Armed terrorists killed 26 men near Pahalgam in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025 after asking some tourists about their religion. Sudip Neupane, a Nepalese citizen from Kalikanagar, Butwal, who had come to Pahalgam, known as the 'Switzerland of Asia', to spend a holiday with his mother, sister and cousin was among those killed.

It was not difficult to determine that the terrorists were trying to convey at least seven messages through the slaughter of the tourists, who were meticulously non-Muslim (although the local guide and horse-riding operator Syed Adil Hussain Shah, who was listed among the dead, was a Muslim). Disruption of religious harmony was the primary objective. An attempt was made to discourage tourists by showing that the situation in Kashmir was not normal. The Indian government's law and order system was openly challenged through targeted killings. Demonstrating their courage, the terrorists invited Pakistan's permanent establishment to step up its covert interventionist activities. There could have been an attempt to draw international powers into the Kashmir issue by demonstrating the situation of armed conflict. It was to prove that a military solution to the Kashmir issue is not possible. 

To ordinary Kashmiris, the terror threat was clear—you are doomed to live in constant fear. In the vocabulary of those who politicize by spreading terror, there is a popular expression called propaganda of the deed. Terrorists have now been successful in all their propaganda objectives through the Pahalgam attack.

On the one hand, after 2014, the anti-Muslim sentiment has reached its peak in the so-called Gobarpatti states of North India. Himanshi Narwal, the widow of Indian Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in the Pahalgam terrorist attack, appealed to maintain peace and requested her countrymen not to fight against 'Muslims or Kashmiris'. Holiday tourists will not be able to muster up the courage to visit Kashmir for some time.

Despite deploying the largest security force in the world in proportion to its population, New Delhi has proven once again that it has failed to maintain peace in Kashmir. It will be difficult for the Pakistan Army to revert to its old 'thousand wounds and make India bleed' military doctrine. But recently Lieutenant General (retired) Asad Durrani has mentioned in 'The Friday Times' that the deployment of unconventional warriors will be the weapon of first resort of relatively weak countries.

Although Lt Gen Durrani is a retired officer, his arguments should not be taken lightly, he has served as the director general of Pakistan's infamous Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) as well as the military intelligence service. His approach can also be considered representative of the Islamabad establishment.

In unconventional conflicts, action comes first, evidence is gathered later. Even the identities of the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack have not been revealed, their guilt has become beyond proof. Due to internal pressure, New Delhi was forced to 'do something'. Even though the clowns of the 'Godi Media' called 'Laskre Noida' were waging an imaginary war on the television screen, the international powers realized that an uncontrolled conflict between two nuclear-armed extremists could prove disastrous. Although US President Donald Trump hastened to take credit for having succeeded in suspending the uneasy conflict (ceasefire), four days of the Pakistan-India military confrontation  Within the

(May 7 to 10, 2025) strategists of almost all geopolitical powers were operational. Russia, which is at war with Ukraine, is not in a position to give much to New Delhi except moral support at most. It is true that Beijing has emerged as a new player in arms exports. The "iron friendship" of China and Pakistan will also be in its place. But intensified conflict between India and Pakistan does not help promote Beijing's strategic interests in the evolving Cold War. The Europeans are not satisfied with New Delhi's neutrality on the Ukraine issue. It is not unusual for the Islamic countries of West Asia to be uncomfortable with the cooperation of the Zionists of Israel and the Hindutvaists of India. Despite what is said for public consumption, the two nuclear-armed twin nations of South Asia still stand alone on the battlefield.

Since Islamabad and New Delhi are standing on their own feet in the current conflict, they must have been forced to reach a decision to postpone the current conflict by showing America to cover up their shame. Geopolitical international powers cannot stay away from the Kashmir issue forever. After almost eight decades of continuous uncertainty, continuous surveillance and dozens of small and large skirmishes, confrontations and conflicts, one thing has become clear, a military resolution of the Kashmir issue is not possible. What is the most depressing situation is Kashmiris are once again deprived of their right to decide their present or future. In President Trump's public address, the concern of Kashmir along with India-Pakistan was revealed. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as usual, did not stop giving a "retaliatory action" against terrorism. Pakistan's claim on Kashmir also remains. No one seemed to care much about the interests and concerns of ordinary Kashmiris.

The

of Kashmiris caught in a triangular conflict between armed groups fighting for an independent Kashmir, Pakistan's unorthodox fighters, and Indian security forces personnel can hardly be more powerfully expressed in the English language than the Kashmiri-American poet Aga Shahid Ali (1949-2001). Shahid Ali tears through the poem 'A Country Without a Post Office' - 'Srinagar is snarled like a wild cat: / Lonely watchmen, pitiful in the bunkers of city bridges / Far from their homes in the plains, licensed to kill / The Jhelum flows beneath them, sometimes shedding a piece of corpse / There jeeps trample aimlessly over the 'Zero Bridge' / Candles as passengers Extinguishes / Unable to illuminate the velvet void / What is the divine word? Mandelstam gives no hint / one day Kashmiris will actually utter that word for the first time.' 

