I am a stone pelter. Who are you?

http://scarletkashmir.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-am-stone-pelter-who-are-you.html

by Imran Muhammad Gazi

FIRST PERSON

------- and what else can I do to express my resistance against oppression, writes Imran Muhammad Gazi an MBA student.

I have been shot in the ribs. I am on a stretcher in an emergency ward of a city hospital. Who am I? I am a stone pelter from a busy commercial area of Srinagar. This is my comprehensive introduction, no need to have a name, surname, qualification and profession. Just one word sums up my personality” Stone Pelter”. I am not that educated but some of my educated peers tell me I have always been in news right from 1931. You will find me everywhere, i have stood the test of time, leaders have changed slogans have changed but I have not. Yes there was a time when I was sidelined, and gun wielding elders occupied the centre stage.

Situation has changed and I am again in business in urban Kashmir, Ragda 2008 restored my lost glory, you called it a revolution, I watched spell bound vast multitude of people filling the streets of Kashmir, it was on that day at historic Eidgah, the gun wielding elder passed the baton on to me and with a smile on his lip and tear in his eye said” your turn mate”. I still don’t know why those tears in the eyes of the elder, perhaps I am too young to understand this.

You can find me on any street of urban Kashmir, although I have some favourite spots, I love jamia Masjid and Maisuma, old town Varmul, Sopur, and Malakhnag Islamabad to name a few. You can easily recognize me as I am the best dressed youth of my area, trendy jeans, smart sports shoe, whacky jacket and few fashion accessories, they say I buy them from the money I get for stone pelting. My income is being discussed everywhere and there is no unanimity on that it varies from 100 to2500,at times I am afraid that I may be brought under income tax net. My attire has little to do with fashion, and more with the nature of my job, I am supposed to be athletic and nimble footed and I have to mingle with the crowds, hence my attire. Ideal day at work is thrilling and exciting, the suspense, the drama, the surge and the chase is right out of 80s blockbuster Hindi cinema.

I dodge shells and bullets, ala Rajnikanth, only difference is there is no retake on the street, either you dodge in first take or you are down in the gutter. Stone pelting used to be an art but with the passage of time it has developed into a science, it is more because of those chocolate pelters, some of whom are students of best schools of Srinagar. Purists moan the adulteration; pragmatists call it the need of the hour. These chocolates talk about projectile motion, angle of projection and range, I don’t get a bit of that. They introduced “sling”, whatever oldies may say it is an effective combat weapon. I have not talked about my adversary ,most of the time it is the “Ponde police” sorry local police, it is an honour to have such an enemy in the battlefield, the most professional and business savvy police force in the world, highly well versed with economics. Such is the level of efficiency that they no longer waste bullets on us but use teargas shells for dual purpose of chasing and killing us, you can not blame them after all world is going through a recession and cost cutting is the mantra. They perfected this technique under there former boss, whose name was a tongue twister for us, we remember him as Asif Mujtabha the paki batsmen. He was a brilliant officer, disciplinarian, had a penchant for cleanliness, smoothly killed almost sixty of us in a span of few weeks, yet you could not see a speck of blood on his hands nor his immaculately worn uniform, as I told u spick and span. He treated us like his kids, ensured we did not suffer any pain or agony, bullets hit us, either on head or chest, he was such a noble loving and caring father. We miss him, they transferred him, must have been promoted, I feel good at least our blood helped someone to make a career.
Why do I pelt stones, this thought had never crossed my mind, I just instinctively new when I had to don the armour and start the battle. It was only after Ragda 2008, I heard some whispers, hushed tones, and few glances of suspicion on the street. I am street smart, I realized I am not the darling of the masses anymore, people who fed me with (Teher) even in the midst of the battle, now hated me. I should have seen this coming, it all started with the fatherly police chief Asif Mujtaba, quoting Hadith against stone pelting, learned man he is, after securing our (duniyah) worldly life, he immediately focused his attention to secure our (akhirat) life here after. We miss him; he was our real benefactor, trying to ensure us peace in this world as well as other world.

A (molvi saheb) priest who calls himself a Puritan, and who lead many processions in Ragda2008, seconded the view and said the hadith is from Bukhari shareef, it was a bolt from the blue (nabi trath) for me, same molvi used to quote Bukhari shareef in 1990s and would read out from Babul jihad (Chapter on jihad) why this hadith was never read to us until now. What had changed, Bukhari Shareef or Molvi Sahib, it was for the first time and not the last time that I have wept, yes warm tears flowed not from my eyes but the stone cold heart of a stone pelter. I wiped my tears, with my rough hands and yes mourning the death of conscience of our Ulema I did what I knew best, yes I pelted stones mocking at the simplicity of the molvi sahib.

A columnist picked up the thread from were the molvi left, writing smoothly with his “LEFT HAND “. He mocked at my lack of education, it is easy to doge the bullet than a writer’s pen I was pinned to the ground, argument lost. There is a saying in Kashmiri (Asoolus kyah kari ghulam rasool).I don’t know the English meaning of this as I am a petty stone pelter. Agreed I am not educated, but my journo brother is, if he is writing today it is because of me who is fighting in the street for the very honour he is trying to defend sitting in his study with a laptop on the table and Coffee Mug in his hand. His colleague who shot frames was shot in broad daylight; he could not get an FIR registered. I did what I knew best, and yes I pelted stones in protest against this cowardice of the police. Street is my school, and this is what I have been taught. Get an FIR registered for your colleague with your university degree in hand and we will talk my brother. Intelligentsia scorn me, to them I am a ruffian, and they refer to me as the lumpen proletariat. They are all learned scholars, poets, linguists, writers; they are mirror of our society.

When I and my friends were slaughtered on the streets some Rahi lost his way in the commotion, and found himself in a hall were some Gyan Peeth award was given to him by someone whose hands were smeared with our dirty blood. He accepted the award with hands folded in benediction, feeling at last he has found his way not knowing Rahi has been lost in wilderness forever. When men of intellect stoop so low I do what I know best, yes I pelt stones in despair. I have one question for all you learned men. Do those Shawls of honour have smell of our blood and warmth of the breath of a dying stone pelter? By the way was it not the proletariat who brought a revolution, an old news paper I found with” Sulla Masala” talks about that.

