Dubious
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I think he was being sarcastic to the indian poster...coz that is what their news tells them
GenocideAlert: Indian Genocide in Kashmir
- Thread starter Mangus Ortus Novem
- Start date
IceCold
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Under the glorious leadership of Marid-e-Momin, & Hazarat Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman. Both will liberate Kashmir.
Shane
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Indian Occupied Kashmir: A Land Without Fathers
Heart breaking tale of a family who's only bread earner was abducted after abrogation of Article 370 by Indian Occupation Army.
Watch how daily life is made hell by lock down, abductions and hardship that entails it... this is the normalcy Indian want us to accept as the fate of Kashmir:
@Horus @Oscar @Slav Defence @waz @Arsalan @Dubious @Khafee @IceCold @Mangus Ortus Novem @PakSword @Signalian @Major Sam @Tps43 @zulu
Heart breaking tale of a family who's only bread earner was abducted after abrogation of Article 370 by Indian Occupation Army.
Watch how daily life is made hell by lock down, abductions and hardship that entails it... this is the normalcy Indian want us to accept as the fate of Kashmir:
@Horus @Oscar @Slav Defence @waz @Arsalan @Dubious @Khafee @IceCold @Mangus Ortus Novem @PakSword @Signalian @Major Sam @Tps43 @zulu
PakSword
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US diplomat: Kashmir human rights a concern for Washington
Alice Wells said the US State Department has encouraged India to restore phone and internet access and release detainees. (File photo: AFP)
The Associated Press, New Delhi Tuesday, 22 October 2019
A US diplomat overseeing South Asia says the Trump administration is concerned about human rights in India-administered Kashmir but supports India’s development “objectives” for the restive Himalayan region stripped of its special status in August.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells released the statement Tuesday ahead of a congressional hearing in Washington on human rights in South Asia.
Wells said the US State Department has encouraged India to restore phone and internet access and release detainees. After India’s Parliament voted to remove a constitutional provision that gave Kashmiris semi-autonomy and land rights, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed a security lockdown and communications blackout. Thousands of people have been detained.
Some phone connectivity has been restored, but internet services remain down.
Last Update: Tuesday, 22 October 2019 KSA 13:26 - GMT 10:26
Alice Wells said the US State Department has encouraged India to restore phone and internet access and release detainees. (File photo: AFP)
The Associated Press, New Delhi Tuesday, 22 October 2019
A US diplomat overseeing South Asia says the Trump administration is concerned about human rights in India-administered Kashmir but supports India’s development “objectives” for the restive Himalayan region stripped of its special status in August.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells released the statement Tuesday ahead of a congressional hearing in Washington on human rights in South Asia.
Wells said the US State Department has encouraged India to restore phone and internet access and release detainees. After India’s Parliament voted to remove a constitutional provision that gave Kashmiris semi-autonomy and land rights, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed a security lockdown and communications blackout. Thousands of people have been detained.
Some phone connectivity has been restored, but internet services remain down.
Last Update: Tuesday, 22 October 2019 KSA 13:26 - GMT 10:26
Vortex
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In other words the removal of article 370 was done with US green light if I understand correctly english.
PakSword
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To be honest, you are right. But we shouldn't be concerned about the removal of whatever clause from Indian constitution.
Kashmir was under the siege yesterday and it is under the siege today. India is not lifting the curfew because it doesn't trust everything will remain normal as before. There will be attacks, massive attacks on Indian army which may extend to those who aren't part of Kashmir will try to settle in that disputed region. For the same reason, we also want to lift the curfew.
Lets see for how many more days India keeps the entire population locked inside their homes.
Shane
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The Washington Post Magazine
Global Opinions
India’s crackdown in Kashmir has paralyzed and silenced entire communities
Indian security forces stand guard after a grenade attack in Srinagar on Oct. 12. (Stringer/Reuters)
By Rana Ayyub
Global Opinions contributing writer
Oct. 23, 2019 at 11:20 p.m. GMT+5
There was an eerie silence on the drive toward the Shopian district in southern Kashmir, as stray dogs and cattle walked past on a recent overcast afternoon. But the silence was suddenly shattered as a convoy of heavily armed vehicles passed by shielding top officials of the paramilitary forces.
When these trucks show up around these parts, children and young men disappear.
