A moving appeal from a Kashmiri on the courageous #StandWithKashmir protest at the Line of Control:
On August 6th, 33-year-old Parvez Ahmad Pala was picked up by Indian jackboots at his home in a midnight raid. He is the father of two small children & a cancer patient on high-dose medication therapy who also suffers from skin disease & paralysis in one hand. He was booked under the Public Safety Act allowing him to be jailed up to two years without charge or prosecution. His life is in danger.
Demand the immediate, unconditional release of all Kashmiri political prisoners.
“It’s been almost three months since 10-year-old Abdul Rahman Shteiwi was shot in the head by Israeli forces in his village of Kafr Qaddum in the northern occupied West Bank.
What was a typical day of Friday protests on July 12 turned bloody when Israeli snipers shot the boy as he was standing at the entrance of his friend’s house in the village.
Since that day, Shteiwi has remained in the Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv, unable to speak or move his body.” Nearly 100 pieces of shrapnel initially found in the boy’s head are mostly still lodged in his brain, The Israeli forces are denying any wrongdoing, saying live ammunition was not used thar day, despite the evidence.
Protesters amassing at the Line of Control to #StandWithKashmir.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1457862484472273/wp/2378867439039259/
Protesters from Azad Kashmir moving in a caravan to the Line of Control to #StandWithKashmir.
اٹھو میری دنیا کے غریبوں کو جگا دو 👇👇رواں دواں 🤞🤞🤞🤞
Posted by اویس رفیق on Friday, October 4, 2019
Lest anyone be confused when someone says today is the 60th day of the siege of Kashmir & another says it is the 61st day, there is a time zone difference which accounts for that. It is now October 5th in Srinagar & the 61st day.
There is considerable controversy over the peace & freedom march planned today by activists in Azad Kashmir at the militarized Line of Control (LoC). What concerns people is that India will take it as a provocation & shoot down or injure many of the unarmed participants. During the last such march a few weeks ago, Pakistan arrested many of the participants, possibly to prevent such a provocation with India. India is shooting pellet guns & live ammo at unarmed protesters in Kashmir & has been for years. That hasn’t stopped Kashmiris from protesting. What is of concern at the LoC protests is that India will use them to incite military action with Pakistan & that’s a genuine concern.
It’s wisest not to second-guess the organizers who know what they’re doing in their own countries & don’t need outside counsel. But there are proposals worth considering, which those organizing the protests may have already put into action, that can make those protests, which are a powerful act of solidarity, safer for participants & harder for India to exploit. Representatives from human rights organizations, journalists from major international media, UN representatives, well-known figures who support Kashmir can all be invited as observers. Hopefully most aren’t too chicken-hearted to do so. This would make it harder for India to exploit & unnecessary for Pakistan to arrest participants. First & foremost, those in Azad Kashmir who stand with Kashmiris have a right to protest in solidarity & it’s a right that should not be truncated or demonized in any way.
As I have explained before, I am choosing not to promote the interviews & protests by Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija because they appear to me as part of a dog & pony show to resuscitate the reputation of her mother from collaborator with Indian colonialism to moderate leader. If you post them on my wall, I will delete them. Don’t take umbrage when I do. It’s a political choice I make not on behalf of Kashmiris but because I detest manipulation in politics when it comes to life & death freedom struggles.
“61 days of ‘normalcy’ in Kashmir: Politicians and minors detained, pellet victims too scared to go to hospital, internet and phone lines still cut, night raids by security forces.”
#Free_Kashmir
–Indian activist Ravi Kumar