Enough of arguments, after all I am a stone pelter I can not win an argument with you, for you are learned men. It is clear to me my countrymen that I am an impediment to your progress, it pains me, I don’t want you to be backward, I want you to prosper. What then is the solution? I can not stoop to your level nor can you rise to my level. Don’t you worry I have a solution. Let there be a role reversal for a day, you be the stone pelters and we the perennial stone pelters the target. I will gather all my friends at Eidgah and you stone us to death, we will take all your stones with a smile on our lips and a tear in our eyes, smile we will for your prosperity and tears will roll, for we won’t be there to see the smile on your lips when you achieve your prosperity. Having stoned us don’t you think you won, it is we who have won for once from masters of inaction you have become men of action, and did not we pelt stones all our lives just to make
you act.

One last request my countrymen, please do not make a graveyard for us, for you will make a ritual of visiting it every year along with our respected leaders , who will come separately, as they come to our funerals individually, strange not even our blood unites them. They say unity is possible only on principles, true how can blood of a stone pelter or chastity and honour of a common Kashmiri woman be a principle to unite on, and it must be some high principle. Even if you bury us don’t ever visit our graves for old habits don’t die we will rise from our graves and pelt stones on sight of a Hypocrite. Tell my mother I will miss her, for I had two Homes Street and her lap, and yes her lap was comforting but it was the street that was my calling.

As everything in the hospital room is becoming hazy and death is waiting to embrace me, I remember a couplet by some Iqbal, I read on the back of an auto rickshaw of a fellow stone pelter.

jis khak Ke Zameer Main ho Atish Chinar
Mumkin Naheen Ki Sard Ho Woh khake Arjmund.

Is it true my country………….

(Imran Muhammad Gazi is an MBA Pass-out Kashmir University. Feedback at gaziimran@yahoo.com)

Stone Pelting an act of war: J&K Government

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/stonepelting-an-act-of-war-jk-govt/580232/

The Jammu-Kashmir government has decided to arrest stone-pelters for ‘waging war against the state’, a crime punishable with death or life in jail.

The state has already slapped the Public Safety Act against eight stone-pelters, all between 15 and 18 years old, over the past week while 16 youths from downtown Srinagar are being tried under section 121 of CrPC (waging war against the state). Sources in the state Home Department told The Indian Express that the government was ready with PSAs against “20 more such youths”.

The 16 youths were produced before a Srinagar Court on Monday. Police sought their remand for eight days, which was soon granted by Judge Masarat Jabeen.The boys, the investigating officer told the court, were directly involved in pelting stones at police and security forces.

However, counsel for the accused Rafique Joo said the youths were held in random raids across the city and were not involved in stone-pelting. He opposed booking of youth under Section 121 of CrPC.

J&K first started booking stone-pelters under the Public Safety Act during the 2008 Amarnath land row agitation. The first person to be booked was Nayeem Ahmad of Rainawari, Srinagar. Though he was released shortly after, Ahmad was again picked up in June last year during protests over the death of two women in Shopian.

IGP, Kashmir, Farooq Ahmad said he was not in a position to give “the exact number of youths” booked under PSA or Section 121 of CrPC. “I am out of station and don’t have the exact number,” Ahmad told The Indian Express

Kashmir: News Reports

DNA

Back to back teen killings have Srinagar on the Edge

Locals blamed the CRPF. They said some vehicles of the central force were passing through the area when the incident took place.Even before the dust could settle on the killing of a schoolboy in the old city, another teenager was killed at Kralisangri-Brain near Nishat, 12 km from Srinagar, on Friday, leading to violent protests in the Jammu and Kashmir capital. Police said Zahid Farooq Shah, 17, was shot at when he was watching cricket. He was first rushed to SMHS Hospital and later to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences for specialised treatment where doctors declared him dead.The CRPF denied the charge. “None of our jawans opened fire. CRPF was neither deployed nor patrolling the area at the time of the incident,” P Tripathi, spokesman for the force, said.

Washington Post

Teenager dies as protests rock Indian Kashmir

Mushtaq Ahmed, a witness, said paramilitary soldiers charged at a group gathered in a playground in Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, and began firing as they fled, killing his friend Zahid Farooq Shah, 17.

CNN

Clashes after death of second teenager in Srinagar

The main part of Srinagar remains under curfew-like conditions. Since early Thursday security forces have flooded the streets, most businesses have remained closed, and residents have stayed inside their homes. Police responded to the crowds with tear gas and baton charges to disburse the protesters shouting pro-freedom slogans. While the family of the teen alleged he was shot by Indian security forces from a passing vehicle, police said the boy died from what they called mysterious fire.

Hindu

On Butt's death anniversary, Life disrupted in Kashmir

A shutdown to mark the 26th death anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front founder Maqbool Butt affected life in the Kashmir valley on Thursday. The police clamped restrictions in many areas of the city to prevent protests. JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik and 10 others were arrested. “The police raided the house of Mr. Malik in the early morning and arrested him,” a JKLF spokesman said. Shops, business establishments, government offices and banks remained closed in all 10 districts of Kashmir. Traffic went off the road. In Srinagar downtown, the district administration clamped an undeclared curfew in several areas, including Eidgah, Nowhatta, Gojwara, Rajouri Kadal and Rainawari. Thousands of police and Central Reserve Police Force personnel were deployed in the old city. All roads were sealed with barbed wires. The restrictions came just two days after normality returned to the city after eight days of clampdown sparked by the killing of a 13-year-old schoolboy, Wamiq Farooq, and Zahid Farooq (16). The police also arrested JKLF vice-chairman Bashir Ahmad Bhat and six others when they tried to take out a rally from Abi-Guzar in Lal Chowk “Another front leader Mohammad Yasin Bhat was arrested at Nigeen in Srinagar. Two more JKLF activists Hafiz-u-llah Sofi and Mushtaq Ahmad were detained in their homes in Srinagar,” the spokesman said.

Kashmir Ripe for Endgame?

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/22745

By Badri Raina

I

I have before me the full text of the report on Kashmir prepared by Beersman Paul, President, Human Rights Council, Geneva, submitted to the Council at its 12^th session, 14^th Sept.,-2^nd October, 2009.

The report, which is titled "Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu & Kashmir: Solution Under the Indian Constitution," encapsulates the interactions and findings of Mr.Beersman during his "study tour through Jammu & Kashmir State from June 30-July 27, 2009.

