Alarms in
Kashmir, AG NOORANI
There is little attempt to understand the obvious
message which the surge in militancy sends out.
THE situation in Kashmir
is fast deteriorating, politically and militarily. One of its most respected
journalists, Yusuf Jameel, reported on July 30 that “dozens of Kashmiri youth,
mostly in the 17-24 age group, are joining the ranks of militants every month,
a phenomenon that has set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power,
particularly the security agencies.”
Most of them have witnessed
close family members, friends or neighbours picked up by any of the agencies
only to ‘disappear’ or be found dead later. This is apart from the continuing
humiliation of army presence for 25 years. According to figures published by
the state police, the total militant presence in Jammu & Kashmir is 142, of
whom 88 are locals and 54 foreigners. There are 60 militants in south Kashmir;
13 in central Kashmir and 69 in the north.
Protests are triggered off
by any event that is related to a resistance movement. One Friday, 17 July,
began as an expression of solidarity with Palestine and soon transformed into
an anti-India demonstration. Conversely, any moves for conciliation between
India and Pakistan arouse high hopes. This is true of all — the separatists and
the unionists, alike. That is why the foreign secretaries’ joint briefing at
Ufa on July 10 came as a bitter disappointment. It did not mention Kashmir.
There is little attempt to
understand the obvious message which the surge in militancy sends out. A frozen
state of denials prevails, as it has all these years. On the ground, the
security forces show little sign of respect for the populace. On July 21, that
most faithful of the faithful, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, disclosed
at a public meeting in New Delhi that an army officer had ordered his troops to
shoot his son, Omar — also a former chief minister — on the Jammu-Srinagar
highway merely because his vehicle overtook an army convoy. He cited another
instance. A man was killed in cold blood by an army man. But he was never
prosecuted because of the blanket immunity the army enjoys under the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act, 1990. The
immunity extends even to killing.
In a scathing editorial on
July 25, the New York Times said: “Rather than help quell revolt, AFSPA has
hardened resentments against a military that has too often abused the
extraordinary powers conferred by the Act. The Act, which can be activated by
the federal government or the states, gives soldiers wide powers to kill,
arrest, search an detain. It also grants them civil immunity from prosecution
and punishment. India’s army, which is empowered to try soldiers in military
courts for crimes against civilians, has rarely done so. The result is a
shocking incidence of rapes, murders, torture, summary detention and
disappearances of civilians in areas where the law applies.”
The harsh truth is that
none of the Unionists — the two Abdullahs and current Chief Minister Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed — cares one bit for the people. Their sole concern is with pelf
and power for which they will stoop to any depths to secure New Delhi’s
support. After the elections to the State Assembly last December, Omar Abdullah
was all too willing to win the BJP’s support. But the Mufti pipped him to the
post. Former RAW Chief, A.S. Dulat, has disclosed that “Prior to the parliament
election, Mufti had sent Dilawar Mir, a former minister, as his emissary to
meet Modi in Ahmedabad. The PDP suits the BJP as a soft separatist; in the
BJP’s way of thinking, if it can deal with Mufti then why does it need to deal
with Mirwaiz? Mufti is a nationalist.”
Mufti’s PDP, which assumed
office in a coalition with the BJP on March 1, performs and is seen by the
people to perform to a script written by New Delhi. A couple of conciliatory
steps which the Mufti took were reversed within a couple of days, to wit the
release of Masarat Alam, a separatist close to Geelani, and a circular of March
12 on the display of the state’s flag. The constitution of Jammu and Kashmir
itself accords recognition to the flag. But the Mufti does not risk incurring
New Delhi’s displeasure.
It is unrealistic to
ignore the political factor in the renewal of militancy. The militants have
been disgusted by Mufti’s betrayal. But they are also disillusioned by the
conduct of the Hurriyat’s leaders. They bickered even before the Hurriyat split
and do so now with greater zeal after they parted company over a decade ago.
They have no coherent policy bar slogans of self-determination and the like.
Their sole weapon is the hartal which entails economic loss to their own
followers. Except for Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, none of them concerns himself with
the problems which beset the people in their daily lives. The youth have
watched all this for years. Now they seem to have decided to chalk out their
own path.
The writer is an author
and lawyer based in Mumbai.
Published in Dawn, August
8th, 2015
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