Kashmir is a bone of contention between India and Pakistan since its inception period. The valley is never conflict-free and it is always under the smog of tension, ruckus and revolt. The geographical location of Kashmir, which is sandwiched between two archfoes, India and Pakistan made it strategically imperative for both the nations. The issue of Kashmir and the argument for ownership started brewing from the period of the partition itself. After the anatomy of Radcliff on Indian subcontinent to bifurcate it into two nations, Kashmir was one among the three states which refused to board the train to either two countries. The later decision of Raja Harisingh of Kashmir to ink the Instrument of Accession and to be a part of India was the triggering of a series of explosions that shoved Kashmir to constant turmoils. Pakistan never accepted the Muslim dominated border region as a part of India. They always considered Kashmir as a part of their country, which emanated in the name of the Islamic religion. For India, Kashmir legitimately belongs to India as per the document signed by the then ruler of Kashmir. Also, even the Constitutional demands of the Kashmiri leaders were accepted by the Indian Constitutional makers and it posses exclusive privileges which none other states in the country enjoy.
The news of explosions, attacks and revolts in Kashmir always hijack the headlines of the national dailies. The picture portrayed by the mainstream media regarding the revolts in Kashmir is always focussed upon the terrorist presence in the valley, the sleeper cells among the Kashmiris, the infiltrators from the neighbouring Islamic nations and the strong root holds of Islamic fundamentalism in the Himalayas. Islamic bigotry and terrorism in Kashmir valley are synonymous words for the media and the non-Kashmiri Indians. Notably, the extremist activity in Kashmir has nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism and to any other religious belief for that matter. Interestingly, the recruitment of the Islamic State was mainly from the southern states of India and not from Kashmir. If the natives of Kashmir are easy targets of Islamic terrorism then the hub of IS recruitment has to be the Valley of Kashmir. The researcher Robert Pape who meticulously studied almost all the suicide attacks between 1980 and 2005, states that there is little connection between terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. The specific strategic goal of the suicide bombers is to compel the modern democracies to withdraw forces from where the terrorists considered as their homeland. As by deciphering the dynamics of the terrorist organisation in the Northern borders of India, it is evident that extremism present in the valley has only regionalist goals and not any sort of religious or another fundamentalist strategies. The media manufactured trepidation and the remorseless anti- Kashmiri rhetoric by the politicians are adding fuel to the fire.
Notably, the attacks in Kashmir against the armed forces have a different perspective. Albeit, there are heartfelt sympathies for the martyred soldiers at the Pulwama and various other parts of Kashmir, it is an undeniable fact that military is not a group of pacifists who brought peace and harmony to the valley. The atrocities of the military against its own civilians are surprisingly high. After the implementation of AFSPA in Kashmir, the ill-treatment and inhumane actions of the army against Kashmiris have numbed the human mind. Even though it is considered as the foolhardy determination of the government of India to maintain peace in the valley, the Act has fetched counterproductive results. The extremism in Kashmir is higher than ever. According to the UN Human Commission Report, the military refused to inquire about 2000 unmarked graves in Kashmir. Almost 6000 people were attacked by pellet guns between 2016 and 2018, a weapon which was asked to decommission by various human rights groups. Almost 3000 people have lost their eyesight in such attacks. These quantifications are just the tip of the iceberg. The incidents of Kunan Pushpora and Farooqi Ahmed case still awaits even a proper trial. The tortures inflicted by the army upon the civilians are hellishly real. Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah, the duo who stood together to bring Kashmir to the Indian basket might be screaming in their graves. When the military agencies are unleashing atrocities against people in order to hold or contain them, after a threshold, it will burst out.
The reluctance of the Indian government to curb custodial torture is no secret. The UN Convention Against Torture which actually took 13 years for the government to sign the document and still need ratification is astonishing, anti-democratic and highly dismaying. Ironically, the Prevention of Torture Bill is still procrastinating in the Parliament of the world’s largest democracy.
The events which occur in Kashmir against the armed forces is the cumulative result of the actions of the latter against the civilians. The authorities should take note when tens of thousands of Indians throngs to moan at the cremation of Burhan Wani and searching for stones when the army trucks arrive.
About the Author
