Mubashir Iqbal Kitaba, Amir Reyaz Sheikh
WHENEVER we prepare for sleep the thought which strikes our minds is about the life of our fellow Kashmiri brethren, whose future looks very grim and dark. The people living in the besieged valley cannot even raise their voice as there is complete media blackout and communication blockade. One who dares to raise his voice, concern and dissent fares of facing the wrath of both the power and men in uniform.
We too fare as we know that the dissent will land us into jail. But our consciousness doesn’t allow us to keep mum, so we raised our hands and write down the lines through the ink of our pen. How long we tolerate this cruelity as the world is keenly watching but the materialistic things came before their eyes as they prefer trade over human values which stop them in raising their voice and concern. Even the United Nations which guarantees us the right to self-determination watches as mute speculator.
From the past seventy years what we saw only death and destruction. We saw our loved ones falling to the bullets of the oppressor. How can we forget the Kunan and Poshpora the two villages in Kupwara District where the women of the whole village were raped by the men in uniform in the dead of the night. Even elderly women 85 years of ages were not spared. This gruesome incident is one of the darkest chapters of Kashmir conflict.
The victims even till date have not been able to get any justice as the both the Indian government and military rejected the happenings of that night in which their men were involved. The pages of Kashmir conflict history are full of such kinds of inhuman and gruesome incidents. Now almost four months have passed since the abrogation of Article 370 the life in the Valley still remains pluralized. The businesses there suffered huge losses. Education system is in shambles and the future of children is at stake.
Kashmiris have no enmity with India, we are simply asking for what the founding fathers of India and the world community guaranteed us. We do not want war between the two nuclear armed neighbours as it will bring death and destruction but believe us that we are fed up with the atrocities being unleashed on us from last seventy years particularly from past thirty years, let now decide our fate in the battle field as India has choked every peaceful platform where one can express his views and ideas. India doesn’t want to listen to anyone and considers himself same as what Paroh (firoun) considered him in history. There is one Jallianwalabagh in India where innocents were massacred by the British in 1919. There are thousands of such baghs in Kashmir where people were massacred. Every street and nock and corner of the Kashmir is witness to such baghs were people fell to the bullets of the oppressor. We believe that the common people of India are totally ignorant of the Kashmir issue and about the atrocities being unleashed upon Kashmiris by those whom they call saviors.
They only know what their biased media tell them. The day they know the reality of and atrocities being unleashed upon the unarmed innocent Kashmiris they would came out on roads to ask for our rights. Last year the chief of Indian army in a statement advised young Kashmiris to laptops, pen and books instead of stones. We follow his advice and doing the same by writing this piece.
—These authors are from Srinagar Kashmir.
