Kashmir in Mourning: A Call for Humanity Over Hatred

By Mehreeb Khan

Kashmir a land of unspeakable beauty is once again soaked in grief. The recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, near Baisaran, has left deep wounds in the hearts of people who are tired of mourning. This wasn’t just another act of violence. It was an assault on peace, on life, and on the idea that we can ever return to normal.

Let it be clear there is no justification for killing innocents. No belief system, no political motive, no anger or ideology can ever excuse such cruelty. Those responsible must face justice not for revenge, but for the sake of every single person who still believes that life matters.

And this needs to be said, again and again extremism has no religion.
A terrorist is not a Muslim terrorist. A terrorist is not a Hindu terrorist.
A terrorist is simply someone who has abandoned humanity.
Anyone who kills in the name of God has already turned their back on everything sacred.
No religion in the world permits this. None.
Blaming a whole faith for the actions of a twisted few is not just wrong — it adds fuel to the fire we’re all trying to put out.

What hurts the most is this — it’s always the innocent who suffer.
The people of Kashmir, who just want to live quietly, end up burying their loved ones.
Muslims across India are judged and blamed, even though their hearts break the same.
And on the border, soldiers young men who’ve never met the “enemy” die fighting someone they have no reason to hate.
They don’t choose this war. It chooses them. And it takes everything.

The truth is all of this, all this blood and heartbreak is the result of political failure.
It’s what happens when those in power choose division over dialogue.
When leaders chase control instead of compassion.
If only there had been sincerity. A willingness to sit, to talk, to listen.
This could have been resolved long ago with humility, with courage, with basic human decency.
But it wasn’t. And the cost is paid in lives.

Still, we have to believe in something better.
We have to believe that peace is still possible.
We have to stop reducing people to labels :Hindu, Muslim, this side, that side.
People are more than that. We are more than that.

The people of Kashmir deserve peace.
They deserve dignity.
They deserve more than to be treated as collateral in someone else’s game.
And so do all the people across the world who are exhausted by conflict, by hate, by loss.

Let us speak up not to create more noise, but to finally be heard.
Let us raise our voices not to deepen the divide, but to heal it.
This is not a war between religions or nations.
It’s a war between hate and humanity.

And humanity must prevail.