Daily Diary (DD) - Day 295 of 2019

0803hrs:

A beautiful morning on the banks of the Kishenganga in Muzaffarabad. A huge contrast to this day in 1947.

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While all hell broke loose in Muzaffarabad in the afternoon, a young Kashmiri Pandit woman was preparing her testimony of the internal J & K narrative for a congressional hearing in Washington, later today:



(Update: 03/11/19 at 0930hrs)

As the following tweet of the 24th of October is directly related to the video above, it is added here for meaningful context:

خدا کی کرنی دیکھیے، وہی پنڈت جن کو حزب المجاھدین قتل کرتی رہی،وہی پنڈت جن کے بارے میں لشکر اور حزب المجاھدین مساجد میں علان کرتے تھے

Look at God's work,The Same #KashmiriPandits whom Hizb-ul-Mujahideen use to Kill, the same pundits against whom Lashkar and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen+

— #SaveRiverSaveMuzaffarabad (@khawajaatteeq) October 24, 2019

 
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Meanwhile, what we didn't want to happen happened. Here is an activist taking cover in a graveyard while our police were commanded to disperse the PNA crowd with tear gas:

Muzafarabad(POK):Police shelling on #PNA peaceful marchers. You can kill us but national independence is our birth right#IndependentJK #ریاستی_دشتگردی_نامنظور#PNAmarchtowardsMuzaffarabad #quitJammuKashmirMovement ⁦@UN⁩ ⁦@UNHumanRights⁩ ⁦@AJEnglish⁩ pic.twitter.com/0tC2zwU9wG

— JKPNP (@JKPNP3) October 22, 2019

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The dispersed crowds made their way to other points in the city where they had an advantage over the police. In this following notable event at Chela - on the main road road between Muzaffarabad and Neelam - the public felt no option but to prevent an entourage of UNMOGIP vehicles returning from Neelam Valley, from proceeding back to their office, at least not before they promised to file a report of today's brutality:

Video 1 of 2:



In the heat of the moment, some members of the public passed on unconfirmed reports of further deaths of civilians. It should be clarified that only 1 casualty occurred as a direct result of police baton-charging and shelling ref. Qazi Aslam. However, many dozens were injured, some seriously.

Video 2 of 2:



There is some speculation that the Pakistani State wanted to avoid embarrassment in front of the UN and hence they took the measures they did to prevent PNA's rally from proceeding beyond Laal Chowk - through the city - to the Assembly Secretariat. In other words, they were fearful that the PR (Public Relations) effort they had put in to take UN officials to the Neelam Valley, in order for the latter to observe the damage inflicted by Indian firing/shelling in the preceding days, would be washed away when the very same UN officials would observe thousands of civilians in AJK marching and protesting against Pakistani occupation.    


It is assumed that they were anxious that the Pakistani mono-narrative imposed in AJK would be further exposed!

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AJK's diaspora - particularly in the UK - was very quick off its feet in not only condemning what was happening in Muzaffarabad but also in arranging a demonstration in the UK, to counter Pakistan's behaviour in AJK:

Please join hands with brave leadership of #PNA . We have organised a protest on 24 Oct in front of Pakisnti high commission London,UK. #NoIndia #NoPakistan #StopKillingUs #QuitJammuKashmirMovement #IndependentJK #PNA #StandWithPNA pic.twitter.com/0H2fQQNvtz

— JKPNP (@JKPNP3) October 22, 2019

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As if what the police had done in the afternoon was not enough, towards the evening they decided to storm the central press club while the PNA leadership were inside, in discussion with journalists:



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