NEW YORK, Jun 11 (APP):The New York Times on Thursday carried a set of 24 graphic by Malik Sajad, a noted Kashmiri artist and novelist, that vividly depict the sufferings of people in Indian occupied Kashmir under what he calls the “longest lockdown.”
Malik Sajad, who worked for the Greater Kashmir newspaper as a cartoonist since he was 15, has been recording the worsening plight of the lives of Kashmiri people in his graphics, as a response to the Indian military clampdowns in the disputed Kashmir region.
“Life in India-controlled Kashmir has been punctuated by military curfews and general strikes for three decades,” says a headline on the graphics published on the newspaper’s page reserved for columnists.
On March 24, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week lockdown when Kashmir was already reeling under a 10 months digital and physical military clampdown, with the people continued to be denied adequate access to medical supplies and facilities and high-speed internet. Hundreds of Kashmiri political leaders and abducted youth continue to languish in crowded jails across India, making them vulnerable to the virus.
Sajad’s graphics capture the pain of the Kashmiris people over the years as Indian security forces stepped up their oppression.
