“One Slogan One Track
Give Us our Kashmir Back”

–Khawer Shakeel Salmani, who just returned from Kashmir

The Palestinian & Kashmiri flags fly at the Oldham, UK #StandWithKashmir rally, September 7th, 2019: a unity in action has emerged between two of the most important anti-colonial struggles of our times. This unity will be advanced considerably by joint actions to support BDS & #BoycottIndia. A new day dawns for Palestinians, Kashmiris, & Rohingya who are also boycotting Burmese products.

(Photo via Mehran Khan)

Oldham, UK #StandWithKashmir protest, September 7th, 2019. A Palestine solidarity group was part of the rally & the Palestinian flag, held here by Kashmiri activist Mehran Khan, was part of the protest for Kashmir. A unity in action that will strengthen the Palestinian & Kashmiri struggles.

(Photo via Mehran Khan)

The Print, an Indian media source, has published an article titled “20 Kashmiri youths ‘missing’ since Article 370 move, role of terror headhunters feared.” The article cites Indian Army intelligence sources that ‘terrorists’ have been sighted ‘moving around & conversing’ with villagers in ‘far-flung villages’ trying to ‘indoctrinate impressionable & vulnerable youth’ & recruit them. How do they know they were ‘terrorists’? Maybe they were just young guys chatting with their neighbors. Who fingered them as terrorists? Why weren’t they arrested?

The article says: “Security agencies are said to be anticipating a rise in local recruitment by terror groups following the Narendra Modi government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 & bifurcate the state into two union territories. Since 5 August…terror groups are said to have become active, eager to tap the alleged resentment among Kashmiris at losing their special status.” There you have India’s justification for continued occupation. The twenty missing young men are far more likely to have been forcibly disappeared by the Indian Army than they are to have found a terrorist cell under occupation conditions of curfew, lockdown, telecommunications blockade, & soldiers every few feet.

(File photo of security personnel at Anantnag district in Kashmir | PTI from The Print article, August 30, 2019)

Washington, DC #StandWithKashmir teach-in, Tuesday, August 13th, 2019.

Facebook archives remind us that two years ago there were massive protests all over the world in solidarity with the Rohingya fleeing genocide in Burma–protests of thousands even in countries where Muslims are extremely persecuted or in war & occupation zones, including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, & several in Kashmir. The Rohingya continue their struggle for full human, democratic, & civil rights in Burma.

This photo from the protest in Srinagar also has a banner for Gaza.

(Photo tweeted by Zeenat Manzoor)

When we think about that ‘First they came for the Muslims & refugees & I did not speak out…’ analogy, we should keep in mind that the terrorism scare first became used against Palestinians, blaming Palestinian youth for the colonial violence against them. It proved so effective, that it was deployed against Black youth, calling them ‘narco-terrorists’ to justify martial law & violations of the Bill of Rights in the Black community.

It is relevant that when I first wrote about that in the early 1990s & again in 2007, those who most ridiculed me for saying the violence was against, not by Black youth, are now part of the Stalinist & Assadist cult promoting the ‘war on terror’ against the Syrian Arab Spring. Almost to the person. The most elementary thing in politics is being able to distinguish who is the oppressor & who the oppressed. If you blow that distinction, God save your sorry ass.

A tribute to Kashmiri women, to their toughness in struggle & to their losses & grief, by Rollie Mukherjee.