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Shooting in the dark
The government has started the process of removing 16 security bunkers from different areas of Srinagar. The move is part of an eight-point peace package proposed by Union home minister P. Chidambaram to defuse the civil unrest in the Valley.
Apart from this initiative, the Centre has also decided to appoint a group of interlocutors to hold a dialogue with different shades of opinion to improve the ground situation in the troubled Valley.
On October 5, CRPF began removing bankers from parts of the city. “We've removed seven bunkers today. The rest will be gone within two days,” Prabhakar Tripathi, CRPF spokesman, told TSI.
The first bunker was removed from Magarmal Bagh near Lal Chowk. This bunker was built in 1990. The city has 200 security bunkers.
Kashmir's chief Muslim cleric and chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has described the move as “a welcome step” but has urged the government to start the process of demilitarisation in all populated areas of the Valley.
“If it is a first step in de-scaling the number of bunkers and security forces in the Valley then we appreciate the move,” Mirwaiz told TSI. “We want complete withdrawal of troops from all populated areas,” he added.
Educational institutions in Kashmir were opened in the Valley on September 27 after a gap of over three months. The reopening of schools was part of the Centre's s peace initiative. But frequent shutdowns and curfews have continued to be the biggest obstacles in the smooth functioning of educational institutions.
Since the parliamentary delegation returned to Delhi on September 22 after a two-day trip to J&K, the people of the Valley have enjoyed only six days of normalcy (till October 5).
The state government is also considering revoking the Public Safety Act (PSA) against political activists, lawyers and stone-pelters arrested during the last four months of turmoil. According to law and parliamentary affairs minister Ali Muhammad Sagar, the revocation of PSA is under serious consideration and could be announced pretty soon.
“The government has taken the issue of revocation of PSA quite seriously. We will release all the detainees who have been arrested under PSA during the ongoing unrest but a final decision is yet to be taken,” Sagar told TSI.
The revocation of PSA may eventually pave the way for the release of many senior separatist leaders like Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan and many senior lawyers. Among the arrested lawyers is the High Court Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom.
Apart from a large number of important political leaders, activists and lawyers, at least 52 youths, including 31 students, have been detained in the past four months.
Despite all the confidence-building steps that have been taken in recent weeks, the situation on the steets of Srinagar continues to be rather delicate. Kashmir’s Board of School Education has announced the schedule for the Class 10 examinations to be held from the last week of this month. But Suheem Wani, a 16-year-old boy who lives in downtown Srinagar, is least bothered about the upcoming exams. Along with his friends from the neighbourhood, he is instead spoiling for a clash with the security forces. These boys, armed with stones, are frequently embroiled in violent street protests.
The irate demonstrations and stone-pelting have become a regular feature in the Valley for the last four months. An incident of human rights violation sparks such protests followed by fierce reprials by the police and security forces, often resulting in death and injuries.
Usually, young stone-pelters assemble near a police or CRPF picket or bunker and then suddenly shower stones, bricks and rocks on the men in uniform. Since June 11, 110 civilians, mostly teenagers, have been killed and more than 3,000, again mostly youngsters, wounded by the police and CRPF.
Many of these boys make no bones about their leanings and are proud of what they are doing. “You can call me a stone-pelter. Actually I am a soldier of Kashmir's resistance movement armed with stones and rocks,” says Suheem, who belongs to a lower-middle class family. He and his friends never forget to carry long handkerchiefs and scarfs to cover their faces.
Suheem’s mother, Fatima Banu, like all other mothers of such boys in the neighbourhood, is worried stiff about the safety of her son. She also frets about his education. “He doesn’t understand that he is flirting with grave danger. He is also ruining his future. I sometimes have terrifying thoughts about him. I am always worried about his security and want to keep him away from such things but he never listens to me," says Fatima.
Suheem was born in 1994, after insurgency began in Kashmir. His locality in Srinagar had become a breeding ground for militants. Ever since he can remember, he has always seen uniformed men with automatic rifles and bullet-proof vests at virtually every street corner of his area. Since his childhood, Suheem has seen frequent protests by Kashmiri people against human rights violations and arrests of youth by the police.
Analysts believe that since these Kashmiri boys have grown up seeing conflict and fearing the uniform, they express their anger and hate by resorting to violent protests on the streets. But not all stone-pelters are in their teens. Many of them are 30-plus educated men grappling with unemployment and frustration.
