DISTRESSING THROUGH THE CURRENT UNREST IN JAMMU & KASHMIR IS, IT’S NOTHING NEW. BUT HOW AND WHEN WILL THERE BE A SOLUTION FOR THIS ALIENATION OF THE POPULACE OF THE STATE?
SURYA GANGADHARAN// Some would see the recent government decision to not allow Indian children to study in Pakistani schools as a fallout of the broader India Pak relationship, with recent developments in Kashmir as a trigger.
While the India-Pak issue is relevant, Kashmir as a trigger argument would be simplifying a complex issue that goes all the way back to the state’s accession to India. But we are not here to analyse that, rather this is about something more immediate, the violence in Kashmir that after more than two weeks, is showing some signs of levelling off.
Central ministers, beginning with Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh have blamed Pakistan for violence in the Kashmir valley, in which the death toll may have crossed 50. We also have reports from the army and intelligence sources in Kashmir that say the current violence is similar to what happened in 2010-11, when covert networks, funded and organised by Pakistan, coordinated a wave of violence targeting police, army and government assets.
While the Pakistani role cannot be denied, there is a disconnect within. Why is it that local politicians are not active? Why are they not communicating with the mobs of angry youth out there pelting stones? Public property is being destroyed, lives have been disrupted and yet they remain silent to the point where even Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has not gone anywhere near south Kashmir.
Curiously, the violence is at odds with the larger situation where militancy is at low ebb. In the past three years, the number of militant attacks has fallen from a high of around 200 to 38 in the first six months of this year.
Most militants today are local Kashmiris, with the army putting their numbers at less than 200. The average “shelf life” of a militant is between two months and about two years, Burhan Wani being an exception, since he had been on the loose since 2010. But be it Wani or some other, they are all poorly trained, and are taught only the basics of how to handle a rifle and throw a grenade. Training lasts a couple of days and then they are on their own.
If such training is to give the impression they retain the ability to strike, there can be no doubt about that, given the number of seemingly random attacks on police personnel in the last few months. More serious, however, was the attack on the Pathankot air force base in January, or the Lashkar-e- Toiba strike on a CRP bus in Pampore in June, which resulted in the deaths of eight personnel and injuries to 22 others.
Army and intelligence sources say the Pathankot attack was clearly planned from across the border; the Pampore attack could have been a local operation, given to local operatives with minimal training and equipment.
Clearly, the motivation to turn militant remains even when it is clear that there is a high element of risk. But nothing is being done to probe that motivation. While the mobs in the streets say they want azadi, what do 12 and 13 year old children understand by that?
This is what the politicians fail to address. They are not communicating with their constituents, and not moving in their constituencies trying to address local issues. The bureaucracy is no different. So many months after Kashmir’s worst-ever floods, Srinagar remains a mess, whole colonies have been displaced, and compensation is happening but in fits and starts.
Kashmir is going down the tube due to lack of governance that directly affects the lives of its people. This is not to say that the violence we saw recently was solely about governance but when everyday life is a burden, and government is apathetic, the anger will explode.
IESHAN WANI// The short-lived calm on the streets of Kashmir breaks every evening after authorities lift curfew. The valley has again come to a halt. Although there has been unrest in the past, followed by killings and curfew, but this time, the reasons are different.
A local militant commander of Hizb-ul- Mujahideen (HM), Burhan Muzaffar Wani died in an encounter with government forces some 60 km from his hometown, where he was mostly active.
The face of a new age and tech-savvy breed of militants in the Valley, Wani was instrumental in reviewing and bringing more youth to the gun. He had become a household name after he appeared in several videos and photographs on social networking sites.
Unfortunately, the government never tried to bring this “poster boy of militancy” to the negotiating table, choosing instead to hunt him down. Wani reportedly carried a bounty of Rs 10 lakh and the fact that he picked up the gun at age 15 is a stark and telling comment on the frustration and anger of the youth in the Valley. He seems to have given a fillip to homegrown rebellion, resistance. Ever since he decided to take up arms against India, forces had been on the hunt for him, it doubled when his videos started to haunt them.
In 2013, Wani was involved in the killing of four Rashtriya Rifles men in Buchoo Baala area in Tral, his hometown. Since then, he wasn’t directly linked to any attack but was seen as a mastermind of many other attacks.
But many in his village offer a justifiable reason for his violent ways. “What will anyone do when he is beaten by forces in his own village without any provocation?” is a common refrain in his hometown.
The defining moment in Wani’s life happened when he and his brother, Khalid Muzaffar Wani were stopped at a checkpoint by counter-insurgency personnel and asked to fetch cigarettes for them in 2010. On return, Wani and his brother were beaten and he had reportedly threatened the police with revenge.
Khalid was allegedly killed by forces later when he had gone to meet Wani in the forests, further steeling his resolve to wage a war against the State.
Since the uprising, successive governments in the state have dealt severely with the militants. The policing hasn’t changed over the years even when the militancy graph dipped in the Valley. The results of entrenchment of forces, constant surveillance, curfew, compounded by lack of empowerment of the common people, especially the youth, are visible now, with more and more youngsters signing up with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, as Wani and his cousins previously had done.
Wani came from a sound, well-educated, well-off family. He was a topper in school and like most boys his age loved cricket, music, cracking jokes and having fun like a regular youngster. He really did not need to break away from his comfortable existence, join a militant outfit, but he did. Why, is a question worthy of collective introspection.
In his lifetime, youngsters across the spectrum, engineers, college students, scions from wealthy families joined Wani and even posed for the cameras with Kalashnikovs strapped across their body.
Every Friday after congregational prayers, protestors outside Jama Masjid in the old city of Srinagar held his picture and raised slogans in his favour. “Burhan dega azadi” (Burhan will give freedom) were the common slogans at every anti- India protest in Kashmir where 14-24-year-olds engage in pitched battles with the forces.
The youth in Kashmir today is angry, helpless, frustrated by a non-responsive system, that feeds his sense of alienation from the rest of the country. They have expectations but there seems to be no sign of the State addressing them. They feel cornered, abandoned and are drifting away from New Delhi, a dangerous shift that should set the alarm bells ringing. There are many unheard voices, but is anyone listening?
Many young boys in Kashmir who face similar situations see Wani as their “hero”. A local newspaper in Srinagar reported that the youngest victim of pellet, eight-year-old Asif from south Kashmir told a patient next to his bed that he ‘will pick up an AK-47’. Out-of the mouth-of babes they say, this stark statement is enough to bring home the realisation that Indian policies and politics have failed to usher peace in the valley.
Wani’s killing has fuelled the anger and sense of alienation more, as protests once again become a regular feature after curfew is lifted in the evening.