A Kashmiri boy facing Indian occupying soldier:

No commentary needed.

(Photo by Basit Zargar)

Hate to be a killjoy when it comes to true love & all that. But the British moochocracy is gonna work the Black ancestry of Harry’s fiancee for all it’s worth. Every continent is still reeling from Britain’s colonial legacy; Phil is a shameless & outspoken racist halfwit; William allowed himself to be carried around in an elevated chair by Black former colonial subjects; & Harry’s no schlep when it comes to working a crowd using Black kids as a prop. Are we expected to believe redemption for all that comes with the nuptials? I love love like everybody else. I just hate being played by feudalism.

Reposting this powerful statement by Kashmiri photojournalist Aasif Shafi because I believe it is a commitment as important to political activists as it is to freedom fighters/photojournalists.:

“The worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I am benefiting from someone else’s tragedy. This idea haunts me. It is something I have to reckon with every day because I know that if I ever allow genuine compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition I will have sold my soul. The stakes are simply too high for me to believe otherwise.”

(Photo of Aasif Shah by Rehmani Sameer)

A forlorn Kashmiri child blinded by pellet munitions.

–a digital work by artist Masood Hussain

It’s estimated that about 14-percent of pellet victims in Kashmir are under 15 years of age & as young as four. Probably most are in their 20s & teens but there have been reports of seniors near protests who were injured by pellets & other munitions. A huge percentage of them will never regain their vision; they will suffer permanent pain & health problems from lead pellets that cannot be excised from internal organs; most will suffer some measure of disfigurement.

The use of pellet guns is a human rights crime, illegal under (albeit unenforceable) international laws governing the use of excessive force against unarmed civilians. In response to legal action against their use in Kashmir, the Indian military argued that if pellet guns were banned there would be more civilian fatalities because the army would be forced to use live ammunition–a defense that documents the short political & psychological distance between militarism & derangement.

If we do not collaborate internationally in banning the use of pellet munitions, we will all be dealing with them as the militarization of policing continues to grow.

The Guantanamo phenomenon in India’s treatment of Kashmiri prisoners at Tihar jail near New Delhi:

It isn’t reported whether the Kashmiri prisoners being assaulted are incarcerated for criminal offenses or if they are political prisoners. Neither would justify physical assault but it is probably more the latter since this is the prison where Kashmiri freedom fighters Maqbool Bhat & Afzal Guru were hung (Bhat in 1984 & Guru in 2013). India still refuses to return their bodies for respectful burial in Kashmir by their families & those they continue to inspire.

http://kashmirlife.net/torture-of-kashmiri-inmates-at-tihar-mirwaiz-appeals-unhr-amnesty-icrc-to-intervene-157019/

“Brahmin atheists of india retain three things absolutely intact:
Caste privileges
Contempt for Dalits
Hatred for Muslims
Who says professing atheism can be more enlightening than following religion?”

–Mir Laieeq