Image: Efogator

Faizel Patel – 31/03/2021

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

An associate professor of international affairs at Qatar University says social media platforms, under the pressure of the Indian government started shutting down Kashmir-related pages and the accounts of Kashmiri activists.

Farhan Mujahid Chak and historian of modern political thought Waseem Yaqoob were speaking to Radio Islam on Wednesday about the plight of the Kashmiri’s and how their voices have been muffled by suspending the account of Kashmiri activists and organisations.

It is believed that social networks are also siding with undemocratic forces to mute the Kashmiri’s.

Chak says the suspension is a targeted strike on several activists’ accounts.

“This  leads us to believe that this was deliberate, this was calculated and of course the reason behind it is very clear as well which is to control the narrative and to shutdown Kashmiri voices.”

Yaqoob says most of the major social media platforms including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have all been receiving requests from deliberate attempts to supress Kashmiri voices.

“The point to emphasise is that the groups and the websites that are being targeted are often outside of Kashmir. So it’s hard for the Indian government to permanently have these taken down unless they mount a legal case or legal proceedings against these. What the state is trying to do is to show people within Kashmir that if they are willing to do this to people outside Kashmir, there really is no chance of chance of freedom of speech within the valley itself.”

Chak says India is afraid of the truth about the Kashmiri’s being revealed to the world.

“If people knew the truth of what’s happened, not even since 1990. If you go back to 1947, the Jammu massacres which my family was a product of, you looking at close to half a million people that have been slaughtered in this region, most people have no idea about this. So we have to continue to raise our voice and every single situation that we are able to and share this truth with the world.”

The Kashmir issue is one of the longest unresolved conflicts on the agenda of the UN with more than 95,000 people have been killed since the early 1990s, and around 6,700 unmarked and mass graves have been uncovered.

Listen to the discussion between Farhan Mujahid Chak and Waseem Yaqoob