Khamosh Kashmiri خاموش کشمیری

Sheeraza Akhtar, Kellar, Shopian District, Kashmir. 4 April 2009: RESHMA BEGUM (60) 31 May 2009: SAIFUDDIN KALLAR (48) 3 June 2009: NAGEENA AKHTAR (18) 17 July 2009: PARVEENA AKHTAR (17) 23 July 2009: MOHAMMAD ASLAM AWAN (?) & SON (3) 16 Dec 2009: SHEERAZA AKHTAR (21)* None of the above assassinations in Kellar by Jamaat-e-Islami and Hurriyat linked terrorists evoked any protest in 2009 or cry for justice. Their deaths were carried in a couple of local newspapers as a small news item, like "Fyi, unidentified gunmen kill a woman, police is investigating." That's all, folks! They never really explore it for obvious reasons. No editorial. No condemnation. No outrage. No cry for justice. None at all, except in * #SHEERAZA's case... When Sheeraza was killed by terrorists, NC's ex-CM Farooq Abdullah made an attempt to take political mileage of the killing, because the people of Kellar comprised of Jamaat-e-Islami cadre who were pro-PDP: https://...

Family members of Nageena, who was killed inside her house by terrorists at Keller. Many in Kashmir would recall the names of the two unlucky women NEELOFAR and ASIYA who drowned in a flashflood in Rambi Ara river in Shopian district in 2009, an accident that was exploited by separatists, multiple political interests, human rights vultures, corrupt doctors who forged evidence, and other beneficiaries of the conflict industry, who hope for a bloody summer each year in Kashmir. But how many Kashmiris would remember NAGEENA and PARVEENA? It's a rhetorical question: outside of their near and dear ones, the answer is Zero. Here's about them, the Unmentioned Malalas of Kashmir... ........ GIRLS PAY WITH LIFE FOR GETTING EDUCATION Kumar Rakesh Tribune News Service Keller, July 20, 2009 Nageena (18) and Parveena Akhtar (17) were the most educated members of their families who hoped that would one day land jobs and pull them out of their impoverished existence. Both wer...

1. Feb 21, 2014 : "Unidentified gunmen" shoot dead a 25-year-old PG Islamiyat student Wasim Mehraj Malla from Bagh-e-Islam Kraakshun Colony in North Kashmir's Sopore town. The Separatist Reaction: Silence 2. March 8 , 2014 : An 80 year old man Ghulam Muhammad Dar is shot dead by "unidentified persons" in his native village of Dogripora in Awantipora Town. The Separatist Reaction: Silence 3. March 14 , 2014 : A youth Farhat Ahmed Dar son of Ghulam Muhammad of Shahgund is killed in police firing at Naidkhai Sumbal shortly after Friday protests. The Separatist Reaction:  Street protests, stone pelting, calls for  hartal 4. April 19 , 2014 : PDP Sarpanch Mohammd Amin Pandit is killed in cold blood by Militants  at Gulzarpora in Awantipore in Pulwama district of South Kashmir. The Separatist Reaction: Silence 5. April 21 , 2014 : 24 year old Firdous Ahmad Mir is killed in cold blood by Militants along with his father Ghulam Nabi...

This is for all of those who think that we never were speaking for minority rights, women's rights, child rights or LGBTQ rights. We were always speaking, looking for ways to do it since the Valley erupted. Most of the younger generation forgets that there was only STD facility till the early 90s. Cable TV was just coming and there was no Internet, which is a recent phenomenon. They do not understand that the 24/12/8/6-hour electricity that what they enjoy in winter months is nothing compared to what we faced with no power lines the entire 2-3 snow-bound months. That we were in a cocoon, cut-off from the rest of the world with rumours rife, and terror heightened, complicated by the fact of lesser means of communication - be it the BBC, or the pathetically inadequate Kashmir Times, Srinagar Times, Chattan, etc. That they too were militant-controlled. Not unlike today where the dominant azadi narrative runs the new English and Urdu dailies. But to create a belief that we ...

Mohammad Sultan Bhat, a sarpanch (village head), who was shot dead by terrorists outside his home in Shopian in 2014. "Omertà is a code of honor that places importance on silence, non-cooperation with authorities, and non-interference in the illegal actions of others."  It is a myth that Jihadis did not target the Muslim Kashmiris. If we were to go by (conservative) official statistics, some 13,000 Muslim Kashmiris (not including Kashmiri policemen) were gunned down by the Jihadis. We need to understand that in terms of murders, kidnappings, rapes, loot, and humiliation at the hands of militants, the Muslim Kashmiris who stayed back suffered most, because they had to endure it for 26 years. And still do. No human rights activist talks of them.  News like this goes unnoticed. Muslim Kashmiris suffered the direct brunt of militancy for decades and are far more in number (this should be fairly obvious). Many Muslim Kashmiris also had to flee to Jammu/Delhi due to:...

In the last 30 years, the majority in Kashmir has been silenced by the barrel of the gun that Pakistan has aimed on Kashmir. Many prominent leaders and intellectuals of Kashmir who disagreed with Pakistan’s cross border terrorism or militant violence, have been silenced by bullets. Anyone among the intelligentsia who advocates peace has been gagged. But ironically, the perpetrator of violence in Kashmir has been projected as the victim of human rights abuse; violence and threats of violence have been presented as dissent. In none of the great democracies like the United States, or those in Europe, have terror acts especially sponsored by a rival state, been legitimized by calling it dissent. In a democracy, expression of dissent or disagreement is not possible amidst intimidation and extreme violence. But it is a travesty that the world press, which completely ignores or is not even aware of the history and context of Kashmir and violence in the region, has unwittingly come to just...

At the sham of a hearing by the US Congressional 'Sub'-Committee on Human Rights in South Asia, our cash-strapped neighbour Islamic Republic of Pakistan, used its cost-effective strategy of employing a bunch of cheap Hindu NRIs to attack ‘Hindu’ India, as if these  perennial direct beneficiaries of the Kashmir Conflict Industry have more than an ounce of credibility. This inconsequential sideshow, which majority of US Congress members skipped, was not hosted in this incestuous little forum with little influence on US foreign policy to 'defeat' India per se; no, it was merely meant to reassure Pakistani and Kashmiri jihad supporters back home and abroad that even after losing  badly in  the Battle of UNSC, the never-ending War was still on. As things stand today, Pakistan has far more pressing domestic affairs to attend, than the absence of 4G connectivity in the enemy state. Pakistan had been busy feeding the ‘ Kashmir Banega Pakistan’ steroid to its jihadi audi...