Two Years On, Kedarnath Flood Survivors Contend With Drying Funds, Receding Hope

Two years ago, in June 2013, Kedarnath, a pilgrimage centre cradled in the Himalayan mountains, witnessed the worst ever natural disaster to hit the state of Uttarakhand. Flash floods wiped out many villages and more than 5500 people were washed away in the gushing waters. Among these were around 60 men of village Deoli-Benigram in Rudraprayag district. Many were the sole breadwinners of their families, and left behind wives and children. Today, Deoli-Benigram is known as thevillage of widows.

This year on June 16, on the second anniversary of the disaster, all the widows and children gathered in a nearby school building to mourn the departed, while newspaper and TV reporters milled about to capture the pathos of the scene. At a distance, I saw a female reporter tapping the back of a widow who was wailing while narrating her ordeal. I too scanned the faces of these widows to find an emotional face and I ended up getting a lady in her 50s. Her face was wrinkled and she wore thick glasses but I could still see her sunken eyes.

I asked her to sit on a chair, but I could not hear what she was saying since the courtyard was too packed with people. We decided to talk in quieter environs and moved to the rear side of the building. Leaning against the wall, she stared out at a mountain behind me. Tears started rolling down her eyes. It was hard for me to see her crying — I would have escaped the scene but I felt awkward.

After some time, she held back her tears and asked me why I was there. I was perplexed but I ignored the question and began asking her about her life. I came to know that Leela Devi’s husband, the family’s sole earner, was working as a shopkeeper in Kedarnath. After he died, Leela Devi’s elder son is shouldering financial responsibilities by opening a shop in his own village.

Leela Devi hopes to educate her younger son, and she hopes he has a better life in store for him. But she is running out of money. In our 20 minutes of conversation, the only concern she voiced was college fees for her younger son. Her elder son can hardly make ends meet. The mandatory government compensation that she got at the time of her husband’s death barely covered expenses for five or six months.

When I left Leela Devi, she was glaring at me. She might have thought I would help her. Perhaps she felt betrayed that I, like all others, was just looking for an emotional tale.

Leela Devi’s story is the story of more than 35 widows in the village who are struggling for survival after losing their husbands.

Danita lost her husband at the age of 24. She is now taking care of two small children and an old mother-in-law. She works at an NGO’s sewing and stitching centre. Unlike Leela, she does not dream of educating her children and says that poverty will force the children to start earning as soon as possible.

Even two years after the disaster, the wounds seem fresh in this area. Gori Lal is a resident of Shervani hamlet which is some 3km away from Deoli-Benigram village. Roads, electricity, phone networks all seem like an elusive dream here. Gori Lal and his family became homeless when the gushing water hit his house, damaging it completely.

His family of five now lives in a roofless single-storied mud-thatched house which is divided into two rooms. The house is protected by a tattered tin sheet overhead. Gori Lal’s request for compensation has fallen on deaf ears with every government office turning him away. His neighbours are kind enough to provide shelter to his family in bad weather but he is worried for how long this generosity will continue.

His son works as a labourer in a nearby village and earns Rs 200 daily. He tells me it is not enough for basic necessities but it is just about enough to keep breathing from one day to the next. Despite all odds Gori Lal and his family are optimistic to renovate their house someday.

And the same cries echo everywhere, similar stories can be heard in almost every household where abject poverty makes the loss of two years ago even more wrenching.

Published in Huffington Post

Delhi fails to hear Kashmiris

Prashant Bhusha, leader of India’s newly formed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which won control of Delhi late last year, kicked up a new storm when in an interview to Aaj Tak news channel he asserted that a plebiscite should be held in Jammu and Kashmir on whether the Indian Army should continue be deployed in the Kashmir Valley. 

“People should be asked whether they want the army to handle the internal security of Kashmir. Any decision which does not have the backing of the people is undemocratic. If people feel that the army is violating human rights and they say they don’t want the army to be deployed for their security, then the army should be withdrawn from the hinterland,” Bhushan, an advocate by profession, stated on January 5. 