Translating a poignant poem is like drawing a picture of a withering rose, no matter how hard you try, you can't catch even the subtle differences from dark to pale colors, giving the impression of the dying smell is a strange thing. Interpretation of powerful poetry is an even more difficult task. How would it be possible to reconstruct the velocity of the wind and what would be the 'divine word' that π Mandelstam could not hint at but would actually utter 'one day for the first time' by Kashmiris? Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938) was a Soviet-Russian poet who was an opponent of Kremlin power and died on the way to a Siberian camp while standing barefoot in the snow. The title of his first poem was 'Dhunga' and he said that the title of his last poem would be the same.  curse of

location 

Geography determines the origin and history determines the trend. Ajang's sediments, temporarily frozen below the Himalayan mountain range, were buried during the Ice Age. Among such lakes, Elliptical Kashmir was very large. According to the myth, sage Kashyapa, the father of all creatures like gods, asuras, snakes, humans, etc., abandoned most of the lake by Tapobal, and the settlement started there.

Geologists place more importance on the prediction of natural changes and gradual flows than on miraculous releases of frozen water. Incidentally, even if the Khadga of Manjushree from Mahachina or Sudarshan Chakra of Dwarkadhish Lord Krishna was used to send the water of Nagdah out of Chobhar, Nepal Valley did not become buzzing overnight. As the water level of the lake receded, it may have taken hundreds of years for the settlement to slowly move from the surrounding hills to the surface of the valley. The Kashmir valley is larger than the Nepal valley, later named Kathmandu valley, the rivers flowing through it are faster, the lakes are deeper, the gardens are beautiful, the temperate climate is pleasant and the light winter snowfall makes the landscape attractive. The beauty of Kashmir has been considered both a divine blessing and a demonic curse for that region.

Hazrat Amir Khusro (1253-1325), a Sufi thinker, poet, writer and connoisseur of singers in the early period of Islamic rule in the Indian subcontinent, was a connoisseur of Persian, the court language of the time. Being a follower of Islam, he went to Arabic. They were fluent in local languages ​​such as Khari Boli and Braj who lived in the plains of the Yamuna and Ganga rivers. He has been called the first poet of Hindi as well as 'Tota-e-Hind' i.e. the lyrical voice of the common people of India, as he has created poetry in the mixed colloquial Hindi language. In his dohas, qawwalis and ghazals one can easily find the rasa of jharro style along with deep contemplation. According to researchers of literary history, his famous Persian line 'Agar Firdaus bar-ru-e-jami ast / Hami ast o hami ast o hami ast (If there is a heaven on earth, this is it, this is this, this is this) may have been written to describe a royal garden in Delhi.

Mughal emperor Jahangir is credited with making that quote famous. Kashmir has not yet recovered from the wrath of the Emperor Jahangir, who was overwhelmed by the incomparable beauty of the snow-capped mountains, green hills, tranquil lakes and picturesque valleys. If there is a heaven on earth, it is not strange that competing claimants constantly struggle for control of such territory.

The 'Rajatarangini' text written in Sanskrit language by Kalhan between 1147 and 1149 is considered to be the creation that entered the stage of authentic history writing from myths and legends of the Indian subcontinent. Based on available sources along with traditional traditions, he traces the origin of 'Kashmir Mandal' from about 3000 years ago to the expansion of the influence of Islam in India. "Kashmiriyat", which was formed through the intermingling of Islam and Christianity along with Vedic, Buddhist, Shaivite, Shakta and Tantra religions in Kashmir at the confluence of Afghan, Indus Valley, Central Asia, Chinese Empire and the Ganges plain, lasted until about 1340 AD.

After that, the Mir dynasty, the Mughal Empire and the Afghan Durranis, who ruled for almost 500 years, imposed their own beliefs, and the Kashmiri state became weaker. The Sikh emperor Ranjit Singh defeated the Afghans and handed over the rule of Kashmir to his loyal Dogra warriors. As King Gulab Singh of Jammu helped the British in the war against the Sikh Empire, in 1846 the East India Company sold Kashmir along with its surrounding Ladakh and Baltistan to him for 75 million rupees.

The Dogra kings became Maharajas in 1846, but the deepening sufferings of Kashmiris have not subsided yet. It is said that in order to raise their investment, the Dogra dynasty used to levy additional taxes to recover the cost of tax collection from the Raitis itself. Even in Nepal in 1846, Jung Bahadur Kunwar tried to get the approval of the East India Company after the assassination of power through Kotparva. It is only after that that the Shah-Rana family became united through marriage and endeared themselves to the Nepalese for almost 160 years. Displaced Kashmiris take a sigh of relief in personal conversation - 'If only Britain had left us like Nepal or at least Bhutan in 1947', history, although sometimes guided by desire, will mostly be drawn out of situational compulsions.

Geopolitical arena

As old as Indian civilization is and independent India behaves like a successor state to British India, the reality is that Pakistan is one day older than the South Asian twins. Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of British India, formally handed over power to the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in Karachi on August 14, while the same ceremony was held in New Delhi only on August 15. Among the Rajautas who were exercising internal independence by accepting British supremacy, there was a large number of those who wanted to merge with India or Pakistan either voluntarily or by public pressure.

Awam (common people) was Hindu but the Nizam was Muslim Hyderabad wanted to remain independent. Located in the heart of independent India, that was unlikely to be acceptable to New Delhi. The Muslim Nawab of Junagadh, whose raiyats were Hindus, was keen to join Pakistan. Even that was not possible due to public pressure. The courtiers of the Dogra Raj of Kashmir, whose king was Hindu but who was Raiti Muslim, had great hope that the West would protect Maharaj Hari Singh's Sripech and the throne. The New Kashmir Manifesto of 1944 of the National Conference, which was agitating for self-government, also proposed the protection of religious freedom, the right to private property and a constitutional monarchy.