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Showing posts with label Nitasha Kaul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nitasha Kaul. Show all posts

Friday, 29 April 2022

Daily Diary (DD) - Day 119 of 2022

2022hrs:

Break day 5 of district (Kotli) wide tour

Brakes are on and timing of the day corresponds to the year, once again I think.

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I haven't really commented on the film 'The Kashmir Files' to date. However, the following Facebook post by Nitasha Kaul (I'm providing the link here as the post cannot be embedded) prompted me to respond to the divergent range of views posted there. Here's my comment:

I have read the comments and feel that we have to build bridges irrespective of what happened in the past. This does not mean wrongs must not be put right but for that we need 360 degree empathy.

I think we can learn a lot from Budhshah's rule (1420-1470), not least because that era navigated out of something much harsher.

We all (inhabitants of JKA) have an opportunity to provide solutions for the diverse regions, civilisations and power centres that intersect at this territory.

I am thinking water management technology in particular.

I also think cross LOC cultural activism over the past few years to revive Sharda - not only as a religious place of worship for Hindus - but as a pre-eminent centre of learning for the whole of humanity, provides us inspiration.

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Tuesday, 22 October 2019

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:


 
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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:


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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:




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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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Saturday, 24 August 2019

Daily Diary (DD) - Day 236 of 2019

1637hrs:

Journalists who flocked en masse from Muzaffarabad towards the LOC at Chakothi, to express their solidarity with their besieged brethren across the line, have been prevented from proceeding beyond Chinari, by forces under the control of the Pakistani State.

Will some of them continue to blindly sing the praises of the Pakistani army, or will they understand the 'game' for what it really is?

Here are some current scenes from Chinari:



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The negative environmental impact of Neelam-Jhelum project on aquatic life:


#say_no_to_river_diversions


Translation of FB post above:

River Neelam

Some reports are being circulated these days that those running the dam (Neelam-Jhelum Project) are throwing such chemicals into the river (Neelam) which are killing the fish in large numbers. Hundreds of thousands of people's waste/garbage is also thrown into this hitherto spring clean river. There are thousands of restaurants operating by the riverside, they also throw their rubbish into the river.

The powers-that-be take notice!

#saveenvironment
#save river

End of FB post translation.. 

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Nitasha Kaul has featured here before and will no doubt feature here in the future too. I have always thought that the women of this territory will advocate our case much more effectively than our men could ever do:



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We have still much to learn from other citizen-led activism in the rest of the world:



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I noticed my name surfacing on Google alerts today with a link to the following 'news story':




Now, this interview was actually conducted on the 28th of June 2018:

Here it is:



It was also logged on this very day in my daily diary. Here's the direct link:

Now, since this recent interest in the video - generated by the Indian news agency ANI - I know Sardar Sagheer Khan has been confronted with a lot of criticism for 'giving' news to the Indians while so many of our Muslim brethren are under virtual lock down for over 20 days.

A few points are important to note here:

1) The date of the interview compared to when ANI reported it.
2) Pakistan should refrain from such acts which nullify its own stance and give ample opportunity to India to take advantage of.
3) More important than the Pakistanis handing the Indian narrative a clear victory, is the damage that infiltration does to our social fabric in AJK and the consequences of further marginalisation of the internal narrative here, which does not correspond with Pakistan's narrative.
4) The Indians should realise that there are always 2 sides to a coin. You cannot emulate what the Pakistanis do viz. twist information to suit your respective nationalist narrative while drowning out the genuine internal narrative of AJK. Thereby claiming moral victory.
5) In the interest of humanity, media ethics, civilisational progress and conflict resolution; Indian civil society and the Indian State should provide equal space to all the various public narratives that exist in J & K.

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Monday, 4 March 2019

Daily Diary (DD) - Day 63 of 2019

1827hrs:


Now, having read through the above article, it transpires that the Urdu text of the tweet is actually a quote of Maqbool Bhat. Here's the translation:

The solution of the Kashmir issue can only be arrived at through dialogue & consensus and if we were to invite somebody to come and fight our war, we would only be damaging ourselves.

Remember that the war just requires constant struggle and (meaningful) discussion because we are a dignified and independent nation (from a historical perspective).

End of translation....

The article referenced above ends with a very appropriate couplet.

Urdu                                                                 

Khwaisho se nahi girtey phal joli me             
Waqt ki shaakh ko mere dost hilaana hoga     
Kuch nahi hoga andherey ko bura kehne se 
Apney hissey ka diya khud hi jalaana hoga   

English translation:

Not by (mere) desire does fruit fall into the lap
The branch of time my friend has to be shaken
Nothing will emerge by (just) criticising darkness
A share of the flame must be lit by us too

Now, the prime minister in the closest neighbouring country to us, has suddenly got my serious attention. I wonder if I'll get a response to this retweet. After all, I've waited many years for Pakistan to walk the walk. So much so that I've even created a twitter hashtag for it: #PakWalkDTalk
Now, on the surface the above tweet sounds magnanimous but let's not forget what happened to Shahid Afridi when he spoke in favour of Kashmir's independence, barely 3 months ago.

On this very day, Al Jazeera puts some spotlight on AJK - first web text feature ever to my knowledge - with this suggestive title: In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a shrinking pro-freedom space

I particularly liked the following quote from it:

Tariq Farooq, a senior minister in the AJK government, concurred with that view.

"Anybody can do anything, claim anything, discuss anything in this area. In our government, everybody has full fundamental rights to speak anything which is related with human rights," he told Al Jazeera in the AJK capital, Muzaffarabad.

Asked if that freedom extended to parties advocating for Pakistani forces to leave Kashmir, he said: "They can't say that".

End of quote:

I also gave my feedback to Al Jazeera in the following manner:

Many thanks for giving some attention to AJK. I would strongly suggest doing a similar piece on Gilgit Baltistan, if possible.

Ultimately, ditto for Jammu & Ladakh too. In that way, a global reader can get a rough idea of the various internal public narratives existing in the erstwhile princely State of Jammu & Kashmir.

I appreciate you reading this

Tanveer Ahmed

- An independent researcher on AJK

ajkpublicagency.org

End of feedback....

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The following conversation adds even more intellectual nourishment to the concept of an internal political process, which I will now write about tomorrow. Meanwhile, this footage is from yesterday:



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Daily Diary (DD) - Day 259 of 2026

0515hrs: Day 104 already and this 5 day gap has been amongst the longest in daily blogging since this war began on the 5th of June 2026. It ...