Let apples rot on trees
Other Voices
THE Kashmiri people continue their rebellion against the Indian repression. New Delhi has deployed tens of thousands of extra troops since early August, when it scrapped the region’s decades-old semi-autonomous status, and brought the communications to a standstill by cutting the Kashmiris from the outside world.
The politicians and thousands of civilians have been arrested, and there are allegations of torture and abuse leveled at the authorities and protests have raged ever since.
The movement of the Kashmiri Muslims and their grievances at the hands of the Indian government have been met with blind eyes and fallen on the deaf ears of the Arab or Muslim governments and here we must stop and ask those governments who claim to carry the banner of Islam, Muslim organizations and individuals: ‘Why silence towards your Kashmiri brothers in religion? And where are your eternal Islamic principles. The Prophet (PBUH) said ‘A believer to another believer is like a building whose different parts enforce each other’.
“Why are you working to rip off the nation and divide it, making enemies of Muslims and Arabs rejoice who are known to all. Why are you working hard to make new enemies as if we have managed to find solutions for all our problems and the problems of our nation in the area of development, integrity and urbanization to antagonize our countries and communities, pointing the war arrows against them, even though we have not won a single war for centuries?
Going back to the movement, the farmers of Kashmir have joined to criticize India’s actions by deliberately sabotaging a crop vital to the local
economy according to Agence FrancePresse (AFP) in a recent report.
The fertile Himalayan region usually sells hundreds of millions of dollars worth of apples each year, and more than half of Kashmiris are engaged directly or indirectly in their cultivation.
One owner of an apple orchard, Ghulam Nabi Malik usually sells 7,000 boxes of apples a year for markets and dinner tables across India, earning some seven million rupees (nearly $100,000). His land is now idle with branches sagging under the weight of unpicked apples.
“Let it rot on the trees,” Malik said and pointed out because harvesting the fruit would allow the Indian government “to tell the world that everything is fine in Kashmir” which is far away from reality.
The militants have circulated pamphlets and stuck posters outside mosques, appealing to orchard owners not to harvest and instead join the ‘resistance’.
We sympathize with our brothers in the religion and humanity – the people of Kashmir. We call on the world for support for self-determination and the autonomy of their beautiful country, if not God will be with you and repeat the words of the eminent poet: If people want to live, destiny will inevitably respond, God willing.