Open letter to His Excellency President Barack Obama

Esteemed Sir,

As you are ready to embark on your journey to India, I would kindly like to draw your attention to the situation in Jammu & Kashmir. I firmly believe that a solution of this decades old problem should be part of the 'regional approach' which your Excellency has initiated. The Kashmir issue has lingered on far too long and both India and Pakistan have been unable to reach a consensus on this issue because of prestige and unwillingness, which has resulted in a spree of violence and uncertainty for all of South Asia.

Your Excellency, we Kashmiris have been victims of terrorism, human rights violations, curfews and have been deprived of a voice for more than six decades. We Kashmiris have been treated like colonial slaves and have been expropriated of our freedom and inalienable rights. Your Excellency has been a staunch advocate of democracy and freedom and we humbly hope that while on your peace-crusade, you will be able to facilitate a shift in the attitudes of both India and Pakistan towards this issue. Your statement during your election campaign, wherein you said that "the USA should try to help resolve the Kashmir issue between Pakistan and India" and your historic election victory has ignited a fire of hope among the people of Kashmir as you are regarded as the torch-bearer of change. Your Excellency, we hope that your promised change will be extended towards Jammu & Kashmir as well, so that our future generations can live in peace and harmony and share the world's progress into the computer-age instead of becoming victims of death and destruction.

Dear Excellency, in order to reach lasting peace in the region it is necessary that the two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, will improve their relations and diminish suspicion and hatred. Solution of the Kashmir issue is the key towards that harmony. Its dimensions and consequences stretch far wider than its borders and if addressed it could even prove to be a facilitating factor in stability and peace in the whole region, including Afghanistan. Besides Pakistan and India’s animosity, China’s recent involvement in this issue has now pitted three nuclear powers against each other. Dear Excellency, the Afghanistanization of Kashmir and possibility of a nuclear war can only be prevented if this issue is addressed forthwith.

Your Excellency, on behalf of the Kashmiri nation, I would like to request you to view this issue through the perspective of the oppressed Kashmiris instead of the oppressors. It is a cruel irony that for so many years the world has not turned their attention towards the humanitarian dimensions of the Kashmir issue, but has always viewed this issue through the perspectives of either India or Pakistan because of their economic and strategic strengths. Meanwhile, custodial deaths, curfews, arbitrary arrests, dividing Line of Control, handicapped courts of law, terrorism and discrimination have destroyed this heaven on earth and turned it into a hell. Bilateral initiatives between India and Pakistan as well as international endeavors have always failed, because the people of Kashmir and their aspirations have always been neglected. We Kashmiris require the freedom and space to form and define what our identity should be. Pakistan and India should apply a bounteous approach and assist us by creating a peaceful atmosphere instead of trying to define our identity for us.

Your Excellency, I request you to offer the best of your offices to initiate a peace process, which will include the people of Jammu & Kashmir, in order to reach a peaceful settlement which will be based on the incontestable principles of justice.


Kind regards,

M. Hashim Qureshi
Chairman JK Democratic Liberation Party