Interestingly, boys like Suheem are tech-savvy Internet users who update their Facebook and YouTube accounts on a daily basis to draw attention to their “resistance movement.” They also upload photos and video clips to show the high-handedness of the security forces.
Since the hardliner separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has exhorted people to use facebook as a tool to express their “aspirations”, the trend has gained momentum in the Valley and is being called “cyber intifada (uprising)” by analysts.
Allegations by some mainstream politicians that the violent street protestors are being funded by Pakistan and terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba have angered youngsters like Suheem. He says, “This is a myth. We don't do this for money. We are freedom fighters.”
The Grand Mufti of J&K Maulana Bashir-ud-Din and Moulana Showkat Shah, head of Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadees, have declared stone pelting as “un-Islamic act.” These men have argued that “Islam is all about tolerance and discipline and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has taught us to refrain from violence.” But the youngsters have paid little heed to such appeals by Islamic scholars.
Until the recent past, stone-pelting was limited to a couple of areas of Srinagar city and to Baramullah and Sopore towns. But now it rampant in almost all major towns and sensitive areas of the Valley.
The situation is worsening steadily. On Octuber 3, in south Kashmir’s Shopian area, four civilians, including two women, were wounded when security forces opened fire on protesters agitating against the arrest of a local youth.
It is not only violence that harms Kashmiris but frequent curfews by authorities and constant hartals by separatists have also shattered the people here. Experts say that the prevailing situation has deeply traumatised Kashmiri society.
“Fear, distrust and sadness have psychologically traumatised our whole society to a great extent,” Dr Mushtaq Margoob, a psychiatrist at Srinagar’s Government Medical College, told TSI. According to Margoob’s estimate, “19% Kashmiris suffer from severe depression while 16% have post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“The psychological trauma linked to the current unrest in the Valley has been enormous. People are suffering from the tremendous stress and tension due to ongoing cycle of violence,” the psychiatrist added.
Many people had expected the recent visit of a 40- member all-party parliamentary delegation headed by home minister P. Chidambaram to provide salve to the wounds of the Valley. But it seems that neither the visit nor the home minister's announcement of an eight-point peace package has turned things around.
On Saturday, on the occasion of International Non-Violence Day and the 141st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, people in Kashmir Valley enjoyed the first hartal and curfew-free day since Eid (September 11). But the very next day life across the Valley was paralysed due to curfew and restrictions.
Due to the continuous turmoil and unrest Kashmir is also collapsing economically. Every common Kashmiri has taken a hard hit. Noted economist and Kashmir University professor Nisar Ali told TSI that the state exchequer has lost Rs 8000 crore during in a little over three months.
“There are 21 public sector establishments, 50,000 small-scale enterprises and around four lakh other commercial establishments in the Valley which have been closed in the course of this unrest. This has accounted for a loss of Rs 8000 crore till now,” the professor said, throwing light on the worsening situation in the Valley.
The state government has been repeatedly imposing many kinds of restrictions to suppress the angry people. Even the media has been banned. Newspapers had not been allowed to hit the stands for 25 days during the past four months. Several times, the police seized copies of newspapers from the printing press.
All the local television news channels have been banned. Journalists are being given curfew passes by the district magistrate. But more often than not the security forces and police personnel refuse to honour these passes. SMS services have been completely banned for four months.
Despite all these severe “measures”, normalcy still seems a far cry in the Valley. Analysts say that “oppression, curfews and restrictions cannot be the answer to the grievances of the people. It can only make things more difficult.”
“The government must bridge the gap between the state and the masses. To do that, Kashmiris have to be given a sense of security and honour. Just announcing an ex-gratia relief to the families of those killed and releasing some youths cannot restore normalcy,” said noted social activist Zarief Ahmad Zarief . '
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The government has started the process of removing 16 security bunkers from different areas of Srinagar. The move is part of an eight-point peace package proposed by Union home minister P. Chidambaram to defuse the civil unrest in the Valley.
Apart from this initiative, the Centre has also decided to appoint a group of interlocutors to hold a dialogue with different shades of opinion to improve the ground situation in the troubled Valley.
On October 5, CRPF began removing bankers from parts of the city. “We've removed seven bunkers today. The rest will be gone within two days,” Prabhakar Tripathi, CRPF spokesman, told TSI.
The first bunker was removed from Magarmal Bagh near Lal Chowk. This bunker was built in 1990. The city has 200 security bunkers.