After a brief, factual introductory, Beersman lists the individuals and organizations he interviewed during what must clearly have been an exhausting job of fact-finding, covering all three provinces of the state of Jammu & Kashmir and most shades of opinion, although I do not find any entries either for Syed Ali Shah Geelani (the only separatist leader who holds fast to the objective of accession of the state with Pakistan, via, no doubt the formality of self-determination), for Yaseen Malik (JKLF, who steadfastly espouses "independence" from both India and Pakistan) or any interview with a Kashmiri Pandit spokesperson (remembering that the Pandits, at the other end of the spectrum, want the state's accession to India to be unambiguously cemented.) The text can be accessed at http://basjak.org.

Hereunder is a bullet-point summation of the significant points made by some significant Valley leaders other than those whose allegiance to the accession with India remains firmly in place, often referred to as the "mainstream" parties and political groups. My catalogue is clearly not intended to reproduce the full text of what each individual/organization is recorded to have said in Beersman's report, but to highlight what seem to me the chief concerns of each.

Bilal Lone—member, Executive Council, All Parties Hurriyat Conference, (Moderate; APHC-M):

"I am convinced all these strikes, hartals, shut downs and demonstrations

won't get us anything."

"Unless India and Pakistan move closer, no prospects for Kashmir";

approves of back-channel diplomacy, and states that "Independence

is a far off goal."

Firdous Syed—former member, Legislative Council, surrendered militant:

"alienation of the masses with the system is profound"; the important

question is how to maintain contact with the people; the valley needs

roads, water, electricity.

Hashim Quereshi—J&K Liberal Democratic Party:

"against all hartals as they only harm the common man."

"I oppose Geelani."

"no peace until Kashmir issue is discussed between the three parties."

Azam Inqilabi—of "Mahaz-e-Azadi, member, APHC-M; once founder of the

United Jehad Council (since headed by Syed Salauddin):

"it is time when ossified ideas about the Kashmir tangle should give way

to progressive, futuristic,viable, and practical concept of empowerment of

Kashmiris";

no to "prevarication, procrastination, recrimination, polemics";

opposed to "violent ultra-isms";

"let Kashmir be demilitarized on either side of the LOC, let the two parts

be reunified. . .facilitate the installation of a genuinely elected parliament

where patriotic democrats will determine the nature and relations with the

neighbouring countries, especially India and Pakistan."

"free Kashmir" good for South Asia.

Bashir Manzar—ed., "Kashmir Images":

"victim mentality among Kashmiris always blaming Delhi instead of

analyzing ground reasons":

"Omar Abdullah not close to ground level";

priority—"restore law & order";

chaos: APHC and perhaps PDP (People's Democratic Party led by

Mehbooba Mufti, which argues for "self-rule" without bringing Indian

sovereignty into question) responsible for misguiding young people;

"class war";

Riyaz Punjabi—Vice-Chancellor, university of Kashmir:

"unemployment biggest challenge";

"other challenges": "environment, lakes, water resources, energy";

"militants lost public support': "people want peace, stability,

development & flourishing economy";

"most important aspect (for normalcy) is the return of the Pandits—

part and parcel of Kashmiri society"; "people want them to come back";

"should come back, join the mainstream as part of our society, and work

for peace and progress."

Hemlata Wakhloo—Secretary General, Indian National Congress:

"terrorism must be tackled";

"bring back secularism, mutual respect";

"Pakistan keeping the pot boiling"; "people not with militancy anymore";

no "communal killing since 2005"; random killing of "Village Defence

Committee" members;

Zaffar Iqbal Khan—Sec., J&K State Academy of Art, Culture & Languages;

Member, Working Group on State-Centre relations:

approving of Omar Abdullah government;

corruption is a big problem; govt., should be at doorstep;

"political level to be attended by New Delhi";

M.Y.Tarigami—(CPIM; member, Legislative Assembly):

Pakistan supporting agitation to bring PDP back to power;

political change needed to accommodate "anguished youth";

want opportunities;

"centre must come forward with political initiatives";

"talk to mainstream parties and separatists";

"democratic rights and civil liberties must be safeguarded";

time to "reduce disproportionate presence of security forces without

further delay."

Bhawani Bashir Yasir—Chairman, & former Head of Diplomatic Wing &

Sec., General JKLF, Ammanullah, Founder of Ensemble Kashmir

Theatre Akademi:

"problem will continue until root cause not addressed";

"India and Pakistan are playing with us."

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq—Chairman, APHC-M, and religious head of Jamia mosque in Srinagar:

Only suppressive, military approach in use;

elections made everyone "cheerful";

politicians and bureaucrats corrupt;

security forces receiving better equipment, more money;

"militant organizations receive money from Gulf states and

Moslem world";

Solution through 5 point proposal:

1. repeal draconian laws;

2. gradual demilitarization, starting with townships and cities;

3. encourage people to people contact; leaders of both sides should

sit together;

4. encourage more trade;

5. India & Pakistan should jointly start a process reaching out to the

people; revive the peace process

Shabir Ahmed Shah—Chairman, J&K Democratic Freedom Party, member,

APHC-M:

Centre does not want the two APHCs to unite;

political uncertainty; "people are killed, arrested, gangraped";

world order has changed; solutions through "peaceful, democratic means"

"world community must feel our pain."

Dr.Nusrat Andrabi—Member, J&K Muslim Waqf Board:

police should replace CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force);

infrastructure to be built;

environment to be protected;

water problems to be solved;

civil society to be strengthened;

more transparency;

centre must resume dialogue despite bad situation in Pakistan;

some peaceful solution to be found.

Ansari Masroor—President, Itehad -ul-Muslameen; member, APHC-M:

'separatists and authorities have no control over the people";

"agencies not wanting peace are deeply involved in agitations";

too many parties giving instructions;

"these strikes don't suite our struggle."

Five point programme:

1. India should accept it as a "disturbed area";

2. stepwise demilitarization & repeal of draconian laws;

3. free movement along LOC;
4. people to people contacts;

5. make borders irrelevant; "Kashmiris should be given chance of ruling themselves without interference from India and Pakistan." 1947 borders to be restored.

Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhatt—Chairman, J&K Muslim Conference; member, APHC-M:

"Geelani and his APHC are extremists";

"we are interdependent and have to create space for others";

"Kashmir problem must be solved. . .ensuring the survival of South

Asian region as a whole";

"our slogan remains azadi (independence)";

Self-governance for J&K;

Demilitarization on both sides;

Irrelevant borders vis a vis people/trade;

Joint management by India, Pakistan, Kashmiris.

