In a breach of the usual news blackout on the Indian occupation of Kashmir, the July 26th issue of Time magazine published an article titled “Another Season of Unrest Brings Darkness for Ordinary Kashmiris.” It’s shabby-assed reporting, including using the term “unrest” to suggest rebellion against the brutalities of occupation are a feverish phenomenon among Kashmiris that occasionally erupts without explanation. But it does talk about the monstrous use of pellet munitions blinding so many Kashmiris, including small children.

Hospital wards are filled with partially or fully blinded victims of pellet injuries. According to the doctors’ association at SMHS Hospital in Srinagar, that facility alone has received 289 patients with eye injuries since July 9th.

This siege will become criminally notorious for the use of pellet munitions. The sole purpose of these so-called non-lethal weapons is to demoralize, disable, & blind activists in order to demobilize unarmed political opposition to the occupation. But of course they are not non-lethal just because the fatalities are suffered later from infections & organ damage. Already some have died from their use.

The first stage of international solidarity is education about what India is doing in Kashmir. It doesn’t matter if you think Kashmir belongs to India & has no right to self-determination & independence. If you refuse to denounce the use of pellet guns & other human rights atrocities by the Indian army, you should hang your damn head in shame. That would not distinguish you from the most rabid nationalist.

This protest is from July 23rd in Srinagar. Many of these young people are now laying in hospital or at home recovering, their lives forever changed.

Stand with Kashmir. Demand the end of the occupation even if you can’t bring yourself to demand self-determination for a people willing to risk all to achieve it.

(Photo by Yawar Nazir/Getty Images from Time)