A useful article on the buildup of Indian troops in Kashmir:
“One of the well-placed CRPF officers revealed to The Quint on the condition of anonymity that the actual number of paramilitary personnel being ferried to the Valley, over the last eight days, had touched its target of 180,000.”
“As the Indian state launches a fresh assault on Kashmiris, not a single protest is happening in mainland India, not even a candlelight protest. Tells you how the civil society in India, if any, is OK, and in fact complicit, with the brutalization, the dehumanization of Kashmiris.”
–Majid Maqbool
“Kashmir is safe for foreign tourists. Kashmir is safe for beggars from various states of India. Kashmir is safe for the armed forces. However, Kashmir is unsafe for the natives: Kashmiris. To cut the long story short.”
–by Gowhar Geelani in April 2018
A woman who claimed to support the Kashmiri struggle blocked me after I posted about the Palestinian Nakba creating over 12 million refugees. The political parallels between Kashmir & Palestine are inescapable from their roots in the treacheries of British colonialism, the comparable ideological roles of Zionism & Hindutva nationalism, colonialism & brutal military occupations, Intifada & resistance, the military alliance between Israel & India. It’s hard to understand how she can grasp one reality & not the other but cognitive dissonance plays a big part in politics as we see also in the Assadist alliance between Stalinists & fascists with confusionists who denounce US military intervention in Syria but support dictatorship & Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians.
No slouches at colonial treachery, the UK, Germany, & Australia issued travel advisories to their citizens against traveling to Jammu & Kashmir after J&K officials issued a security alert claiming they had intelligence about planned terrorist attacks on Hindu pilgrims. In 2017, the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) issued a report on the Amarnath Yatra Hindu pilgrimage titled “Amarnath Yatra: A Militarized Pilgrimage” which is worth rereading to see how that pilgrimage is used as part of the occupation. The pilgrims are not & never were in any danger from Kashmiris despite its politicized character.
JKCCS report: https://jkccs.files.wordpress.com/…/amarnath-report-2017.pdf
(Cover of JKCCS report)
Mehbooba Mufti is not being allowed to leave her residence. It’ll take a lot more than house arrest to turn a collaborator who betrayed azaadi into freedom fighter Syed Ali Geelani who has been under house arrest for years (including under her tenure as chief minister) & who has remained steadfast into his 80s.
Asian News International reports that a J&K government official commenting on the security advisory urging tourists, pilgrims, & foreign students to leave Kashmir said, ‘It’s our responsibility to see to the safety of pilgrims & tourists. Lot of terrorists are sitting across the Line (in Pakistan) to cross here & most of them are suicide bombers.’ Is that an outrageous provocation & incitement, or not!?
71 years ago, 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced from their homes in what is called the nakba (the disaster). Today, that involves 12 million Palestinian refugees.
Build solidarity. Build BDS.
A frequent Indian tourist in Kashmir named Amit Tyagi is reporting that many Kashmiris are offering to open their doors to tourists stranded after the government order to evacuate. The Indian army is creating panic while Kashmiris are trying to calm it down. The fellow is also being relentlessly harassed by nationalists in their usual abusive style.
“One day, India will call back all its army from Kashmir like it called all the tourists & students today.
“We’ll drive them out in flocks of thousands. We’ll sing our songs of freedom then. Just wait.”
–Kashmiri medical student Dawood Yousuf on Twitter