The seminar, “Kashmir back to international spot- what to do next?” was organized by Kashmir Institute of International Relations in collaboration with Center for Peace Development and Reforms, in Islamabad hotel, dated January 29, 2021. The panelists were honorable President AJK Sardar Masood Khan, Chairman Kashmir Parliamentary Committee Shehryar Khan Afridi, Senator Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, MNA Ghazala Saifi, MNA Dr. Seemi Bukhari, Prof. Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Prof. Muhammad Ali & Ersha Mehmud Executive Director CPDR.

 The seminar was moderated by the Chairman of KIIR, Altaf Hussain Wani. He then welcomed all the honorable panelists and participants. He recounted the achievements of Kashmiri freedom movement that has urged the global community to raise their voices for Kashmiri cause. He acknowledged and paid his thanks to the British Parliament, OHCHR panel for publishing two distinct reports on Human Rights violation in Indian occupied Kashmir. Moreover, he said that more than 8 international groups have condemned India since 5th of August, 2019 for subduing the rights of Kashmiri people. Lastly, he urged the honorable speakers to talk about the recommendations and suggestions regarding the future of Kashmir conflict in the changing dynamics of global politics. He, then, formally initiated the debate by inviting Mr. Ershad Mehmud to speak on this topic.

 Ershad Mehmud, Executive Director CPDR.

Ershad Mehmud thanked all panelists and other participants and Chairman KIIR Altaf Hussain Wani for providing him the opportunity to spark on this topic. He declared that 5th August, 2019 was not actually isolation to Kashmir, moreover it provided the opportunity to Pakistan and Kashmir to talk about Indian maneuvering, maligned and brutal policies regarding Indian occupied Kashmir on global forums. He talked about the BJP reactions towards this unilateral action as they took it as ideological victory over Kashmir and Pakistan. Indeed, Indian government always intended to change the world’s narrative regarding Kashmir but the Indian government’s unilateral action of scrapping article 370 Of Indian constitution had exposed India’s extremist approach on a global level. He explained how the right of dignity, selfdetermination and identity had been lost in IOK due to the domicile laws and demographic changes by Indian administration. He claimed that this action has been taken after systematic planning of settlement of non-Kashmiris in IOK. He then discussed the economic deprivation held in IOK due to consistent internet and communication blockade. Furthermore, he gave the estimated figures, i.e. 6 billion dollars loss in such a small region over the time period of 1.5 years. He added that the land grabbing, notching and vandalization of properties in the name of strategic lands is the ultimate tool to suppress the Kashmiri population in IOK. He discussed that there is no right of speech, thought, information and opinion in IOK, No space for political movement and voices, Media space in Kashmir has abolished. Public opinions have been lost, otherwise one could be easily detained and tortured under such conditions. In addition to that, he discussed how urdu language has been replaced by Hindi as an official language thus leading towards the identity loss in the region. He was affirmative regarding Joe Biden’s government in the USA as he could be approached on the grounds of democratic human rights. Moreover, he said that we should mobilize our Kashmiri diaspora. He suggested that we should strengthen social sciences in our universities so the youth could be better prepared to present the Kashmir issue in the international arena. He concluded on the remarks that Hindutva regime is ultimately Indianizing each and every state openly under the banner of the secular Indian Republic.
 Sheryar Khan Afridi, Chairman Kashmir Parliamentary Committee.

