VPN developers around the world tell Kashmiris ‘not to worry’, not to have what Zafar Iqbal calls ‘VPN apprehension’ since the developers will continue to find ways around India’s firewall.
While the police and security agencies pull out all stops to prevent Kashmiris from using social media, the VPN developers are also suggesting Kashmiris the way to breach the firewall.
Daily Archives: February 24, 2020
This will take your breath away if you like ice skating.
After the Indian government declared social media an act of terrorism in Kashmir, we would be foolish to take any of its reports about militants in Kashmir seriously. They have always used it to justify colonial occupation in the same way as it’s used in the broader ‘war on terror’ against Afghans, Syrians, Rohingya, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Yemenis, & so many others. In the US, Black kids are called ‘narco-terrorists’ to justify martial law in the Black community. Will they now call Kashmiris ‘Twitter-terrorists’?
“Kashmir last 200 Days: Just this bland perfunctory note for the world and whosoever. These 200 days in our life has only meant more pain, more humiliation, more sons in jails and more mothers mourning, more jobs lost and more stress. Actually, we are at the edge of insanity. And oh yes to some great nations of the world, just look upon this hourglass you have imposed on us. Just imagine if it turned its sands you will have a period in which God will bring you to the edge of sanity with the same torture you have invested upon us.”
–Zafar Iqbal who lives under the lockdown of Kashmir
Apparently Suu Kyi & the generals are not taking the ICC ruling seriously. They just arrested dozens of Rohingya, including two children, & charged them with attempting to leave the country. Fleeing genocide is a crime in Burma.
The Reuters report here:
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN20F1VB?
(Photo of Rohingya leaving court in Yangon by Ann Wang/Reuters)
An education event about Kashmir in Philadelphia on February 19th: there was also an educational event on the same day at UMass Amherst. The political art of Mir Suhail Qadiri gets around.
Added to the genre of prison memoirs are the voices of Kashmiri children locked up in squalid Indian jails. The Assad regime is also notorious for imprisoning & torturing children. Modi & Assad: murderous peas in a pod.
https://medium.com/@media_41618/a-15-year-old-kashmiri-boys-70-days-in-an-indian-jail-8b7ffba3c319?
“Adventure
One day,
When we were kids,
We went sightseeing
Curious to the grandpa’s wrinkled face.
We opened it as an illustrated book;
Two things stood out, ─
We found soldier-beaten lanes of dust,
A dead woman’s slit throat, her Shalwar torn,
We were shaken, staring in horror at each other;
We shrouded her in a handful of dust;
Fifty years later, one day
My children dug into my wrinkles;
Nothing has changed for them-
Ami defaced, her so black hair scattered;
They are not shaken; nor look in horror;
Ami and Grandpa have come and gone;
The soldiers in the dust-beaten lanes
And the mother’s torn Shalwar have stayed forever.”
©Ashaq Hussain Parray
“Hindi speakers should feel agitated when their language is forced upon Kashmiris. Stop your language from being hijacked and used as a political tool in Kashmir.”
–Zachriah Sulayman