As the number of Facebook users passes the 500 million mark, a leading human rights group in Indian Kashmir claims police were intimidating young men who uploaded images of the ongoing protests in the region onto the social networking site.

“People feel that the internet is the only democratic medium available,” Khurram Parvez, coordinator of the Coalition of Civil Society told RNW. With traditional Kashmiri media dominated by the official Indian viewpoint and public meetings and protests banned, young people in the disputed Himalayan region have turned to social media to “make their voices heard in the world and to share information”.

A new wave
Resistance to Indian rule in Kashmir - which is also claimed by Pakistan - has claimed nearly 50,000 lives since 1989. The violent insurgency has been brought largely under control since peace talks began in 2004, but a new wave of protest began six weeks ago, sparked by the killing of a schoolboy by police. Protests began in the capital Srinigar and have spread widely. Young Kashmiri men have taken to the streets, pelting the police with stones, as the security forces struggle to contain protests reminiscent of the Palestinian Intifada.

The current crackdown on Facebook users is allegedly centred in Anatang district, where police are accused of shooting three young men during protests last month. Grainy and shaky images of the blood-spattered bodies were uploaded – and attracted the ire of the Indian authorities.

Staying connected
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced in a blog post on Wednesday that the number of people actively using the site is now more than half a billion  - an astonishing 1 in every 14 people on the planet. “Our mission”, he wrote, “is to help make the world more open and connected”. And it’s just that openness and ability to communicate freely that upsets some governments.

India is wary of the new technology and its ability to foment protests – as was seen during demonstrations in Iran following disputed elections last year. Parvez points out that it suits the Indian government for Kashmiris to remain isolated. “They’re always trying to tell the world that this is an Islamic insurgency,” he says, “and of course there’s no sympathy in the world for militant activity. The government of India would like the world to believe that these protests are instigated by Pakistan”.

Social media as weapon
But the current unrest marks a new phase in resistance to Indian rule – characterised not by radical Islam, but by a sense of frustration and alienation from the political process. “The people of Kashmir for the past two decades have seen so much violence”, says Parvez, “that it seems very unlikely they would think of taking up arms again”. Stones, rather than guns or bombs are their weapon of choice – along with Facebook and YouTube.

The ability to communicate their grievances to a wider world via the internet is essential, believes Parvez. “We want the issue to be resolved. We have been killed when we were silent, we have been killed when we protested, we have been killed when we were militant and now they are killing us when we are non-violent. So people want the world to respond to this crisis”.  And as long as the message can’t get across via traditional channels, Kashmir’s techno-savvy generation will take the battle of hearts and minds into cyber-space.