Wailing Zohra’s viral picture depicts many realities of Kashmir Conflict

The latest viral picture of a wailing school girl, Zohra has again depicted the many realities of Kashmir conflict.
Zohra lost her father, an Assistant Sub Inspector of Police, Peer Abdul Rashid when suspected militants shot at him at Mehandi Kadal area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Monday.
The press photographers, who had gone to cover the wreath-laying ceremony of the slain police officer at District Police Lines in Srinagar, could not ignore Rashid’s daughter in tears.
Soon Zohra’s picture went viral on the internet and the netizens expressed their dismay over her pain.
One of those expressing outrage was Director of Vigilance, Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gilani.
“A day won’t be far when death reaches every house. The time to stop it is now. We owe this much to children like Zohra…,” he posted on the Facebook.
NDTV’s Zaffar Iqbal posted Zohra’s wailing picture on his Facebook page and posed questions to both the mainstream politicians and separatist leaders for playing down the girl child’s tragedy.
“Watching this heart-wrenching photograph of Zohra, the daughter of a slain police officer Abdul Rashid, weeping during his wreath laying ceremony, I was wondering where is Engineer Rashid and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and all those who are considered to be champions of Kashmiris,” he posted. “They didn’t utter a single word yesterday whereas when a few policemen were beaten by Army men, they not only condemned but Engineer Rashid also took out a protest march.”
Questioning their silence, he posted, “Were they not able to see tears flowing out of Zohra’s eyes or they don’t consider Zohra to be a Kashmiri.”
Yet another netizen, Sajid Yousuf, the Secretary Global Association for Peace, posted on Facebook, “Who will wipe her tears? Who will take care of her?”
He wrote that Zohra’s picture reminded him of 8-year-old himself when his mother was shot dead by “terrorists”.
“We have lot of people in Kashmir who talk about killings, hartals, protests but how many talk about spreading peace,” he posted on the social networking site.
Another senior journalist Majid Hyderi too shared Zohra’s picture on Facebook and wrote, “Our children cry, our people die, and we all keep bearing the unending pain.”
Hyderi also shared the picture of Burhan Fayaz, whose wailing picture had also gone viral on the internet while he was participating in the funeral of his teenage friend, Amir, who was killed by a bullet fired by the government forces on civilians in March this year.
The fate of children like Zohra and Burhan in the protracted Kashmir conflict is just like the fate of the dead three-year-old Alan Kurdi on a Bodrum beach in Turkey, and Omran Daqneesh, the Syrian boy who captured world’s attention last year when image of his blood-and-dust-covered face went viral on the internet.
While Kurdi’s and Daqneesh’s plight melted the hearts of thousands of people across the world, Zohra’s and Burhan’s pictures have only created a few murmurs.
Images have a power of even making insensitive beings think and tell a story, a story far better than words, a thousand words.