Campaign that dragged celebs who won’t utter a word on Kashmir

This time around, the Indian forces are again on a killing spree because they think Kashmiris have no right to protest and that too peacefully.

It has been so many long days of violence and protests in the valley that have so far engulfed the lives of scores of Kashmiris, majority of whom are youth.

By the time these are being written, Indian forces have killed at least 60 people in Kashmir.

We have not heard anything positive from the global advocates of human rights on the unrest in the scenic valley triggered by the killing of a young pro-independence leader Burhan Wani in a gunfight with Indian soldiers on July 8.

A recent campaign, highlighting the burning issue of Kashmir by pushing famous Indian celebs and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, also naively believed that their morphed faces would feel the pain of Kashmiri people.

However, to everyone’s surprise, they could not.

People behind the artwork in Jibran Nasir’s campaign…What if you knew the Victim? with the hashtags #IndiaCantSee #LetKashmirDecide probably did not know that those pallet wounds have not just made these celebs blind but mum too.

Never Forget Pakistan, the organisation promoting the campaign, works to create positive narratives and do advocacy on human rights.

Through these beautiful known faces, the campaign wants to shed light on the horrid face of violence in Kashmir by the Indian forces and police.

Nevertheless, the focus remains on the uncontrolled use of pallet guns against unarmed civilians and protesters.

“This campaign is not about jingoism. It is about trying to create empathy. We live in a sad world where we have to present genuine tragedies in a creative way just to make people pause and think for a moment,” said the campaign.

The drive that managed to grab the attention of the Indian and global media simply could not make any of the celebs who were made part of it, say at least a word of sympathy for the Kashmiris, let alone empathy.

Facebook has been deeply criticised for censoring posts by academics and activists regarding growing violence in the Indian-held Kashmir, which the social media website claimed were removed after they violated Facebook’s community standards of hate speech or incitement to violence.

Jibran Nasir also mentioned how people in Kashmir perceived his pallet poster campaign.

 

Kashmiris r taking pellet poster campaign forward. Kashmiris design their own poster msg for CM Mehbooba Mufti pic.twitter.com/ryABnZjcFh

— Jibran Nasir (@MJibranNasir) July 25, 2016

Now, how long Zuckerberg can dare to bear this new Kashmir campaign against the so-called Facebook’s policy is a hard-hitting question.

And, before it vanishes from the social media website, keep sharing it for Kashmir, Kashmiri people and their freedom movement.