First of all, he thanked the president AJK, colleagues, parliamentarians and the KIIR team. He declared the Demographic alteration by Indian government in IOK as a cultural and legal terrorism. He said that Indian had been internationally exposed, such that their diplomats and representatives on international forums are ashamed and embarrassed due the the notorious acts of Modi government, thus they have adopted the defensive approach since 5th of August, 2019. He claimed that today, Pakistan’s stakeholders have a meaningful and offensive approach towards Indians. He suggested that we as a nation should strengthen telecommunication support so we could be able to play our cards on internationally recognized websites such as google, twitter etc. He explained that how these forums become resistant and irritant for Pakistanis and Kashmiris, their accounts get blocked, their content gets deleted, just because the main stakeholders includes Indian parties at upper position in the telecommunication global world, that's why we need to focus on improving this dimension too. He then discussed that we should enroll our students in top notch universities so they could easily mobilize our narrative on academic forums to counter the Indian one. He explained that we should engage in soft power manifestations instead of hard power, such as depiction of human rights violation through theaters, documentaries, dramas, movies and songs which should be launched on an international level. He recounted that on cultural fronts, IOK has been paralyzed. Moreover, he suggested that we should reach out to Parliamentary forums, House of Commons though Kashmiri diaspora so they could know the ground realities of Indian occupied Kashmir. He then discussed the legal obligations regarding human rights violation in IOK, he said that RSS fascist approach should be held accountable. In addition to that he suggested that we should arrange webinars to reach out international forums and actively regulate your accounts on social media to broadcast Pakistani and Kashmiri narrative.
 Prof Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal

He expressed his gratitude towards KIIR for providing him the opportunity to speak on this issue. He opened his debate by declaring that BJP demographic and domicile alteration plans had been effective to perform sustained Kashmiri genocide in IOK. Whereas, he also explained how this tactic of Indian government had turned its own tables down by converting pro Indian Kashmiri leadership to Pro Pakistan, as both the famous leaders, Mehbooba Mufti and Abdullah Farooq have unified against Indian government after consistent house arrests. He furthermore, discussed the process of Kashmiri resistance which has been strengthened under such circumstances as the longest double lockdown in IOK. He said that our responsibility is to diminish the Indian narrative which is to radicalize Kashmiri militancy. He urged the mobilization of Pakistani narrative by using positive terminologies in academic as well as electronic media for Kashmiri people as distinction of terms defines the narrative properly. He explained that the international community has shown nothing but silence in response to the abusive and barbaric behavior of Indians as they are growing and strengthening economically in the region, thus the international major stakeholders remained silent on this community genocide. Whereas, he also discussed that in relevance to such genocide, we as a nation, should endorse these fault lines in India, as it has been started to involve in multilingual and ethnic crisis. He also suggested that we should not only focus on the USA or Europe, but we should also engage and lobby against India in other P5 states and we should pick a Multinational approach.
 MNA Ghazala Saifi

She stated that we should mobilize the influencers which is basically the youth who can social media to throw light upon the plight of half widows, half orphans, pellet gun victims, sexual violence victims in IOK and the repercussions of such trauma of innocent Kashmiris. She declared that Hindutva is an amalgamation of terrorism and fascism, under the banner of so-called Democratic Secular Republic of India. She also emphasized on building and strengthening our own narratives in the international arena..
 Syed Muhammad Ali

Syed Ali paid his thanks to Chairman KIIR Altaf Hussain Wani and the team of KIIR for providing him the opportunity to speak on such a great issue which keeps on growing with today’s relevance. He, then, acknowledged the presence of all honorable speakers on the forum. He stated that basically, we, as a nation, need to fight and present the Kashmir issue internationally. He emphasized that we need to address the plight, pain and trauma of Kashmiris and we have legal evidence to formulate a case against India. Moreover, he said that with the support of education, Muslim youth and Kashmiri diaspora in international environment, the momentum of Kashmiri Resistance should be maintained. He explicated that India, being a nuclear power, is not in a position to exercise irresponsibly and barbarically in Indian occupied Kashmir, as this indicates the global threat. Furthermore, he declared that India is politically unstable as Modi’s government had been evident to perform on extreme caliber of violent state behaviors. He suggested that we need to fill spaces and approach human rights groups for the regulation of Pakistani narrative on the Kashmir issue among the Joe Biden’s administration. He explained that we should engage the USA’s people in Kashmir conflict by providing them the common comparisons between Kashmir struggle for independence to that of the USA's as Kashmiris also deserve liberty, self-determination like Americans did before independence. He recommended that students should not only protest but academically research about the Kashmiri issue and reach each and every possible dimension holding up the issue. In addition to that, he also gave a recommendation to KIIR to release an updated index of human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir on its website and maintain it on a monthly basis as it could provide meaningful figures to researchers, scholars and policy makers.
 MNA Dr. Seemi Bukhari