Dr.Siddiq Wahid—Vice-Chancellor, Islamic University of Science & Technology, Awantipoora:

media unreliable;

problem rooted in 1947;

bad if opposition practices negative politics;

Omar Abdullah- a "ray of hope";

"see situation/future positively.

Shakeel Qalander—President, Federation, Chambers of Industry:

self-reliance and balance in trade;

"Kashmiri alienation from India is there";

"Abdullah always advocated an independent buffer state."

Mehbooba Mufti—Head, People's Democratic Party:

"fundamental problem is Kashmir issue";

"there are no militants anymore";

So, "security forces should be withdrawn";

"internal and interregional self-rule";

"we want a solution within the Indian Constitution, without

challenging Indian sovereignty."

Feroze Kacho—Executive Director, Kargil Development Project & State Sec.,

PDP:

"PDP closer to the issue of J&K";

Thupstan Chhewang—Ladakh Union Territory Front:

PDP doesn't want Omar to succeed;

India is soft toward Pakistan;

Buddhist minority treated as slaves;

Ladakh must become Union Territory.

II

Beersman's Conclusions:

It must have seemed to Beersman that extreme positions are scantily reflected in this swathe of opinion, which may be the reason that both the pro-Pakistan Geelani APHC and known pro-India forces, both in the Valley and in Jammu province find small space in his report.

Noting that J&K is at present under the rule of three countries—China controlling Aksai Chin and a territory of 5180 kms ceded by Pakistan, India in control of J&K state, comprising Jammu region, the Kashmir Valley, and Ladakh, and Pakistan in control of Azad Kashmir (POK), Gilgit & Baltistan (Northern Areas), Beersman makes the following concluding observations:

--J&K must remain united within 1947 borders, and a modus vivendi needs to be struck between the Valley and Jammu province;

--that violence stands rejected all across the board;

--"Pakistan should stop cross-border terrorism and cross-border infiltration; stop sending money, ammunition, weapons, stop giving training. . . .As long as Pakistan supports terrorism, openly or covertly, there cannot be peace in J&K; without peace there cannot be a solution."

--priority must be given to the sufferings of Kashmiris; stop violence and deception; "Kashmiris are fed up with violence."

--"common bandits" are "taking advantage of situation"—"abducting people for money, raping, murdering, extorting money from business persons, using mafia practices under the cover of ‘the movement'";

--"it is easy to blame the security forces of all crimes that are committed";

--"composite dialogue must go on";

--who should represent the population?

--"dissident leaders do not have a solution"; "'let a tripartite dialogue start and a solution will emerge automatically' ‘is their view'";

--"The Kashmiri Pandits are the original Kashmiri speaking inhabitants of the valley. They were hounded out of the valley by militancy in 1990: some 500,000. . .fled to safer places. This exodus changed drastically the demographic composition of the population in the valley. After more than 19 years, the return of the Kashmiri Pandits is more and more blurred. Nevertheless, they have their emotional attachment with their birth ground, their roots. They only can return when peace is there and when the rule of law, not the rule of the majority is installed."

--no doubt about human rights violations, both by security forces and militants:

"dissident leaders do not mention and are not critical on human rights violations committed by militants"; security forces should show restraint.

--"terrorism must be tackled. The government must bring back secularism and mutual respect."

--natural for youth in troubled times to be abnormal;

--"construction and reconstruction continues. . .roads, office buildings, medical dispensaries are being built"; "shopping centres, hotels, residential areas, houses, posh villas, etc.,are being built, renovated"; "mobile phone became common good, and is operative in remote areas, and car-park is completely westernized, and latest and most expensive models can be seen."

--Private industry can come up only when peace is restored;

-- the "cry for self-determination by some parties is supported by Pakistan";

"However, accession to Pakistan is (at bottom) the only... option" desired;

"Indeed, according to the Azad J&K, Interim Constitution Act, 1974, Part 7(2), ‘no person or political party in Azad Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to the ideology of the state's accession to Pakistan."

--"all options should be left open, such as accession to India...to Pakistan, Azadi, total independence, partition";

--"Pakistan has no stand in J&K. Pakistan raided J&K and is at the origin of the de facto partitioning of the state. As early as 13^th August, 1948, the UN Commission for India and Pakistan requested Pakistan to withdraw its troops from the state as a precondition for organizing the Plebiscite. The same Commission in its Resolution of 5^th January, 1949 repeated the request. Until this date Pakistan has not withdrawn its armed forces, and consequently the Plebiscite has not been held."

--"This conclusion is confirmed by the ‘Report on Kashmir: Present Situation and Future Prospects' of Rapporteur, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Vice Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Union, and almost unanimously adopted by the Committee on Foreign Affairs (March, 2007)."

III

Inference:

The Beersman interviews (of which all are not included here) and his conclusions thereof taken together, alongwith other historical inputs, and this writers's repeated visits to the valley would seem to make the following inferences germane and valid:

--that whatever hopes may have been vested in the praxis of violence on whichever side have come to naught;

--that Kashmiris are truly and finally sickened of killings, whoever be the killers;

--that the longing for peace and stability is a felt one, impelled also by the aspiration among young and talented Kashmiris to make a future for themselves;

--that most hanker for a credible internal democracy, informed by transparent and just governance that can be trusted to redress the groud-level livelihood and developmental needs of Kashmiris;

--that alongwith peace and democracy, the desire to see the back of draconian laws and of the security forces is overwhelming and ubiquitous;

--that most Kashmiris wish to see the LOC made irrelevant for purposes of travel and trade, even as no one argues for any partition or separation on the basis of region, religion or ethnic diversity;

--that most Kashmiris recognize (after Bangladesh and the current turmoil in Pakistan) that religion does not make a viable basis for nationhood;

--that, despite the tragic exodus of the Pandits, they continue to find home and hospitality whenever they visit the valley, and that Muslim Kashmiris would like to see them return, not into sequestered ghettos but as they used to be; just as Muslim Kashmiris also wish to see them assume their allegiance to the valley, sharing the suffering and the risk;

--that most organized groups hold dearly, variously, to concepts like "self-rule" and "greater autonomy" without challenge to Indian sovereignty;

--that Muslim Kashmiris harbour a just grievance about opportunities in the mainland remaining opaque to them because of sectarian politics and prejudice;

There has been some evidence recently that the government of India is beginning to be more accepting of concretizing more fully the "special status" that the state of J&K has under the Constitutional dispensation. There remains a doubt as to how far Pakistan which fully dictates political and administrative functions in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir may stretch itself with regard to according a matching autonomy to territory held by it.

