Using live ammunition against protesting stone throwers in Kashmir valley is strongly condemned by social activists, working in various fields in India. in a conference held in Mumbai on September third, they demanded that the government immediately halt the use of arms by security forces against stone throwers to end the turmoil in the Kashmir valley that has raged as a consequence of the killing innocent Kashmiris over the last 3 months. The conference is convened by Peace Mumbai, a network of several social organisations. The meeting also called for an immediate withdrawal of security forces from the civilian areas of Jammu & Kashmir. At least 70 people have been killed in firing by security forces, including boys and girls below the age of 15 years, in August alone.
Resolution
The conference lasted throughout the day going under the title “Kashmir at Crossroads: The Way Forward." The meeting passed a resolution demanding that all parties of various perspectives return immediately to the negotiating table that also said the solution can be obtained only by initiating the political process. The conference expressed concern over naked violations of human rights for the Kashmir people and urged the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to implement his promise of zero tolerance for all human rights violations in Kashmir. The Prime Minister was asked to repeal the draconian laws such as ‘the Armed Forces (Special Powers Act) and ‘the Public Safety Act’ that gave security forces the authority to kill innocent people at will in Kashmir.
Draconian Laws
The Armed Forces (Special Powers Act) has been widely condemned, even in North-East states like Manipur. Twelve middle-aged Manipuri women protested without a single piece of clothing on their bodies in front the headquarters of the army forces, displaying a banner reading “Indian Army, Rape Us” in protest against brutal rape and killing of a Manipuri woman aged about 30 years, named Thanglam Manorama. Indian Army and security forces have been given extraordinary powers under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 to search, seize, arrest and even kill anyone suspected of being an insurgent in order to "maintain the public order." Armed with these acts along with guns, security forces are causing enormous misery and humiliation daily for Kashmiris.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy
Another crowd of BC readers rushing in to comment on your article, Sekhar. Like Americans really give damn, right?
I was attracted by your article because it mentioned using force against "stone throwers". We have a small problem with "stone throwers" around here. A neighbor of mine was assaulted by "stone throwers" who attacked his car as he was coming home. The "stones" cracked both the front and rear windshields and could have damn near killed him, his wife as well as the little girl they were ferrying home from the doctor.
Had my neighbor drawn his pistol and fired on the would-be Jew-killers, HE would have been arrested. As it was, the army pretended to look for the "stone throwers", and after some time, drove to smoke cigarettes and drink coffee, as is their wont. The political echelon here doesn't want to throw Arabs in jail for attacking Jews with stones. They would much rather jail a Jew, so the press can paint all the residents of Judea and Samaria as "racist murdering settlers". Then all the leftist traitors can come in and whine about "civil rights of Arabs being violated".
I know life in Kashmir is rough. But the whole world is not like Kashmir.
2 - Sekhar
Hi Ruvy
I remember you writing on the other day that you live in the US. You are talking about your neighbor in the US or in Israel?
OK, let it be. Your question seem to be expecting me writing articles to attract BC writers rushing in to comment. If it is so, sorry to disappoint you. I've been writing for last 10 years in my language Telugu. I choose topics on which I believe that I can write. When I write something, I should be in a position to defend what I write. I strongly believe Kashmir deserves to be independent. I've read the history. I've understood the chronology of events that occurred in Kashmir. I've understood how India and Pakistan are deceiving the people of not only India and Pakistan but also the world.
I believe that whatever we believe in, we have to put into practice in some or other form. People around the world including India, my own country, are misinformed about the Kashmir, Kashmir people, their history, culture, society and what not? What I can do about the injustice done to Kashmir is, to write the truth so that even a single person may know it and extend his voice of support for Kashmir's struggle.
If somebody reads my article and comments that he doesn't know what I write, and it made him understand (at least to some extent) what Kashmir struggle is about, I'll be very much delighted. Because that would mean that I helped Kashmir people and their struggle to an extent maybe equal to a drop of the ocean. Still that makes me happy.
If somebody writes "your writing skills are good. your style is appealing and so on...," that may satisfy my egoistic senses. But that can not satisfy the purpose of the article. Some may contradict my view, but that initiates and incites a discussion by which either of us comes to know more about the issue in question.
But I feel, during this discussion, the people who are discussing, must be in a position to listen or read others' view even if it is against to them. Otherwise process of knowing truth through discussion will be damaged and expansion and extension of truth (one of the objectives my writing) will severely be damaged.
