As the news of militant and civilian killings continued to pour in from Shopian and Anantnag districts on Sunday, people who could still access their internet in areas where it was yet to be blocked took to the social media to express their anguish and pain over the killings.
Netizens from the Valley shared posts of grief on losing young lives. Political analyst Gowhar Geelani took a dig at politicians, holding them responsible for the bloodbath. “The only sounds audible in Kashmir right now are the sirens of the ambulances carrying injured civilians, shriek of mothers & sighs of fathers. This is our normal. All politicians must hang their hand in shame for being responsible, directly or indirectly, for this #bloodbath (sic),” Geelani wrote on Twitter.
Raashid Maqbool, a Srinagar based medico, expressed his shock and outrage over the killings on Facebook: “Our 15 young boys have achieved martyrdom today. 100s are injured…we all are numb n shocked, our eyes are dry, throats are choked, everything around us seems dead. Kill us all, once for all.”
Another netizen, Umar Mukhtar, after hearing the news of ambulances being stopped midway while bringing the injured from south districts to Srinagar hospitals, posted on Facebook: “We are at war with you and I agree conflicts are so, you kill us and we will kill you, until truth prevails but stopping an ambulance carrying the injured civilians was and is never part of any war tactics. It is frustration and moral defeat to ur occupational methods and a war crime.”
A journalism student, Fayiq Wani described the situation in verse on Facebook: “I was cut like an autumn leaf Zaalim, It is just spring. I was just blossoming.”
Another person from Shopian, Syed Tajamul called the situation as “Karbala”. “It is Karbala in Kashmir’s Shopian,” he wrote on his Facebook account accessed by his friend elsewhere given the internet blockade enforced in his district. “The situation in South Kashmir particularly in my Home town Shopian is Alarming… Three encounters from 3 Am, 8 Deaths so for, 35 injured and counting, Shops shutdowns, Pain & grief everywhere.”