On Kashmir

Report by Kashmir Reading Room (Aug 2019 – Aug 2020)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXrYPbH4l30lFsJbGuHeXTA - "Lost Kashmir History" youtube channel. contains all the documentaries, news stories and video documents made on kashmir.
https://soskashmir.home.blog/2019/08/14/the-state-of-jammu-and-kashmir-1846-2019/ - THE STATE OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR (1846-2019)
A BRIEF POLITICAL HISTORY - contains a lot of heavy reading materials and references on the issue.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Abrogation of article 370 :

https://www.newsclick.in/index.php/kashmir-60-days-recap-alleged-torture-detentions-some-protests - After the abrogation of article 370, the situation has deteriorated.

https://www.epw.in/engage/discussion/discussion-our-moon-has-blood-clots-exodus - On kashmiri pandits

https://www.newsclick.in/land-reform-development-jammu-kashmir - On how the land reforms in Kashmir has given it a superior form of social development than other states like Gujarat. And how the article 370 is what gave the legislature the autonomy to perform this.

https://www.newsclick.in/Kashmir-Article-370-Land-Reforms-Low-Rural-Poverty - Detailed on the independent constitution of kashmir which gave it advantage over indian states who faced stiff resistance from the legal system.


https://indianculturalforum.in/2019/08/14/kashmir-caged-a-fact-finding-report/ - Kavita krishnan and others assessing the ground situation in kashmir after the repeal of article 370
"We met migrant labourers from North India and West Bengal at many places. They told us that they feel safe and free from xenophobic violence that they face in, say, Maharashtra or Gujarat. Daily wage migrant labourers told us “Kashmir is our Dubai. We earn Rs 600 to Rs 800 per day here – that is three or four times what we earn in other states.
We found Kashmir refreshingly free of communal tension or mob lynchings. We met Kashmiri pandits who told us they felt safe in Kashmir, and that the Kashmiris always celebrate their festivals together. “We celebrate Eid, Holi, Diwali together. That is our Kashmiriyat. It is something different, special,” said one Kashmiri Pandit young man."


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


https://youtu.be/qHbNmokJEto - HIDDEN TRUTH - A Documentary about unknown, unmarked and mass graves in Kashmir

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/women-kashmir-longing-loved-return-190304140502708.html - In Kashmir, women suffer brunt of conflict
Women's Day is a grim reminder of atrocities and hardships faced by the women of the region in decades-long conflict.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/silence-report-documents-torture-kashmir-190520060706202.html - Extreme inhuman torture of civilian prisoners

Also, the Islamist “indoctrination" theory fails to explain why there have been suicidal killers from other faiths and happy affluent European nations. In March 2015, when a pilot left the cockpit mid-flight to go to the toilet, his co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, locked the cockpit door and crashed the plane into a mountain. It was easy for the world to diagnose him as a man with a serious psychiatric disorder—because he was not a Muslim.

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/why-the-well-educated-suicide-bomber-is-not-a-surprise-1556270645500.html

Indian soldiers burnt houses in Kashmir, used civilians as human shields in post-Pulwama encounter, villagers tell Reuters - https://www.firstpost.com/india/indian-soldiers-burnt-houses-in-kashmir-used-civilians-as-human-shield-in-post-pulwama-attack-encounter-villagers-tell-reuters-6548811.html

https://aje.io/nm789 - 'India shelling' kills two in Pakistan-administered Kashmir

Pakistan's army says at least 16 civilians have been killed by Indian gunfire across Line of Control this year.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


https://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Annual-Report-2018.pdf - > here’s the annual report of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.

https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf -> Here is the UN report on both Indian and Pakistani human rights violations in Kashmir.

"I don’t believe in our armed forces because in a capitalist nation the police and the army become pawns of the ruling class. If the armed forces are so happy doing what they are doing then does a soldier commit suicide every 3 days in India? People are very concerned about the martyrs but no one is concerned that the soldiers are killing themselves by committing suicide and killing each other by committing fratricide. The data is staring at us in our face but we refuse to engage with it and we call other people who spend hours painstakingly reading and reflecting as spreading propaganda."

https://m.economictimes.com/news/defence/number-of-suicides-highest-in-army-amongst-three-services/articleshow/67422380.cms - Kashmir & Palestine: Both Occupied, Both Victims Of The Military-Industrial Complex. The struggle for liberation of both Palestinian and Kashmiri people began in the late 1940s during the waning days of British colonialism.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/analysis/71-Years-of-Occupation-and-Piling-Bodies-in-Indian-Occupied-Kashmir-20181030-0014.html - "Indian security forces have always legitimized the killings as purging ‘terrorists’ and ‘foreign elements’ (Pakistani militants who often cross over into India’s Kashmir territory to join the fight against occupation) from the valley but in majority cases, innocent Kashmiris are killed with impunity, who are branded as ‘terrorists’ or ‘over-ground workers’ i.e. supporter of terrorist activities."

https://www.mintpressnews.com/kashmir-palestine-both-occupied-both-victims-of-the-military-industrial-complex/220996/

"Suicide is an outcome of mental illnesses like depression. Our soldiers are developing mental illnesses on the job because of very poor working conditions, disillusionment with army life, and having to confront their own activities of oppression and killing innocent people out of compulsion because the orders come from the government."

"Civilians and stone pelters are definitely not being spared by the Indian army.

“According to rights groups, 535 people have been killed this year so far, which includes 246 separatist fighters, 144 Indian soldiers or police personnel and 145 civilians.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/kashmir-sees-deadliest-year-decade-181129152141686.html "

https://kashmirglobal.com/2018/12/10/indian-forces-killed-95238-kashmiris-since-january-1989-report.html - Indian forces killed 95,238 Kashmiris since January 1989: Report

Viewing Kashmir’s armed insurgency as a variant of terrorism fails to explain Rafi Bhat’s case. It is hard to blame a mix of poverty, unemployment and lumpen elements as the cause for armed militancy. Bhat’s militancy,  like that of many who lost their lives before him, challenges the statist narrative that is carved out in the national imagination by news outlets and rightwing political networks.

https://www.epw.in/engage/article/why-kashmirs-armed-insurgency-not-variant-terrorism - Why Kashmir's Armed Insurgency Is Not a Variant of Terrorism

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/25/young-boys-tortured-kashmir-clampdown-new-figures-show-13000/ - Young boys tortured in Kashmir clampdown as new figures show 13,000 teenagers arrested (September 2019)