Several have objected to my post about the kidnapping, torture, & murder of the defenseless Indian army officer because they consider it equivocal about who committed this barbaric crime.

Kashmiris know much better than I do that this is most likely the act of agents provocateurs but I cannot make allegations based on suspicions. It is one thing for Kashmiris on the front lines of struggle to make such an accusation; it is quite another for me to do so from Texas, USA. That isn’t equivocation, a detestable quality in politics, but a refusal to claim what has not been proven & will not be proven since the Indian army will be doing the “investigation” into who did it, like a fox in charge of the chicken coup writ large.

Given that the Indian army will be doing the “investigation” by violently cracking down on Kashmiri youth, it is more important to condemn the crime & distance freedom fighters from it than to make unprovable allegations. If it was agents provocateurs, the Indian army is not going to reveal that & bring international condemnation down on the occupation.

Kashmiris have the right to fight against the occupation & for self-determination by any means necessary. But that does not include a barbaric, pointless act of revenge which Kashmiris in their overwhelming majority recoil from in horror & want no part of–not just because it was a cowardly, horrific crime against a defenseless person but because it is Kashmiri youth who will bear the brunt of India’s false revenge for an act most likely committed by Indian agents provocateurs.

Cowardice & barbaric torture are entirely the nature of oppressors, not freedom fighters. That is where Kashmiris stand & what makes their struggle so historic & monumental.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

Photo is injured Kashmiri student protester.

(Photo tweeted by Dr.Aliya Kareem)

This is a quite valuable resource on Kashmir. It’s a good reference covering the gamut of issues involved in the occupation, including India’s repression of opposition to it in India.

https://globalvoices.org/specialcoverage/the-kashmiri-people-versus-the-indian-state/?

(Photo is Srinagar, Kashmir in 2010 by Flickr user Kashmir Global)

“Why are people protesting in Kashmir?”

A report on violations of democratic rights in Kashmir by 25 Indian citizens who spent 10 days there in November 2016 to investigate firsthand. They represented social movements, human rights, women’s & student organizations, trade unions, & included journalists, writers, filmmakers.

https://www.academia.edu/32947293/Why_are_People_Protesting_in_Kashmir_-_May_2017.pdf

This is just too funny not to highlight. In response to my post about miraculous bank deposits from Allah, Farrie Rehman answered:

“Yes it happens in Pakistan. Money comes to our politicians even they don’t know how? Angels put that money in their homes and accounts😣”

A Kashmiri friend suggested Allah might deposit money in my bank account so I could travel there. Anyone else have such a fantasy? It’s called a miraculous reprieve & it’s been known to happen. Believe me. 

This is a powerful essay by an Indian journalist about the kidnapping, torture, & murder of Indian army officer Ummer Fayaz in Kashmir:

1. Do you think occupation by India is the root cause of all violence in Kashmir? Yes.

2. Do you think Indian rule in Kashmir must end and there can be no peace without Azadi for Kashmir? Yes.

3. Do you think it is a democratic right of Kashmiris to fight the occupation forces in any way they can? Yes.

4. Do you think armed resistance is a part of the Kashmiri movement for Azadi, which is a necessary condition for making peaceful, democratic politics possible in Kashmir? Yes.

5. Do you condemn cold-blooded killings such as hanging and extrajudicial executions to suppress the Azadi movement? Yes.

6. Do you condemn the killing of armed militants in catch-and-kill counterinsurgency operations, in situations where they have been disarmed or are otherwise in no position to kill those hunting for them? Yes.

7. Do you condemn torture, rape and other acts of State terror on captured militants? Yes.

8. Do you think it is an obligation of the occupying army to treat captured militants as Prisoners of War in accordance with the Geneva Conventions? Yes.

9. Do you think the army is engaged in a brutal, shameless, no-holds-barred war on the people of Kashmir, in order to break the collective Kashmiri will for Azadi? Yes.

10. Do you condemn the killing of war criminals even if they are Kashmiris working for the occupation? No, it is a consequence of holding Kashmir against Kashmiri will.

11. Do you condemn militant attacks on formations of the Indian army? No, it is a consequence of holding Kashmir against Kashmiri will.

12. Do you condemn the killing of an unarmed soldier, not a war criminal himself, after abduction just because he is part of the occupying forces or joined the regiment responsible for the unforgivable horrors perpetrated on the women and men of Kunan-Poshpora? Yes.