I observed a shade of discontent or dissatisfaction or even hatred (mind you, this is not about me of you) in your comment and in writings on your blog. I think it cannot be invited, that too in present times, when humans achieved so much of culture, democracy, equality, secularism, tolerance, love, sacrifice and so on. These are the values achieved over centuries of years with so many experiences of wars, hatred, intolerance, inequality, indecency, greed, ego and so on. I don't think we still need hatred to know about love; inequality to know equality; greed to know sacrifice; indecency to know decency and so on. What we have achieved are assets of the humankind. Let us not loose them to slip into darkness.
A group of people; may be a nation, race, religion, philosophy..., cannot be branded of a particular negative quality like those written above. People of any cast and creed are always good at their respective level of evolution. Only a minute section of them work for their vested interests. They have to be named, shamed and separated and finally boycotted but not before trying to convince them to change and giving them a chance o change. Evolution of humankind and it's values has never been equal throughout the world at a given time or period. Some are fast due to favorable conditions. Some are slow due to unfavorable conditions. There are instances where a minute section of fast groups exploited the slow groups and their unfavorable conditions. There are also many instances where a minute section of slow people went on spree to exploit with their physical strength (including military of then and now) the fast but sensitive, tolerant and accommodating groups. It depends on the particularities of a given condition that also depended on the generality of the same condition.
I think this is prolonged, but your mention of certain things propelled me to write this long. Thank you and see you when you write again.
3 - Sekhar
HiRuvy!
One more thing I forgot to mention. A stray incident that you have mentioned should be looked into in a proper manner. But if it is in the US, I think it would not be subjected to the situation what you described. There are many scholars, intellectuals, philosophers who wrote on Palestine issue. I've read some of them, both pro and opposite. As I wrote above we should be open-minded to invite truth from outside and reject false from inside.
Oh...sorry, this is also going long... See you when I see you.
4 - Ruvy
Sekhar,
You misread me entirely. I was being sarcastic in my remark about crowds of BC readers rushing in to comment. I don't expect you to write the crowd-pleasing articles when I certainly don't.
I read your work because it is not the standard bellybutton sniffing "I-don't-give-a-damn-about-the-rest-of-the-world" article pumped out by the Americans who write here at the politics section. I'm grateful to see your work here.
Americans don't give a damn about the world. I WAS ONCE AN AMERICAN - I KNOW. I'm the Hebrew nationalist who left the States and who is glad he did. I live in Israel - and a thousand horses could not drag me to the States for any reason.
The Arab kids who damn near killed my neighbors by throwing rocks at them got away scot-free for their efforts - and will have been about the thousandth time that has occurred - because while Arabs can murder us in Israel with impunity, the whole world makes a huge stink if we dare shoot back - or better yet, shoot first. And our government has all the balls of a little girl. So Jews are persecuted as though they were the foreign minority in their own land.
So, yes, there is more than just a sniff of hatred and contempt in my remarks here and in my own blog-site. But it appears the only way to bring down the traitorous garbage in Jerusalem will be an extended missile assault on Israel from the north. If that occurs, then the opportunity for change will arise in the chaos that ensues.
5 - Sekhar
Hi Ruvy
Thank you for proving me misread you. Otherwise that would have left a scar of disappointment on some layer of thought processing layer in my mind.
Actually Israel govt. has been fallowing your idea of provoking extended missile attack so as to declare an all-out-war like attack. 2006 Lebanon war, 2007 Gaza attack were launched on the same lines.
I've some questions for you regarding your 'more than just a sniff of hatred.' Before that... I've provided some ideas about branding a group of people in toto in a certain manner. Don't you have any comment on them?
6 - Ruvy
I've some questions for you regarding your 'more than just a sniff of hatred.' Before that... I've provided some ideas about branding a group of people in toto in a certain manner. Don't you have any comment on them?
Sekhar, before I go any further, let me clue you in on life for a Jew who follows the commandments - or who attempts to. In about 8 hours from now, Rosh haShana (the New Year commemoration for the year 5771) begins and I'll be off this computer from then until about 19:45 our time on Saturday night, roughly 73 hours later.
So, let me wish you a healthy and happy 5771. And if I've said or done anything to offend or hurt you in the short time I've known you, please forgive me.