His statement captured the national media’s attention, prompting the “most viewed” national news channel Times Now to host a discussion on the subject. The discussion, as would be expected, developed a nationalistic tone and did not reflect the viewpoint of ordinary Kashmiris on the army’s deployment. 

As usual, Indian politicians, sensing an opportunity to prove their nationalistic credentials, reacted aggressively to pander to their vote banks. 

Commenting on the issue, spokesperson of the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party Sidharth Nath Singh said, “Prashant Bhushan should remember he no longer runs a NGO. The demilitarization of Jammu and Kashmir is a language that is being spoken by separatists in Pakistan and Bhushan as a senior AAP leader is playing into the hands of the separatists by making such comments. Till the terror infrastructure in Pakistan is dismantled, any reduction in Army presence would be disastrous for the country and unacceptable to the people of India.” 

In the Kashmir Valley, the ruling National Conference party also criticized Bhushan’s statement. Party spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said: “There is an elected government in J&K and it along with the center are the best judge of whether the AFSPA [Armed Forces Special Power Act ] should be kept or removed. National Conference too believes that AFSPA can be withdrawn from some areas but why does AAP want to politicize AFSPA?” 

Sameer Kaul, spokesperson for the opposition People’s Democratic Party, while supporting Bhushan’s call for a referendum on the AFSPA, said: “The heart of AAP is in the right place. We are happy to hear about Bhushan’s views that the people of Kashmir should be consulted on Army deployment.” 

However, beyond this politicking is the perspective of ordinary Kashmiris, who want to live in peace and tranquillity. It is they who face the army in their daily lives and have seen the army indulging in grave human-rights violations. Yet no political party is serious enough to take into account this viewpoint. 

It is the ordinary Kashmiri who would have pointed to the Kunan Poshpora case, in which hundreds of women in a village in north Kashmir were allegedly raped by the army in a single night. It is the ordinary Kashmiri who would have talked about the Pathribal fake encounter and several other such encounters in which the army has trampled on the rights of the innocent Kashmiris. 

These are the people who have seen how the draconian AFSPA has been abused and misused by the army and security forces on the ground to assert their presence. The act gives the army the right to arrest without warrant, search any premises without warrant and stop and search any vehicle reasonably suspected. Numerous accounts have documented how the act has been used to cover up cases of extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearance, rapes and torture. 

The Kunan Poshpora and Pathribal incidents are just two examples. There are thousands of other such cases where justice has been delayed or not been done. People who have lost their family members in such incidents know exactly the logic of the AFSPA. 

In fact such is the impact of the army’s presence in the Kashmer hinterland that rdinary Kashmiris feel more insecure and vulnerable under the army’s deployment. They feel that security can be handled by the state and the central police forces, while the army can be deployed on the international border and the Line of Control, to stop militant infiltration and secure the border. 

The Indian government has justified the continuation of the act by pointing out its relevance in the counter-insurgency operations. Indian politicians have termed the matter of the deployment of the army as a security issue – one concerning the safety and security of the common people. But they are not able to explain why the rescuer has turned into a threat? Why is it that ordinary Kashmiris feel vulnerable in the army’s presence? 

The state government may point to normalcy by pointing to a record tourist turnout and the return of Bollywood to the Valley. But the fact is that two decades of conflict have left scars on people’s minds and these require a much more substantial effort than the mere cosmetic aspects such as tourism and the promises of politicians during election campaigns. India needs to address the core issue of Kashmir by listening to the people’s grievances. It needs to find a permanent solution instead of making publicity stunts and creating convenient photo ops.

 

Published in Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-01-170114.html

Sour note to Kashmir strike calls

Kashmir has been in Indian headlines for more than a month now, mostly for wrong reasons. Protests and shutdown calls from the separatist leadership over a music concert conducted by maestro Zubin Mehta and allegations of the killing of civilians by security forces in south Kashmir have kept the state on the edge of unrest. 

The September 8 concert, Ehsaas-e-Kashmir, was organized for the people of the Kashmir Valley by the German embassy in collaboration with the state tourism department. Separatists criticized it as an attempt to internationally project normalcy in the state, and also when authorities were compelled to limit the number of invitees. 