As we arrived in Shopian on Oct. 17, a local resident of this fertile apple-growing region led us to the house of Firdaus Jaan, whose two grandsons, Junaid, 13, and Ahmed, 22, were picked up by the paramilitary forces on Oct. 14, joining the thousands of young men and minors who have been arbitrarily detained amid a brutal crackdown in Kashmir since the Indian government revoked the special autonomous status of the region on Aug. 5.
AD
Jaan, 92, tried to protect her grandson Junaid, who cried as 20 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men dragged him out of the house. She would not let go of him until an officer hit her with a stick. Jaan said the paramilitary forces entered the village by the hundreds and rounded up young men and children. Soon they began beating them, along with older residents, asking about the whereabouts of militants who had burned a migrant laborer’s apple truck.
Jaan’s neighbor Mohammed Yusuf Butt, who has acres of apple orchards, was despondent, suicidal. That same night his son, Shikir Ahmed Butt, went to the police station to inquire about the apple truck that had been burned. The Shopian police detained him and told his father that they would be slapping the draconian Public Safety Act against his 30-year-old son. The act allows for detention for up to two years without trial or due process. “They have taken my only son, my apples are rotting in the farms, and then they accuse us of shielding militants,” Mohammed told me. “First they took away our rights, now they accuse us of shielding militants.”
Thirty minors were picked up in Shopian on Oct. 14, according to residents interviewed.
AD
Gulshan, 50, kept approaching the Shopian police station, where her husband was begging for the release of their two sons, Raees Ahmed, 11, and Liyaquat Ahmed, 14. They both attend a school in Srinagar but had come home to help the family with the apple harvest. “We are scared to send our children into the orchard, the CRPF is camping there, they see our children and detain them,” Gulshan said. She doesn’t know whom to fear more: the militants or the military forces.
When I arrived at the Shopian police station to verify the claims of the family, Nazeer Ahmed, the second in command, told me he had no idea about the arrests; his phone had not been working for four days, he said. His colleagues exchanged smiles. There’s a verse painted on a station wall, by the Urdu poet Allama Iqbal: “Thy abode is not on the dome of a royal palace; You are an eagle and should live on the rocks of mountains.”
Under constant surveillance and facing brutal repression and arbitrary detention, Kashmiris seem to be in constant mourning.
AD
In the streets in downtown Srinagar, some families sat quietly mourning the absence of their children. Mudassir Majeed, a 19-year-old studying business administration, arrived home on Aug. 4 to help his father, a sheep trader. The next morning, as he was helping his father herd the sheep from the truck, paramilitary forces dragged him into a van. When his father reached the police station, he was told his son had been sent to jail in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and they cited the Public Safety Act. “I dread when my son comes out, they will label him a terrorist,” Mudassir’s father told me.
Nusrat Jahan, a doctor at the largest government hospital in Srinagar, tells me the population is suffering from borderline depression. “I have choked in the bathroom when cancer patients scream in pain and there is no morphine available to administer,” he said. “I have treated pellet injuries on 10-year-olds, and it feels as if I was operating on my own son. Our anger is spilling over. Ask the psychiatric ward. Patients are asking for drugs that can kill them in their sleep.”
On Oct. 19, I visited houses in Khanyar and Rainawari in Srinagar. The areas are known for their protests, and every household told me of a detained child. Mubasshir Peer, a chemist who lives in Rainawari, told me that more than 300 children were picked up on the night of Oct. 18, a few weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at the United Nations.
AD
“Does your prime minister care for us?" he said. “He spoke about creating toilets while we are bleeding. Kashmiris celebrated when [Pakistani Prime Minister] Imran Khan spoke about us because at least he pretended he cared for us.”
I was also able to interview Mohammad Shafi, one of the most senior members of the National Conference, a political party whose leaders have been under house arrest since Aug. 5. “Even if there is a day when the democratic process is ushered in Kashmir, what will any of our parties promise the people of Kashmir?” he asked. “That New Delhi will take decisions on their behalf while they lock Kashmiris down like lambs. Look at this government, it arrested an 80-year-old academic yesterday who just sat on the street with a placard.”
