A desecration beyond words! A humiliation unparalleled! An Indian tourist, embodying the very essence of his nation’s colonial arrogance, was caught on video urinating into the lake that gives life to our people. It is a result of a deep-seated contempt with which the occupiers view our land, our people and our very essence.

Dal Lake is an artery of our civilization. It cradles our floating gardens, sustains the livelihoods of an entire community that has built their lives upon its gentle ripples. Its waters have heard the whispers of our ancestors and its serene surface has reflected the sorrows of our occupation. And now, in the most wretched of spectacles, it is being defiled by the very people who see our land as nothing more than a trophy of conquest.

This is the naked truth. Hindutva’s jingoistic arrogance, emboldened since the brutal developments of 2019, has rendered our valley a playground for the depraved. They see us as conquered subjects, as spoils of war and as creatures whose dignity is worth less than the dirt beneath their boots. The occupation machine has programmed them to believe that they have the right to spit, urinate, defile, and ravage everything that is sacred to us—our homes, our land, our waters, and our souls.

And when we, the true custodians of this land, dare to ask for basic respect, our voices are silenced with the iron fist of military oppression. Just a few days ago the Traders Association of Central Lal Chowk respectfully requested tourists to refrain from drinking alcohol, spitting on roads, or smoking in our locality. A simple message of decorum. And what was the response? The colonial police stormed in, whisked away the signboard, and threatened those who dared to uphold our cultural dignity. This is the brute reality of the occupation—we cannot even request dignity without being crushed beneath the boots of our oppressors.

And so, what are we left with? When every peaceful avenue of resistance is choked, when every voice of dignity is gagged, when even the smallest call for respect is met with brute force—what remains? If they deny us the right to speak, the right to preserve our traditions, the right to safeguard our sacred spaces, then what options do we have left? The answer is clear. When oppression reaches its peak, when all doors are slammed shut, resistance—by any means necessary—becomes a duty.

Now, let us reflect for a moment on what it means to urinate in Dal Lake. What kind of mind sees a pristine, historic waterbody and chooses to defile it in such a way? It is the mind of an occupier drunk on impunity, the mind of a colonialist who sees nothing sacred in the lands they conquer. To urinate in Dal Lake is indeed an act of desecration. It is a spit in the face of an entire people. It is the manifestation of a deeply ingrained hatred, an assertion that this land is no longer ours, that its purity, its sanctity, its soul—none of it matters anymore. This is the depraved psyche of the Hindutva hordes. They do not come here as tourists but as marauders, defilers, and heralds of a project that seeks to strip Kashmir of its very essence.

This is about an entire civilization under attack. And as long as we breathe, as long as we stand, as long as the waters of Dal Lake ripple under the Kashmiri sky, we must resist. We must reclaim our dignity, our land, our faith, and our identity by any means necessary. The occupation will never show us mercy. Why should we extend them the courtesy of silence or even teaching them with the so called non-violent methods?