Jeopardizing the Paradise: The Cheapest Price for life in Kashmir is Death!
Mudasir Ahmad Gori
I am at loss of words sincerely to condole the killing that have taken place in the last two weeks. A great source of strength for any state or nation is its youth. They are ramrods; they do strengthen the Launchpad of any country.
Our youth is our strength and the unfortunate part of it is we are losing this asset (youth) on daily basis or regular intervals, which is not a good sign at all. Every day our hearts lose hope when we get the news of our youths being killed that too at such an alarming rate.
Why can’t we have a mechanism wherein the struggle continues as well as this asset is saved? Does it tantamount to the sacrifice of life necessarily? Can’t we do that by living and achieve it. Have we not already lost enough of our assets? Don’t we see the wailing mothers waiting hopeless for the return of their loved ones.
Don’t we see the orphan children already suffering because when their parents were martyred, only their families know what they have to go through. Do we mind that we should adopt these orphan children to help them out? If we do, I wonder then, why is there an increasing ratio of orphan houses in Kashmir? Our widows do get consolation remarks for the time being from the different organization, they hail the bravery of their respective husbands but little do these organizations as well as the people later care about the aftermath of their lives.
We have seen cases where they in order to run and sustain the expenditure of their families had to do resort to many unpleasant things. I don’t blame them for doing that, because our society is so much demoralized, we have become emotionally barren. We are good at advising people to do this and that, but we at our individual level, have no serious concerns of overhauling the society. We are doing only the lip service, and may also be to win favours from any approachable personality or simply to earn name and fame.
It is high time to think about the repercussion of losing our youth. This is not strengthening us as a state but weakening only day by day. When the whole of India is dreaming about the future of their children to be doctors, engineers, pilots, what dreams do Kashmiri parents have? They expect any time the bullet ridden bodies of loved ones being carried on shoulders by the youth and they are ready for it.
The elderly father has to shoulder the coffin of a young son, his only hope gets dashed down, and this father would have expected him to be source of strength in his older days. He would have expected him to be there at difficult times, to help and associate with him when the father would have lost all the courage and strength to carry on his own. Here I am reminded of Sajad Inqilaabi who says:
Yeti Maaajen Jigrs Zakhm Che Be Shumaar,
Yeti Waaryeha Maael Zinde Aulado Rut Margzaar,
Yem Chakaan Posh Baetlas Temhen Chaandaan Inqilaab,
Yemi Qoumki Chelov Nish Che Shaitaante Lajwaab.
“Here mothers are bruised and wounded
Here fathers have shouldered the coffin of their sons
We are the same followers of Satan and expect a Revolution
And no wonder Satin is outdone by our excuses too”.
I request all these higher ups, please do something to save the youth of Kashmir, I equally appeal the stake holders of Kashmir to show some serious concern in solving this ever long pending issue. How long shall we keep losing our youth? I request India and Pakistan too, please do not see Kashmir as geographical territory to increase your respective territories.
The people living here should be your concern and not the piece of land. We have already suffered a lot at the hands of many things, we have number of people who left in the morning but never returned back. We have people buried in graves without their identities being revealed. We have children who have been orphaned, sisters have lost brothers, families their only bread winner and I can count hundreds of other cases.
Have some mercy on us, please for God’s sake let there be no orphan children from now, let no family lose their only bread winner, let there be no unidentified bodies too, let no sister wait for the arrival of her brother’s body with sweets in hand, what can be more disheartening than these scenes for all of us.
It is important for all of us to consider life more precious. We must prefer life over death. We can do all that we are doing when we are alive too. I wonder, the cause that we are fighting for is valid only when we are alive. What are we going to do with freedom when we all get killed? Can it be expected from the separatist leaders of Kashmir, politicians of Kashmir, and more so from the countries like Pakistan and India, to put an end to the spree of killing Kashmiris.
On a last note, Kashmir has been used a business unit for those who claim their concern for Kashmir, it appears Kashmir is used as a platform for ammunition, while Kashmiri are prey for the concerned organizations, political parties, both India and Pakistan have been the predators in the real sense.
We as Kashmiri have realized by now that you don’t love us neither would it ever be possible for you to love us, because you are concerned more about your power and not the people of Kashmir. But in the same breath I must say that if you cannot afford to love us, there is certainly another option than you can do, that is you can leave us!
(The author is a research scholar and can be reached at [email protected])
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