Pakistan puts civilians of PoK in the frontline, as their uniformed men cower in the back

A video capturing protests by citizens of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) emerged in the public domain. The citizens in PoK gathered to protest against Pakistani army and raised slogans- telling the army to ‘leave Kashmir’.

“Pakistani Faujiyon chhod do Kashmir ko (Pakistan Army, leave Kashmir). Ye jo dehshatgardhi hai, iske peechhe vardi hai (The uniform is behind this terror)”, sloganeered the protesters.

Pakistani army is using the residents of Pakistan occupied Kashmir as bait. The people from villages in border areas like Lam and Charhoi were forcefully pushed towards the Line of Control (LoC). The strategy is to place civilians on the frontlines, and start cross border firing to provoke the Indian side. The retaliatory firing by Indian Army would end up hurting civilians, giving Pakistan what it wants to boost its propaganda campaign against India. Pakistani army conducts ‘night raids’ to push the villagers towards the borderline, and the protests in PoK call for ‘No more night raids’.

Since the abolition of Article 370, Pakistan has been trying to project the Kashmir issue as ‘a humanitarian crisis’. The Pakistani Prime Minister blamed India for ethnic cleansing of Muslim community and asked the larger Muslim ‘Ummah’ for help. However, the Pakistani Army has carried mass killings, abduction, and other human rights violations in PoK and Gilgit Baltistan.

Since 1988, Pakistan is using POK as the place of exporting terrorism. Jihadists from Pakistan get trained in this area and infiltrate into Kashmir via POK. When Omar Obdullah was Chief Minister of Jammu-Kashmir, he said in the Assembly house that, “there are more than four thousand terrorists under training in the POK area and more than three thousands terrorists are constantly trying to sneak into India.”

Anjuman Minhaj-e-Rasool’s head Maulana Syed Athar Dehlavi has recently spoke to media about PM Modi’s governance. The people of POK were very impressed with the development works done in Jammu and Kashmir. He also said that, India was helpful in recent calamities of floods and earthquakes and people were highly appreciative of Modi led India’s progress and development work. Not only that, a recently conducted survey in POK revealed that, close to 99% of people opted to stay inside India than Pakistan or rather stay independent as Azad Kashmir. Anjuman Minhaj-e-Rasool is an activist group in POK, which has been condemning the atrocities of Pakistan and urging for the establishment of peaceful law and order.

In the popular epic action film Baahubali, when the ‘savages’ called kalakeyas attack the Kingdom of Mahishmati, they use common civilians as ‘human shields’ against the armed forces of Mahishmati.  Amarendra manages to save the civilians before attacking the savages while Bhallaladeva crushes them along with invaders. Amrendra is announced to be king because he protected the weak and Bhallaladeva gets anointed as ‘senapati’.

Using civilians as bait against armed forced is considered a barbarian war tactic, and it never found a place in Hindu codes and ethics of war. But the Pakistani Army is using same tactic in its proxy war along the Kashmir border.

The people in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, who face the wrath of Pakistani army every day, want freedom. The use of civilians as human shield is the war strategy used by predatory savages, and Pakistani army has adopted this, only to propagate lies and strengthen claims of human rights violation in Kashmir.