Nonetheless, given the climate of opinion all around, including the global zeitgeist, there is no reason why India should dither from making bold expansions of autonomy in J&K state, coupling those moves with effective and concrete transformations in law and the constitution to ensure that the regions also are accorded internal autonomy in as many functions as feasible by consent.

A greatly useful first move would be to send the army back to border areas, and leave the policing of cities and towns to the local police whose efficiency and training could be vastly invested in and upgraded.

A general amnesty for those undertrials against whom, after all, no proof of any substance exists could be another confidence building measure, making sure that work is found for them.

An open and unbiased calling to account of those involved in extra-judicial killings would seem a most restorative step, especially when accompanied by a repeal in most part of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

As Beersman and some of his interviewees have argued, no normalcy can be credible and genuine until as many Pandits return to the valley as want to. Ways have to be conjointly found, in consultation with the people at large, to make this a reality. Even as the Pandits need to realize that their claim to being Kashmiris must remain wobbly till such time as they do not take the plunge to assume the valley again, and do their part to revive traditions of syncretism still lauded the world over.

Just as right-wing Hindutva forces in the mainland need to recognize that the Muslim Indians who stayed back at partition time—or, for that matter, the bulk of ordinary Muslims who fled to the new state of Pakistan—cannot be held responsible either for the Partition or for the mayhem that went with it, Kashmiri Pandits need to understand that the mayhem of 1990 did not involve the general will of Kashmiri Muslims, although they might have done more than they did to meet that mayhem.

But, all in all, the relative performance of the Indian and Pakistani states, the protracted experience of Kashmiris of all communities, the state of dysfunction and regression across the LOC, the complete failure of the politics of violence—with or without cross-border terrorism—the new avenues of advancement of secularism as an idea (in inverse proportion to the disasters wrought world-wide by sectarian/religious ideologies), coupled with the wonderful world of science and technology—all of that makes the moment propitious for all parties to the Kashmir stalemate to push for an endgame.

To my own intuition, permit me to say an agnostic's "amen."

Mass Graves In Kashmir

http://www.countercurrents.org/angana130708.htm

By Dr. Angana Chatterjee
Dirt, rubble, thick grass, hillside and flatland, crowded with graves. Signifiers of military and paramilitary terror, masked from the world. Constructed by institutions of state to conceal massacre. Placed next to homes, fields, schools, an army practise range. Unknown, unmarked. Over 940 graves in a segment of Baramulla district alone. Some containing more than one cadaver. Dug by locals, coerced by the police, on village land. Bodies dragged through the night, some tortured, burnt, desecrated. Circulating mythology claims these graves uniformly house ‘foreign militants’. Exhumation and identification have not occurred in most cases. When undertaken, in sizable instances, records prove the dead to be local people, ordinary citizens, killed in fake encounters. In instances where bodies have been identified as local, non-militant and militant, it demystifies state rhetoric that rumours these persons to be ‘foreign militants’, propagating misrepresentation that the demand for self-determination is prevailingly external. Mourned, cared for, by locals, as ‘farz’/duty, as part of an obligation,

stated repeatedly, to ‘azadi’. ‘Azadi’/freedom to determine self and future.
On 18 and 20 June, the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir (‘Tribunal’, convened in April 2008, www.kashmirprocess.org) visited Baramulla and Kupwara district to conduct ongoing fact-finding and verification related to mass graves at the behest of local communities. The team comprised of Tribunal Conveners Advocate Parvez Imroz and myself, a staff member, and camera crew.

On 18 June, we visited Raja Mohalla in Uri, Baramulla district, 110 kilometres from Srinagar, where 22 graves were constructed between 1996-1997. Then to Quazipora, where 13 bodies were stated as buried in seven graves in 1991. Then we travelled to Chehal, Bimyar village, Uri, holding 235 graves. We re-met Atta Mohammad, gravedigger and caretaker at Chehal, who testified that these bodies, brought by the police, primarily after dark, were buried between 2002-2006. Atta Mohammad said that the bodies appear in his nightmares, each in graphic, gruesome detail. Terrorised by the task forced upon him, his nights are bereft of sleep. Then we travelled to Mir Mohalla, Kichama, Sheeri, to the main graveyard with 105 graves, stated to hold about 225-250 bodies, buried between 1994-2003, and a smaller graveyard, with nine graves, adjacent to a sign proclaiming it a ‘Model Village’.

On 20 June, we visited the northern district of Kupwara. On the way we witnessed army convoys, including one of 21+ vehicles. Created in 1979 through the forking of Baramulla district, approximately 5,000 feet above sea level, Kupwara borders the Line-of-Control to the north and west. Between Shamsbari and Pirpanchal mountain ranges, it is one of the most heavily militarised zones, about 95 kilometres from Srinagar. Kupwara houses six army camps, as military and paramilitary forces occupy significant land. Seven interrogation centres have been operational with police stations functioning as additional interrogation cells. In Handwara town, a watchtower surveils and regulates movement.

In Kupwara, we visited Trehgam village, holding 85-100 graves, 24 of which are identified, and spoke with community members. Trehgam was home to Maqbool Bhat (b. 1938), founding figure of the Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front. Acknowledged as Shaheed-e-Kashmir, Bhat is labelled a ‘terrorist’ by certain segments of India. He sought to unite the territories of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir into a secular, sovereign, democratic state. Bhat was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India and hanged in Tihar jail in New Delhi on 11 February 1984. Maqbool Bhat’s nephew, Parvaiz Ahmad Bhat, reminded us that Habibullah Bhat, Bhat’s brother, was the first case of enforced disappearance before 1989.

After Trehgam, we reached Regipora around 3 pm and stopped for lunch. There, two persons introduced themselves as Special Branch Kashmir (SBK) and Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) personnel, and questioned the Tribunal staff member about our visit. After responding, we proceeded to the ‘martyrs’ graveyard’ holding 258 graves, constructed in 1995. This burial ground is meticulously ordered, each grave numbered. The body of a 20-25 year old youth was buried in the first week of June, reportedly killed in an encounter in Bamhama village.