Members of Kashmir civil society and human rights activists wrote a protest letter to the German embassy in Delhi for illegally “legitimizing an occupation via a music concert”. It further stated that, “art as propaganda documented, was put to horrific use in Nazi Germany. We are sure you will understand that we cannot welcome anything even remotely analogous in Jammu and Kashmir.” 

Even as preparations were going on for Mehta’s concert, personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) fired on a group of bike-riding youth in the town of Shopian; four people were killed and one critically injured. The CRPF claimed that four of the youth were militants, but locals denied the claim. 

The killings prompted separatist leaders to call for a complete shutdown in the valley. Protests at various places in the valley claimed one more life. Ironically these strike calls are leading to more deaths and economic losses, but the guardians of society are not realizing this. Previous calls have resulted in education, business, and tourism being badly affected. 

Does anyone think about the local vendors who are selling goods in the busy market of Lal Chowk? Has anyone ever thought about the fruit sellers who establish their stalls in the early morning till late night to earn bread for their family? 

The answer is “no” because no one among the leadership has any sympathy. Strike calls may not have much impact on the larger business establishments but these street vendors are vulnerable. Ordinary Kashmiris have realized these costs, and are scarcely following the separatists strike calls as evident from the partial response to the September 20 shutdown call, prompting one of the national news portals to ponder on the lost relevance of such demands. 

However, there is no end to the suffering of the common Kashmiris. At the other end of the spectrum, it is the government that has kept Shopian under siege and curfew for more than two weeks. This has resulted in people facing shortages of basic necessities. But the government has yet to realize the pain. Be it the strike call from the separatist leaders or curbs from the authorities in both conditions, it is common people who have to face the resulting hardship. 

There is more to this saga. Hundreds of people have lost their lives, leaving behind distraught families. One comes across many mothers who have lost their sons, sisters who have lost their brothers and children who have lost their parents since the 1990s. 

Since 2008, youths in particular have been in regular confrontation with the security forces in the streets of Srinagar and Kashmir’s major towns. Residents of the valley know what a strike calls mean for them. It means leaving homes early in the morning and dodging or facing the security forces and protesters on the streets for the entire day. While security forces carry guns, bamboo sticks and shields, protesters are mostly boys with covered faces who carry stones as weapons. 

Strike calls mean the street vendor whose family lives in destitution struggles to get the money to pay for a meal. A day on strike starts with fighting with security forces and ends with families in mourning for young boys. Leaders, however, remain under house arrest, yet out of harm’s way. 

Still people will be blaming Zubin Mehta for the recent controversy, which took five lives. But the moot question is whom the nation should hold responsible for the rest of the lives lost in recent years. 

Published in Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-01-091013.html

Grasping The Current Mood Of The Kashmiri youth

As Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is in Srinagar , in what could be his last visit as the Prime Minister to the Valley, the youth of Kashmir is looking at him with an even greater sense of expectation than ever before. Standing at the cusp of critical times ahead for the state, what is the current mood of the Valley’s youth? In its view, what are the challenges that Kashmir is facing? What is its view on the separatist leadership? A random online survey carried out among the college and university going youth of Kashmir has given some pointers in this regard.

The findings of the survey were based on responses by 104 males between the age group 15-35 from all the 10 districts of Valley to an online questionnaire. The majority of the responses were from Srinagar (40), followed by Baramulla (25) and Anantnag (13) districts.

While this survey is not representative, it does give a criterion to gauge the mood of the Kashmiri youth on current scenario.

The recent elections in Pakistan and the return of the “Lion of Punjab”, Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League (N) as the Prime Minister has fuelled hopes in the Indian civil society that both India and Pakistan can take definite forward steps for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. However, when asked about their view on impact of Sharif’s victory on Kashmir, more than half of the surveyed youth (59%) were unsure of what it meant for the region. This is significant because many of those surveyed have witnessed the Kargil conflict and the specter of the India-Pakistan war in 1999 which followed then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s historic bus diplomacy with Sharif, during the latter’s second tenure as Pakistani Prime Minister.

