It’s perhaps essential to remember, too, that the previous Delhi loyalists in Kashmir, those who have copious blood on their hands, will embrace the brutalitarian system once more, as they miss the privileges and trappings of power, however cosmetic that power may be. Across history, both collusion and collaboration are cyclical and repetitive processes; the forms and terms may change but the ultimate goal, that of holding on to power, or to crumbs from an imperial centre, remains the same.

The Killing of Bashir Ahmed Khan is quite clearly much more than heinous or atrocious. Every moment, every frame presents a hugely damning question: How does an old man out driving with his toddler grandson end up lying dead, his body artfully arranged in the middle of a street, with the stunned child sitting on his chest?

April 2019. Life of a colonial subject:
A Kashmiri man has to seek permission to travel on his own roads. A magistrate imprints a seal on his hand. In the horrific 90s, sometimes a curfew pass was scrawled with ink on your palm if you had an emergency. A hospital visit, for instance. I remember.