- Tens of thousands of Kashmiris defy freezing temperatures to mark India’s Republic Day as a “Black Day.”
- Decades of human rights abuses, including mass killings, disappearances, and draconian laws, haunt Kashmir.
- Global powers, including the UN, EU, and the U.S., remain silent on India’s brutal occupation.
- A heartfelt plea from Kashmir: Will the world hear their cries for justice, or let history repeat its failures?
As the world’s most powerful nations celebrate their democracies in sprawling capitals like Washington, New York, Brussels, Paris, and London, there is a corner of the earth where democracy remains a dream deferred, freedom a distant memory, and justice a fading hope. Kashmir, the land once known as “paradise on earth,” now bleeds under the crushing weight of occupation, a painful reminder of humanity’s collective failure to protect the powerless.
Yesterday on Sunday, in bitter cold that dipped below zero, thousands of Kashmiris, young and old, braved the icy winds to mark India’s Republic Day not with celebration, but as a day of mourning. Streets in Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, and other parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) were flooded with people holding black flags, burning effigies, and tearing Indian flags, each action a desperate cry for justice in a world that seems deaf to their plight.
For decades, the people of Kashmir have turned their tear-filled eyes toward the towering buildings of power and authority—the White House, the European Union’s glassy headquarters in Brussels, the United Nations in New York, and the Palais Bourbon in Paris—seeking intervention, begging for dignity, yearning for the world to remember its promises. Their pleas have echoed in the cold corridors of power but have often been met with indifference, bureaucracy, and silence.
A Land of Loss and Lament
In the snow-draped valleys of Kashmir, every household carries a story of grief. There are mothers who no longer have the strength to wail because their tears have dried up after years of mourning their disappeared sons. Fathers, once brimming with pride for their children, have aged decades in just a few years, their backs bent not just by time, but by the weight of despair.
Kashmiris observing Indian Republic Day as Black Day today Strike being observed across IIOJK
Children, the innocent faces of tomorrow, have grown up under the shadow of occupation, their laughter replaced by the sounds of gunfire. These are not stories of yesterday; they are the lived reality of today. Every street corner in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) bears silent testimony to unmarked graves, stories of mass rapes, and memories of lives stolen too soon.
Kashmiris are not fighting for luxuries or privileges. They are fighting for the fundamental right to exist, to live without fear, and to determine their destiny—rights that every democracy claims to champion. But for 78 years, these rights have been brutally denied by India, a country that calls itself the world’s largest democracy but has turned Kashmir into one of the world’s most militarized zones.
The Pain of a Forgotten Promise
The United Nations resolutions of 1948 and 1949, which promised a plebiscite to let Kashmiris decide their fate, remain unfulfilled. For generations, Kashmiris have waited for the world to keep its word, for the Security Council to enforce its resolutions, and for the champions of democracy to rise in defense of the oppressed. But year after year, as the seasons change in Kashmir, so does their hope fade.
Indian Republic Day: A Black Day for Kashmiris
This January 26, Kashmiris reminded the world of that promise. They marched in freezing cold, clutching banners and chanting slogans not of hate but of hope: “We shall overcome,” “Freedom is our right,” and “Listen to us.” Yet their voices, amplified by the haunting silence of the Himalayan mountains, are rarely heard in the power capitals of the world.
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” To those in Washington, Brussels, Paris, and London who celebrate freedom as the highest virtue, how can you celebrate while a people are suffocating under tyranny? To the United Nations, the bastion of peace and justice, how can you look at Kashmir and not see the failure of your mission? To the European Union, a union built on the ruins of war and oppression, how can you stay silent when a genocide brews in broad daylight,” Rubab Ashraf, a student in university of Mirpur University of Science And technology questioned.
The Human Cost of Inaction
Imagine a father burying his son in the dead of night, afraid that even grief might invite the wrath of soldiers. Picture a mother who clutches the clothes of her child, the only remnant left after her son disappeared years ago. Envision a young girl standing by her window, staring at a barbed-wire fence, wondering why the world beyond those wires is free while her world is a prison.
This is the reality of Kashmir. It is not a political issue—it is a human tragedy.
The Jammu Massacre of 1947, where over 200,000 Muslims were butchered, marked the beginning of this cycle of violence. Today, the violence continues with fresh atrocities: enforced disappearances, custodial deaths, extrajudicial killings, mass blinding through pellet guns, and the use of rape as a weapon of war. These are not mere numbers; they are human lives. They are hopes extinguished, dreams shattered, and futures stolen.
A respected Indian author, Arundhati Roy, once said, “The biggest myth of all time is that India is a democracy.” Her words echo painfully true in Kashmir, where democracy exists only in name, and the occupying forces wield unchecked power under draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
A World’s Conscience on Trial
History will remember this moment. The world will either be remembered as having risen to defend the defenseless or as having stood idly by as another chapter of human suffering unfolded.
To President Joe Donald Trump, in Washington: Will you stand by your commitment to human rights, or will you prioritize geopolitical alliances? To the European Union: Will you honor the principles of liberty and justice on which your union was built, or will you turn a blind eye to a brutal occupation? To the United Nations: Will you fulfill your charter’s promise to protect the vulnerable, or will you let Kashmir remain a symbol of your inaction?
To Paris, London, Berlin, and Islamabad: Will you allow Kashmir to be another Rwanda, another Bosnia, another Palestine? Or will you stand on the right side of history and say, “Enough is enough”?
A Plea for Humanity
This is not just about Kashmir. It is about the soul of humanity. If we cannot protect a people crying out for help, what does that say about us?
To those in power, to those with influence, to the decision-makers in capitals far from the snowy streets of Muzaffarabad: The tears of Kashmiris are not a flood to be ignored. Their cries are not whispers to be silenced. They are a call to your conscience, a test of your humanity.
In the words of a young Kashmiri boy at the rally: “We have no weapons, no armies, no money. We only have our voices. Will the world hear us, or will it let us die in silence?”
The Final Call
Analyst believe, the time for action is now. Kashmir cannot wait another year, another decade, another generation. The sprawling buildings of the United Nations, the grandeur of the White House, and the majesty of the European capitals must not become monuments to apathy.
The people of Kashmir are watching. The world is watching. And history is taking notes. Will you answer their cries, or will you let their tears flow unchecked into the rivers of forgotten struggles?
The world’s conscience hangs in the balance, and the tears of Kashmir demand an answer.