Khurram Parvez answers our questions about donations to the victims of the Nawakadal assault:
“There are some rumours that Kanimazar Masjid Committee account has been frozen by government & a case filed against Committee people for helping those whose houses were destroyed at Kanimazar.
We spoke to the Committee president who is unaware of any such thing. No government official has also confirmed this.
For protecting this initiative it will be very crucial to ensure that only Kashmiris & non Resident Kashmiris should deposit their donations. Support from foreigners, associations & organisations will be used to choke this initiative. Let us try to preserve this. Baaqi Allah Maalik hai.”
Monthly Archives: September 2020
(Posted May 20, 2020)
Women from Nawakadal grieve at being the subjects of so much colonial aggression & violence & after being made homeless at the height of a deadly pandemic.
Stand with the women of Kashmir & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir.
(Photo by Qazi Irshad/KT, May 20, 2020)
Twelve-year-old Basim Aijaz, son of Aijaz Ahmad of Chota Bazar Karan Nagar, died today at SMHS hospital in Srinagar from injuries he sustained in a house collapse when J&K police & Indian CRPF special forces conducted military operations in the Nawakadal district of Srinagar. Three others were also injured but there is no report yet on their condition. Basim was a class 7 student who had no relationship whatsoever to terrorism but only to resistance to occupation.
May young Basim Aijaz Rest In Peace as we honor his memory by standing with Kashmiris & demanding the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir. Our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, & Kashmiris grieving the loss of another child.
(Photo of Basim Aijaz from ITV, posted May 20, 2020)
There has been extensive coverage of the military onslaught against civilian homes in the Nawakadal district of Srinagar because of the scale of destruction. But that military aggression & destruction of property has long been standard operating procedure for Indian forces in Kashmir. The encounters are so frequent that reporting is almost routine but the devastation is profound in every instance where civilians are terrorized & property demolished. Thank heavens for photojournalism which captures these events although at great danger for the journalists.
This photo from April 7th, 2020 is after a military onslaught in Arampora village in the Baramulla district of Kashmir where militant Sajjad Ahmad Dar was killed, family homes were demolished, & livestock killed. J&K police, Indian army soldiers, & CRPF paramilitary troops were all part of the nighttime operation.
Stand with Kashmiris & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir.
(Photographer not yet identified, posted May 20, 2020)
Fahad Shah, the founding editor of The Kashmir Walla, was summoned to J&K police headquarters & questioned about their video & journal coverage of the devastation in Nawakadal, Srinagar yesterday. The Kashmir Walla reporting is quite sensitive to the human suffering involved for civilians in hunt to kill operations which the J&K police would see as ‘anti-national’. The interrogation is an intimidation tactic & we should be concerned about the safety of the journalists involved.
Stand with Kashmiri journalists & demand the end of harassment & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir.
You can show solidarity with The Kashmir Walla by liking & sharing their wall:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekashmirwalla/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tkwmag
(Posted May 20, 2020)
Millions in India, Burma, & Bangladesh are bracing for the strongest cyclone ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal with wind speeds up to 185 kph (115 mph). Hundreds of thousands living in the coastal regions will be evacuated. But what about the Rohingya refugees still adrift in unseaworthy boats? Shouldn’t there be emergency search & rescue operations? What about those who were dumped on Bhashan Char? Did they even think to build cyclone shelters when they dumped them on that cyclone prone island? Shouldn’t they be the first evacuated to safety?
Why do so many of us now write more about Kashmir than about US politics? Because the level of oppression is more violent & acute & the force of Kashmiri resistance to it more powerful. The Kashmiri struggle for azadi is not a diversion from US politics but heralds the way forward for all who are oppressed anywhere in the world. It speaks to the struggles of Black, Latino, & Native Americans in the same way the US Civil Rights Movement spoke to the anti-colonial movements of the post-World War II era. If one has to choose between lesser evil parsing of the US elections or a bread & butter strike in the US heartland, it’s a no-brainer to focus on those who stand against military occupation & genocide. To many of us, international borders do not justify indifference. Every struggle against oppression is our business. No human being is alien to us.