Peace can never emerge from the barrel of a gun. Embrace the Kashmiri people and talk to them. There is no other way.

Groundxero | April 29, 2025

By Himanshu Kumar

Do you know Parveena Ahangar? “Ahangar” means someone who forges iron — a blacksmith. Parveena Ahangar is like iron herself — a Kashmiri mother with a will of steel. I have met her. She heads an organization called the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) — a group of families whose loved ones have been forcibly disappeared. This organization mainly consists of mothers of nearly ten thousand young men who went missing, for whom these families are still fighting. These elderly women and men gather on the 10th of every month, demanding the government to tell them: “Where are our children?”

Have you ever heard the term “half-widow”? No? It’s okay — perhaps you no longer have a heart willing to hear someone’s pain. “Half-widows” are those Kashmiri women whose husbands were taken away by uniformed forces and never returned. These women don’t know whether to call themselves married or widowed. That’s why people call them half-widows — their number is estimated at around 2,500.

Have you heard of the village Kunan Poshpora, where, in 1991, uniformed men gang-raped about a hundred Kashmiri women? Do you remember the rapes committed by uniformed forces in Shopian, Pahalgam, and Handwara?

No? Of course, why would you remember? After all, what were those women to you, that you would care or feel anger for them?

Do you know about Dardpura village, known as the “village of widows,” where for years no man above the age of forty survived?

Do you know how many Kashmiri journalists are in jail?

No, right?

But weren’t you the one who kept saying “Kashmir is an integral part of India”?

Then how come you know so little about Kashmir, sir?

Have you heard of Asif Sultan, a reporter for Kashmir Narrator magazine? Or Sajad Gul of The Kashmir Walla newspaper? Or Fahad Shah, who wrote for Deccan Herald? Or Irfan Mehraj, a freelance journalist and human rights researcher? Or Majid Hyderi?

These are all prominent journalists who were the voices of the Kashmiri people — and they are now in prison. They have been imprisoned for several years.

That’s why you think “all is well” in Kashmir — because the voices revealing the pain of Kashmiris have been silenced by your leaders.

Whereas, being part of a democratic society, your duty was to know what’s happening on the ground — to listen to what people are thinking and feeling. But you chose instead to crush their voices.

Did you know that since 2019, when Article 370 was revoked, three and a half thousand Kashmiri political prisoners remain locked up across various jails in India?

Did you know that according to a report by MSF (Doctors Without Borders), over 45% of Kashmiris suffer from mental stress, depression, and anxiety?

How would you know? After all, your leaders promised you that victory had been achieved — that now you could marry Kashmiri girls and buy land in Kashmir. And you celebrated. It’s another matter that your happiness has now turned into hatred.

But this was bound to happen. The path your leaders chose was wrong. Peace can never emerge from the barrel of a gun.

Our Prime Minister goes around the world saying, “I come from the land of Buddha.”

But when it comes to Kashmir, he forgets Buddha’s message — even though Kashmir too is the land of Buddhists and Sufis.

Buddha said:

“Hatred does not cease by hatred; hatred ceases by love. This is the eternal law.”

Even today, the path to peace in Kashmir must go through justice.

Punish the rapists of Kashmir’s daughters.

Return their sons to the mothers.

Apply healing balm to the wounds of the people.

Release political prisoners and journalists.

Embrace the Kashmiri people and talk to them.

There is no other way.

Himanshu Kumar is a Gandhian activist, who has been for decades fighting for the rights of the Adivasis and other marginalised communities.