Kashmir’s tryst with guns and stones

Arun Joshi in Srinagar

The December 15 violent clashes are seen as a template of the worsening situation in Kashmir. The encounter, in which three militants and a soldier were killed in a village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, also claimed lives of seven protesters.

The Valley will step into 2019 after a long spell of violence. Civilian ‘killings’ have always been attributed to the impunity that the security forces enjoy. It helps cement the impression that they are the culprits. It is an easy recipe to stir the local sentiment against the country. Not a word is said about the violent behaviour of the crowd that leads to such fatal situations. The narrative is staple to all conflict zones, and Kashmir is no exception.

Each such incident in which stone-pelting protesters — mostly teenagers and youngsters in their early twenties — get killed reminds the residents of all such past episodes. It has a cumulative toxic effect on the psyche of the people who see the blood of civilians as a calculated act by the Army that is equipped with legal impunity under the J&K Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The Pulwama episode caused the highest number of ‘civilian killings’ in 2018. Efforts have already started to embed it in the anti-India narrative. This is done to spawn the troubles which will project Kashmir as a perfect case that demands international intervention. Pakistan is the cheerleader for this campaign.

Here is what preceded the Pulwama killings. Sections of the mob climbed the Army vehicles with stones in their hands after which the casualties took place. The unfortunate incident too was preceded by three major developments that did not find favour with the separatists, Pakistan and the mainstream.

First, ever since the Governor’s Rule was imposed in J&K on June 20, anger of people against the ‘anti-Kashmir alliance between the PDP and the BJP’ had begun to dissipate. The major steps introduced by the then Governor NN Vohra to introduce accountability in governance became a beacon of hope for people. His successor Satya Pal Malik carried on with the plan of holding the municipal and panchayat elections. 

Second, the municipal and panchayat elections concluded with high-voter turnout across the state, except for parts of south Kashmir and a few other pockets of the Valley. The turnout put a full stop to all speculations that the elections would not be held, especially with those boycotting the polls gaining size and strength after the PDP and National Conference announced to stay away from the polls. The grassroots democracy is back with a promise to forge a new connect. Some political groups are having their grapes-are-sour moment and are claiming that the elections were a sham. 

Third, there was a steep decline in the incidents of stone pelting. It was a direct result of people’s grievances being addressed at their doorstep. It had its ripple effect as well — the local youth started distancing itself from the militancy. The positive developments frustrated Pakistan and its agents.

There wasn’t any local recruitment even after seven civilians were killed in an explosion in the Kulgam area on October 23. The crowd had entered the encounter site, making it difficult for the security forces to do the mandatory sanitisation of the area. Mourning and shut down ensued in the next three-four days, but the protests were negligible.

Now that the Parliamentary and Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in 2019, the political parties don’t have an agenda to propose to people. They have picked the issue of civilian killings to carry out their political campaign. The fact is that the number of civilians killed in 2010 and 2016 during the NC and the PDP rule, respectively, were higher.

Pakistan has started using this terrible incident as its recurring theme to tell the world that “India is oppressing the Kashmiris”. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has used the Goebbelsian way of telling the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the Indian Army killed 15 and injured 300 on December 15. While the truth is that seven persons lost lives and 50 got injured, a high number of casualties nevertheless. 

Apart from creating a paralytic situation in the Valley, Pakistan has used the tragedy to strengthen its narrative that it stands with Kashmiris. The bigger problem is that Delhi has not come out with actual facts and that has sent it on the back foot because stone throwers are deemed to be different from the militants. Civilian killings have triggered anger that surpasses all definitions of alienation. The idea is to use all means, mostly violent, to “liberate the motherland.” 

At this year-end, stones have been further sanctified as peaceful tools of protest. It was first done during the Amarnath land-row agitation in 2008. The talk has also shifted to greater use of guns. The images of the funeral processions are being used to stir emotions. The decline in the use of guns had given sanctity to stones, but now stone throwers have re-legtimised the use of guns. It is an alarming situation and there is no end in sight at the moment to the violence and the loss of lives and pain that follows. The hope has receded, for now, to an obscure corner.