It’s one thing for Kashmiri independence leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq & other Kashmiris to address the issue of drug addiction among Kashmiri youth because they care about their kids. But it’s quite another for nationalist Indian media to write about it. A recent article from NDTV (Indian media) claimed drug trafficking in Kashmir is a way to finance terrorism which is how they portray all opposition to occupation.
I don’t know anything about drug addiction & trafficking in Kashmir. But I do know plenty about drug trafficking in the US & I suspect some of the same political forces are at play. In the US, there is irrefutable documentation that the CIA is up to its eyeballs in international drug trafficking, that its operatives introduced crack cocaine into the Black community, & that drug addiction among oppressed youth serves the forces of oppression. If drug addiction is a problem among Kashmiri kids, it would be less likely that it is used to bankroll terrorists than it is that the Indian government, through its occupying army, is involved in trafficking in Kashmir. The response among the rest of us should be to more actively build solidarity with the Kashmiri freedom struggle so that young people have something to live for & do not feel demoralization & despair from colonialism & occupation.