“This is Kashmir” by poet Waseem Nasir

Kashmiri women protest --BBC

This is Kashmir

Where the nightingale utter song of cry,
Having the strongest wings birds can’t fly

This is Kashmir,

Where the brothers fight to die,
Where the sisters standby.
This is Kashmir,

Where the martyrs depart with smile.
Where the mother shower sweets over her dead son.
This is Kashmir,

Where the fathers teary eyes don’t dry,
Where the mothers wishes, with her young son die.
This is Kashmir,

Where the toddler is pellet victim,
Where the older is bullet victim.
This is Kashmir,

Where there is AASIYA in every family.
Where there is NEELOFAR in every home
This is Kashmir,

Where there is MAQBOOL in every heart,
Where there is AFZAL in every part.

This is Kashmir,
Where the atrocious is Government,
where the oppressed is poor.
This is Kashmir,
Here is something cruel in endless space,
Here are scares that people chase.

–Waseem Nasir

(22-year-old Neelofar Jan was the sister-in–law of 17-year-old Aasiya Jan; both were brutally raped & murdered by Indian military forces in the Shopian district of Kashmir in 2009. The Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society has extensively documented the crime.

Afzal Guru was hung by the Indian government in February 2013 & Maqbool Bhat in February 1984, both as independence fighters.)