 Why these unfortunate civilian killings have taken place? It is itself a warning for those who claim that we have done for ensuring normalcy in Jumu and Kashmir. This goes contrary to the claims. And that's why these are the concerns from all of us that normalcy cannot be restored just by denying the people of Jumu and Kashmir their legitimate rights by creating a political void. Three years ago on August 5th, 2019, the Indian government revoked the special status that had been granted to the former state of Jumu and Kashmir. The far-right BJP government scrapped articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution which had granted autonomy to the state on various matters of governance. These articles of the constitution were fundamental to Kashmir's integration with the Union of India after the country won independence from colonial rule. Along with the revocation of constitutional autonomy, the BJP government split the state into two federally governed territories. In order to suppress outrage over this move, the government imposed a total communications blackout and severe restrictions on freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. Hundreds of people were detained arbitrarily including political leaders and human rights defenders. Now, on 5th of August 2019, you know, our historic state got divided through reorganization act. It got downgraded. For the first time in the Indian federal system, any state is getting downgraded to a Union territory status. And any state, new states have been created in UP, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, but after long discussion, seeking the approval of the common people, debating, listening to the common views, listening to the concerns of different shades of opinion, but how the reorganization act, how dismembering unilaterally the historic state of Jumbo, Kashmir and Ladakh, how a historic state got downgraded to a level of virtually a municipality by imposing, not only restrictions, imposing assault on the very moments of the common people. Have you ever heard that telephone lines were cut off? And there was no communication of a patient with a doctor. There was no communication of the people of Kashmir with outside. And even the mother was crying for his son studying outside or doing some work outside Jumbo and Kashmir. No contact. Internet was virtually cut off, shut down. The Narendra Modi led BJP government did all this stating that this move is meant to improve governance and the lives of the people in Kashmir. However, three years later, the people of the region do not even have an elected government. Due to heavy clampdown on any kind of dissent, trade unions, rights bodies and civil society groups are no longer able to function properly. Right after the restrictions that were imposed in August of 2019 were relaxed, the pandemic began, bringing with it more lockdowns. All of this severely impacted people's lives and livelihoods. Unemployment remains high in the region. The BJP government had promised to fill 50,000 vacancies in different government departments after article 370 was revoked. This promise is also yet to be fulfilled. You see, we have been talking about as far as Kashmir is concerned, Jumbo-Kashmir is concerned. It's a very difficult field. We are going through. Our people are virtually, virtually feeling like demoralized and hopelessness is prevailing. You see, the first thing is that the claims of the government, the claims of the government initiating a process, real genuine democracy underground by assaulting the very basic rights of the people, the constitutional rights and through clampdown, through crackdown, not only restricting the movement of all those who are having dissenting voices, but putting them under detention, under public safety act, UAPA, etc. Can you imagine, by denying the very basic rights to the common people, democracy can be restored? The BJP government had promised better governance. However, the focus even now is much more on security. Kashmir was already among the most militarized regions in the world. Since 2019, the number of security forces deployed in the region has increased even more. These armed forces have been implicated in numerous cases of abuses, including routine harassment and ill treatment at checkpoints, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killings. The government is also continuing to abuse security laws such as the Public Safety Act to conduct raids and arbitrarily detain journalists, political leaders and activists without evidence or compliance with judicial norms. At the same time, sectarian sentiments continue to prevail in parts of Kashmir. There has been a sharp and worrying increase in the targeted killings of civilians. All of this has created an environment of fear and insecurity in the region. A lot of this reality has been suppressed by the BJP government at the centre, which has established a firm grip on media in the region, much like it is able to control the narrative in the national media. Journalists in Kashmir have been facing increased harassment by armed forces, including raids and arbitrary arrests on false terrorism charges. According to Human Rights Watch, since August 2019, at least 35 journalists in Kashmir have faced police interrogation, raids, threats, physical assault, restrictions on freedom of movement or fabricated criminal cases for their reporting. You see, this is the situation which unfortunately people of the rest of the country are not knowing and the news has become selective. Whatever suits the regime itself, yes, there are certain attempts, there are very credible journalists in our country, but unfortunately they are being harassed by different powers. That is how we do believe that this disrupting the channels of communication with the people of the country, with the people of Kashmir, that will have adverse impact in future, that will definitely not, it will not serve the purpose of the unity of the country as a whole. Now the people are seen through all the propaganda which the government of India has been conducting or spreading across the country. Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh is in a very bad shape. We the people, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, want to just express our concern, restore statehood back, give us the chance to elect our representatives so that a legitimate assembly elected through a legitimate electoral political process. Why are you creating delay? Why don't you allow us to have a government of our choice so that we can discuss the issues and we can sort out our differences, we can sort out and talk out some positive intervention for the betterment of our people in all the regions, in all the communities.