He was referring to the arrest of 18 female academics and activists, including the wife of the former chief justice, Hawa Bashir, who sat on a silent protest in Srinagar to ask for the return of civil liberties. The women, including an 82-year-old academic with a pacemaker, were taken to jail and then released a day later on the condition that they would neither protest nor speak of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
AD
It all reinforces the distressing silence in Jammu and Kashmir. When I asked people why they weren’t going to work, their response was fear. A government employee told me Kashmiris are keeping their children indoors.
“We fear that they will take our children away,” he said. "I can tell you this is the apocalypse Kashmir feared. We are all lifeless here.”
His 18-year-old nephew, Saquib Nazeer, has been lying in a hospital with 174 pellet wounds, including four in his heart, he told me. He is on life support.
Kashmiris are avoiding Indian TV. The news reports showing “normalcy” fill them with rage. I watched as a journalist from the channel India Today talked about a new era of peace in Kashmir. (The same journalist was called out on Twitter a week ago for anchoring a 30-minute program praising a genocidal speech by a member of the paramilitary force). Kashmiri radio just plays songs — the announcers have been off the air since Aug. 5. Newspapers don’t publish editorials — only the official version of the story makes it to print.
AD
As I wrote this, “Boycott all Muslims” was trending in Indian Twitter. Most tweets are amplified by followers of Modi and his ministers. Some ask for a genocide against Muslims, others ask for the blood of Kashmiris.
I think about the words of Nusrat Jahan, the doctor. Soon all Kashmiris could be either in jails or mental asylums.
The world’s apathy — and the apathy of many Indians — is only perpetuating a climate of fear, silence and repression the region hasn’t witnessed in decades.
But it’s time to take notice. On Tuesday, participants at a U.S. congressional hearing about human rights in South Asia singled out India’s actions in Kashmir. Francisco Bencosme, Asia Pacific advocacy manager at Amnesty International, said his organization had documented “a clear pattern of authorities using administrative detention on politicians, activists and anyone likely to hold a dissenting opinion before and after Aug. 5” in Jammu and Kashmir.
AD
More of us need to speak up. The world must hear the deafening silence from Kashmir. Looking the other way for strategic relations is not an option. Kashmir and her children are waiting for justice.
Global Opinions
India’s crackdown in Kashmir has paralyzed and silenced entire communities
Indian security forces stand guard after a grenade attack in Srinagar on Oct. 12. (Stringer/Reuters)
By Rana Ayyub
Global Opinions contributing writer
Oct. 23, 2019 at 11:20 p.m. GMT+5
There was an eerie silence on the drive toward the Shopian district in southern Kashmir, as stray dogs and cattle walked past on a recent overcast afternoon. But the silence was suddenly shattered as a convoy of heavily armed vehicles passed by shielding top officials of the paramilitary forces.
When these trucks show up around these parts, children and young men disappear.
As we arrived in Shopian on Oct. 17, a local resident of this fertile apple-growing region led us to the house of Firdaus Jaan, whose two grandsons, Junaid, 13, and Ahmed, 22, were picked up by the paramilitary forces on Oct. 14, joining the thousands of young men and minors who have been arbitrarily detained amid a brutal crackdown in Kashmir since the Indian government revoked the special autonomous status of the region on Aug. 5.
AD
Jaan, 92, tried to protect her grandson Junaid, who cried as 20 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men dragged him out of the house. She would not let go of him until an officer hit her with a stick. Jaan said the paramilitary forces entered the village by the hundreds and rounded up young men and children. Soon they began beating them, along with older residents, asking about the whereabouts of militants who had burned a migrant laborer’s apple truck.
Jaan’s neighbor Mohammed Yusuf Butt, who has acres of apple orchards, was despondent, suicidal. That same night his son, Shikir Ahmed Butt, went to the police station to inquire about the apple truck that had been burned. The Shopian police detained him and told his father that they would be slapping the draconian Public Safety Act against his 30-year-old son. The act allows for detention for up to two years without trial or due process. “They have taken my only son, my apples are rotting in the farms, and then they accuse us of shielding militants,” Mohammed told me. “First they took away our rights, now they accuse us of shielding militants.”
Thirty minors were picked up in Shopian on Oct. 14, according to residents interviewed.
AD
Gulshan, 50, kept approaching the Shopian police station, where her husband was begging for the release of their two sons, Raees Ahmed, 11, and Liyaquat Ahmed, 14. They both attend a school in Srinagar but had come home to help the family with the apple harvest. “We are scared to send our children into the orchard, the CRPF is camping there, they see our children and detain them,” Gulshan said. She doesn’t know whom to fear more: the militants or the military forces.
