WUSA Vice President (VP), Remington Zhi, shared an Instagram post a week before they took office on their personal account that discussed the terrorist attack that occurred on April 22 in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Following this, the private Instagram story was shared on Reddit on the r/uwaterloo subreddit, sparking concerns and backlash about the contents of the post. 

The attack targeted a group of tourists in the city of Pahalgam, killing 26 people. The militants, according to reports by Reuters, asked the tourists to recite the Islamic Kalima — a Muslim declaration of faith — in order to single out and shoot non-Muslims. One Muslim man who attempted to stop the militants was also killed. The Resistance Front (TRF) initially claimed responsibility, stating that the attack was in opposition to non-local settlement in the region. However, they later denied involvement. This resulted in heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, which led to military conflict on May 7, when India launched an airstrike in Pakistan. 

On April 25, a user on Reddit posted screenshots of an Instagram post Zhi shared from an account called Dear Asian Youth, about the killings, which called the people behind the attack a “resistance group,” arguing that there is “no such thing as harmless tourism on occupied land.” 

Imprint has independently confirmed the legitimacy of the screenshots.

The account describes itself as a nonprofit organization which aims to empower Asian youth into intersectional activism. The account discusses issues such as the conflict in Palestine and increased military power in Indonesia, and has a following of over 90,000. The original Reddit post, by the account u/CandidPersimmon4811, expressed concerns with Zhi’s post, stating that “Incoming WUSA VP Remington Zhi reshared this post, which described the terrorists as a ‘resistance group’ and their terrorism as ‘conducted an operation.'” 

They went on to share how, due to the terminology used in the post, they do not agree with Zhi’s values and called for their removal as a WUSA officer. 

Other self-identifying UW students agreed, and according to comments on Reddit, emailed the university about their concerns. The university was asked to confirm whether they had received any emails from students on the topic, however they declined to discuss any individual complaints that may have been made.  

Other people have since commented and made their own posts on the topic, also sharing how the use of the term “operation” instead of terrorist attack in the post was concerning to them. Among those sharing their thoughts online is UW mathematics professor David Jao. Jao commented, “If I had seen a social media post on September 12, 2001, trying to ‘contextualize’ the World Trade Center attacks, I would have exploded in rage at any such attempt.” 

When asked to expand on this, the UW professor stated that he does not agree that this attack can be contextualized to justify the terrorism. 

However, not everyone agreed with the call to remove the WUSA VP and argued that the Reddit posts are shaming and extreme in their response to what Zhi shared on Instagram. Others also came to the VP’s defence claiming that they did not perceive what Zhi shared to be sympathizing with terrorism, but to be in support of the cause against the “occupation” of Kashmir. 

WUSA has released a statement on the issue in response to questions about their stance on the VP’s post, in which they said, “We understand the concerns raised and want to clarify that the views expressed by individual Board members or Officers do not necessarily reflect the views of WUSA as an organization.”

WUSA also added that they “take feedback from our members seriously,” and said that students can share their thoughts formally by contacting WUSA President Damien Mikhail at pres@wusa.ca.

“We recognize that news from around the world deeply impacts members of our campus community, and we condemn all forms of hate and violence,” WUSA said.  

Imprint also reached out to Zhi but they declined to comment.