We stopped at a roadside tea stall to speak with local people about the graves. Four intelligence personnel questioned us, asking we disclose information about those we had visited. Soon, four additional SBK and CIK personnel joined the questioning. Other intelligence personnel made phone calls. By then, about 12 intelligence personnel gathered. Following further questioning we proceeded toward Srinagar. A car followed at a distance.
We detoured to Sadipora, Kandi, where locals stated that around 20 bodies were buried. The graveyard, overrun with wild flowers, is part of a larger ground used during festivals, including Id. Two of four bodies, killed in a fake encounter on 29 April 2007, were exhumed, identified as locals, contrary to police records stating them to be ‘Pakistani terrorists’. Saidipora holds Riyaz Ahmad Bhat’s grave, killed in the encounter, age 19. Police records, per the First Information Report, declared him a ‘Pakistani terrorist’. Riyaz Bhat was identified by Javeed Ahmed, his brother, as a resident of Kalashpora, Srinagar, based on police photographs from the time of death. Ahmed travelled with the Tribunal to take us to his brother’s grave. On his knees Javeed attempted to clear the thick brush. Later, in Srinagar, he testified that Bhat had never been involved in militancy. Javeed spoke of grieving, of imprisonment and beatings at the police station. He asked how he could have saved his brother from death.

After Sadiapora, we were stopped at Shangargund, Sopore, at about 6.40 pm, by three persons in civilian clothing. They forcibly boarded the car. We were ordered to the Sopore Police Station. There we were asked to detail our identity, employment, the purpose of the visit, and to hand over tapes which, the police alleged, contained ‘dangerous’ and ‘objectionable’ material. We stated that the Tribunal, a public process, was undertaking its work peaceably, lawfully, with informed consent, and that we had not visited restricted areas. We stated that the police had no lawful reason to seize the tapes. We were detained for 16 minutes.

After several calls to senior police persons, we were released. A red Indica car followed us to Sangrama. At Srinagar, Intelligence personnel were stationed at my hotel. On 21 June, I was followed from the hotel to the Tribunal’s office in Lal Chowk, where about 8 personnel were stationed the entire day questioning anyone who entered or left the office.

My mother, residing in Calcutta, received a query regarding my whereabouts from the District Magistrate’s Office. I was followed to the Srinagar airport on 22 June, and questioned, asked if I possessed dual citizenship. I do not. I am a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the United States. On 24 June, I arrived in Bhubaneswar to submit a statement to the Commission of Inquiry on the Kandhamal violence against Christians in 2007 in Orissa. There too, Central Intelligence officials persistently inquired after me. In April, after announcing the Tribunal, I was stopped and harassed at Immigration while leaving India for the United States, and again on my re-entry in June.

The targeting of the Tribunal has not abated since the Amarnath issue erupted around 23 June. The volatile proposal to transfer 800 kanals of land to the Shrine Board, revoked on 01 July, was supported by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu militant Shiv Sena. Despite the Sena’s recent call to Hindus to form suicide squads, it faces no sanctions from the state. Kashmiris of diverse ethnicities and religions dissented the Amarnath land transfer. Community leaders in Kashmir explained that their stance against the proposal is not in dissent to Hindu pilgrims, but a repressive state. During the Amarnath land transfer protests, civil disobedience paralleled that of 1989, amid severe repression. On 30 June, in curfew-like conditions, we met with two families in Srinagar who narrated that the police had shot dead their sons. At one place, in the old city, while the men took the body for burial late at night, the police returned and destroyed property and molested women.

On 30 June, at about 10:10 pm, Parvez Imroz and his family were attacked at home by state forces, who fired three shots and hurled a grenade while exiting when family and community interrupted their attempts. Neighbours reported seeing one large armoured vehicle and two Gypsy cars, and men in CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) and SOG (Special Operations Group) uniforms. This murder attempt is an escalation in the forms of state-led intimidation and targeting aimed at Advocate Imroz. It is an attempt to make the Tribunal vulnerable and instil fear in us in an attempt to stop this process.

On 01 July, we met at Khurram Parvez’s home before addressing a press conference. Outside, jeeps with plainclothes men continued their observation, accompanied by a jeep with armed men in uniform.

Later, Advocate Imroz, Khurram Parvez, Advocate Mihir Desai, and I went to the police station to lodge a First Information Report. We were not permitted to do so. For security reasons, Parvez Imroz is not staying at home. Khurram Parvez remains under surveillance.

I must allow for distance before revisiting the graves. On 04 July, sitting on a plane at Delhi International Airport, waiting to take-off, I received a phone call on my India mobile, caller ‘Unknown’: “Madam,we know you’re leaving. Think wisely before coming back”.

Orders to unnerve the leadership of the International Tribunal by the Government of India’s intelligence and security administration appear to be generated at the highest levels. The general policy of surveillance should not be used as a pretext to create obstacles for our work. As India argues for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, the Government of India, as ‘Frontline Defenders’ stated in their recent alert supporting the Tribunal, must adhere to its own repeated commitment to peace in Kashmir and international conventions and laws. It must uphold democratic governance and safeguard human rights.

Advocate Imroz, Khurram Parvez, other members of the Tribunal team, have long experienced injustices for their extraordinary work as human rights defenders. A lauded human rights lawyer, Parvez Imroz has survived two, now three, assassination attempts, the first from militants. Since 2005, his passport has been denied. Khurram Parvez lost his leg in a landmine incident. Gautam Navlakha and Zahir-ud-Din have been intimidated and threatened, as has Mihir Desai, in their larger work. It is noteworthy that the Government of India is adding intimidation to the death and rape threats delivered me by Hindu extremists for human rights work.

The work of the Tribunal is an act of conscience and accountability, fraught with the charge of complex and violent histories. Its mandate, in documenting Kashmir’s present, is to chronicle the fabric of militarisation, status of human rights, and legal, political, militaristic ‘states of exception’. The Tribunal’s work will continue through the coming months. We have received extensive solidarity from civil society; victims/survivors, at street corners, from villagers, ordinary citizens, those committed to justice. Each life in Kashmir has a story to tell. The subjugation of civil society has produced magnificent ethical resistance. The state cannot combat every individual.

Nearly two decades of genocidal violence record 70,000+ dead, 8,000+ disappeared, 60,000+ tortured, 50,000+ orphaned,incalculable sexualised and gendered violence, a very high rate of people with suicidal behaviours; hundreds of thousands displaced; violations of promises, laws, conventions, agreements, treaties; mass graves; mile upon mile of barbed wire; fear, suppression of varied demands for participation to determine Kashmir’s future, spirals of violence, protracted silence. Last year, Kashmir’s only hospital with services for mental health received 68,000 patients. Profound social, economic, and psychological consequences,and an intense isolation have impacted private, public, and everyday life. It has generated brutal resistance on the part of groups that have engaged in violent militancy. Repressions of struggles for self-determination and international
policies/politics have yielded severe consequences, creating a juncture at which the failure of governance intersects with a culture of grief.

