“The old man I spoke with briefly, yesterday, told me (quoting him verbatim).

” We’re paying for not standing with our brothers in Kashmir. We realized very late that it was in fact a war waged against our faith. Babri did not wake us up, Gujarat did not either. We have been savoring Korma, Briyani throughout our lives totally indifferent to what lay ahead of us. We did not believe Kashmiris when they said these people will come after you. We should have seen it coming. There’s immense regret at not having believed them. How do we look them in the eye ever again? They stand vindicated. Yes. I went to the university (jamia) meaning to ask students to join the protest and one of the boys remarked how when they (Kashmiris) were fighting/protesting against these vile designs of Indian state, Indian muslims chose to look either way. It stung, it was bitter truth. To your shoe, here i offer my head. I pleaded with that boy. He said, you stood against evil now…we have been fighting the evil since long. The truth is: yes, we chose to remain in ignorance and it has only brought us more suffering. I was in Babri when they demolished the mosque. Those who escaped unhurt, like I did, have been on the run since.. the state of our lives. We are stateless, in our mind. We don’t belong anywhere. The ghettos we like to call our home and us who live here, have always remained at the mercy of these barbarians. These ghettos feel like temporary shelters and us, despite the fact that we were born here, have felt like refugees all along. ”
bro Omair Bhat

–Kashmiri Mubashir Naik

Drawing on Kashmiri poet Ghulam Ahmad Shah (popularly known as Mehjoor), the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy – Pipfpd India marks the 208th day of lockdown in Kashmir.

Mir Suhail Qadiri has been censored by Instagram. We don’t know from him which piece they found offensive. Would they also ban his Goya-esque rebuttal? No one ever said the censors had any good sense.

Am I missing news reports from Kashmir or am I wrong in saying there is almost no media coverage of the ongoing occupation & lockdown? Kashmiri journalists are under siege & unable to report from there but is international media blocked from entering or are they choosing not to go there? Is Indian media in collusion with Modi & Shah or are they afraid to report from Kashmir? Are all investigative teams from India also now blocked? Because we are receiving no news at all except that schools are open again & the kids can, after six months, return to school.

“When the state of Israel was established on the Palestinian land in 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians were removed from their homes, massacred and forced to live as refugees. These people included Jews, Christians, and the majority of Muslims. Often we are confronted with “Why can’t you support Israel,” and the answer to that question is that Israel has no claim to be on the Palestinian land. Not only that, the issue of Israel’s hegemony doesn’t emerge as Israel has never officially declared its boundaries (because it intends to occupy all of Palestine). Boundaries define territories. The entire Earth is made sacred as far as the Holy Land is concerned, so stirring conflict in any way is unholy. Politically Israel is not a state, and religiously Israel is in breach of the values of Judaism. LONG LIVE PALESTINE.”

–Kashmiri Zachriah Sulayman