Kashmir - part two
Faces of conflict
In 1989 a widespread armed insurgency started in Kashmir, which continues to this day.
India contends that this was mainly started by the large number of Afghan mujahideen who entered the Kashmir valley by the end of the Soviet Afghan war.
India claims that local insurgents are the Islamic terrorist group from Pakistan administered Kashmir and Afghanistan, fighting to make Jammu and Kashmir part of Pakistan. Indian government believes that Pakistan is giving armed help to the terrorists as well as training them in Pakistan. It is also said that the terrorists have been largely violating human rights as well as killing many citizens in Kashmir, while the truth about Indian armed forces violating human rights as well is less spoken and often denied.
The Pakistani government calls these insurgents Kashmiri freedom fighters and claims the responsibility of giving moral and diplomatic support to these insurgents; on the other side, Indian government believes they are Pakistani supported terrorists from Pakistan administered Kashmir.
20 years of conflict in between militants and Indian armed forces have taken more than 40,000 lives since 1989, and as many as 10,000 people have disappeared. All these troubles lead to a new crisis: Psychological, Mental and Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
PTSD is an emotional illness that develops as a result of a terribly frightening, life-threatening, or otherwise highly unsafe experience. Its sufferers re-experience the traumatic event or events in some way, tend to avoid places, people, or other things that remind them of the event (avoidance), and are exquisitely sensitive to normal life experiences (hyper arousal). Although this condition has likely existed since human beings have endured trauma, PTSD has only been recognized as a formal diagnosis since 1980.
The following portraits tell you stories of life and death from 20 years of armed conflicts.
