Human Shield Row – One more reason to hate India!

As everyone is concerned about the incident where a human was tied infront of an Army jeep in order to act as a shield for the forces and that way the human shield row is news of the town.

Some debaters are condemning the act while some are praising the accused Army Major, Leetul Gogoi. Some considered this act as inhuman and a human rights violation and some declared it as bravery. And, also the debates are going on on every Indian news channel and as expected, they are in support of the accused Indian Army Major.

Before going further, I literally fail to understand what the oppressors try to show by debating the human shield row when they are not having courage to accept the act as being opposed to fundamentals of an individual. And, let me ask you Kashmiris, who are debating the incident, a question: Is this for the first time that Indian Army has made a human as their shield in Kashmir? Of course, not!

This is not the first human shield row. For a common Kashmiri, this is not a news at all. The reason is that we have gone through 1990’s when every single day, at the time of cordons and search operations, we were taken out of our homes and used as shields by the Army.

In crackdowns, the Army would pick the local youth for door to door search. They would enter the houses by holding their guns on the shoulders of civilians whom they picked for their protection during these search operations.

From the day armed struggle started in Kashmir, civilians have been continuously used as shields to counter the insurgents. This is probably the reason why there is no such rage in Kashmir against the said incident. For the common Kashmiri, this is just another form of human rights violation by Indian forces and is the reason why people are fighting against the Indian state.

This time, a Kashmiri was made human shield to counter the probable stone pelting. The truth is that Kashmiris have been made human shields to counter bullets from insurgents during encounters in the past. And, these and similar such brutalities is the reason why we never accepted them.

In the past, there was fear and people did not confront them openly. But 90’s are gone now. The anger against the Indian state is open and visible.

Some Indian national TV news channels claim that Army is for the safety of the public in Kashmir. I ask them where is public safety when the whole of Kashmir is having issues with your Army?

By rewarding the Major Gogoi, India proved it sufficiently that they are only concerned for their Army officials, that they have no concern for Kashmiri people and that they only need the land of Kashmir not the people who live here. And, shouldn’t we be thankful for giving us one more reason to hate you!