Thread by @aziakashmir

Drug addiction in Kashmir is India’s opium war on Kashmiris [a thread]
Kashmir is one of the most densely militarized regions in the world. on top of 650,000 Indian soldiers, there are 100,000 plus local police including different militia #freekashmir #drugs 1/n

the counter-militancy grid is tight. almost all 8 million Kashmiris & all neighborhoods are accounted for. often you must declare with the local police or army camp your house guests; the same goes for wedding parties or big events. #freekashmir #drugs 2/n

collaborators, spies & drones are ubiquitous. there are hardly any isolated places where civilians feel safe to venture without permission from the army. india says militancy is at an all-time low; #freekashmir #drugs 3/n

a headline recently boasted that there is only one militant in Srinagar. cross LOC trade is shut. the frontier is low on guerilla activity. as the saying goes: parindeh bhi parr nahi maar sakta (not even a bird can flit its wing). #freekashmir #drugs 4/n

then who are the people that trade in narcotics? the NIA/SIA, army, paramilitary/police - all branches of the Indian occupation are moving with a fine-tooth comb to catch any & every activity or activism. government employees and #freekashmir #drugs 5/n

businesses are watched. day in/out Indian occupation is criminalizing, killing, maiming, dispossessing, arresting & detaining Kashmiris. then how is the drug trade escaping this surveillance grid? how are the drugs so easily available in a heavily patrolled zone? #freekashmir 6/n

who are the protected patrons/pushers of this trade; who benefits from the ruin it brings? these are not unanswered questions. the military occupation is also a narco-occupation that exploits all vulnerabilities in society & ensures #freekashmir 7/n

the decimation of a resistant community at all levels. especially their impressionable youth. war & drugs are connected. if not the outright killing of young, ways of social/physical death are created; drug addiction becomes the easiest technology of state terror #freekashmir 8/n

the youth are vulnerable, they seek to numb moral despair & stresses of life in general; & the ills of occupation, repression, PTSD, dispossession, rising unemployment, & political despair #freekashmir 9/n

fighting drug addiction at family/community level is needed. but political economy of narco-occupation & weaponizing drugs to implode the Kashmiri society can't be ignored. Punjab is a tragic e.g.; it shares frontiers with Kmr. drug addiction is India’s opium war on Kashmiris