Torture survivors, non-militants and former militants, that I met with testified to the sadism of the forces. Reportedly, a man, hung upside down, had petrol injected through his anus. Water-boarding,mutilation, rape of women, children, and men, starvation, psychological torture.

Brutalised, ‘healed’, to be brutalised again. An eagle tattoo on the arm of a man was reportedly identified by an army officer as a symbol of Pakistan-held Azad Kashmir, even as the man clarified the tattoo was from his childhood. The skin containing it was burned. The officer, the man stated, said: “When you look at this, think of azadi”. A mother, reportedly asked to watch her daughter’s rape by army personnel, pleaded for her release. They refused. She pleaded that she could not watch, asking to be sent out of the room or be killed. We were told that the soldier pointed a gun to her forehead, stating he would grant her wish, and shot her before they proceeded to rape the daughter. We also spoke with persons violated by militants. One man stated that people’s experiences with the reprehensible atrocities of militancy do not imply the abdication of their desire for self-determination. This, he stated, is a mistake the state makes, conflating militancy with the intent for self-determination.

He clarified that neither is self-determination an indication of allegiance to Pakistan, largely to the contrary.

The continuing and daunting presence of military and paramilitary forces, increased and sophisticated surveillance, merges with pervasive and immense suffering and anger of people in villages, towns, and cities across Kashmir. Parallel to the presence of 500,000 troops and commitment to nuclearisation, official figures state that there are about 450 militants in Kashmir and that demilitarisation is underway. In March 2007, three government committees on demilitarisation resolved that the ‘low intensity war continues’, placing in limbo troop reduction and the repealment of draconian laws -- the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, imposed in Jammu and Kashmir in December 1990, and the Disturbed Areas Act, 1976, enacted in 1992. Local realities reflect that these laws and the military seek to control the general population with impunity.

Kashmir is increasingly defined as a ‘post-conflict’ zone. ‘Post-conflict’ is not the propagation of tourism toward an overt display of nationalism. Post-conflict is a space in which to heal, reflect, and enable civil society participation in determining peace and justice. The graves speak to those that listen. Those haunted by history are called to remember.

(Dr Angana Chatterji is associate professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and co-convener of the International People’s Tribunal in Kashmir. A shorter version of the article appeared in Tehelka magazine’s recent issue).

The Political Uses of Official History of Kashmir

http://www.countercurrents.org/junaid020708.htm

By Mohamad Junaid
The newly-formed Institute of Kashmir Studies has provoked a shrill debate among academics, and also in some sections of the civil society. The debate, despite its frequent tumble into abuses and allegations, is only a sign of how the story of Kashmir can no longer be a monologue, but must contend with a democratisation of its recitation. There are many stories of Kashmir now, all vying for validity, but none commanding authority. The history of Kashmir is no longer something which can be imposed from above: its democratisation will ensure that it will always remain in the making, and never find its conclusion. It is being created as it is spoken about.

The postmodern re-evaluation of the nature of history has managed to put the old correspondence theory under a cloud. The earlier emphasis that the past is "out there" for us to discover and reconstruct, unmediated by language, does not hold substance, since it is widely agreed that language is a contaminated medium, facts/evidences are pre-fabricated, and our understanding of the past stands upon layers and layers of narratives; all of which, instead of leading us toward any "basic truth," actually drive us farther away. Kashmir's history, like Kashmir itself, is getting written, written-over, and rewritten. It is not that new irrefutable evidence is emerging, but the realisation has dawned that the version of history, which till now we thought was "the history," is just a story; and, it is possible to have alternative stories.

This present process of history-creation, however, is not taking place in a neutral, fair space. As happens always, the votaries of the official story are afforded a moral high-ground by the state: their version of history is seen to further ostensibly benign values of the state; they do further values, but not always the benign one. Any mark of dissent is branded as malignant and fit case for erasure. Take, for instance, R. K. Bhat's vitriolic response to M. Ashraf's comments (both published in this newspaper) on the institute's vision statement. It would be pointless to decry Bhat, who clearly betrays an ill-intent in trying to noisily silence Ashraf by calling him "rabidly communal," "bigoted," and a supporter of ethnic-cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits rather than engaging in a scholarly manner with some of the pertinent issues that Ashraf raises. Bhat's spat is like a bubble coming out of the gelatinous potage of old hegemony. He is shocked to see someone showing a dare to challenge his history; perhaps this is what has evoked a venomous outburst from him instead of stirring him to be circumspect about his own position. Bhat's statement of the "fact of history" that Kashmir got its name from "Kashyap Muni," repeated ad nausea by others too, will not find the natural acceptance of the yesteryears anymore: from history it has been dethroned and returned to its vague mythic status. It becomes important now to add "it is believed," or, more importantly, "a religious community believes," before we proclaim that Kashmir took its name from a drummed-up sage called Kashyap Muni. Yet Bhat will not delimit his truth-claim. His potage has been solidifying for many years instead of becoming more fluid like the society around him. The arrogant certainty with which he deludes himself is twice removed from present debates about the discipline of history: he not only refuses to accept what he remembers as the history of Kashmir as just another narrative, but on top of that he privileges improbable myths as history. In places with moderately decent academic freedom Bhat would be laughed at, but in Kashmir we have to listen to him.