The Valley is still simmering, most of it “under the surface” (as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah termed), after the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. But even as Omar sought to put the blame on the central government for poor handling of Guru’s execution, the local youth holds the state government squarely responsible for this with more than half of the surveyed youth (55%) saying that the situation was handled unsatisfactorily by the state government. Pertinently, not only the local population but many in the civil society outside Kashmir Valley had strongly criticised the curbs on newspaper circulation, shutting down of internet services and restrictions on people’s movement which were put post-Guru’s hanging.

Ironically, while the state government may have wanted to maintain law and order by stifling people’s voice, especially of the youth by these restrictions, it ended up further enraging the Kashmiris who were provoked not only by Guru’s hanging but also dismayed by the general lack of economic opportunities, corruption and other such issues. In this context, a many of the surveyed youth (25%) said that unemployment was the single-most serious problem being faced by Kashmir today, followed by corruption (24%), lack of basic infrastructure (16%) and militancy (8%). However, even more interesting were the responses the survey threw in the other category (20%) out of which a majority (58%) chose to mention the “illegal Indian occupation” as the problem while one respondent mentioned “Hurriyat as the problem”. More importantly, many of the respondents chose to express their views here. Some of the unique strands of thoughts mentioned by these respondents were that Kashmiri youth needs proper counseling, Kashmir should have freedom to live as other parts of India have and that the basic issues for Kashmiris are political instability and lack of trust in the governmental machinery. One argument among all these responses that stood out for this author was that Kashmiris wanted peace and were happy with India but the “Army’s involvement in various human rights violations had contributed to an increase in hatred towards India.”

The Valley youth seem to be divided as to whether the separatists led by Hurriyat Conference should urgently hold negotiations with the Indian Government for resolving Kashmir issue. While a majority (49%) of the surveyed youth said “yes” to this proposition, 40% of them said “No” and 11% chose to ignore.

Political situation of the valley has created a confusion among the youth. Conflict has not only created a violent situation but also pushing some of the educated youth into militancy.

Altaf Bashir student of International Relation at Islamic University of Science and Technology Awantipore, feels that while threat perceptions are paramount for any security agency, youth should be given an opportunity to freely interact with the Prime Minister rather than putting curbs on the local’s movement and jamming mobile phones.

Sense of alienation from India is deep rooted among the young generation of the Valley while the protests of 2008 and 2010 may be a distant history for the policy makers they are still a fresh memory for the youth.

Waheed Ur Rehman Para who studied conflict transformation in SIT Graduate Institute and worked with Kashmir Committee noted Guru’s execution has resulted in increasing alienation among youth. He adds that this alienation should be countered by CBM of release of Kashmiris lodged in various jails in the state.

Looking forward to Prime Minister’s visit Waheed says, “PM can at least assure fair elections which will help to resolve a lot of issues for youth and enhance the credibility of democratic institution in the state.”

Aijaz Nazir acknowledges the help of Sameer Patil who co-conceptualised the survey and analysed the data. Full findings of the survey are available at https://aijaznazir112.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/survey

Published in Counter Currents: http://www.countercurrents.org/nazir250613A.htm

Survey: Understanding the Kashmiri youth

Understanding the Kashmiri youth was an independent survey conducted for grasping the current mood of the Kashmiri youth and their opinions on current developments. It was conceived by Aijaz Nazir and Sameer Patil and was conducted online during the period May 29-June 20, 2013. In total, 104 responses were received. Data was complied and analysed by Sameer Patil. The complete findings of the survey are available here.

Kashmir’s Nightmares

By Aijaz Nazir

I logged out of my facebook account early at night on mobile phone. Due to scarcity of electricity in the Valley these days, people hardly use their laptops or computers. In dark and silent nights, still snow slides down from roofs in our neighborhood. Listening to it carefully, it gives a strange feeling and lands me in memories, when I used to sleep in my Dadi’s (grandmother) lap.

During those days in rural Kashmir , the routine of every child before sleeping was listening to the stories from their elder ones, mostly the grandparents at their home. Kashmir , being covered with the white blanket in winter season, children were restricted to go outside for playing and jailed inside their homes.

Nowadays, children in home are used to watch television and play indoor games. But before decade or so, there were no such facilities available in rural Kashmir . Electricity used to be unavailable for weeks and months together, even during minor snowfall.

