In corporate media, pictures like the one shown above in which a shell-shocked, dumbfounded and speechless toddler lying on the chest of his dead grandfather who was shot down by the Indian forces right in front of his eyes has never been part of their stories or debate, which on one hand belie India’s narrative on Jammu and Kashmir while on the other these pictures lay bare the fact what the India has been wanting to hide from the world.
The disturbing picture was released from the Indian Occupied Kashmir. The terrible incident took place on July 4, 2020 at Sopore, some 60 Km away from capital city Srinagar. The slain civilian identified as Bashir Ahmad Khan, aged 65, resident of Mustafa Colony HMT on the outskirts of Srinagar, was assassinated by CRPF personnel in Sopore area of Baramulla district. Khan, a contractor by profession, was on his way to a construction site in Sopore with his 3-year-old grandson Ayad Jahangir when he was brought down from his vehicle and shot dead by the Indian security forces.
“He was brought down from his car by the CRPF personnel and shot dead”, the family members of the slain civilian told reporters while narrating the painful story. ‘The Indian security forces dragged the body out and put the child on top. The child’s clothes were drenched in his grandfather’s blood,’ one of Khan’s relatives claimed.
Kashmir’s history is replete with instances of bloody violence that regardless of the circumstances would continue to haunt the world’s collective conscience but the question arises that until when and how these forces could be held accountable. The human rights advocate could see this brutality with their eyes wide open, then why these demons couldn’t get the taste of their own medicines. Kashmiris are demanding justice, not just for Bashir Ahmad Khan but for thousands of those innocents who had been killed by the Indian security forces, without committing any crime. Their only crime is that they are Kashmiris.