By Dar Wasim
However, like the great leader, Nelson Mandela, in South Africa, Maqbool too did not give up on his commitment and stood firm. The struggle for freedom from poverty, hunger, and occupation was paramount for him. India tried every opportunity to rope him in, as it did with the rest of the leaders. But India failed in its attempt.
By Javeed Bin Nabi
Why are we unable to give due opportunities and space to women in Kashmir? Once outside the Valley, Kashmiris from our society claim that Kashmiri women are more liberated and freer than women in Pakistan and India. But the truth remains that women in Kashmir remain a soft target for both the gun-wielding soldiers and the vicious and intolerant men of our society, who with each passing day infringe the freedom of women.
By Adil Bhat
I do not agree that religious radicalism in the Valley is an outcome of occupation. In fact, it is not an occupation. If it was an occupation, then why would we see the military organizing large number of welfare projects like the Sadbhavna Operation under which a number of Army Goodwill Schools were opened mostly in inaccessible remote areas of the Valley?
By Tikuli
years ago I bid adieu to my homeland
the colours of autumn that stained my heart
have long faded and the rivers that ran
deep in the lines of my hands have dried
By Aaqib Hyder
A shiny white blanket
spreads across the graveyard
embraces underneath
seeds of revolution.
By Shahid Ashraf
Even though the current situation in Kashmir is undergoing ‘normalcy’, the scars on the body of people hold witness to the state-led barbarity on a people who are caught between the territorial claims of two nuclear armed countries.
By Ameen Hussain Rather
It is indeed a travesty and a sad tale that as human rights have advanced all over the world, in Kashmir, these have regressed. But, alas, the world is silent to this condition, despite the mute testimony of the dead, disappeared, blinded, tortured, raped, and illegally detained.
By Faakirah Irfan
The women who are raped in war zones
Aren’t martyrs,
There is no honor in rape.
By Naveed Ul Rana
A sense of “normalcy” would return to Kashmir, when an ordinary Kashmiri would be able to roam the streets without disclosing his/her identity to every man. “Normalcy” would mean a certain future and a guarantee that an armed man is not going to rape your daughter. The day a Kashmiri would be consulted about his future would be his nirvana.
By Rouf Dar
I remember the recent JNU fiasco when students were booked under sedition laws for similar slogans. Here, sedition is a national habit. We don’t get booked for sedition. We live in extremes. We die and win but don’t live and lose. There is no middle path. This is Kashmir, not India.
By Umar Lateef Misgar
Since India immensely values its international market image, lobbying businesses to divest from Indian economy, while highlighting the state abuses in Kashmir, will surely help in putting pressure on the country’s ruling elite to find a sustainable political solution to Kashmir’s long-pending dispute.
By Zieshan Mir
I am a hundred and fifty years old
And the walls of this room are flaky
It has been burnt down with passion at times
It has rusted with passivity.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday 