations. The forceful subjugation by Indian troops was rejected by the Kashmiri people and this has resulted in constant upheavals and revolts against the Indian occupation in the last four and a half decades. This problem has caused two out of three Indo-Pakistani wars. Now this uprising has reached a decisive point and India has resorted to deploying 600,000 troops (50% of its total army and greater than the Army of neighboring Pakistan) against the civilian population of that small state which numbers less than 4 million people. 

Sir, even this horrifying imbalance of 1 soldier for every 6 Kashmiris (majority of whom are old men, women and children) has failed to suppress the freedom movement. Kashmir is under direct President's rule since 1990, after the state legislature was dissolved (the federally appointed governor had admitted that the Kashmiri legislature had a history of rigged elections). The nature of State-sponsored terrorism is exemplified by such unbelievable laws as "The Armed Forces (J&K) Special Powers Bill (1990), which have been passed by the parliament of world's largest "democracy". This Bill grants authorization to members of Indian Security Forces to "fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death against any person" without fire orders. No wonder, more than 60,000 people have been brutally murdered by the Indian Security Forces in the past eight years and thousands more have been intimidated and terrorized. What else would you call State-terrorism? And ironically it was Pakistan which almost had the distinction of being branded a terrorist state for professing support for these oppressed people. The Indian security forces have flouted all norms of civilized conduct. Kashmiri youths have been murdered in cold blood in fake encounters and Kashmiri women of all ages were and are gang-raped in the prescence of their families. International human rights organizations and the international press has been refused entry into the State by the Indian government. They can only visit the 

Sir, in these modern times of advance and reform, our world community which professes an awakening conscience for the value of human life and rights, is letting such atrocities to be committed on a vast and organized scale. While the world has responded to the Bosnian Civil War, it has so far failed to act to stop an even greater problem of abuse of human rights and mass genocide of Kashmiris by an invading army. It seems that commercial interests have taken precedence over the dignity of human life. All hopes of a free and a civilized world are dashed when even a superpower like the U.S. has to with- draw its criticism of Indian atrocities, by fears of upsetting those who rule in Delhi, what to talk about taking a leading role in ensuring justice in that part of the world. Sir, even as you read this, people who have dared to stand up for their basic human rights are being tortured and killed in Kashmir. Hundreds of villages have been burnt and fires have been so big that people across the border have been able to see them. Knowing that it cannot finish this uprising, India is rather content to extract its revenge on Kashmiris AS LONG AS IT IS ALLOWED TO. The sheer intensity of the freedom struggle guarantees its eventual success, but Sir, at what cost? Only a determined and aware world community can ease the misery of the Kashmiri people, as it did in the case of Kuwait and Bosnia. This conflict which already is one of the foremost world problem, has the potential to expand into yet another Indo-Pakistan war, as it nearly did in 1984, and the fact that both countries have nuclear capability leads to greater fears about the unthinkable. 

Sir, the Kashmiri people are depending on you. The survival of decency and civilization in our world is depending on you. As in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, winner of Nobel Peace Prize, "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people". Please save "the Paradise on Earth". 

Looking forward to your reply, 

Thank you.