This image speaks a lot about the human right's in this country. India might be fast on course to become an economic power to reckon with but the dignity and value of humans is skidding fast in the opposite direction. The security personnel have turned into 007s making full use of the 'license to kill'. And things don't stop there, they misbehave with the dead bodies as is evident from the image above. They would have done well to let the body of the woman lie where the bullet(s) hit her instead of carrying it in an inhuman way. Animal rights are more recognized than those of humans. One wonders what makes security personnel shed their human side; a weapon in hand and a camouflage uniform or the orders from the higher-ups? The matter is of grave concern this time as the dignity of Indian women is at stake. It would be of interest to see how rights activists in India and abroad take on this issue.


*(For Amnesty International's "DEMAND DIGNITY CAMPAIGN")

Don't get carried away!

Don't get carried away!


Sheikh Anjum Husain
Even though a cross section of writers in Kashmir showed their optimism on a part of Indian Premier's speech at SKUAST's convocation, we have little reason to cheer and celebrate.
The revelation of proceeding with Pakistan on issues like trade, cooperation, porous border etc are ill-timed considering the happenings on ground here. Dr Singh's hints were seconded by India's foreign secretary Nirupama Rao as she gears up to visit and talk to her counterpart in Islamabad. The agenda for talks does include a range of issues but all these seem to be aimed at showing the world community that all is well between the two countries viz-a-viz the vexed issue of Kashmir. Or worse still this is to divert attention from the killings of innocent boys and violation of human rights.
New Delhi and our own government seem to be least concerned with how the Kashmiri people (mostly teenagers) are being treated by ham-handed army and police. What good does improving people to people contact across the border hold when people are treated worse than animals?
Little wonder that they are out to wipe out a generation of our's. India boasts of Kashmir being it's crown and inseparable part (atoot ang), but isn't it a sort of tragicomedy that the so-called crown is being beaten to smithereens every now and then by those who are meant to guard it? Kashmir has been kept in the boiling cauldron for over six decades over LoC and now they want to fuel the fire by giving us a porous border. Is that a solution? We must not get carried away!
Author resides in Sofipora Pahalgam and can be mailed at anjum.valley@gmail.com
LINK: http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24378&Itemid=44

Israel's illegal construction in and around Gaza

Of Talks

The world community needs to pull its act together to put pressure primarily on Israel to back off from its proceedings on the new constructions in the disputed territories

Sheikh Anjum Husain

The Obama administration seems to have woken up to its long overdue promise of reaching out to the Muslim world by showing its anger at Israel continuation with its settlement projects in and around East Jerusalem. An expression of this unhappiness over Israel Premier Netanyahu’s remark that he will not block the construction projects was George Mitchell, US envoy to West Asia, cancelling his visit to the Jewish state. The crisis has proved to be a setback to the peace talks between the two neighbours with US playing the role of a mediator. This new US-Israel frustration elicited a bitter response from no other than the US secretary of state Hillary Clinton calling it an “insult” on part of Israel. Nevertheless, all this is just a semblance of what an aggressive state like Israel deserves given its track record of breaching international laws and treaties. Israel has in fact been a pampered child of the US with successive governments extending full support to its reprehensible behaviour and endorsing its suppressive tactics. When a country like Iran, which time and again states that it needs uranium enrichment to meet its civilian energy requirements, has been facing economic sanctions for so long, why play a double-standard policy with Israel? Why doesn’t US raise economic and military barricades viz-a-viz an international criminal state? The world community needs to pull its act together to put pressure primarily on Israel to back off from its proceedings on the new constructions in the disputed territories. Both the warring neighbours must be brought on the talking table to settle the dispute once and for all. The United Nations especially has a role to play and that’s what it is meant for.

Like Kashmiris, the people of Palestine have been suffering for decades bearing the brunt of sins they didn’t commit. In a leading daily of J&K India, Pakistan and Kashmir were aptly described as three idiots drawing the analogy from Amir Khan starrer movie “3 idiots”. India and Pakistan resumed the so called dialogue (dialogue or a mock talk?) last month after the ill-fated 26/11 to the pleasure of optimists.


India again has worn the delaying tactics mask and subjected the resumption of composite dialogue to the condition that Pakistan, the biggest terror victim at present, first takes care of India’s concerns of terror. Thus creating a lose-lose-lose scenario for all the three idiots! This continuing strain in Indo-Pak relations and will prove to be detrimental to peace in the region in the long run as it would egg terrorists on and they will construe it as a success of their evil designs. India has its economic might and a rising superpower status at stake while Pakistan has everything from the lives of its citizens, its economy and the already explosive polity at stake. And as for Kashmir (J&K), young boys who only might have dreamt of a career, a successful life et al continue to fall victims to bullets and unceremoniously enter graveyards when they should be attending schools and colleges.

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