Kashmiri police officials report that last Friday a young pregnant woman named Firdousa in the Pulwama district was killed in crossfire when Indian paramilitary troops (44 Rashtriya Rifles) returned fire on four militants who were also killed. How credible is it that a handful of militants, out of less than two hundred in the whole country, were conducting a guerrilla action against nearly a million Indian troops, most of them counterinsurgency? A thorough forensics investigation by Kashmiri medical personnel, which will not be forthcoming, is required to persuade us that this is actually how the young woman was killed by Indian troops.

Hindutva medical personnel are trolling this Lancet tweet in high dudgeon for interfering in Indian politics & not sticking to health care. The depraved intellectual level of fascists is really quite appalling. Lancet has addressed health issues in conflict zones for decades, including damning reports in the 90s on the affects of US sanctions on the lives, disabilities, & mortality of Iraqi children.

War, occupation, genocide involve massive health concerns. In Kashmir, that would include the injuries inflicted by pellet munitions, rubber bullets, tear gas; the physical & psychological harm from torture, rape, assault, losing a loved one to forcible disappearance or imprisonment; the psychological impact on children & teenagers, on men & women of ubiquitous violence against them, the ubiquitous presence of martial force; the never-ending trauma of loss & grief from attending the funerals of so many shot down in protests & hunt to kill operations by Indian forces. Those are health issues & political issues.

(The Lancet tweet, August 16, 2019)

Indian occupying forces announced the opening of schools today in Kashmir but no students showed up. Parents didn’t want to risk their kids getting shot at on the way to class.

“You know a nation has fallen to worst levels of depravity when it’s educated lot think trolling is the best way to defend it.”

–Kashmiri Mudasir Firdosi

There were funeral prayers today for a 7-year-old Kashmiri boy named Saddam who was killed by an Indian Army sniper near the LOC in Pakistan-administered Azad J&K. You don’t have to be a militant, stone pelter, or peaceful protester to be shot at & killed in the occupation.

Kashmiri Md. Siddiq was pummeled with a pellet gun fired by an Indian occupying soldier whilst returning home from his mosque in Srinagar. He sustained serious damage to his left eye & pellet hits all over his back. He is being treated in hospital for his injuries.

One doesn’t have to be a protester or stone pelter to be attacked by Indian occupying forces. You can be a middle-aged man returning from prayers, a child on a motorbike, or simply sitting in your family home. That’s how indiscriminate the military occupation of Kashmir is.

(Photo from AP)

“The detention {of Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, & Shah Faesal} is serving a purpose. It is restoring a bit of credibility to these quislings while India stage manages & times their returns to political power.”

–tweeted by Alp RAK @RazaAliKhan_
(Illustration of Abdullah, Mufti, & Faesal by Soham Sen for The Print)

The massive Hong Kong protests & emergent Kashmiri solidarity movement make the betrayal of the Syrian Arab Spring & silence on the bombing of Idlib even more unbearable. When yet, in a million ways, these struggles are all of a piece: the struggle against tyranny for democratic, humane societies.