“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