The Dirty War in Kashmir

Title: The Dirty War in Kashmir – Frontline Reports

Author: Shujaat Bukhari

Publisher: LeftWord, 2019 (First published 2018)

ISBN: 9789380118727

Pages: 95

 

Lots of books have been written on the Kashmir issue which still remains a concern on India-Pakistan relations. After exhausting all options – diplomatic, statecraft, social engineering, religious indoctrination and even outright war – Pakistan is no nearer to what their goal had been in 1947. At last, they resorted to terrorism and ethnic cleansing of the Valley’s Hindu Pundits to push for separation from India. Thousands of lives were lost on both sides, but India stood uncharacteristically firm, whichever party was in power. It was crystal clear from the first that Pakistan’s aim to separate Kashmir from India is only the first milestone in staking claim to other regions of India where the Muslims are in a majority. After decades of strident militancy, India revoked the special status accorded to Kashmir by repealing articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution. Was the government right in resorting to this extreme step? Was there no other way to make the militants see reason? We need some first-hand reports from Kashmir to answer these questions. These are provided by Shujaat Bukhari in this book which is a compilation of reports published in the Frontline magazine. Bukhari was a journalist based in Srinagar and the correspondent for Frontline. He had founded Urdu- and Kashmiri-language journals and was president of the Abadi Markaz Kamraz, a literary forum to promote the Kashmiri language. He survived three assassination attempts, but the militants finally gunned him down outside his office on June 14, 2018.

 

Bukhari points out a subtle change in the complexion and leadership of militancy after 2011. The participation of locals in the armed struggle began to increase. Earlier, the percentage of foreign to local members was something like 70-30, but the ratio is now reversed. The spike came in 2016 with the killing of Burhan Wani, who changed the nature of the militancy and re-ignited the anti-India movement at the people’s level. His killing caused unprecedented unrest in which nearly 100 people were killed. The hanging of Afzal Guru, who was convicted of the attack on Parliament in 2001, had earlier induced a similar spurt in local militancy. The author claims that 88 local youths enrolled for militancy in 2016. The insignificance of this figure is evident if you remember that the population of Kashmir Valley is nearly seven million! Clearly, a minuscule gang of armed youths make themselves visible and their voices loud by suppressing the collective groan of the majority using terror tactics. They eliminate mainstream politicians, independent journalists and sow terror to dissuade people who wish to vote in elections. To widen their spectrum of violence, they have now begun targeting the family members of Kashmir’s police force.

 

This book talks about militant violence in Kashmir as the inevitable outburst of a population who are denied any kind of political engagement. However, the author’s own arguments don’t support such a conclusion and in fact identifies religion as a motivator for the separatist tendency. In the early 1990s, the Hindu Pundits were forcibly evicted from the valley, while the militants had almost wrested power from the state and were roaming freely. They had public support too. Thousands chanted on the streets, “Kashmir banawon Pakistan, Bataw varaie, Batneiw saan” (We will turn Kashmir into Pakistan, with Kashmiri Hindu women, but without their men). But Bukhari claims that a 2010 study revealed that 72% of the respondents in the age group 15-18 believed in religious tolerance and coexistence of religions (p.37). However, this assertion falls to the ground if we examine the utterances of more vocal elements in Kashmiri society. Zakir Musa, a Wani-associate, had threatened to hang Hurriyat leaders for talking about a solution to the Kashmir problem that was not based on religion (p.42). This makes it amply clear that the militancy is now led by jihadi elements who share the mindset of those terrorists who operate in Syria, Afghanistan or Pakistan. Further evidence comes in the form of violent attacks on innocent Hindu pilgrims on their way to Amarnath Cave in Kashmir. The terrorists continue to target the pilgrims – 35 were killed in an attack on Pahalgam base camp in 2000, 13 lives were lost in Sheshnag in 2001, 9 were gunned down in Pahalgam in 2001 and a 2017 attack at Anantnag killed 7 people. The only glimmer of hope in this all-pervading darkness of religious bigotry was the vehement condemnation of the civil society and business community against these dastardly acts.

 

Bukhari lashes out at the central government in denying Kashmiris a political solution to the crisis. He accuses Narendra Modi for worsening the situation by following an unflinchingly stern response to militancy. It is claimed that the rising violence in 2017 is not a law and order problem, but the result of New Delhi’s denial on the political front and refusal to political engagement. New Delhi is reported to have lost whatever space it had gained so far. The fiasco of abysmally low voter turnout is an indication of the abject failure of the administration. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) enforced in the state gives the soldiers extraordinary authority to encroach on normal state functions. Prior government sanction is made mandatory for erring personnel and these permissions are increasingly delayed in most cases. Besides, army personnel can choose to be tried in the forum they desire. Bukhari accuses that they choose civil courts when it comes to accidents as they fear stern punishment from army courts if discipline is violated, while they invariably opt for court martial in the case of human rights violations.

 

What is shocking in the report of a prominent Kashmiri journalist is the total lack of concern to the plight of Kashmiri Pundits who were brutally thrown out of the Valley through well-coordinated acts of murder, rape and pillage in the 1990s. This exodus, which has every right to be equated to ethnic cleansing, finds absolutely no mention in the book’s narrative. What the author riles against in a chapter is a government plan to build a separate township for the Pundits (p.28). This underscores the militants’ program to drive out all non-Muslims from the Valley and perhaps to hoist a theocratic regime in the model of what the Taliban is currently doing in Afghanistan. The author pitches for a political solution in Kashmir without making any clarifying arguments on how to achieve this objective. All the reports in the book were published before the revocation of special status to Kashmir in 2019, which has stirred the entire state politics in a new and unexpected direction. This event eats away at the relevance of the narrative to a great deal.

 

The book is recommended.

 

Rating: 3 Star