The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions National Committee (BNC) #StandsWithKashmir:
“As Palestinians, we deeply feel the Kashmiri people’s suffering under military repression that in many cases is similar to Israel’s subjugation & control. We denounce the current Indian government’s increasing use of Israeli-style paradigms & policies.”
This is a quite disturbing article by Indian writer Mukul Kesavan on the depraved political capitulation of prominent Indian liberals to the scrapping of Article 370 & the military blockade of Kashmir.
I’m not trying to speak for Kashmiris. They don’t need me to explain their struggle to them. I’m speaking to human rights advocates around the world who don’t know much about the Kashmiri struggle but would actively support it if they did. That’s what solidarity with the oppressed is all about. But I do want Kashmiris to know we stand with them in their struggle because one of the ways solidarity supports Kashmiri political power is by heartening those on the front lines of oppression. That’s that!
#StandWithKashmir
This is why Kashmiris are on lockdown in their homes. Every time India lifts the curfew restrictions even for a few hours, Kashmiris pour into the streets to protest. India allowed some to walk to mosques alone or in pairs to pray on the Eid al-Adha festival on Monday & ended up with protests against the occupation.
#StandWithKashmir
(Photo from August 12th, 2019 by Dar Yasin/AP)
Another ‘winning the hearts & minds’ moment in Kashmir: an Indian paramilitary soldier standing guard over empty streets with razor wire barriers while Kashmiris are on lockdown in their homes.
(Photo from August 14, 2019 by Dar Yasin/AP)
See how India & Modi ‘wins the hearts & minds’ of Kashmiris! Not unlike Hitler, Stalin, Assad, Suu Kyi & the generals before him.
(Indian Army patrols in Srinagar, August 10, 2019 by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images)
In a speech today for Pakistan Independence Day, Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan told politicians in Pakistan-administered Kashmir that India’s revocation of Article 370 & the complete lockdown of Kashmir was a ‘strategic blunder’ by the Modi government. That would be a massive understatement. Although there is almost no response from most governments or agencies like the UN, there is an avalanche of media coverage, social media campaigning, political protests, & an emerging unity in action to #StandWithKashmir. In response, all India can do is whimper about ‘fake news’ & demand censorship of critics. Whatever India has planned for Kashmir, they will be forced to retreat by the undaunted struggle of Kashmiris & the emergent international solidarity movement.
Aakash Hassan, the Kashmiri correspondent for CNN & News18, reports that four computers with slow internet speed are the only means journalists are allowed to send stories to the world from Kashmir under siege.
Like Mehbooba Mufti & Omar Abdullah, India is now trying to make a martyr of Shah Faesal who until January of this year was an officer in the Indian Administrative Service in Kashmir–in other words, a collaborator. He was just detained at the Delhi airport trying to fly out & sent back to Srinagar where he was detained on arrival under the Public Safety Act (PSA), a draconian & undemocratic law allowing administrative detention up to two years without charge or trial.
Kashmiri Samreen Mushtaq tweeted: “Indian State be like, “you have signed enough PSAs on our orders to book Kashmiris. Now let us sign one for you.”
“If anything, this phase should show the pro India client regimes/collaborators in #Kashmir how dispensable they are for the Indian State.”