The only source of pleasure and enjoyment those days were grandparents who were coaxed to tell stories to their grand kids. As I also belong to rural life, my grandmother was used to do the same, the stories of fairies were full of fantasy which took me somewhere in an imaginary world where I followed my Daadi and the long chilly nights suddenly used to burst with creativity.

Those enjoyable times came to end when the militancy began in Kashmir and stories of wonderland transformed into the tales of unending inhumane violence. The stories of fairies changed into painful anecdotes of those widows who lost their husbands in the long conflict. Storytellers of Valley, narrating the old fairy tales, forgot them and they themselves became the part of a harrowing tale.

In my early childhood, when militancy started in Kashmir the things went from bad to worse. People of the Valley have seen the gruesome face of both the militants and also security forces. People remained under the slavery of armed forces and were also forced to follow the orders from the militants, side who used to take refuge in villages to escape the bone-chilling cold. Many people were killed both by the security forces and at the hands of militants. I remember the days when adults from our homes were ordered to gather somewhere outside village and then tortured. They were supposed to walk naked and were beaten pitilessly by the forces.

In the chilly season, people were ordered to bring firewood for burning so that the army men could warm themselves. Even children from our village were supposed to do so.

Children were the worst sufferers of this violence, and many students left their studies incomplete.

The 1947 partition of the British India was the biggest tragedy for the inhabitants of the Valley. It tore apart families and uprooted many villagers. It also divided the humanity and spread hatred among two nations. Recent ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LOC) in Kashmir have brought forth the same hatred among both the nations. Several debates have been held but no solution found yet. People of the Valley are in search of tranquility and peace which has eluded them so far. Leaders of both the nations have reiterated their intentions to de-escalate the violence but they are yet to realize the pain tolerated by the people living in the Valley.

The new generation of valley is used to listen to the stories of violence rather than the tales of wonderland and fairies. Generations after generations have seen the brutal face of violence and cruelty. At this stage and in this modern world, children of the Valley in these chilly nights don’t think of wonders and fairies anymore, but are stuck to the prolonged conflict which has become a nightmare for its inhabitants.

Published in Counter Currents, JK Monitor and Kashmir Reader.
http://www.countercurrents.org/nazir030213.htm
http://jkmonitor.org/en/14-jammu-and-kashmir/3850-kashmir-s-nightmares

http://www.kashmirreader.com/kreadernew/02062013-ND-kashmirs-nightmares-11231.aspx

Growing Violence Against Women And Degradation Of Moral Values

By Aijaz Nazir

It appears that the protracted conflict has led to the degrading of the moral values in the Kashmiri society. While the alleged human rights violations in the form of inhuman killings, enforced disappearances and rapes are still lingering in the memories of Kashmiris, it is also true that today’s Kashmiri society is also showing all the vices that one had come to attach to a materialistic modern society. A society where women were highly respected since ancient times nowadays seems to have lost its values as more and more women are getting subjected to ill treatment, eve teasing and sexual violence. The so called diktats on the dress code and public behavior are impacting only this vulnerable lot. Does it indicate that we should treat the women as slaves of men?

While outcry against the rape cases in the valley involving the Security Forces, in the last three decades these cases has grabbed the attention of the international media, but justice has still eluded these unfortunate women and have shattered their already fragile lives. The prolonged conflict has washed away the purpose of life among people, especially in the youth and women. This has had its own social and psychological trauma.

In a country like India, especially in Hinduism the woman is worshiped and treated as a goddess, still there is no paucity of crime against women. Many cases of sexual violence have been reported from all parts of the country which are growing at an alarming rate. Not only sexual violence, but also women are being subjected to domestic violence. What is further shocking is that most of the times, this violence is perpetuated by the so called “well-educated” and “modern” people in the society.

The recent acid attack on a school teacher in Srinagar city was a shocking incident for the residents of the Valley. While this was condemned by one and all, the cries for justice soon fell silent and people went back to their busy schedule, amply indicating the societal attitude towards its women. These kinds of attacks reveal how much people have became callous against these odious misdeeds. “Helpless” women have become the most vulnerable to these societal ignominies, facing hardships everywhere. The pain after such attack is known to that girl only, her world broke in pieces in front of her in fraction of second.

