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A 17-year-old NRI girl of Kashmiri origin has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi pleading that the voices of agitating Kashmiris be heard.
“Dear Mr PM, if we cared for Kashmir people, we wouldn’t find ways to turn off all communications in the Valley only to further deprive them of freedom, we’d open up all means for their voices to be heard. Because isn’t that all Kashmir people are asking for? (sic)” Fatima Shaheen, based in Georgia of the United States, wrote.
She said she arrived in Kashmir on July 10 for a visit to her relatives only to find the Valley in a situation which she had never heard of.
“Mr PM, I see the newsflash, the attack in Nice, France, is screened followed by the attempted military coup in Turkey, along with the report on the monsoon rains in southern India. But where is the news on Kashmir? Is this why I never knew what was going on in my hometown for such a long time, Sir? (sic)” she asked.
She claimed no cared about people of Kashmir but everyone wanted its land.
“Everyone wants Kashmir, but no one cares for the people of the land. Because if we cared for Kashmir people, we wouldn’t care of people’s opinion on whether Burhan Wani was a militant or a martyr, we’d try to understand why an ace student chose to continue his career holding a gun rather than a pen (sic),” she wrote.
Image: A security jawan stands guard during curfew at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. Photograph: S Irfan/PTI