“15 residential houses were destroyed by armed forces in today’s encounter in which Junaid Sehrayi & Tariq Ahmed were killed. This isn’t the first time that armed forces have used disproportionate & indiscriminate force. Since 1947 Kashmiris have witnessed large scale state violence which led to widespread loss of lives & destruction of properties, like entire Batamaloo locality, many villages in Beerwah, Mawar in Langate were burnt down in 1965. Then in recent times memories of how entire Sopore, Charar-e-Sharief & Handwara towns were burnt down & many people massacred are still fresh. The priority of the State is control at any cost, let human rights be damned.”
–Kashmiri human rights leader Khurram Parvez, May 19, 2020

I will speak to you- in detail,
In broken English, with
My heavy Kashmiri accent,
How they want us
To forget and move on.
They want us to forget
That we ever lived happily
Under the shade of chinars;
Until they settled our history
And set us free.
I will write to you perhaps
Should my tongue be silent;
How they want us to forget:
Who stole our apples and Godly
Statured Deodar trees.
If I survive this siege of history;
I will – tell it to you, my children,
Even to my grandchildren:
How one fine day I was
Robbed of my memories.
© Ashaq Hussain Parray

Photojournalism will always be the enemy of war, colonialism, & genocide because one photo is worth a thousand murderous lies. The Indian Army must make an accounting for this carnage & destruction in Srinagar under the guise of hunting down two militants. It is not unlike taking an atomic bomb after an ant to move in hundreds of troops & heavy artillery in the middle of the night to maraud & terrorize sleeping civilians & destroy their family homes during a mandated quarantine.
This article in The Kashmir Walla describes something of the horrors that civilians went through as the J&K police & CRPF special forces went on their rampage: https://thekashmirwalla.com/…/srinagar-gunfight-at…/
(Photo of Nawakadal, Srinagar by Bhat Burhan, May 19 2020)

One can be forgiven for thinking this a scene from Gaza, Syria, Iraq, or Yemen. But in fact it is downtown Srinagar in the densely populated district of Nawakadal where early this morning a joint force of J&K police & CRPF special forces used heavy artillery for several hours ostensibly to rout two militants. There appears to be a major escalation of this kind of destruction by the occupying army in Kashmir at a time of mandated quarantine during a deadly pandemic. Like Israel against Palestinians, India is using the pandemic to advance colonization & genocide against Kashmiris.
It has never been more urgent to defend Kashmiris by demanding the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir.
(Photos by Kamran Yousuf, posted May 19, 2020)

It’s being reported that at least fifteen family homes were damaged or destroyed when the J&K police & CRPF special forces went on a rampage last night in the Nawakadal district of Srinagar. Several heavy artillery blasts were involved in this densely populated area. People report that they lost everything in their homes & could save nothing. One woman reported that the rampaging troops looted & even stole her jewelry.
Stand with Kashmiris & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir.
(Photo of scene via journalist Fahad Shah @pzfahad, posted May 19, 2020)

Indian media is reporting the Indian Army shoot up last night in the Nawakadal district of Srinagar as an operation against terrorists who they heard were hiding there. It was a joint operation between the J&K police & CRPF special forces who are boasting about it on Twitter. The operation was launched at 2 am this morning & the heavy artillery continued for several hours. The authorities snapped the internet & mobile phones ‘as a precautionary measure’. Precautionary of what? There’s a problem with the story which is how two militants could sustain heavy fighting for several hours against the combined force of police & special forces. Who was doing all the shooting?
There hasn’t been a recent assessment but in 2016 human rights leader Khurram Parvez estimated the number of armed militants in Kashmir at 150. The Indian Army has been on a rampage of almost daily hunt to kill operations since then & boasting of its kill rate. Unless they’re proliferating by dozens a day, there can’t be that many armed militants left to corner & kill. That would suggest that armed militants are not really the target of these operations so much as the terrorization & brutalization of Kashmiri civilians. That’s why these operations raze homes, kill livestock, vandalize property, injure & kill civilian protesters.
Plebiscite4Kashmir tweeted this photo identifying this little boy as inconsolable watching his family home burnt to the ground during the Nawakadal operation this morning. In all their boasting about killing the two militants, the J&K police & Indian special forces neglect to mention that their fight against so-called terrorism is really terrorism itself. In the midst of a deadly pandemic with mandated quarantine, this child, his sisters, & parents are left homeless.
Stand with Kashmiris & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir.
(Photo by Bhat Burhan, posted May 19, 2020)

Syed Ali Geelani is back on Twitter. I believe it’s an official account but that is not confirmed. He was permanently frozen out of FB in 2016 for a tribute to Burhan Wani & a Twitter account in his name was deleted last year during the lockdown when India demanded ten accounts (including my own) be deleted. His account is being trolled by nationalists so it would be good to follow him to show support.
Syed Ali Geelani (Official) @GeelaniOfficial
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“It does not take a religious belief to feel the agony of Kashmiris…just a right heart at the right place.
#SaveKashmir”
–Tweeted by Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial, May 15, 2020)

You don’t have to know a thing about cricket to respect Pakistani cricketeer Shahid Afridi for his outspoken support for the Kashmiri freedom struggle including on a recent trip to Australia. He also just visited Azad Kashmir to distribute corona protective equipment & again spoke out on Kashmir saying “The world is currently infected by such a big disease. But the bigger disease is in Modi’s mind.”
Indian cricketeers went ballistic on Indian media & Twitter like a chorus of braying jackasses in defense of their ‘honorable Modi’. They were accompanied by the braying of politicians like Ravinder Raina, the BJP president in J&K. Retired Indian cricketeer Gautam Gambhir came on Indian TV to chide Shahid, “It is unfortunate playing politics at a time of crisis” whilst suggesting Pakistan was engaged in terrorism in Kashmir. He of course never addressed the occupation of Kashmir with one-million Indian troops & ended, as did Raina, with some cheap shots about Shahid’s cricket skills. When it comes to nationalism these cricketeers are second to none. But then, why bite the hand that feeds them? If they supported justice in Kashmir, they would be thrown out of cricket & vilified as terrorists.
A salute to Shahid Afridi who certainly knew the abuse he would face for standing with Kashmir.
(Photo of Shahid Afridi from Outlook India)