Articles Archives | Page 28 of 51

A season of loss in Kashmir

August 9, 2016 Editor

Why is it that the deaths in Kashmir, and the blinding of more than 100 people are never referred to in the media or in drawing rooms as the death and injury of Indians? For days after the killing of Burhan Wani, every TV channel rang with acrimonious debate. Wani was described by India as a terrorist and by Pakistan as a martyr. The media resounded to argument and indignation. The number of dead and injured continued to rise relentlessly. Among the earliest to be killed was Yasmina of a…

“Cries from a Bleeding Kashmir”

August 7, 2016 Editor

By Dr. Ahmed I am just returning from Kashmir and was forced to rush to the Srinagar airport at 4:30 am to escape the agitated masses and stone pelters wreaking havoc during daylight hours. I still have vivid memories of stone pelters and anarchists roaming the streets, running amok, smashing cars, intimidating shopkeepers, and distributing posters threatening people who do not follow their decree. Watching the death and destruction from both inside and outside of the valley, I would not forgive myself if I did not speak the bitter truth…

Wrath of Kashmir

August 4, 2016 Editor

The anger in the streets of Kashmir is not about economic stagnation or unemployment; it is about the people’s aspiration to live a life of dignity. It is high time New Delhi woke up to the reality. By Shujaat Bukhari The current phase of unrest in Kashmir, which began on July 8 with the killing of the Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, is a replay of what happened in 2008 and 2010. At the time of writing this report, 55 people have lost their lives and 5,000 injured, which makes…

Stone rage in Kashmir

August 4, 2016 Editor

GoI is not interested to look into the root of present uprising instead GoI is inclined to push all Kashmiris to the wall Mohammad Muzaffar Thakur Parliament is the supreme representative body in our country where Kashmir unrest was also discussed recently. All the opposition members in once voice criticized the excessive use of force and impressed upon the government to exercise restrain while dealing with the situation. The members also impressed up the Government to stop the use of pellet guns. Few days later Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited…

Kashmir’s women rulers

August 4, 2016 Editor

M Ashraf Pandit Kalhana in Rajatarangini, his treatise on the Kashmiri Kings from the ancient times, which was written in twelfth century AD mentions about some of the women rulers of Kashmir. The most famous ruler has been Rani Didda who ruled for 40 years from 958 to 1003 AD. She is supposed to have been physically disabled, clever, manipulative, and ruthless. Her rule represents the peak of women power in Kashmir. She has been called the Catherine of Kashmir like the Catherine of Russia who was ruthless and ruled…

Come to Kashmir, the Valley of Roses, Apple Trees and Corpses

August 3, 2016August 3, 2016 Editor

Generation after generation in Kashmir are crushed in slow motion, and the longings of a people are inscribed on the scars and burns of their young. Shama Naqushbandi A man rows his boat in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. Credit: Reuters I have been visiting Kashmir since my childhood. Over the years, the valley has taught me many hard lessons about the world. With my early trips to Kashmir, the terrain between history and reality blurred. It was the first time I realised that tragedy was not a foreign country. Its proximity was…

Open Letter to the People of India from Bleeding Kashmir

August 1, 2016 Editor

Dear People of India Greetings! I am sure that your collective conscience is yet to be satisfied. I am not Syria. I am not Palestine. I am not Gaza either. God has made me “Paradise on Earth”. But now I am as good as living hell. I am an untold story. I am bleeding land being brutally and illegally occupied by your nation which uses its military power to suppress the voice of freedom of my people. They have already killed tens of thousands of my innocent sons. The cheapest…

On Kashmir highway, an unfinished journey at dead of night

July 30, 2016 Editor

Sarwar Kashani It was not a secret journey to be made in the dead of the night. It was rather a compulsion because chances of getting caught in Kashmir’s continuing violence are lesser at night than during the day. In view of the danger of travelling on the Srinagar-Jammu highway that runs through south Kashmir, where most of the deadly street protests have occurred, I was advised to wait a while before I drive from the restive Kashmir Valley for Delhi with my family. But I could not postpone it…

The caged Kashmiris!

July 28, 2016 Editor

For three weeks now the entire Kashmir Valley has been turned into a huge prison The intention of the authorities in Delhi appears to cow down Kashmiris to the extent that they bite the dust and give up! This shows the utter lack of knowledge about the Kashmiris and their 5,000 year old history. Kashmir from the ancient times was known to be a very beautiful country somewhere in the Himalaya. One finds mention of Kashmir in almost all ancient chronicles of the Greeks, the Arabs and even the Chinese.…

What Kashmiris want?

July 26, 2016 Editor

When Indians ask this question, they answer it themselves and on their own terms. Honestly speaking, I had never heard of Burhan Wani until reading about the formidable crowds that formed his funeral procession. I am learning, after his death, that he was a Kashmiri who, like many others, experienced first-hand the peremptory brutishness of the armed forces representing the Indian occupation of Kashmir. Deployed through many different gestures – from unnecessary beatings, to needlessly humiliating demands for identity proofs, to lewdness towards women — the coarse affronts (leave alone…