Brown Kashmir Solidarity Movement

09/03/2021

Despite his growing frailty, Mr. Geelani remained defiant. In a video posted online in 2018, as he remained under house arrest, he is shown knocking at the door of his home from the inside, telling Indian soldiers outside to let him out so that he could offer prayers at the funeral of a relative.

“Open the door, I won’t fly away,” he tells the officers. “We want to perform a funeral for your democracy.”

Mr. Geelani was an uncompromising opponent of the Indian government’s control of the Kashmir valley and favored Pakistani sovereignty over the mostly Muslim region.

09/02/2021

Do read about the person, whose dead body at 92 years old was “snatched... and forcibly buried” by the Indian forces.

That is how anxious and how lowly the Indian occupation of Kashmir is.

Geelani spearheaded Kashmir’s movement for self-determination and was a staunch proponent of merging with Pakistan.

09/02/2021

"At about 3:00 am, police barged inside our home and took our father's body," one of his sons, Naseem Geelani, told AFP.

"We insisted that we would perform his funeral after morning prayers and bury him according to his wish at the Martyrs Cemetery."

Police officers "snatched my father's body and did not allow anyone from our family to participate in the burial", the son added.

"We heard later that police undertook washing rituals for my father's body and had him buried."

Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani was buried in a tightly controlled pre-dawn ceremony Thursday as Indian authorities imposed a lockdown across the disputed Himalayan region.

05/16/2021

https://thewire.in/rights/police-arrest-kashmiris-for-palestine-mural-peaceful-protests-and-speeches

The artist was forced to deface his own mural before being taken into custody. The police have yet to say anything about the grounds for his detention.

04/11/2021

Please register for our upcoming event here (our previous link was broken): https://tinyurl.com/tnsvdwn7

Hope to see you all there!

03/18/2021

"Rawalapora village in Shopian witnessed one of the longest gun-battles between militants and armed forces in recent times in Kashmir. The gunfight left two militants dead and at least five houses were gutted. The encounter left behind a trail of destruction in its wake, of not just burnt-down homes but memories as well. Journalists Mohammad Dawood and Ibrahim M***a traveled to Shopian to capture the remains of the three-day encounter."

https://www.wandemag.com/in-pictures-burnt-homes-memories/?fbclid=IwAR2f4hYNH1ZeTerrGQmKrFWC-tZjXSk8hky9J7L4qvk00eUWJhAklcwCgpA

The encounter in Shopian left behind a trail of destruction in it's wake, of not just burnt-down homes but memories as well.

02/21/2021

"The state and its institutions have aimed to justify India’s curtailing of the right to communication and internet, while erasing its violent occupation of Kashmir from the narrative. But the global outrage, restricted to the internet ban alone, was another form of erasure, decontextualising the situation in Kashmir from the military occupation and its settler-colonial framework."

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/kashmir-india-internet-matter-lives-civilians?fbclid=IwAR2b4gIsUDaa1a6TGAlybhe5-Pny4SdAaibJCUm5be1q6OwmnZI-JsRK4fY

The international community seems to care more about the loss of internet access than about the Indian state's killing and wounding of Kashmiri civilians

11/05/2020

Recording of our discussion 'Kashmir in the Time of Covid-19' with Dr. Mohamad Junaid and Dr. Samreen Mushtaq held on October 27, 2020. They discuss the build-up to the pandemic in Kashmir, how the pandemic response was mobilized in service of the occupation, how it compared to happenings in India, and how people in Kashmir are responding to the aggressive onslaught of the Indian State on multiple levels.

On August 5th of last year, the Indian government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status as enshrined under Article 370 and 35(A) of the Indian cons...

08/05/2020

"The demographic-change-on-steroids is transforming a 73-year-old political dispute into a religious one. The ruling Indian government has cast it firmly in the Hindu-Muslim binary. It is no coincidence that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked August 5 as the date for laying the foundation of a temple being constructed at the site of a destroyed mosque. For the first time, the demographic invasion pitches Kashmiri civilians against Indian nationals, every one of whom will now be seen as a settler.

The resistance, at present crushed with brute force, is being pushed to respond in kind. These changes are inevitably going to create a civil war-like situation in Kashmir because it will pitch a small section of supportive people, against the majority who hold a strong opposition against them.

The world is aware that Israeli settlements have only complicated the already intractable conflict.

While Kashmir is being transformed beyond recognition as every day passes, the Indian Supreme Court is yet to decide on petitions challenging August 5 changes.

All these factors have created a situation of hopelessness in Kashmir. At some point, a world distracted by a pandemic, as well as economic and strategic interests, will need to take stock of the catastrophe in Kashmir."

With no elected leadership at the helm in disputed Kashmir, New Delhi has unilaterally passed a slew of laws to alter the majority-Muslim demography of the region.