Is anyone serious about these growing crimes?

On December 15, 2012, Shamima Firdous Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission (SWC) admitting that the graph of violence has gone up in the State said that “Stories of such women surprise me and at times I couldn’t hold my tears. Their stories are as such that one has no words to describe their pain. Nowadays we witness such frequent women rights violations that really shook public conscience.” Also the domestic violence by in-laws is at peak and demand of dowry is one of the main reasons for it.

The brutal crimes like sexual violence and harassment of women are the two big issues which should be addressed on an urgent basis. The society needs to wake up from its deep slumber and take a stand for doing away with this menace. We need to raise our voice against these evils and should bring the culprits to justice for these kinds of cases.

Published in Counter Currents

http://www.countercurrents.org/nazi090113.htm

Delhi Gang Rape and Kashmir

By Aijaz Nazir

The case of gang rape in Delhi has remained a focus of almost all the print and electronic media in the country, followed by the violent and angry protests at India Gate, in the heart of New Delhi. Not only the residents of Delhi, but also the whole country has condemned this heinous crime. Living their own life of peace, far from turbulent Kashmir, the young generation of the city has rarely witnessed such protests, yet it arose in anger to protest against this brutal incident. People all over the country have condemned the brutality of the crime and demanded a harsh punishment to the culprits. Cries of justice for the victim have echoed in many quarters. However, this has also exposed the duality of attitude of majority of Indians. If an incident of gang rape against a medical student, on a moving bus in the national capital, is a matter of grief and sorrow for the whole country, provoking it to demand justice, what about Kashmir where many such cases of rape against innocent girls involving Army have come to fore and yet have been overlooked by majority Indians? Why hasn’t the rest of India demanded justice for these girls?

The residents of Kashmir, the “integral” part of India, which has been the bone of contention between India and Pakistan for a long time, which is still considered the most militarized part of the world, where the Armed Force (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) gives extraordinary powers to the military forces, and where protests against alleged human rights violations take place on a daily basis, have cried hoarse demanding justice in a number of rape cases against the innocent daughters of the State.

One of the major rape cases in the history of Kashmir and indeed whole of India is the Kunan Poshpora mass rape incident. A village in northern Kashmir’s Kupwara district, Kunan Poshpora, on February 23, 1991 witnessed incidents of alleged mass rape of 20 women by the Army troops in one night. The incident drew the attention of national and international media. However this was soon forgotten and the womenfolk of the village landed in unending troubles. Women who deserved the respect and honor of the society, were not secure anymore form the cruel face of the armed forces and since that incident, numerous other cases of rape and enforced disappearances have come to fore in the last three decades. Another case which shook the region was the 2009 Shopian rape and murder case which resulted in protests rocking the whole Valley and several families lost their loved ones in the agitation.

Shutdowns, curfews, protests are not new experiences to Kashmiris, something which are unimaginable for the rest of the Indians. Importantly, womenfolk have become the victims of sexual abuse in the State. Several decades have passed but Kashmir is still fighting to restore its internal peace by achieving justice for its loved ones who have been subjected to enforced disappearances and the womenfolk who have been subjected to senseless violation of their dignities.

The root of the problem as pointed by many is the existence of AFSPA which grants special powers to the armed forces deployed in Kashmir. According to the law the forces have the powers to, “Enter and search any premise in order to make such arrests, or to recover any person wrongfully restrained or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances and seize it”.

Does this imply that in a crackdown, the forces can take away all the male members of a community and do whatever they wish to do with the womenfolk left behind? Kashmir has witnessed too many of such incidents.

On March 31, 2012, a UN official asked India to revoke AFSPA saying it had no place in a democracy like India. Christof Heyns, UN’s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions who visited the region said, “During my visit to Kashmir, AFSPA was described to me as ‘hated’ and ‘draconian’. It clearly violates the international law. A number of UN treaty bodies have pronounced it to be in violation of international law as well.”