13. Why?

(a) Because the answer to the last question must be consistent with all the answers that preceded it.

(b) Because this particular action serves the interests of the occupation and its war plan against the Kashmiri people.

(c) Because this action may well have been carried out by those who want to strengthen the occupation’s war efforts.

(d) Because I trust enough in the humanity and experience of resistance among the occupied — and especially those who are uncompromising in their resistance against Indian rule — to hope that most of them understand exactly why such war crimes are to be condemned when carried out by the oppressor and, when possible, retaliated against, but not replicated by perpetrating another war crime.

(e) also because, looking at how intelligence agencies have manipulated reality and perceptions during violent political conflicts across the world, I believe it is quite likely that some of those speaking most vehemently in support of such an action, shutting up every other opinion and justifying the war crime by referring to what the occupying forces routinely do to Kashmiris, could well be doing, knowingly or unknowingly, just what the agencies want them to do.

(Kashmiri schoolgirl throwing stones at Indian paramilitary soldiers during a protest in Srinagar on April 20, 2017.)

(Photo from AP)

The kidnapping, torture, & murder of 22-year-old Indian army officer Ummer Fayaz in Kashmir is a horrific crime.

It isn’t admirable that a young Kashmiri would become an officer in the Indian army rather than part of resistance to the occupation even if he wasn’t deployed in Kashmir. But kidnapping an unarmed, off-duty soldier from a family wedding, torturing him, & killing him is an abomination. Those are the methods of oppressors, not freedom fighters.

No guerrilla group has claimed responsibility for the crime & there is not an extensive pattern of such crimes committed by them in Kashmir. The Indian government launched an investigation which will most likely include an increase of violence & search & summary execution operations against Kashmiri youth.

It is entirely possible, if not probable, that this crime was not committed by Kashmiri opponents of the occupation but by agents provocateurs to justify an increase in levels of barbarism in Kashmir. If it was by a guerrilla group, it is deplorable because those who suffer the consequences will be unarmed Kashmiri youth fighting to end the occupation.

Wish Ummer Fayaz had made a better choice in loyalties but may he Rest In Peace. This was a monstrous crime.

Photo is Kashmiri freedom fighters put at risk by whoever murdered Ummer Fayaz.

(Photo by Basit Zargar)

With the specter of impeachment haunting the US (for Trump’s obstruction of justice), the hilarity of Trump’s tenure in office emerges in technicolor. Who can ever forget the Bowling Green massacre? “Alternative facts”? “Deconfliction” as a new word for every agency of the government being at each other’s throat? “Narratives” to explain why not a single person or agency from the White House to Congress to FBI & CIA can get their lies straight? Or personalities like Kellyanne, Ivanka, Jared, Spicer, that Huckabee who’s even more pathetic than her father, & mafiosi like Flynn & Manafort? Not to mention the Deep State & soft coup nonsense or how Trump emboldened libertarians to come out from under their rocks.

There isn’t a shred of truth to that old misanthropic cliche that people get the government they deserve. Most Americans have known for decades that the government is not by & for the people but for now there is no viable alternative. This is not what we deserve.

Those who allowed Trump to hijack the election hoped he would be able to accelerate a dramatic shift to the right & a frontal assault on civil liberties & social justice. Clinton’s populist rhetoric would have required a slower process though she would eventually have implemented the same policies. That’s how capitalist governments work.

Pence will soon be president. He isn’t worse than Trump & in fact is as stupid, racist, misogynist, hateful, but he is less vulgar & is not insane.

If we want to end this travesty, we have to continue what youth began with the anti-Trump protests, initiatives like the international Women’s March, the anti-Muslim ban protests. We have to rebuild the antiwar & other social movements. We’re on the way. It’s way too early to despair.

(Caricature by Chris Rommel)

From Trump’s own mouth in a public NBC interview, during a private dinner where Comey was appealing to Trump to stay on as FBI director, Trump asked him if the FBI was investigating him for illegal ties to Russia.

If they don’t start impeachment proceedings soon, it will be necessary to take revolutionary action. Even by US capitalism’s low standards of political leadership, this lying & quid pro quo stuff is making the US government look like a confederacy of dunces.

On the other hand, the longer it lasts, the better for dissent which is in no position to take advantage of it.

Trump is a compulsive liar with a tenuous grasp of reality. The worst case scenario of privilege can make you stupid. The demented he did all on his own.