When I arrived at the Shopian police station to verify the claims of the family, Nazeer Ahmed, the second in command, told me he had no idea about the arrests; his phone had not been working for four days, he said. His colleagues exchanged smiles. There’s a verse painted on a station wall, by the Urdu poet Allama Iqbal: “Thy abode is not on the dome of a royal palace; You are an eagle and should live on the rocks of mountains.”
Under constant surveillance and facing brutal repression and arbitrary detention, Kashmiris seem to be in constant mourning.
AD
In the streets in downtown Srinagar, some families sat quietly mourning the absence of their children. Mudassir Majeed, a 19-year-old studying business administration, arrived home on Aug. 4 to help his father, a sheep trader. The next morning, as he was helping his father herd the sheep from the truck, paramilitary forces dragged him into a van. When his father reached the police station, he was told his son had been sent to jail in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and they cited the Public Safety Act. “I dread when my son comes out, they will label him a terrorist,” Mudassir’s father told me.
Nusrat Jahan, a doctor at the largest government hospital in Srinagar, tells me the population is suffering from borderline depression. “I have choked in the bathroom when cancer patients scream in pain and there is no morphine available to administer,” he said. “I have treated pellet injuries on 10-year-olds, and it feels as if I was operating on my own son. Our anger is spilling over. Ask the psychiatric ward. Patients are asking for drugs that can kill them in their sleep.”
On Oct. 19, I visited houses in Khanyar and Rainawari in Srinagar. The areas are known for their protests, and every household told me of a detained child. Mubasshir Peer, a chemist who lives in Rainawari, told me that more than 300 children were picked up on the night of Oct. 18, a few weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at the United Nations.
AD
“Does your prime minister care for us?" he said. “He spoke about creating toilets while we are bleeding. Kashmiris celebrated when [Pakistani Prime Minister] Imran Khan spoke about us because at least he pretended he cared for us.”
I was also able to interview Mohammad Shafi, one of the most senior members of the National Conference, a political party whose leaders have been under house arrest since Aug. 5. “Even if there is a day when the democratic process is ushered in Kashmir, what will any of our parties promise the people of Kashmir?” he asked. “That New Delhi will take decisions on their behalf while they lock Kashmiris down like lambs. Look at this government, it arrested an 80-year-old academic yesterday who just sat on the street with a placard.”
He was referring to the arrest of 18 female academics and activists, including the wife of the former chief justice, Hawa Bashir, who sat on a silent protest in Srinagar to ask for the return of civil liberties. The women, including an 82-year-old academic with a pacemaker, were taken to jail and then released a day later on the condition that they would neither protest nor speak of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
AD
It all reinforces the distressing silence in Jammu and Kashmir. When I asked people why they weren’t going to work, their response was fear. A government employee told me Kashmiris are keeping their children indoors.
“We fear that they will take our children away,” he said. "I can tell you this is the apocalypse Kashmir feared. We are all lifeless here.”
His 18-year-old nephew, Saquib Nazeer, has been lying in a hospital with 174 pellet wounds, including four in his heart, he told me. He is on life support.
Kashmiris are avoiding Indian TV. The news reports showing “normalcy” fill them with rage. I watched as a journalist from the channel India Today talked about a new era of peace in Kashmir. (The same journalist was called out on Twitter a week ago for anchoring a 30-minute program praising a genocidal speech by a member of the paramilitary force). Kashmiri radio just plays songs — the announcers have been off the air since Aug. 5. Newspapers don’t publish editorials — only the official version of the story makes it to print.
AD
As I wrote this, “Boycott all Muslims” was trending in Indian Twitter. Most tweets are amplified by followers of Modi and his ministers. Some ask for a genocide against Muslims, others ask for the blood of Kashmiris.
I think about the words of Nusrat Jahan, the doctor. Soon all Kashmiris could be either in jails or mental asylums.
The world’s apathy — and the apathy of many Indians — is only perpetuating a climate of fear, silence and repression the region hasn’t witnessed in decades.
