Is Kashmir’s Future a Fait Accompli?
Mohammed Ajeeb CBE
Bradford: On 5 May 2026, I attended two events in Bradford, UK, marking Kashmir Solidarity Day—an observance initiated by the Government of Pakistan in 2004 to express solidarity between the people of Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.
The purpose of the day is to highlight what Pakistan regards as India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and the continuing oppression faced by Kashmiris in the Indian-occupied region.
Against the backdrop of an increasingly volatile global environment, Pakistan’s own political instability, and speeches delivered by Pakistan’s President and Prime Minister on this occasion, I felt compelled to reflect on whether Kashmir Solidarity Day has become a symbolic ritual rather than a meaningful intervention—and whether the fate of Kashmir has already been decided.
History shows that many of humanity’s greatest tragedies stem from the relentless pursuit of power: the desire to conquer, control, and dominate others for ego and ambition.
Modern conflicts are simply contemporary manifestations of this same greed for territory and resources. The dream of global peace remains unfulfilled, while suppression and oppression continue unchecked, particularly when perpetrated by powerful states.
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Few situations illustrate this moral failure more clearly than Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir, an autonomous princely state at the time of the 1947 partition of the subcontinent, was left divided and unstable by British imperial mismanagement—one of its final and ugliest legacies.
Since 1948, Kashmir has remained a core dispute between India and Pakistan.
Immediately after partition, the disagreement over Jammu and Kashmir escalated into the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–48, the first of five wars fought over the territory, including the most recent conflict in May 2025.
Pakistan entered the conflict weeks after independence by supporting tribal fighters from Waziristan. The war ended inconclusively, but its consequences continue to shape South Asian geopolitics.
India took the dispute to the newly formed United Nations, leading to UN Security Council Resolution 47 on 21 April 1948. The resolution called for a ceasefire, demilitarisation, and a plebiscite to allow Kashmiris to determine their future. While a ceasefire was achieved, disagreements over demilitarisation prevented the plebiscite from ever taking place.
Decades later, the situation remains unresolved and increasingly brutal.
In July 2016, the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, a young Kashmiri resistance figure, sparked mass protests across Indian-occupied Kashmir. Indian forces responded with overwhelming force, resulting in more than 1,000 deaths and over 15,000 injuries. The use of pellet guns—internationally condemned—blinded thousands of young Kashmiris.
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Torture, sexual violence, and collective punishment were carried out with near-total impunity.
Since 1988, it is estimated that over 100,000 Kashmiris have been killed, thousands of women sexually assaulted, and countless civilians injured or permanently disabled. These figures represent not isolated incidents, but a sustained policy of repression.
The situation has been further complicated by allegations that both Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies have interfered in Kashmiri politics, recruiting individuals from political groups on both sides of the Line of Control.
This has fractured Kashmiri leadership, weakened the independence movement, and undermined unity among the Kashmiri diaspora. As a result, lobbying efforts in Western countries have lacked coherence and impact.
A turning point came on 5 August 2019, when India revoked Articles 370 and 35A of its constitution, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and allowing non-Kashmiris to purchase land and property.
The legislation was rushed through Parliament under a total communications blackout. Since then, over ten million Kashmiris have lived under prolonged curfews, with severe restrictions on movement, expression, and internet access.
India deployed an additional 10,000 paramilitary forces to Srinagar, supplementing an already vast military presence of around 800,000 troops. These measures appear designed to coerce Kashmiris into submission and to facilitate long-term demographic change. Despite this, Kashmiri resilience remains unbroken.
India has barred foreign journalists and independent observers, effectively concealing the scale of human rights abuses.
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Kashmir has become a living indictment of the moral bankruptcy of states that claim to champion freedom while prioritising political and economic self-interest.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his RSS-aligned BJP government, India has embraced a majoritarian ideology with disturbing similarities to European fascism. Religious minorities—Muslims, Christians, and lower-caste Hindus—face increasing violence, lynchings, forced conversions, and discrimination, often tolerated or enabled by the state.
Electoral legitimacy alone does not guarantee democracy; history reminds us that leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini also rose through the ballot box. Under Modi, India’s claim to secular democracy is increasingly untenable.
Western governments continue to appease India for strategic and commercial reasons, ignoring the long-term dangers of unchecked religious extremism. History demonstrates that religion alone cannot indefinitely bind a diverse society—India would do well to heed Pakistan’s own painful lessons.
Meanwhile, Kashmir remains under siege. Five years after the revocation of Article 35A, military occupation and demographic engineering reveal India’s determination to permanently annex the territory.
Pakistan, for its part, has failed to internationalise the issue effectively. Reliance on the United States, the United Nations, or transient political figures such as Donald Trump reflects self-deception.
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The United States has never been a consistent ally of Muslim causes, and the UN’s inaction—from Kashmir to Gaza—has exposed its limitations.
Expecting India to surrender Kashmir under external pressure is unrealistic. The current Indian leadership rejects dialogue and continues to issue threats against Azad Kashmir. In this context, one must ask whether symbolic observances like Kashmir Solidarity Day genuinely advance the cause, or merely serve to pacify suffering populations.
Pakistani political rhetoric on Kashmir is decades old, yet conditions on the ground have only deteriorated. The Kashmir story is one of betrayal, suffering, and repeated political failure.
Territorial disputes between nuclear-armed states are rarely resolved through force, and Pakistan’s economic fragility and political instability make military options implausible. What is required instead is a transparent reassessment of Pakistan’s Kashmir policy.
A retired senior Pakistani civil servant once remarked: “India and Pakistan are on the same page concerning Kashmir. Azad Kashmir is a golden-egg-laying chicken for dominant Punjabi supremacy and bureaucratic power. The Kashmir Committee is used for political corruption. The Kashmir issue has reached its logical conclusion—it is a fait accompli.”
As unsettling as this assessment is, it carries uncomfortable plausibility. What Kashmiris deserve now is honesty. They deserve moral courage and truth from those in power about the fate of their long-suffering homeland.
The author is former Lord Mayor of Bradford UK.
The article is the writer’s opinion, it may or may not adhere to the organization’s editorial policy.
This is an exceptionally articulated and intellectually rigorous piece, offering deep insight and learning for anyone seeking to understand the Kashmiri struggle, its historical context, and the complex timeline of its political and moral dilemmas. Mohammed Ajeeb demonstrates not only an impressive command of the subject but also a profound passion for the Kashmiri people’s quest for self-determination. Few writers possess the ability to marshal facts scattered across countless books and academic journals and present them with such clarity, coherence, and persuasive force.
This write up stands as a powerful indictment of the entrenched collusion between political elites on both sides of the Pakistan–India divide. In pursuit of narrow, vested interests, successive governments in both countries have actively contributed to the prolongation of the Kashmiri impasse, reducing a legitimate struggle to a pawn in regional power politics. Equally culpable is the political leadership of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, whose subservience to Islamabad has systematically undermined and diluted the people’s rightful demand for self-determination.