With Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) being robbed of its special status, it has emerged that the United States (US) already knew about the development that could lead to a Muslim genocide in the troubled valley.
In a move to tighten its grip on occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India on Monday dropped a constitutional provision that allowed the disputed territory to make its own laws.
According to The Print, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi-led government’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had told his American counterpart Mike Pompeo of his government’s plan last week.
It, however, wasn’t the first time Washington was briefed on the matter as two days after February 14’s Pulwama attack, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had also called his US counterpart John Bolton and shared New Delhi’s plans to do away with the special status, reports said.
While the decision to bifurcate the state came much later than the Doval-Bolton phonecall, Jaishankar’s meeting with the US secretary of state came on the sidelines of the 9th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bangkok on August 1.
Jaishankar had also reiterated to Pompeo that the US does not need to mediate in the Kashmir dispute and that any discussion on this issue, “if at all warranted”, will only be with Pakistan unilaterally.
The Modi government did not want to take any chances when it came to the US, and so, all necessary safeguards were taken, the report quoted sources as saying.
KASHMIR ROBBED OF SPECIAL STATUS:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government on Monday revoked the disputed Himalayan territory’s special status by abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution.
With IoK’s autonomy snatched, people from the rest of India would have the right to acquire property in the valley and settle there permanently.
Kashmiris fear the move would lead to a demographic transformation of the region from majority-Muslim to majority-Hindu, paving way for Modi’s hardliner BJP and resulting in major setbacks to their freedom struggle.