But it’s time to take notice. On Tuesday, participants at a U.S. congressional hearing about human rights in South Asia singled out India’s actions in Kashmir. Francisco Bencosme, Asia Pacific advocacy manager at Amnesty International, said his organization had documented “a clear pattern of authorities using administrative detention on politicians, activists and anyone likely to hold a dissenting opinion before and after Aug. 5” in Jammu and Kashmir.
AD
More of us need to speak up. The world must hear the deafening silence from Kashmir. Looking the other way for strategic relations is not an option. Kashmir and her children are waiting for justice.
Shane
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2007
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- 5,459
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- 56
- Country
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The Wire
Security forces in Srinagar. Photo: PTI
GOVERNMENT
Indian Government Shuts Down J&K Human Rights Commission, Information Commission
The state commissions have been ordered shut despite the fact that many Union Territories have equivalent bodies.
The Wire Staff
GOVERNMENT
POLITICS
8 HOURS AGO
New Delhi/Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration – which is directly controlled by the Narendra Modi government in the Centre – has shut down seven government commissions, including those dealing with human rights, the right to information, the rights of the disabled, and allegations against public functionaries.
An official order issued Wednesday said a total of seven state commissions would cease to exist with effect from October 31. No reason for their dissolution has been given.
The commissions being wound up are the:
Security forces in Srinagar. Photo: PTI
GOVERNMENT
Indian Government Shuts Down J&K Human Rights Commission, Information Commission
The state commissions have been ordered shut despite the fact that many Union Territories have equivalent bodies.
The Wire Staff
GOVERNMENT
POLITICS
8 HOURS AGO
New Delhi/Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration – which is directly controlled by the Narendra Modi government in the Centre – has shut down seven government commissions, including those dealing with human rights, the right to information, the rights of the disabled, and allegations against public functionaries.
An official order issued Wednesday said a total of seven state commissions would cease to exist with effect from October 31. No reason for their dissolution has been given.
The commissions being wound up are the:
- Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC)
- State Information Commission (SIC)
- State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC)
- State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC)
- State Commission for Protection of Women and Child Rights (SCPWCR)
- State Commission for Persons with Disabilities (SCPwD)
- State Accountability Commission (SAC).
Shane
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2007
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- 56
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Subscribe
The Guardian - Back to home
Show caption
In mind: focus on mental health
‘People are panicked’: Kashmir curfew takes toll on mental health
Psychologists say crackdown has led to a rise in people seeking help for anxiety, stress and other issues
Supported by
About this content
Fahad Shah in Pulwama
It had been six weeks since Syed Ruhi, 19, saw her boyfriend, Ashfaq Ahmad, 25. They last met in his shop in the bustling town market in Pulwama. The atmosphere was tense: extra troops had just been deployed to Kashmir, and everyone suspected something might be about to happen.
Three days later, Ruhi awoke to find that her home, Kashmir, had changed. The Indian government announced it was stripping the territory of its special status and dividing the state of Jammu and Kashmir in two. Millions of residents were placed under an unprecedented communications blackout. Ruhi was no longer able to use her mobile phone, landline or internet. For some, even cable TV services were cut.
reportedly detained as part of the clampdown, with some taken to prisons elsewhere in India. It is not known how many have been released.
Ruhi worried constantly about whether Ahmad was OK. After becoming increasingly distressed, she visited the district hospital’s psychiatry clinic. Inside, patients sitting on wooden benches awaited their turn to consult the only psychiatric doctor.
Abdul Hamid, a clinical psychologist, said there had been an increase in patients experiencing anxiety, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and heart ailments. Several patients said they were living in fear “of army raids, tortures and arrests”.
People who had previously learned to manage their mental health conditions were now experiencing a relapse, he added.
Ruhi is one of them.
After two years of treatment for her mental illness, Ruhi felt she had recovered and stopped taking medication. But the uncertainty and tension appear to have revived the illness. “When someone says that the situation is not normal outside I feel mentally unwell,” she said.
The doctor prescribed medicines. And by a stroke of luck, Ruhi found a second source of comfort at the hospital – she saw Ahmad there.
Every day more than 170 patients visit the four-room psychiatry clinic – the only one serving the Shopian and Pulwama districts of south Kashmir. It is likely that far greater numbers need treatment, but many patients cannot reach the hospital because there is no public transport.
People sit in the waiting room at the Pulwama mental health clinic. Photograph: Bhat Burhan/The Guardian
Patients from the district hospital are often referred to the psychiatry clinic of the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in Srinagar, where patients have been attending in higher numbers in the last few weeks.