It is important to keep in mind what Michel Foucault said: hegemonic discourses are hand-in-glove with power, in that they reinforce it. The discourse on Kashmir's past, too, is interminably linked to the power (read continuation of Indian control over Kashmir). As a case in point, the categories through which Kashmir's past and present are viewed are not, and can never be, adequate. Categories like "syncretism" and models like the "cultural mosaic" were constructed in the last few decades and inflicted upon Kashmir's past. I am not arguing this to give any credence to the opposing view point that Kashmir had either a pure Hindu or a pure Islamic past, but to question the uses and abuses of "syncretism" as a category of understanding. Syncretism points to the commonality of some doctrinal elements and not simply to the commonality of everyday life practices. At the doctrinal level, Hindus and Muslims have never shared much, apart from certain universal values which don't amount to much in analytical significance. Of course, the everyday life in Kashmir has been to a great extent marked by hybridity, but that is the case with most other societies, which precludes Kashmir's uniqueness. In his work on kinship relations of Kashmiri Pandits of a southern Kashmiri village, T. N. Madan ignored Muslims who constituted a huge majority of the village, as if there was rigid segregation of the two communities. Well, if Madan couldn't detect any syncretism in the late 1950s how is it that we have suddenly found it now? Syncretism has a political use. Muslim syncretism suits India's 'national integration' project: it softens the Muslimness in Muslims, and reveals a Hindu influence on them, apparently to the formers advantage. It matters little that the same syncretism is not asked of Hindus. The "pure" form of Islam (whatever that means) is naturally assumed to be dangerous, but pristine Hinduism (again a misnomer)—in the way Kashmiri Pandits value caste purity—is seen as unproblematic. Kashmir's syncretism is also called "Kashmiriyat," which is made out to be the dominant feature of Kashmiri society. How is it that a fragile social interaction between 95 percent Muslims and 3 percent Hindus is constructed as the dominant feature of Kashmiri society? Clamouring Kashmiriyatists may erase the socio-economic dimensions of that interaction, but to suggest that everything was hunky dory is to live in a state of denial. For instance, the way Madan "objectively" mentions Muslims (rarely as he does) as performing impure rites for Hindus, as midwives, or tillers of Pandit land, or Muslims in general being "polluting," without pausing for a moment to question why it should have been like that, underscores this point. Similarly, the lack of any major Kashmiri Muslim rebellion during a large chunk of the Dogra period does not indicate that relations between the explicitly pro-Hindu rulers (and the Pandit beneficiaries) and their systematically-impoverished Muslim subjects were harmonious.

Given we have a consciousness to inform our understanding that the official history is used to prop up the state's legitimacy we can unearth its basic components. For instance, the clue to work loose the mainstream Indian discourse on Kashmir is quite starkly presented in Bhat's article itself, when he seeks to find the basis for Kashmir's inclusion in India in Hinduism. Bhat spends almost 90 percent of his piece finding this Hindu connection, while he half-heartedly devotes a small paragraph on 700 years of Kashmir's latest history. My intention is not to suggest that times and societies prior to Kashmiris' transition into calling themselves Muslims cannot be a proper subject of history-writing, but the way emphasis is put on trying to find roots of Kashmir's 'essence' in Hinduism, is at best ridiculous. The same way, what the vision document of the Institute of Kashmir Studies, which Bhat cites, claims—historically Kashmir has been integral part of the cultural mosaic of India and no study of Kashmiri thought and cultural is possible without situating it in the broader perspective of Indian thought and culture—smacks of a brazen attempt to add one more piece of state historians' fantasies to the official, and politically-expedient, history of Kashmir. That "India" as a geo-national construct, and "Hinduism" semiticized to be its religion, being 19th century products of elite, upper caste, imagination should be taken into account before dim-wits are tasked to come up with such half-baked statements.

For other Kashmiri historians who have been contesting arguments such as that of Bhat's for decades now, they too must display caution while claiming to know "facts." The real contest is not about whose facts are right, but about who displays a critical capacity to expose the inbuilt power equations within certain forms of historical narrative. A postmodern consciousness expects us to keep in mind the relativity of our own historical interpretation, and awareness that after all it is just another story. Otherwise, we commit the mistake of seeing the past through our present lenses, like a Bhat or a Madan does, who see Kashmir's past as a history of persecution of Kashmiri Pandits. In Kashmir, though, one needs to acknowledge that the state propagates the official history (which is what the Institute of Kashmir Studies envisions to do), and those people that contest it are either muzzled or marginalized. Kashmir's nonconformist historians are accountable to the most marginalised, yet politically alert, Kashmiris, who have often been bruised by state-sponsored histories; this is what democratisation of history-writing means. People no longer take "facts" without a pinch of salt. Many historians need to catch up with that habit. If that is done, then people like Bhat would need a lot more than an armoury of abusive polemic, and the Indian state much more than the military muscle, to stifle budding challenges to the hegemonic discourse on Kashmir's past and present.

Articles on Elections in Jammu and Kashmir

Kashmir: Illusion And Reality Of An Inconvenient Truth
by Tariq Shah

We now hear the Indian Prime Minster hailing the Kashmir vote as a ballot for "national integration". People are more interested in development and good governance than Azadi, we are told, while hundreds of reports in the Indian and the international media confirmed by India's own chief election commission-- suggest that people voted not for integration with India but for pani, bijli and sadak, without compromising their aspiration for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue.

That people's participation in the highly controversial election will, at best temporarily, help the Indian propaganda machine, was a foregone conclusion. The cruel joke is that the otherwise prudent prime minister himself unleashed this propaganda. In doing so, he has heaped insult on the intelligence of those who shouted from the rooftops that they did not vote for integration with India but for the realization of their mundane daily needs jobs, water, roads, power, schools, and healthcare.

[read the rest here: http://www.countercurrents.org/shah080109.htm]

Why People Defied the Election Boycott Call in Jammu and Kashmir
by Ghulam Nabi

The large scale turnout surprised the pro-freedom leadership and pro-Indian parties as well as the state of Pakistan and India. While the Indian state project the voter turnout in favor of Indian state, Kashmir based political parties including the ruling party believes this vote is for development, not for the resolution of Kashmir. New Delhi based news channels and news papers forgot their journalistic ethics which they often do, when it comes to the matter of projecting India as a biggest democracy, and Kashmir as an integral part of India. While some news papers and news channels projected the voter turn out as the defeat of separatist sentiment in Kashmir, while the others wrote Pakistan should stop now taking about Kashmir, as the kashmiris have shown faith on Indian democracy. Indian president in her address to the Nation on the eve of 60th Republic day of India also projected elections in Kashmir as the Kashmiri people’s faith on Indian polity. One wonders how she could forget the protests of hundreds of thousands of people in recent Amarnath controversy when people marched to the streets of Kashmir to demand for Aazadi (independence). On the other hand this was again the time when separatist like Mirvaiz Umar Farooq, first time confessed that the governance and resolution are two separate issues ,alas had separatist leadership realized it earlier we would not have lost hundreds of lives which were killed because they either contested election or casted their vote .

[read the rest here: http://www.countercurrents.org/nabi280109.htm]