“This article is a latent support for terrorism.” Now these are words enough to label me as a terrorist sympathizer and can put me in trouble which is not new to me. I have been hearing this for the last 20 years or so, not because of what I used to write or talk about but because I am a non-migrant KP who stayed back in the Valley. I am still seen as someone who must have compromised on his religious and social Identity (and I am not even religious) in order to remain in a majority muslim state in the worst of times. Thankfully I am not alone, and there are others just like me that stayed back as well. I don’t expect you to “understand the underlying meaning” of this write-up if you have not lived through what I have seen. I won’t judge you for that, even though you have already made up your mind about me, without knowing who I am. But what I am not going to take is when you quote my words about “Humiliating a father in front of his son, or leaching at a mother while she brings the kids back from school” because this is personal. Here I am not talking about what the majority community has gone through. I am talking about what me and my family would face on a day to day basis. My father, my mother and my brother to be precise. And yes this is an experience that’s shared by the majority of people living here as well.

Did you even stop for a moment and think why are there still KP’s living in the valley after the majority of the community migrated? Or is it that our existence out here does not suit your narrative? Have you even spoken to me personally or interacted with me? Or is it just the blind hate that keeps you from seeing me as an individual who is simply sharing what he has seen and experienced as kid? Has this hatred and fear caused you to apply the “terrorist sympathizer” label to me for sharing my experiences? I appreciate that you took the time to read what I had written, and then took time to reply as well. At least you are ready to engage and that’s okay by me. You stand better then those who think that the best way to deal with people like me (including my KP and Muslim brothers in the valley) is to ignore us until we go away. And that’s not going to happen anytime soon.