Mustafa Ahmad, 22, is among those seeking treatment. It is one year since he last visited the clinic in Srinagar, and he had successfully discontinued his medication. But the clampdown sparked a relapse of his insomnia and anxiety.
Ahmad would normally wake at 7am and go to the gym before working from 10am till 6pm. “Now, I can’t sleep until 2am,” he said. “I sleep during daytime because there is nothing to do. [The] gym is also shut.”
He has been taking sleeping pills for the last seven weeks and is having nightmares. “I fear getting arrested, then what will happen to my family? Or if I am hit by bullets or a teargas shell. I didn’t expect [the clampdown] to be so long and uncertain.”
According to a 2015 survey by Médecins Sans Frontières, nearly 1.8 million adults in Kashmir – 45% of the population – have shown symptoms of mental distress. More than 41% of the population showed signs of depression, 26% signs of anxiety and 19% showed probable symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr Aijaz Ahmad Khan, a clinical psychologist at the SMHS mental clinic, believes the situation is getting worse. “A week after August 5, we saw a change in the patients. We started having patients who had psychological disturbances. It is increasing since then,” he said. “There is emotional numbness and it is increasing.”
He said at least 10% of patients have complaints directly related to the clampdown. A year ago, about 70 to 80 patients visited the Srinagar clinic, but Khan said it was now seeing 130 to 150 a day.
The fragile situation in Kashmir has severely affected women, who have fewer opportunities to venture outside. Romana, 22, from Pulwama, said she was suffering paranoia.
“I was feeling sick while at home,” said Romana, a computer studies student. “If a person wants to go somewhere, you can’t. People are panicked, so am I … I feel scared.”
'Society is suffering': Hong Kong protests spark mental health crisis
Romana’s prescription says her situation has escalated “due to the curfew”.
Zoya Mir, a clinical psychology student at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Srinagar, is worried about the future.
“We have become resilient to pain, feelings, and emotions,” said Mir, who has experienced panic attacks. “There will be a point where it will be beyond repair.”
People do not communicate with their families or each other because there is nothing positive to say, added Mir. Even if there was, mobile and internet services remain suspended for millions. Landlines, though apparently restored, are unreliable.
As the shadows in the hospital grew longer, Ruhi and Ahmad decided to drive back home together. “In the car, we will decide our next meeting,” said Ruhi. “We will meet again now, soon.”
Some names have been changed
© 2019 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
The Guardian - Back to home
In mind: focus on mental health
‘People are panicked’: Kashmir curfew takes toll on mental health
Psychologists say crackdown has led to a rise in people seeking help for anxiety, stress and other issues
Supported by
About this contentFahad Shah in Pulwama
It had been six weeks since Syed Ruhi, 19, saw her boyfriend, Ashfaq Ahmad, 25. They last met in his shop in the bustling town market in Pulwama. The atmosphere was tense: extra troops had just been deployed to Kashmir, and everyone suspected something might be about to happen.
Three days later, Ruhi awoke to find that her home, Kashmir, had changed. The Indian government announced it was stripping the territory of its special status and dividing the state of Jammu and Kashmir in two. Millions of residents were placed under an unprecedented communications blackout. Ruhi was no longer able to use her mobile phone, landline or internet. For some, even cable TV services were cut.
reportedly detained as part of the clampdown, with some taken to prisons elsewhere in India. It is not known how many have been released.
Ruhi worried constantly about whether Ahmad was OK. After becoming increasingly distressed, she visited the district hospital’s psychiatry clinic. Inside, patients sitting on wooden benches awaited their turn to consult the only psychiatric doctor.
Abdul Hamid, a clinical psychologist, said there had been an increase in patients experiencing anxiety, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and heart ailments. Several patients said they were living in fear “of army raids, tortures and arrests”.
People who had previously learned to manage their mental health conditions were now experiencing a relapse, he added.
Ruhi is one of them.
After two years of treatment for her mental illness, Ruhi felt she had recovered and stopped taking medication. But the uncertainty and tension appear to have revived the illness. “When someone says that the situation is not normal outside I feel mentally unwell,” she said.
The doctor prescribed medicines. And by a stroke of luck, Ruhi found a second source of comfort at the hospital – she saw Ahmad there.
