Thread by @Raksha_Kumar

To all those who say #Kashmir is joyous about "becoming Indian": after #burhanwani was killed, I spent some months in the valley. #Kashmiris were frustrated by India's militarisation, angry at oppression. #Thread - everything I saw illustrates Kashmiris wanted distance from India

Villagers of Chadoora, Budgam claimed security forces shot at and killed three teenage boys in their village. About 150 armed personnel had assembled to cordon off a house where a militant was lodged.
Such "encounters" are common in the valley.
scroll.in/article/833888…

A little beyond the encounter site in Chadoora, on the other side of the apple orchards, is a narrow canal. Some boys stood on the opposite bank of the canal and hooted at the soldiers, witnesses said.
#Kashmir

A CRPF man who was sitting on a bench got visibly irritated, according to a witness. “When he pointed his gun at the boys, I thought he was trying to scare them away,” the witness said. “But, he shot at the boys.” Zahid Rashid Ganaie, 22, fell to his bullets, he added.

Once teenage boys run away to join the militancy, their parents know that they will never return alive. Just as the parents of those youngsters who ran away and joined the Indian freedom struggle.
#Kashmir
livemint.com/Sundayapp/uqPk…

Security forces target the militants and make martyrs out of them. “If the forces had ensured that the militants had come out of the house, arrested and tried them, they would not be etched in the community’s memory, let alone inspiring younger boys to join the movement."

Walking through the corridors of lowers courts of #Srinagar
is a painful experience. Young boys, donning backpacks, stroll around - most of them charged for allegedly pelting stones. Their acquittal rate is 97%.
scroll.in/article/835777…

"They injected petrol into my thighs,” said Asghar. He described how he was given electric shocks to his ear lobe. He was asked to identify militants he had never seen before. “We sat up all night in the jail and idolise the mujahideen who killed these evil policemen"

The term “multiple FIR” is common in Kashmir’s courts. The practice of ensuring that boys picked up on charges of stone pelting are not set free that easily. “When a boy gets bail for one offence in a court, before he is released, the police call neighbouring police stations"

#Wahabism at a predominantly Sufi #Kashmir Kashmir is a reality too. A law student at Kashmir University said their movement wanted to look beyond a nation-state. “What good is India and Pakistan?” he asked. “We are followers of Islam and we want a land where there is sharia.”

The problem regarding juvenile offenders became acute after 2008 (when 99 acres of Amaranth land was transferred to the trust), when young people began to be arrested in large numbers. #Kashmir

“Kashmir se Kanyakumari tak” is commonly used to describe India’s expanse. However, school textbooks don’t contain details of Kashmir’s conditional accession to Independent India.
netadata.in/what-do-kashmi…

The younger generation of Kashmiris - educated in larger cities of India and abroad -have a greater sense of alienation from the Indian state. Perhaps because they see the stark difference of the state’s attitude towards its citizens in Bengaluru as opposed to those in Budgam

The story that attracted most vile was this. Religion being used to stake claim to #Kashmir's land. Discerning comments welcome.
foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/09/ind…

A million Kashmiri women suffer serious mental conditions. They include “half widows” and actual widows. Many of the latter are in their 20s and 30s, and an alarming number of them say they have suicidal tendencies.
truthdig.com/articles/a-clo…

About 1.8 million adults in the Kashmir Valley have “significant symptoms of mental distress,” according to a 2015 report by Doctors Without Borders. The report says about 50 % of Kashmiri women suffer from depression, about 36 % of them have anxiety disorder and 22 % suffer PTSD

A United Nations report estimated that Indian security forces killed up to 145 civilians and rebels killed about 20 civilians between July 2016 and April 2018. The report said India used “excessive force,” and a U.N. commissioner called for a human rights investigation.

Kashmiri women are often required to take on the roles of men lost to violence, and that burden—in addition to their grief—takes a toll on the women’s mental health.
truthdig.com/articles/a-clo…

Kashmiri children not only bear the impact of these incidents, but they also suffer from the effect of past violence on their parents. This generation of Kashmiris who have never known a normal childhood, run the risk of absorbing the mental damage inflicted on their mothers.

Two #Muslim communities who fled persecution in #China decades ago have found themselves at the centre of further conflict – this time on the border of Pakistan and India.
#Kashmir
scmp.com/week-asia/poli…