Kashmir is no Iran

As I hear non-stop news about the protests in Iran and the views of the US senators and congressmen and women on those protests, I wonder how Iranians managed to attract so much International attention.
On June 12th, Ahmedinijad was reelected as the president of Iran after a landslide victory. Soon after the results were declared the defeated candidates led by Mousavi alleged voting fraud and a stolen election. The supporters of Mousavi started street protests to have the elections annulled. The protests are going on as I write this post.
The coverage that these protests are getting is unprecendented. A few days of street protests in Iran against what the protestors call a rigged presidential election, has garnered tremendous support from the west and the western media. The news channels primarily show amateur videos and analysts present their opinions on these human rights violations. While I am against any human rights violation I can't understand why the media and the elected represntatives of the western governments are so vocal this time. Some of you who are reading this might be wondering my inability to comprehend this response when it seems a morally upright reaction. The reason is I don't believe it is only about human rights, I hope I am wrong.
My reaction is based on the response (or lack thereof) of all these governments on the human rights violations elsewhere, particularly Kashmir. Kashmir has been seeing such protests and the brutality of the security forces for the past 20 years and not an eyelid has batted. We have not seen even a millionth part of the response shown by the world for the developments in Iran, when we consider Kashmir. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, thousands of young men have disappeared, there are tens of thousands of orphans and widows, hundreds of women have been raped, but nobody outside of Kashmir seems to notice anything.
I am not sure what it takes to receive the world's attention because if it was the human rights violation Kashmir should have been a headline for the past 20 years. So what is it? Anybody out there, with an answer?

It sends shivers down my spine

Two young girls, aged 17 and 22, were raped and murdered in the Shopian area of my homeland, Kashmir. The locals allege Indian security forces to be responsible. People have been protesting for the last 13 days demanding that the perpetrators of this barbarity be found and punished.

Government as usual has been vague and slow in its response. The head of the state started with a denial, declaring that these young women had drowned in the brook near which their dead bodies had been found. After a few days of protests and the reports from the forensic labs, it was confirmed that the girls had been raped before being murdered. As a result, the state government initiated a one man commission of inquiry into the incident.

An eye witness came forward to depose before the commission. It is reported that he saw the Indian army men surrounding a military vehicle. According to this witness he heard the shrieks of some women calling for help, 'Bhayou mey bachaao' (brother save me), 'Moojey mey bachaai' (mother save me) coming from inside that army vehicle. This person was seen by the men guarding the vehicle and asked to leave, which he obediently did.

I am not sure what these shrieks mean to anyone reading this, for a kashmiri, atleast in my case, it runs a chill down my spine. These are the words of extreme helplessness and I quiver after reading them and thinking about the agony and pain that those girls must have gone through. It is a shame that something like this could happen. I pray that the barbarians who did this get exposed before the world and face justice for this inexplicable crime.

Elections Again

The largest democracy of the world, India, is in the middle of electing its next parliament. It is a big deal all over India and Kashmir is no different but for distinct reasons. Kashmiris are debating whether they want to participate in these elections or not. Those who oppose any participation argue that voting means acceptance of India's rule in Kashmir. While those in favor of voting believe it is not related to the right of self determination. The most prominent voice against the elections being that of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the leader of Hurriyat(G) organization, seeking the right of self determination.
There is another faction of Hurriyat(M) led by Molvi Umar Farooq. This organization initially declared that elections and struggle for freedom are two separate issues and refused to call for boycott. However, the people's reaction soon made them reconsider their opinion and they joined Geelani and other separatist organizations calling for the boycott of these elections.
Although pro-india Kashmiri parties which include National conference and Peoples democratic party have been, and are, in support of the elections, they still believe that Kashmir issue needs to be resolved regardless of the elections. The stand of these parties is as always expected.
There was a significant development though. One of the prominent pro-freedom leaders, Sajad Lone, decided to run for the elections. His reason, he wants to represent Kashmir in India. He argues that he still wants freedom from India but he will fight this in the parliament of India. Strong change of approach, but it seems like oxymoron, to me. Whenever you run for an election you automatically accept the constitution of that country and how can you fight the same constitution in the parliament that has been created based on the very constitution, that you are against.
Democracy in India allows the freedom to be in either camp: support elections or not. However, there is a difference between what is on paper and the reality on ground. The reality is that all the people supporting boycott are treated ruthlessly(see picture below). This is the tolerance for dissent and a display of democracy on ground in Kashmir.

Source: Picture in Daily Rising Kashmir dated 29 April 2009 by Farooq Javed

Kashmir language keyboard

I am pleased to share with you that Fedora (linux) operating system has a kashmiri language keyboard now.
I contributed the keyboard mapping to Fedora(redhat) and it has become a part of the m17n (language pack) library. It will be available in the current fedora version 10, with the next update release of m17n contrib. You can check out the kashmiri keyboard in the cvs repository of fedora at

kashmiri keymap

It is dedicated to all those who love the language and most importantly my mom(Razia Yehya), dad (Mohammad Yehya), my wife Shamima, brothers (Manzoor, Shafaat and Firoz), and ishrat didi.

-Nayeem

never in history....

Last week history was made in Kashmir. The genesis of this change in history is the death of two young kashmiri men. This was no ordinary death. They were shot dead in cold blood by army. This was concluded in the investigations of the state government as well as the army itself. Killings like these have been happening in Kashmir for the past 20 years, the latest one after these two being the shooting of a young carpenter in another part of the state. What makes the death of these two young men different is the resistance that the villagers showed up against it. Their peaceful yet resilient fight was against the army camp amidst their village, members of which were responsible for the death of those two innocent men. Their demand: shift the army camp.
They were united and steadfast in their demand. Peaceful, yet so powerful that their struggle yielded results that were never seen before in Kashmir. The army camp was shifted from that village. It was the victory of innocence and peaceful resilience.

for gods sake.. were not hindus or sikhs!

I happened to listen to a few media reports on the recent violence in Pakistan's North-West. Often they interview civilians fleeing military offensives. Once too often one hears some flavor of the following comment from the poor hapless fleeing souls: "its not like were hindus or sikhs.. why the hell is our own government bombing our villages?". Is this messed up or is this messed up?

Democracy is about inheritance

When you speak about democracy in Kashmir, it is more about who your father is than who you are. Take a look at the recently concluded state elections in Kashmir. Who became the chief minister (head of the state)? Omar Abdullah. Son of two time chief minister, Farooq Abdullah and the grandson of the founder of his party, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. This is the ruling party National Conference. It is not hard to imagine that the next leader of that party would be Omar's son.

Now let us talk about the main opposition, Peoples Democratic party (PDP), the main leader is Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Guess who is the next in command... his daughter Mehbooba Mufti. Who would be after that...someone from the family. Is this really democracy?

The real democracy is still a pipe dream for the people of kashmir. May be that is the reason for the mess we are in. whatever the elections are worth I think people should be voting for the person to head the state and not the party.