She thanked all the panelists present on the forum. She emphasized on the regulation of constructive approach to highlight the Kashmiri issue. She said that we have already successfully highlighted the issue globally as a PTI government members but she claimed that in the era of globalization, the main role has been still left to play by our youth who could easily mobilize the certain human rights violation happenings in IOK in the form of arbitrary detentions, torture, pellet guns and sexual gender based violations. She also encouraged the relentless efforts of Kashmiri diaspora in raising voices against the Hindutva regime on an international level.
 Senator Raja Zafar ul Haq

He encouraged the honorable panelists for providing the guidelines to youth, government and policy makers. He also threw light upon the biased media which basically failed to regulate the Kashmir issue unfortunately as per its significance. He instigated that we should talk and raise this issue regularly. He showed his affirmative behavior towards Joe Biden's administration whose policies could be favorable for Kashmiris as per his statement. Moreover, he said that we need to have strong representatives over there. He further acknowledged the Kashmiri resistance movement. He explained that historically, there has been no such state as compared to Kashmir who have given such thousands of sacrifices.
 President AJK Sardar Masood Khan

AJK thanked all the speakers, participants and chairman KIIR, Altaf Hussain Wani for inviting him to speak on such issue. He initiated his debate by reaffirming that Muslim nation is much stronger than any nation on the earth, thus we don’t need get threaten by any other non-Muslim state particularly India. He instigated that Kashmir will be free. He said that indeed war has been risen, Kashmiri genocide planning has been executed in IOK and he declared that it’s not just the issue of self-determination now as Kashmir has regain its position in world forum and India had been exposed on every level so we have the right time to weaken India’s image. He briefly gave comparison between fascist German and Indian Hindutva. He, then, paid his thanks to the house of commons, labour parties, lib dems and British parliament, which had supported Kashmiri right to self-determination. Furthermore, he pointed out that currently Kashmiri Diaspora community is almost 1 crore and they have been recognized internationally and successfully, they have regulated the issue internationally but have failed to hold India accountable. He recounted that in the last 6 months, 20 lac Indians (non kashmiris) have been populated in IOK as a result of new Domicile law. He explained that the roots of Internal India have already been weakened by its own policies and it could be evident by the incidence, that on 26th of January, Khalistan flag was raised in the replacement of Indian flag, thus we need to take benefit from this situation and expose India’s extremist policies against minorities on International level. He suggested that we should engage in multilateral diplomacy and Political unification to skeptically analyse and resolve the Kashmir conflict. He expressed that Kashmiri people have been deprived of their basic rights since last seven decades and have been suffering from horrendous torture since last three decades. He added that 9 lac Indian troops have been concentrated in IOK and such numbers have been never accumulated since World War 2. He pointed out that India has been acting below nuclear threshold, i.e. Pulwama attack and numerous other incidents at LOC. he suggested that then to counter Modi’s policies, we should also react under nuclear threshold to disunify akhand bharat agenda. Mr. Altaf Hussain Wani concluded the session by extended his thanks to all the speakers and guests. The seminar formally closed by the prayer recited by Senator Raja Zafar ul Haq.
  Recommendations:
1.  Our approach should to be inclusive to give a strong message to people of Indian occupied Kashmir that we have will               continue to support their right to selfdetermination against all odds.
2.  Like our nuclear programme, Kashmir should be national consensus point in letter and spirit.
3.  Adopt multilateral approach in diplomacy, to counter Indian Narrative.
4.  Use all Indian fault lines to unmask India in International community
5.  Invest in soft power to reach out to international audience, especially power centers.
6.  Research bases publications on different aspects of Kashmir must be made available in different languages
7.  Focus on Social science to create scholars to promote Pakistani narrative
8. Take measures to make pre-election statements of the US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the                policy statements of US administration.
9. Use the human rights space available in current US administration.
10. Make Kashmir moment international by involving all political parties to take advantage of our huge diaspora 11. Use                 all parliamentary forums available to generate more debates in different parliaments.

    \