Daily Diary (DD) - Day 227 of 2019

2052hrs:

If just as an after thought, I saw far more Pakistani flags for sale in Dadyaal today than I noticed yesterday anywhere between Dadyaal, Kotli, Sarsaawa, Baloch, Trarkhel, Jandaali, Banjosa, Kaigalla, Hajeera, Tattapani and via Kotli back to Dadyaal. In actual fact, I saw exactly 3 Pakistani flags on our entire journey and every 1 of those were mounted on vehicles, who could have belonged to anybody.

I would be really interested to learn of how many Pakistani flags have been sold in Dadyaal, in the days leading up to this year's 14th of August.

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There are reports of cross-LOC firing today, in Leepa Sector and Battal Sector. Here's a 'must translate' tweet in relation to a civilian casualty in Battal:

@tariqfarooq60 @PM_AJK

بٹل پونچھ کا رہاٸشی منیب الرحمان آج جب بھارتی فوج کی گولہ باری کی وجہ سے زخمی ہوا تو بٹل یا ملحقہ علاقوں میں ایمبولینس نہ ہونے کی وجہ سے بروقت ہسپتال نہ پہنچ سکا۔ اپنی مدد آپ کے تحت جب اسے راولاکوٹ پہنچایا گیا تو زیادہ خون بہنے کی وجہ سے اس کی موت ہو گٸ pic.twitter.com/Iwz41nWqt7

— Misaligned Stars (@AfzaalMajid1) August 15, 2019

Translated thus:


A resident of Battal in Poonch, Muneebur Rehman who was injured in mortar shelling by indian forces, couldn't reach hospital in time as there were no ambulances available in the vicinity. When other residents of the area transported him to Rawalakot using their own initiative (community self-help), he (Muneeb) had already lost too much blood and hence succumbed to his injuries.

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Ayesha Siddiqa has always been on the ball. I was fortunate to meet her at her residence in Islamabad in 2009. She was wrong on one thing that I'll always remember though: She thought - at the time - that Pakistan's 'deep State' would never allow me to conduct public forums throughout AJK and GB. Why? She thought they were too powerful in AJK and they would obstruct my work, by hook or by crook. I said at the time that I didn't think they could do as they liked in AJK because deep down; they always knew that they don't have a locus standi in AJK, the people do.



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