a Kashmiri response to the appeal to the UN

I want to share the following with my brothers

I am a Kashmiri living in Kashmir and I think I can be considered to be an expert on the issue in comoarison to the politicians living in other parts of the country. The basic problem with Kasmir is that the people of that part of the world do not cosider themselves to be part of India and they think that they have forcibly been kept under occupation. I do not want to share my own stand on this but the fact of the matter is that the actions taken by the central Indian govt have from time to time conveyed the aprehension to the locals there. Take, for example, the manner in which the people were treated during 1990-2006. Worst kinds of human rights violations took place and none from the indian govt ever bothered to care. Thousands of young people disappeared under police custody.Many such things have happened which have made the Kashmiris believe that India does not treat them with dignity, rather it treats them as its colonial inhabitants and as such they do not trust it. So much so, that the elected representatives are considered to be the traitors of that society. In fact, when the recent march to Muzafarabad was undertaken, the representatives of the Peoples Democratic Party were manhandled and were not allowed to make public sppeches in Sopore.
The elected govt again is taken to be sttoge of the centre and it is widely believed that no matter whome the people elect, it is ultimately the centre that decides as to who actually should form the govt and it is thus believed that the elections are simply an exercise to hoodwink the international community.This certainly is not without basis. The elections held here were a farce, always but those held in 2002. It is the elections of 1987 that were responsible for the armed uprising that started in 1990 and ruined the state as the elections were nothing but a shame.

Anyway, all the developements have created a permanent suspision in the mind of the people here towards Indian establishment and the recent allocation of land to Amarnath Shrine Board was seen as an attempt to alter the demographic charcter of the valley by settling no local hindus here, even though the perception is debatable but the primery question can not be brushed aside. It never was a struggle dia but a menifestation of the anger that the locals have against the establishment. It may be noted that not a single hindu or the pilgrim was attacked during this entire turmoil.

But the people associated with the rightwing parties of India projected it as a fight against the Hinduism and as such pushed for an economic blockade of the valley. Trucks of Kashmiri muslims were attacked, looted, their drivers thrashed, in some cases even were tried to be burnt alive- one truck driver is still in the ICU of AIIMS.
It was but natural for the kashmiris to raise their voice, but that again was dealt with with a colonial approach. 30 people were killed in two days by the security forces, all demonstrating against the blockade, while only 3 people were killed in Jammu in 40 days, even though, the agitators burnt the houses of local muslims there, attacked the public property, and lynched two policemen to death.This again has reinforced the belief of the Kashmiris that they are treated like slaves and they can not co exist with this country.

I hope that the above lines will add to the knowledge about the local issues here.