Kashmir’s video warriors

In a move that has historically failed to quell protests and check mobilisation of the youth in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government on Wednesday banned 22 online applications including popular networks sites such as Facebook and WhatsApp. Since 2012, the state government has interrupted web services 29 times but there is no evidence to suggest that crackdown on the web has scaled down the protests. The current round of online censorship in Kashmir comes in the wake of what is described as 'video wars' – a series of videos juxtaposing two realities of Kashmir: The local population's opposition to the armed forces, and human rights violation conducted by the security personnel. As yet another social media ban hits the Valley, HT met some young men and women who regularly film protests and upload the videos to tell their version of the Kashmir story.