For last two weeks I did not upload any weekly round up on my website. There was no difference in one week or the other. We have been under an unending siege for over two months now with nothing to report except brutal killing of teenagers, women, and even old men and women. The Indian paramilitary has gone berserk. Not only are they answering stones with bullets fired at vital parts but they are also ransacking homes. Surely, no force can go berserk unless they have a go ahead from their commanders and above all from the political establishment. Kashmir is the only place in the world were peaceful protests by unarmed civilians are dispersed by the use of live ammunition and that two with the aim of causing grievous injuries. One needs to understand that the violence did not initiate from the protestors. It was in fact started by the security forces. The so called democratic avenues such as the freedom of expression have been totally prohibited in Kashmir. No peaceful protests have been allowed from the very start. In fact, it has been the strategy of Indian authorities not to allow any peaceful marches anywhere in the valley due to the fear of these snowballing into a mammoth uprising all over the area which may be extremely difficult to disperse. India is mortally afraid of millions of Kashmiris either marching all over Kashmir or just sitting on the roads for days on end and demanding freedom. With the present sophistication of information technology, the event will be continuously telecast live all over the world. This will definitely cause tremendous embarrassment to India claiming majority of Kashmiris as its loyal citizens! There has been a systematic campaign by both the government agencies as well as by the biased media especially the electronic one to portray the entire uprising as a continuation of terrorist violence. India had earlier succeeded in projecting the militant uprising of nineties as a terrorist activity of the Islamic fundamentalists instigated and supported by Pakistan. The world especially the western powers more interested in the huge Indian market than the global principles of justice and equity, easily bought the idea. In addition, the Pakistani attempt to hijack Kashmir’s freedom movement helped India in crushing the militancy. The bitter experience of militancy which consumed almost a hundred thousand Kashmiris convinced them that the best way for their emancipation was through a peaceful mass movement. It was reiteration of the Gandhian principles of non-violence. Instead of welcoming this paradigm shift the Indian authorities are trying to crush this peaceful mass movement with brutal force. They have been repeatedly referring to it as violent protests as if the protestors begin their marches with stone pelting only! Stone pelting is in fact indulged in as a measure of retaliation after being baton charged and showered with bullets. There have been many intelligently introduced false reports of crowds firing on paramilitary forces. These lies are only to give an excuse to crush the uprising with a heavier hand and to show to the world at large that the Kashmir’s movement is a terrorist uprising. They also want to have the general masses in India on their side by raising the Hindutva sentiments against so called Islamic terror in Kashmir. In fact, a large number of terrorist acts in different parts of India have now proved to be the handiwork of the Hindutva forces! Unfortunately, more and more suppression would not remove the basic cause of conflict but would only increase the alienation. The anger is not subsiding but growing fast which is evident from the fact that the protests instead of lessening in the supposedly peaceful month of Ramadan have rather increased and that too in a bloodier fashion. In view of this, it would be more advisable for the sensible section among the Indian authorities to take immediate measures to cool down the tempers by allowing peaceful protests after removing the irritants of paramilitary deployment in civilian areas and withdrawing of the draconian legislation conferring unbridled powers on them. A dialogue as indicated by the Prime Minister can be opened after releasing all the prisoners and after cooling of tempers. Kashmir is at the moment on the brink and unless handled intelligently, it will tip over. The alternative to a sensible and peaceful approach may see the entire sub-continent engulfed in a bloody conflict which may be the last one for the region!