People have become conscious about the national identity and recognition of Gilgit Baltistan to some extent and have started realising that they are not free in real sense but are under the control of any country.
Neither they have freedom to think and speak nor have they freedom of listening to. The only thing they feel is that they are under the subjugation of any country for the past 60 years.However, now the progressive and conscious people want to further their movement, keeping in view the modern, scientific way of thinking, to get freedom from the yoke of slavery.
They have started thinking that the freedom struggle cannot be furthered from a single platform.No conscious person of the world can deny that the policy of divide and rule was imposed on people of the region by oppressing them and keeping them unaware about the outer world.
People of this region are compelled to live in the Stone Age even in the challenging times of the 21st century. Creation of an atmosphere of unrest and dependence on fake accords to turn this region into a colony is not only part of a well-thought plan to enslave people but is also tantamount to hoodwinking the international human rights organisations and humanity.
The question arises as to who is responsible for subjugation of the people of Gilgit Baltistan and infringement of their rights for past six decades? Who is responsible for subjugation of Gilgit Baltistan: India or Pakistan? And people of this region also need to think whether ignorance and unconsciousness is their destiny?We think that firstly the Pakistani rulers played the game of entangling people of this region in trivial matters by benefiting from their ignorance and political unawareness and did not allow them to think about launching a freedom movement. And they made the Pakistani ministers and secretaries master of this region by keeping locals in the dark and presented these ministers and secretaries in the outer world as representatives of the people of Gilgit Baltistan.
When the people of the region got conscious, they came to know that it is too late. The ongoing freedom struggle in Gilgit Baltistan can meet a success but also furthering the struggle against the communal divisions. Besides outsiders, currently some vested interests within the locals are also active and are ready to seal a deal for the personal interests and cheap publicity while setting the national identity and recognition aside.
The war against such vested interests and cohorts of bureaucracy from single platform is impossible. If people of the region really want freedom, they should further the freedom movement on every front, as different movements to defeat the occupiers and they cronies will have to be organised and war will have to be fought on various fronts and battlegrounds.We think that besides being struggle for freedom from the 60-year occupation of a state, it is also a communal war.
It is a struggle of the middle and lower-middle class against the oppression and for the equality while students are struggling for their rights and national identity. It is a war for joining the civilised nations of the world on the basis of equality. However, the process of revolution can reach a logical conclusion only if all these movements are linked up with each other.If the people of Gilgit Baltistan failed in furthering their struggle in a proper and planned manner, their struggle could be deviated from the right path and hurdles could be created in the way of a revolution. Moreover, the enemies of their freedom would infiltrate in their ranks and every modus operandi would be adopted in an unrealised way to sabotage their movement.
Therefore, the revolutionaries will have to first organise themselves and will have to give equal opportunity to everyone of them to serve the people. In short, the political training of people must be made part and parcel of the manifestoes. People of the area will have to be informed in a scientific manner that nations struggle for their freedom, for their recognition and for their identity.
They need to be told that waging a freedom struggle is not a crime because we are not part of any country and have risen up to create a country. It is our right and a right is not begged for but snatched. The whole world knows that Gilgit Baltistan fulfils also demands to become an independent state, therefore, people of the region does not need packages but an independent state. The writer is a Gilgit Baltistan Based Jurnalist
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