And India is so scared…

The world’s largest democracy is scared. The irony of it, it isnt scared of armed gunmen, but of unarmed peacefull protestors who would just want to go out in the streets and tell the world that they want “Azadi” or freedom from India.

And it is the fear that has forced India to deploy hundreds of armed men — in addition to the existing thousands that are in the valley, to stop civilians from walking into the streets under the banner of freedom. And this is the curfew that forced men and women into their homes. Anyone who walks out has to face the bullet.

The local TV channels have been closed — sending of sms from mobiles is disabled — soon I guess even access to the internet might be closed.. and who knows this might be my last post…

Kashmiris want their right to freedom. That is what they wanted to tell the world and that is what the curfew imposed stopped them from doing — partially, for there have been men who dared the gun and got gunned.

Not just that, there were others who were killed even when they werent talking of azadi, but just wanted to get the bare necessities — the access to which has been rendered impossible by the curfew. Yesterday, a son and father were shot dead in Dalgate area of Srinagar. The fault was just that the boy had gone out to get milk and when shot dead by the Indian armed forces, the father came out to question and got shot too. This is a story that I heard by word of mouth. There are many others that I do not know of. And many many of these will go unreported.

The Indian media unfortunately is downplaying the whole issue by screaming out loud and inhumanely that it is India’s internal issue. I wonder why the wolrd community has shut up.

We have seen intervention in other countries where people were repressed. And now that the issue is of a disputed territory, why is the world quiet.

Maybe the world is scared. But what makes me glad for once is the fact that India is scared. Scared that the truth will come out…

Kashmir’s Azadi…

The slogan of azadi reveberates throughout the valley once again. The struggle for seperation from India once again is there up and strong. Its curfew today. The Indian armed forces are everywhere. People break the curfew and in unision say out loud and clear “Hum kya chahtay azadi”.

Everyone is on the streets. Kashmir is asking for freedom.

What is ironical is that the media coverage (except the local media) of what the masses in Kashmir want and what they are bearing with — in terms of Indian armed forces agression — is minimal.

What is even more ironical is that the same Indians who celebrated their own independence day on 15th of August cant show even an iota of respect towards the Kashmiris who are also asking for what is rightfully theirs — the right to freedom — the right to choose whether or not they want to stay with India or not. Ofcourse like any agressor, India too doesnt see what is clearly the choice of the Kashmiris — separation from India. Even thought there might be some dispute with regards to whether all Kashmiris want to join Pakistan or stay Independent, the choice is loud and clear — we dont want India.

The Indian media wants to downplay the whole Azadi sentiment by making it sound like the issue is limited to the transfer of land to Amarnath Yatra Board, or the opening of trade route to Pakistan, but any one who chooses not to be blind would see it clearly that for the past 20 years or so, it hasnt been just this — what are Kashmriis fighting for?

There have been many attempts to communalise the whole Kashmiri struggle movement. Making it sound like the Kashmiri muslims suddenly decided to get up and run a killing spree against the Hindus and the Sikhs. There are others who speak of voilence and attach it to the Kashmiri struggle.

Tragic! Tragic indeed is the fact that even though Kashmiris did take up voilence, the recent mass uprising has been non-violent. Ofcourse the voilence came from the Indian side who did not flinch from using ammunition against unarmed masses who had taken to a peaceful protest.

The world community has shut up.

They are deaf, dumb and blind. Deaf to the cries, dumb for want of “politically correct words” and blind to the inhumanity that would shake any human consceince.