This placard from the Pretoria #StandWithKashmir rally protesting pellet munitions should be highlighted because of reports that despite restrictions Kashmiris continue to protest by the thousands, facing pellet guns, rubber bullets, & tear gas canisters. The SMHS hospital in Srinagar alone reported 35 young people with pellet gun injuries to the eyes since August 5th. It’s being reported that Indian troops are firing without provocation & not just at protesters. One victim was a 5-year-old girl riding on a motorcycle with her uncle who was delivering sacrificial meat for Eid. One young man was hit with a volley of pellets when he stepped out his front door; another young man said he was showered with pellets the moment he stepped out of the mosque after prayers.One Indian journalist reported that hospitals are on order to turn away pellet injury victims to keep incidents from being recorded. Several sources claim Indian forces regularly patrol the hospitals to get patients discharged without sufficient care so they can’t speak to media & even worse, many young people sustaining serious injuries are not going to hospital for fear of being arrested for taking part in protests. The Indian government of course denies all this. But some of the most damning reports come from Indian reporters who, unlike Barkha Dutt, do not have their nose up Modi’s butt.

We demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir & the immediate release of all Kashmiri political prisoners.

#StopUsingPelletGunsInKashmir

We should be aware that many Kashmiris living outside Kashmir are not necessarily free to speak out against India’s occupation & current onslaught since they have families in Kashmir who India can & certainly would threaten or endanger.

I did not find Mehdi Hasan’s statement on Twitter about Kashmir to be impressive. He said: “I don’t have a view whether Kashmir should be part of India, Pakistan, or independent. That should be left to the Kashmiris.

“I do have a view on Kashmiris being shot, blinded, sexually assaulted, illegally detained, & cut off from the world – it’s an outrage.”

The equivocation in his statement is confusing since he is not usually one to mince words. Kashmiris have been fighting over 70 years to be independent from India so it is not going out on a limb or overstepping bounds to say you support their struggle for independence from India. On that issue, Kashmiris have long spoken loud & clear.

Shabnam Mayet will be sending photos & more info from the Pretoria, South Africa #StandWithKashmir rally today at the Indian High Commission attended by about 500 people. This is a lineup of some of the posters that a group of activists made.

(Photo from Shabnam Mayet)

A Kashmiri friend messaged me from Delhi that he had just arrived from & would soon be returning to Kashmir. Before we were cut off inexplicably, he said he was scared because there were mass arrests in Kashmir. It wasn’t long before I found this media report confirming what he said. The Indian Army is going after the youth & that is very terrifying indeed, making the need for continuing protests imperative.

We demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian troops from Kashmir & the immediate release of all political prisoners!

https://thewire.in/rights/south-kashmir-ground-report-not-a-single-day-since-august-5-when-no-youths-were-picked-up?

When Indian media denounced the London protesters yesterday as ‘Pakistani thugs, hooligans & former terrorists’ who “threw eggs, glass bottles, shoes, plastic bottles of water, lighters, bananas, batteries, potatoes, hot coffee, their own placards, & apples,” no one could find any confirmation or evidence of that. But then we didn’t expect to. People who protest war, occupation, genocide are a serious, committed lot, not hooligans. Maybe Indian media meant this threatening-looking woman at the Tokyo #StandWithKashmir rally yesterday shaking her shoe as an insult at the Indian Embassy. The embassy staff must have been terrorized by her gesture of contempt.

Indian propagandists are truly a pathetic lot but then such tripe plays well with the crowd they’re appealing to. Know the type well from watching videos of Trump rallies. Nationalism is a low-brow ideology.

(Photo from Asif Mushtaq)

Micheal Clinton, who most of you know as a tireless Irish human rights activist even whilst he is battling cancer, has been blocked for three days for posting an article about the Rohingya in India. Being banned can be disorienting, especially if you use Facebook to campaign for the oppressed. So it would be good if you express support for him. It matters.

One of the Hindutva boys who used the laughing emoticon on a post about Kashmiri political prisoners, including Indian soldiers taking little kids away in the night, described himself as a ‘spiritual-seeker & proud Sanatani (orthodox Hindu) whose humor may be hurtful to liberals & seculars.’ Know the type well. Kind of like Jared Kushner. Even more like Ted Bundy.