Now to your question. For 1,700 Jews ave taken the crap from the Muslims and Christians in the form of vicious persecution resulting in robbery, rape, massacre and finally, mass murder. I want some vengeance against the human trash that the Almighty has not yet judged. And that is the source of much of that contempt and hatred. That may not put me in a good light in your eyes, but your opinion is not what matters to me. What matters to me is the Opinion of my Maker.
It would appear from that comment that I should hate and despise all the Arabs around me. I don't. Most of them are decent people who just want make a decent living. They are my neighbors, and I am more than happy to live in peace with them, as long as they are willing to live in peace with me.
The people I hate and despise are the terrorists who inflame the hatred of my neighbors against me and mine - and those who enable the terrorists. Who are these people?
They are el-FataH, the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, HizbAllah - the terrorists who call themselves "freedom-fighters" - and the Europeans, Americans and others who support this human garbage and who lower themselves into the same garbage pail with them. Their hypocrisy is disgusting. Leaving aside the lies they tell about my people, the hateful incitement they engage in on their allegedly "progressive" propaganda sites proves that they are no better than the Nazis and Fascists they whine about, or the people they criticize.
Proof? In this article about cartoons that evince Jew-hatred, we find this paragraph.
"Most of the progressive blogs discussed, containing such anti-Semitic imagery cited in this essay, generally fail to remove such hateful cartoons, despite blog policies expressly prohibiting posts that contain "hateful" or "inflammatory" content."
There is plenty of documentation for this.
You yourself, in aligning yourself with these groups, swallow their propaganda. The conflict in 2006 began with the kidnapping of Gil'ad Shalit in Gaza, and was coupled with the kidnapping and murder of three soldiers, and this progressed to a generalized rocket assault from the north from HizbAllah. Similarly, the attack on Gaza by our forces followed an escalation of rocket attacks on the south. The attack on Gaza was a cynical attempt to get votes for the Labor and Kadima parties prior to an election here. But militarily, it was necessary, if for no other reason than to reduce the level of rocket attacks on the south and maintain a semblance of sovereignty over the southern part of Israel.
Just like you, an Indian, are a vocal dissenter against the brutal policies of your government in Kashmir, I, an Israeli, am a vocal dissenter against the cynical and treasonous behavior of my government, policies that are brutal and unfair to all who dare disagree and raise their voices in protest.
7 - Jordan Richardson
Sekhar, by no means should you mistake a lack of comments on your article for a lack of interest.
8 - Sekhar
Hi Richardson!
I agree with you. Lack of comments is not at all an issue when we relate it to interest on the article.
One of my objective is to incite discussion so that truth will be exchanged. When it happens and when people make comments for the subject sake, the other readers who also read the comments will come across some more truth. Such process would disarm perpetrators of hatred of any kind to some extent. It is in the sense that they will lose audience.
Also newly acquired truth, sometimes, may also create a new activist launching his/her activities for the common good.
It's just a ray of hope, not that it happens always. But thank you, people like you provide lot of hope with minimal of words.
9 - jeannie danna
Sekhar, by no means should you mistake a lack of comments on your article for a lack of interest.Re-Tweet
And, please allow me to say, "I think you show great amount of courage writing your articles." I hold respect for You.
I also see that You can look past Ruvy's narrow view of the world (AMERICANS are not all SPOILED BRATS)
:D JD
10 - Sekhar
Hi Jeannie!
Yes. We can take any country. People are not spoiling something by themselves If they do so. People always tend to be good, positive and tolerant. It's always some vested interested people of small section who control natural and built technology with which they lead majority people if not all, into what they want to. Influential forces at their hands -political, financial, physical or technological- possess such power.
But one day, people will know what they are being subjected. Because one may always bluff some for all period, one may bluff all for some period but all people cannot always be bluffed.
And I'm honored with your respect. Thank you.
11 - jeannie danna
Sekhar, I'm so pleased that you responded to my comment.
I have prayed most of my life that people would wake up and see that we are all the same. We are human. Of course, prayed doesn't mean that I'm a religious person. On the contrary, I am extremely secular and want all people to be free to be what they want.
So, yes I too am happy that the gig is up!
:D Thanks!
12 - Sekhar
Yes, Jeannie, praying means not only to the god. Wishing one-self for common good, I think, can also be prayer. Some words of literal strength that can be interpreted in many ways.
-Sekhar
13 - Sekhar
I mean 'Some words have literal strength that can be interpreted in many ways.'