Who are we to teach Kashmiris the virtues of democracy?

What is sought to be drowned out is the legacy of unflinching patriotism to India that the Kashmiri Muslim has displayed, first in being the only Muslim-majority concentration in undivided India to close their ears to the siren call of Pakistan.

jammu and kashmir, Kashmir article 370, Kashmir Ladakh Union Territory, BJP Jammu Kashmir, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Presidents rule in Jammu Kashmir, Kashmir curfew, — Modi-Shah have promised the Kashmiris ‘development’ in exchange for forced integration at the point of the rifle and pellet shots into the eyes of their children. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have just created a Palestine on our northern border. To do so, they first floated the deceitful rumour of an imminent massive Pakistani terror attack on the Valley to induct around 35,000 additional armed personnel into a region already bristling with lakhs of jawans. They then forcibly evacuated tens of thousands of Amarnath yatris and tourists from Kashmir. They have detained over 400 local leaders. They have shut down schools and colleges, shops and hotels, petrol pumps and gas outlets, and rendered the usually bustling streets of Srinagar and other Valley towns an empty wilderness. All communications have been severed other than those they do not have the technological capacity to cut. Parents in the Valley are unable to contact their sons and daughters in the rest of the country.