Bangladesh should not make any spontaneous comment on the stripping of article 370 by the Indian government regarding Jammu & Kashmi (J&K), commented Professor Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed of the International Relations department of Dhaka University.
He told this on Wednesday (August 21) in an exclusive interview with Barta24.com.
Dr. Imtiaz said that by cancelling the autonomous status through revoking the article 370 of the constitution, India has further fuelled up the crisis in J&K. Criticism has already started within the country when men like Nobel Laureate Dr. Amartya Sen and free thinker Arundhuti Roy expressing serious displeasure on the issue said that it should have been done democratically. However, Bangladesh want that peace and tranquility prevails in J & K and there should be consent of the mass of people of that region on what happened there.
On Wednesday (August 21) Bangladesh foreign ministry has explained its position that the stripping of article 370 regarding J & K is the internal matters of India so Bangladesh has nothing to do about it. However Bangladesh expressed its support in principle that there should prevail the atmosphere of regional peace and stability along with priority on development.
On Tuesday the bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Bangladesh and India was held at Jamuna. On Wednesday this statement of the foreign ministry was issued.
Regarding this Prof. Imtiaz said that there was already tension and crisis in J & K which has been further aggravated by the cancellation of article 370. Now India has deployed thousands of armed forces in the area where there were already huge defense personnel to thwart the movement of the Kashmiri people. My personal opinion is that Pakistan alone cannot be blamed for the militancy and terrorism in J & K. Here the Kashmiris themselves created militant organizations. This is not true that everything was happening from outside at the patronization of Pakistan. The criticism has already started in India that the area cannot be controlled by the army only.
The present Indian Government thought that by keeping article 370 in the constitution the Kashmir problem could not be solved. So they decided to revoke it. This has further aggravated the crisis. In the last general election there was a chance to take decision on this issue through the ballot participated by the people outside of Kashmir. But lastly going against the will of the Kasmiri people the result will not be good.