Author: Umar Lateef Misgar

Umar Lateef Misgar studies International Relations at Islamic University of Kashmir.

November 3, 2016 /

The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one of his recent chest-thumping speeches, compared the Indian forces with that of the Israeli ones. Modi’s comparison came within the context of Indian Army claiming to have carried out “surgical strikes” across the LOC and dismantling the launchpads used by the “Pakistani-sponsored militant groups to infiltrate across the De Facto border.” Now, if we bend-over backwards and accept the Indian claim while dismissing the scepticism that various international media agencies like CNN, BBC and Washingtonpost- establishments that usually spare no chance of portraying Pakistan as a virtually rogue state- expressed over these strikes, the question that still begs an answer is that, even from the Indian point of view, did this act induce any substantial change in the vexing political scenario of Kashmir?

September 1, 2016 /

Popular mass movement is “mindless terrorism” and Kashmiris are a flock of “instigated” sheep in “bucolic valley”, devoid of all agency. Keywords like Insaniyat (Humanity), Jamhooriyat (Democracy) and Kashmiriyat etc. are thrown carefully at the supposed ‘inhumanity’ and ‘autarchy’ of the self-determination struggle of Kashmiris.

April 22, 2016 /

Saudi Arabia has been unraveling its geopolitical desires across middle-east for quite some time. However, during the past years, courtesy of an oil-revenue boom, Saudis are shifting their interventionist tactics from proxy to direct military intervention. From crushing the legitimate protest in Bahrain to bombing Yemen and hounding Lebanon, fossilized Abdullah and now Salman have left no stone unturned, or bombed, to assert their position as a shot caller in middle-east. They have sent armies across King Fahad causeway to the tiny nation of Bahrain and besieged Yemen to starvation.