Just as the rest of the country is fighting for victim of the Delhi gang rape case, people of Kashmir Valley too have showed solidarity with the victim by protesting against the heinous crime and demanding harsh punishment to its perpetrators. However, majority Indians continue to ignore Kashmir- a region where there is huge number of cases lying since decades, without the slightest hint of any justice. While the issue has remained a focus on electronic, print and social media, the incidents in Kashmir are yet to receive such focus. This has prompted people of this part of the country to raise several questions: Is anyone fighting for them? Has anyone raised the voice against the culprits involved in these acts? A rape is a rape and the sooner the nation does away with its hypocrite attitude and double standards to deal with this menace, the better it is for all the countrymen.

Got published in Kashmir Dispatch and Counter Currents.

http://www.countercurrents.org/nazir281212.htm

http://www.kashmirdispatch.com/sameer-bhat/281210507-is-afspa-responsible-for-rapes-in-kashmir.htm

Kashmir: Question Remains Unanswered

By Aijaz Nazir

Late June this year, Kashmir again reverberated with the anti-India slogans. Entire valley was mourning the blaze that gutted the revered Dastgeer Sahib shrine at old Srinagar’s Khanyar area. Hundreds and thousands of youths from different parts of the Valley came on streets, protesting and pelting stones, following which authorities deployed large contingents of security forces to take over the situation.

The saga continued and only two weeks later on July 15 another shrine of Sufi saint, Baba Haneefuddin (RA), was gutted in a mysterious fire at Ratsuna village of central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Some attempts to set ablaze the shrines were foiled in several places of Kashmir. The attack on Muslims religious places was against the sentiments of majority people living here.

Again the situation of summer unrest was about to rise in Kashmir. Curfew was imposed for several days in some parts Srinagar city. Several debates held in public and several questions again arose among masses.

Decades have passed now but Kashmir is yet to achieve peace and tranquility. The emergence of new issues in the Valley has resulted in troubles for its residents. For more than 20 years, the region has been witness to killings, disappearances, encounters, detentions, crackdowns, protests and stone pelting.

In 2008, when the whole Valley was on the boil, people of Kashmir came out on streets to protest against Indian administration and after that 2009 and 2010 witnessed the mass protests in Valley. The Amarnath land row marked the beginning of the 2008 summer uprising, which then changed to Shopian Murder and rape case in 2009 protests and 2010 Intifada. Anti-India and pro-freedom slogans reverberated through the Valley. The walls in Srinagar city and all
big towns of Valley were painted with “Azadi” slogans, most of them shouted “Go India, Go Back!”

The continuous three years of mass protests resulted in loss of hundreds of lives and damage to public property. Every individual of the Valley was affected as a result of this protracted conflict, including hundreds of children who bore the brunt of the conflict most. These summer uprisings, from 2008 to 2010, affected the educational and business fields most. However, that is not the end of problems.

In 2010 schools, business establishments, and offices remained shut for almost three months. The wave of anger was at its higher degree among people all over the valley. People were restricted to move from one place to another, cable networks were banned and most SMS service have remain banned since the last three years. Kashmir is witnessing emerging new issues, due to which people continue to suffer.

As compared to these three years, 2011 seemed a peaceful year. On December 31, 2011, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced, “As 2011 draws to a close, my heartfelt gratitude to the people of J&K for one of the most peaceful years in decades. It was all your doing.”

However, below this semblance of normalcy and peace, lies a tale of  unending violence.

According to the report of Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, 233 people lost their lives in the State including 56 civilians, 100 alleged militants and 71 armed forces personnel.” In the light of these statistics, can a common Kashmiri call 2011 a peaceful year? Recently separatist leaders warned the Government of serious consequences and threatened to launch a massive public campaign after Eid ul zuha, if the former did not stop the construction work on the road to Amarnath cave in the environmentally fragile area. This clearly indicates to revive the 2008 type protests. Will peace then continue or will Kashmir witness another agitation?

“Question is still unanswered.”

Published in Counter Currents and Indo-Canada Outlook

http://www.indocanadaoutlook.com/index.php/archives/2012/december-2012/417-kashmir-question-remains-unanswered

http://www.countercurrents.org/nazir241012.htm