Every day more than 170 patients visit the four-room psychiatry clinic – the only one serving the Shopian and Pulwama districts of south Kashmir. It is likely that far greater numbers need treatment, but many patients cannot reach the hospital because there is no public transport.
People sit in the waiting room at the Pulwama mental health clinic. Photograph: Bhat Burhan/The Guardian
Patients from the district hospital are often referred to the psychiatry clinic of the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in Srinagar, where patients have been attending in higher numbers in the last few weeks.
Mustafa Ahmad, 22, is among those seeking treatment. It is one year since he last visited the clinic in Srinagar, and he had successfully discontinued his medication. But the clampdown sparked a relapse of his insomnia and anxiety.
Ahmad would normally wake at 7am and go to the gym before working from 10am till 6pm. “Now, I can’t sleep until 2am,” he said. “I sleep during daytime because there is nothing to do. [The] gym is also shut.”
He has been taking sleeping pills for the last seven weeks and is having nightmares. “I fear getting arrested, then what will happen to my family? Or if I am hit by bullets or a teargas shell. I didn’t expect [the clampdown] to be so long and uncertain.”
According to a 2015 survey by Médecins Sans Frontières, nearly 1.8 million adults in Kashmir – 45% of the population – have shown symptoms of mental distress. More than 41% of the population showed signs of depression, 26% signs of anxiety and 19% showed probable symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr Aijaz Ahmad Khan, a clinical psychologist at the SMHS mental clinic, believes the situation is getting worse. “A week after August 5, we saw a change in the patients. We started having patients who had psychological disturbances. It is increasing since then,” he said. “There is emotional numbness and it is increasing.”
He said at least 10% of patients have complaints directly related to the clampdown. A year ago, about 70 to 80 patients visited the Srinagar clinic, but Khan said it was now seeing 130 to 150 a day.
The fragile situation in Kashmir has severely affected women, who have fewer opportunities to venture outside. Romana, 22, from Pulwama, said she was suffering paranoia.
“I was feeling sick while at home,” said Romana, a computer studies student. “If a person wants to go somewhere, you can’t. People are panicked, so am I … I feel scared.”
'Society is suffering': Hong Kong protests spark mental health crisis
Romana’s prescription says her situation has escalated “due to the curfew”.
Zoya Mir, a clinical psychology student at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Srinagar, is worried about the future.
“We have become resilient to pain, feelings, and emotions,” said Mir, who has experienced panic attacks. “There will be a point where it will be beyond repair.”
People do not communicate with their families or each other because there is nothing positive to say, added Mir. Even if there was, mobile and internet services remain suspended for millions. Landlines, though apparently restored, are unreliable.
As the shadows in the hospital grew longer, Ruhi and Ahmad decided to drive back home together. “In the car, we will decide our next meeting,” said Ruhi. “We will meet again now, soon.”
Some names have been changed
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Thamizh Puli
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The Wire
Security forces in Srinagar. Photo: PTI
GOVERNMENT
Indian Government Shuts Down J&K Human Rights Commission, Information Commission
The state commissions have been ordered shut despite the fact that many Union Territories have equivalent bodies.
The Wire Staff
GOVERNMENT
POLITICS
8 HOURS AGO
New Delhi/Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration – which is directly controlled by the Narendra Modi government in the Centre – has shut down seven government commissions, including those dealing with human rights, the right to information, the rights of the disabled, and allegations against public functionaries.
An official order issued Wednesday said a total of seven state commissions would cease to exist with effect from October 31. No reason for their dissolution has been given.
The commissions being wound up are the:
- Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC)
- State Information Commission (SIC)
- State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC)
- State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC)
- State Commission for Protection of Women and Child Rights (SCPWCR)
- State Commission for Persons with Disabilities (SCPwD)
- State Accountability Commission (SAC).
why would the 'state' commissions continue when the state has been reorganized into union territory?
Shane
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Why dissolve instead of renaming/continuing the same like has happened to every other local department operating in Kashmir?
How do you say "half @rsed RSS Hindutva excuse-er" in hindi???
Shane
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Modi enjoys Dewali over lockeddown Kashmiris who were not even allowed to pray on recent Muslim EidulAdha, leave alone remotely enjoy the occasion and are being strangled under a million Indian occupation forces.
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