If, like me, you’re not au fait with the names of adult entertainers, before we begin you should know Johnny Sins is the name of a male porn performer.
This article, therefore, is about the former Pakistani high commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, mistaking said porn performer for a man from Kashmir who had been shot and blinded by a pellet gun.
Unfortunately, not only did Basit make the blunder, but he retweeted it to his 24,000 followers. And it seems a few of those 24,000 people are more au fait than me with a few adult entertainers’ names, and were happy to point out the strange case of mistaken identity.
Even Johnny Sins himself, and a company I’ve never heard of called Brazzers, were in on the joke:
The woman pictured with Johnny Sins is Angelina Valentine, with the image being taken from a 2011 film entitled Genital Hospital Part 2. I’m yet to see the first part, so couldn’t possibly tell you what the sequel is about.
The use of pellet guns seems to be rife in Kashmir, as they are reportedly used as ‘non-lethal’ crowd-control measures during violent protests. However, according to Business Standard, 18 people have been killed, 139 blinded and 2,942 injured by pellet guns in the region between July 2016 and February 2019.
Reports state more than 100,000 tear gas canisters and around 50,000 rounds of chilli spray have been used in more than 4,000 protest incidents in Kashmir since 2010.
Kashmir is a Himalayan territory, but both India and Pakistan claim it is theirs. India control the state of Jammu and Kashmir, while Pakistan administer the northern territories known as Gilgit-Baltistan. Jammu and Kashmir was India’s only Muslim-majority state, and had partial autonomy under Article 370 of the Indian constitution, BBC News reports.
In August this year, however, the Indian government revoked Article 370, arguing Kashmir should have the same laws and legislature as the rest of the country.
The government also announced plans to break Kashmir into two smaller, federally-administered territories – one combining Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu-majority Jammu, and one comprised of Buddhist-majority Ladakh, which is culturally and historically tied to Tibet.
While many people in India agreed with the revocation of Article 370, others – not least those in Kashmir – weren’t so happy. There has reportedly been a large military presence in the state, while communications, such as internet and phone lines, have been on lockdown, BBC News reports.
It seems the Twitter blunder from Abdul Basit may have therefore been part of online trolling some politicians are being subjected to over the Article 370 decision.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.