Some reflections on Kashmiri diaspora, Thread:
So far a majority of Kashmiris i met in the diaspora held an opinion that Kashmir should be an Independent sovereign state. Which is absolutely a political opinion and we respect that. But the problem arises when many among them,1/n

the radicals, try to equate India and Pakistan for their role or position on Kashmir. Some will distort history and go back to 1947 or back when Kashmir had its own status, well if you believe in ethno-nationalism, why can’t people believe in religious-nationalism? 2/n

Then arises one more problem, while the view of Independent-secular section of the society is honestly projected but pro-Pakistani and pro-Islami section is under-represented . However, if we look at the ground we see rebels, the real heroes, belong to this category. 3/n

Majority of the prisoners belong to this category and majority of the leadership belong to this category.
The misrepresentation of all this section was not well addressed by diaspora Kashmiris because of few reasons. 4/n

One is that after 9/11 the wave of Islamophobia was so intense that whoever talked about Islam was tagged as terrorist, whoever talked about Mujahideen was also tagged as same. Pakistans image got so worse that even pro-Pakistan camp decided to stay silent. 5/n

The pro-Independence-seculars received overwhelming support from international community and in this way they tried to manipulate a large no. of facts. Sometimes surveys were conducted which were highly biased. Not only international community but pro-independence-secular 6/n

Kashmiris projected these surveys as a sort of reference/referendum.
The environment has been created so much that at one point in time, there was no scope to discuss Independent Kashmir opinion, now the case is entirely reverse, Independence/Pakistan are equally discussed7/n

The problem with Independence option is that it is neither accepted by the UN nor India or Pakistan. Therefore, if we talk about UN resolutions all the time, pro-Pakistan option has a legal base. If the Independence option is added that will give voice to this opinion 8/n

and people of Kashmir or Pakistan has no issue with that.
My concern again is the the diaspora community has not been truthful to the world about facts on ground. They have been lying about too many things. They are scared to talk about religion while as if we see 9/n

Europe is deeply Christian and they are proud of it. Therefore, instead of giving unilateral concessions by being reluctant on the role of religion or Mujahideen. We need to engage the international community and tell them that 10/n

Kashmiris will never accept their Mujahideen as terrorists. We should be absolutely unapologetic about whatever the truth on ground is and we must represent every sort of sentiment present on the ground. n/n
Thank you