Being a Kashmiri
I am a Kashmiri Muslim in search of my real identity. I have witnessed death and destruction for the last 20 years. I know how it feels when I see people around me being killed for none of their fault. I wonder why people kill other people? We can have differences of opinion and still be friends. We can operate from our respective stands and still make this world a better place to live. However, this does not necessarily happen. Our rights are infringed and freedom denied, when the powerful transgress their limits and when powerless are victimized, people wake up and try to change the system. They refuse to accept the arbitrary dictates of the people in authority. In the same way popular uprising for freedom started in Kashmir in 1989, I was a young boy of 16 years. I was told that we have different histories and we are not Indians. I started peeping through the window of history and tried to look into it in great detail. I found that Kashmir was sold to Gulab Singh a minister in...