Kashmir crisis: what next?
India needs to realise the futility of engaging in violence in IHK
An Indian policeman stands guard in front of closed shops painted with graffiti during a curfew in Srinagar July 12, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS
As has been noted in these columns before, Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) is currently witnessing its umpteenth round of brutal human rights violations at the hands of Indian security forces. At least 45 Kashmiris have lost their lives and about 3,500 people have been hurt so far, many with eye injuries caused by pellets the Indian forces have been firing at the demonstrators. The most militarised part of the world where the ratio between the gun-jumping Indian troops and the largely defenceless population engaged in what is being seen the world over as an Intifada is said to be one soldier for every 15 Kashmiris. The Indian authorities have imposed a curfew in IHK, blocked mobile phone services and briefly ordered curbs on newspapers.
According to a recent International New York Times editorial (Kashmir Crisis, July 22), there is a culture of brutal disdain among the Indian troops stationed in IHK for the local population because “Kashmir is subject to India’s Armed Forces Special Powers Act … which grants the military wide powers to arrest, shoot to kill, occupy or destroy property”. It further said that a major cause of the uprising is the resentment among Kashmiri youth who have come of age under an Indian security apparatus that acts against civilians with impunity. Clearly, the international media does not seem to be in the mood to be taken in this time by Indian propaganda blaming Pakistan for its troubles in IHK. Sartaj Aziz has already and rightly dismissed the Indian objections on Pakistan voicing its concerns over the situation saying that the spontaneous uprising proved that the Kashmir struggle was indigenous. He rejected the Indian accusations against Pakistan for stirring trouble in IHK. Hopefully Pakistan would be smart enough this time around not to go meddling into IHK as it did in the 1990s, which damaged the cause of the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle immensely and provided India with the clout to beat Pakistan with in global capitals. The dim-witted Kargil misadventure only substantiated the Indian propaganda.
One thing of note during the current round of violence has been how even the Indian media has not shied away from calling a spade a spade. Indian journalist Sandeep Bamzai in one of his recent columns (Imperiled Kashmir) has drawn a bone-chilling picture of the occupation: the (Indian) Army has a grid that functions like a concentric circle right across the Valley starting from the LoC right into the innards of Srinagar city. There are over 300,000 soldiers both along the border and for counter insurgency operations in Kashmir Valley. What is, however, baffling is that the Indian Army, according to Sandeep, is suddenly facing a brand new threat percept. And in a recent NDTV commentary, Mihir Sharma, another Indian journalist, says that the “eruption” has been coming for some time: “New Delhi largely wasted a decade of uneasy quiet, imagining that it meant that peace had returned to the Valley, and in the years since 2008 … it has shown itself bereft of any ideas other than those that it used to quell militancy in the 1990s. The wounds of the 1990s were deep; the state was angry, but it needed time to recover. Yet those wounds stayed open … In fact, a whole new generation arrived, even angrier, and radicalised itself on Facebook.”
Pakistan will now be bringing up the issue of the Kashmir violence at the UN’s Human Rights Council, urging the body to send its observers to IHK to determine the facts of the atrocities being committed by the Indian forces. This was decided at the meeting of the National Security Committee presided over by the prime minister. India needs to realise that it won’t be able to tackle the situation in Kashmir using its traditional methods. As Indian journalist Manoj Joshi states in Scroll.in, “Like it or not, a resolution of the Kashmir issue requires a settlement between India and Pakistan as well as the Union government and the State.” India needs to realise the futility of engaging in violence in IHK. It must start thinking of out-of-the-box measures to resolve the current crisis.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 24th, 2016.
According to a recent International New York Times editorial (Kashmir Crisis, July 22), there is a culture of brutal disdain among the Indian troops stationed in IHK for the local population because “Kashmir is subject to India’s Armed Forces Special Powers Act … which grants the military wide powers to arrest, shoot to kill, occupy or destroy property”. It further said that a major cause of the uprising is the resentment among Kashmiri youth who have come of age under an Indian security apparatus that acts against civilians with impunity. Clearly, the international media does not seem to be in the mood to be taken in this time by Indian propaganda blaming Pakistan for its troubles in IHK. Sartaj Aziz has already and rightly dismissed the Indian objections on Pakistan voicing its concerns over the situation saying that the spontaneous uprising proved that the Kashmir struggle was indigenous. He rejected the Indian accusations against Pakistan for stirring trouble in IHK. Hopefully Pakistan would be smart enough this time around not to go meddling into IHK as it did in the 1990s, which damaged the cause of the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle immensely and provided India with the clout to beat Pakistan with in global capitals. The dim-witted Kargil misadventure only substantiated the Indian propaganda.
One thing of note during the current round of violence has been how even the Indian media has not shied away from calling a spade a spade. Indian journalist Sandeep Bamzai in one of his recent columns (Imperiled Kashmir) has drawn a bone-chilling picture of the occupation: the (Indian) Army has a grid that functions like a concentric circle right across the Valley starting from the LoC right into the innards of Srinagar city. There are over 300,000 soldiers both along the border and for counter insurgency operations in Kashmir Valley. What is, however, baffling is that the Indian Army, according to Sandeep, is suddenly facing a brand new threat percept. And in a recent NDTV commentary, Mihir Sharma, another Indian journalist, says that the “eruption” has been coming for some time: “New Delhi largely wasted a decade of uneasy quiet, imagining that it meant that peace had returned to the Valley, and in the years since 2008 … it has shown itself bereft of any ideas other than those that it used to quell militancy in the 1990s. The wounds of the 1990s were deep; the state was angry, but it needed time to recover. Yet those wounds stayed open … In fact, a whole new generation arrived, even angrier, and radicalised itself on Facebook.”
Pakistan will now be bringing up the issue of the Kashmir violence at the UN’s Human Rights Council, urging the body to send its observers to IHK to determine the facts of the atrocities being committed by the Indian forces. This was decided at the meeting of the National Security Committee presided over by the prime minister. India needs to realise that it won’t be able to tackle the situation in Kashmir using its traditional methods. As Indian journalist Manoj Joshi states in Scroll.in, “Like it or not, a resolution of the Kashmir issue requires a settlement between India and Pakistan as well as the Union government and the State.” India needs to realise the futility of engaging in violence in IHK. It must start thinking of out-of-the-box measures to resolve the current crisis.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 24th, 2016.