A Valley That Bleeds

Get hurt every day, bleed everyday

We can’t stay this way, we can’t stay this way.  

I died in December 2019. They took us with them. We got kicked, hit by rods and cables and they electrocuted us. They didn’t want to hear anything; they didn’t say anything. They kept on beating us. They beat every part of our body. When we fainted, they gave us electric shocks to bring us back around. They put mud in our mouths. They used to say, “Don’t scream. Why are you screaming?”. We told them not to beat us. Instead, shoot us. We had a complete lock down for months. Millions of us didn’t have food, clothing. We even had no coffins for our dead ones. 

 They were wearing uniforms on their bodies, helmets on their skulls, shields around them and weapons in their hands. I wondered who the hell they are afraid of? 

 As for me, I belonged to a strange valley, where people’s skins became extraordinary. They had small round patches and scars on them. People said these are injuries from pallet guns and torture but for us it is something we were paying for our freedom. 

I was born in July 1999. The first word I uttered out of my mouth was 'azadi'. My mum told me that our people used to live honorably. People had fair and clear skin, our young ones were blooming peacefully, we used to live in paradise. We were happy with our ruler. Then suddenly, times changed and they changed everything with it. Our paradise got haunted by some sick minded people. Our valley began to demand our blood for its survival, our youth for its well being and our eyes for its freedom. Since then we are living this way. 

 My people have been facing this brutality for years. Our people get hurt every day. They bleed every day. We can’t stay this way. They hunt our mothers and daughters; they injure our youths. This is too much. Every day reporters come to our valley and shoot videos of us. But they all do nothing. We are fighting this battle alone with only stones in our hands. They can injure our bodies but they can’t dare touch our souls.

We Kashmiris were fighting, we are fighting and we will fight till the day we are free.  

By Marzia Ibrahim