| The cycle ride in Srinagar Soban Ahmed |
| Copyright 2002-2003 Soban Ahmed |
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| Every child takes it as an achievement. It's a simple thing but kids take it as one of their best accomplishments when growing up. It's just riding bicycle without holding the handle bar. I was pretty good at it, was proud of myself and was ridding the bicycle, on a beautiful road on the banks of river Jhelum in Srinagar, with both hands up in the air. It felt as though I had control over the entire planet. My happiness knew no bonds. It could not. I was just 13 years old, now I am 20 but this incident has had an imprint on my mind that will never wipe off. Unexpectedly I heard some uproar. A man was shouting at me, no, he was not asking me to be cautious but was shouting the filthiest abuses I had ever heard and was ordering me to put my hands down on the handle bar. For a moment I was unable to realize what was happening, I had just found great joy. Then quickly I realized the situation; put my hands on the bar and sped towards my home: to it's calm and whatever protection it provided. I told no body about what had happened, thinking I would not at all be permitted to leave my home for fun. You might be wondering what happened. This is my and all the Kashmiri's fault: I am a Kashmiri from Kashmir, a free land once, and now with parts under India called Indian Occupied Kashmir; Pakistan called Azad (Free) Kashmir and China called Aksai Chin. The part I live in is Indian occupied Kashmir, referred by Former President of USA Clinton as, "the most dangerous place on earth." The person who shouted abusive words at me was one of the 700 000 Armed Forces Men of India. This force has been positioned in Kashmir since 1989 to criminally continue its unlawful occupation of Kashmir and to maintain it as a part of India: which we the Kashmiri's do not want. To end India's dishonest occupation, we have so far lost 70 000 of our populace, that is a single Kashmiri has laid his life, to bring to an end India's illegal occupation, for every 10 Indian Armed Forces Men stationed in Kashmir. Apart from that thousands of people have disappeared in custody, have been disabled, tortured and have lost their homes. This all is done by India who feel pride in doing all this torture just to call Kashmir an integral part of India, which it is not and never will be. India calls itself the biggest democracy in the world. I laugh at this statement whenever somebody mentions it for the reason that I have not seen an indication of their democracy so far, I was not allowed by their democratic system to even ride a bicycle when as a 13 year old boy I could do them no harm. From that day onward I have seen more and more torture and harm being done to the Kashmiri's by India. India does not allow Amnesty International or any Foreign Journalists to enter Kashmir, fearing that the journalists might reveal the situation in Kashmir of their unspeakable Human Rights Violations to the world. |
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