Kashmir's chief Muslim cleric and chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has described the move as “a welcome step” but has urged the government to start the process of demilitarisation in all populated areas of the Valley.
“If it is a first step in de-scaling the number of bunkers and security forces in the Valley then we appreciate the move,” Mirwaiz told TSI. “We want complete withdrawal of troops from all populated areas,” he added.
Educational institutions in Kashmir were opened in the Valley on September 27 after a gap of over three months. The reopening of schools was part of the Centre's s peace initiative. But frequent shutdowns and curfews have continued to be the biggest obstacles in the smooth functioning of educational institutions.
Since the parliamentary delegation returned to Delhi on September 22 after a two-day trip to J&K, the people of the Valley have enjoyed only six days of normalcy (till October 5).
The state government is also considering revoking the Public Safety Act (PSA) against political activists, lawyers and stone-pelters arrested during the last four months of turmoil. According to law and parliamentary affairs minister Ali Muhammad Sagar, the revocation of PSA is under serious consideration and could be announced pretty soon.
“The government has taken the issue of revocation of PSA quite seriously. We will release all the detainees who have been arrested under PSA during the ongoing unrest but a final decision is yet to be taken,” Sagar told TSI.
The revocation of PSA may eventually pave the way for the release of many senior separatist leaders like Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan and many senior lawyers. Among the arrested lawyers is the High Court Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom.
Apart from a large number of important political leaders, activists and lawyers, at least 52 youths, including 31 students, have been detained in the past four months.
Despite all the confidence-building steps that have been taken in recent weeks, the situation on the steets of Srinagar continues to be rather delicate. Kashmir’s Board of School Education has announced the schedule for the Class 10 examinations to be held from the last week of this month. But Suheem Wani, a 16-year-old boy who lives in downtown Srinagar, is least bothered about the upcoming exams. Along with his friends from the neighbourhood, he is instead spoiling for a clash with the security forces. These boys, armed with stones, are frequently embroiled in violent street protests.
The irate demonstrations and stone-pelting have become a regular feature in the Valley for the last four months. An incident of human rights violation sparks such protests followed by fierce reprials by the police and security forces, often resulting in death and injuries.
Usually, young stone-pelters assemble near a police or CRPF picket or bunker and then suddenly shower stones, bricks and rocks on the men in uniform. Since June 11, 110 civilians, mostly teenagers, have been killed and more than 3,000, again mostly youngsters, wounded by the police and CRPF.
Many of these boys make no bones about their leanings and are proud of what they are doing. “You can call me a stone-pelter. Actually I am a soldier of Kashmir's resistance movement armed with stones and rocks,” says Suheem, who belongs to a lower-middle class family. He and his friends never forget to carry long handkerchiefs and scarfs to cover their faces.
Suheem’s mother, Fatima Banu, like all other mothers of such boys in the neighbourhood, is worried stiff about the safety of her son. She also frets about his education. “He doesn’t understand that he is flirting with grave danger. He is also ruining his future. I sometimes have terrifying thoughts about him. I am always worried about his security and want to keep him away from such things but he never listens to me," says Fatima.
Suheem was born in 1994, after insurgency began in Kashmir. His locality in Srinagar had become a breeding ground for militants. Ever since he can remember, he has always seen uniformed men with automatic rifles and bullet-proof vests at virtually every street corner of his area. Since his childhood, Suheem has seen frequent protests by Kashmiri people against human rights violations and arrests of youth by the police.
Analysts believe that since these Kashmiri boys have grown up seeing conflict and fearing the uniform, they express their anger and hate by resorting to violent protests on the streets. But not all stone-pelters are in their teens. Many of them are 30-plus educated men grappling with unemployment and frustration.
Interestingly, boys like Suheem are tech-savvy Internet users who update their Facebook and YouTube accounts on a daily basis to draw attention to their “resistance movement.” They also upload photos and video clips to show the high-handedness of the security forces.
Since the hardliner separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has exhorted people to use facebook as a tool to express their “aspirations”, the trend has gained momentum in the Valley and is being called “cyber intifada (uprising)” by analysts.
Allegations by some mainstream politicians that the violent street protestors are being funded by Pakistan and terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba have angered youngsters like Suheem. He says, “This is a myth. We don't do this for money. We are freedom fighters.”
The Grand Mufti of J&K Maulana Bashir-ud-Din and Moulana Showkat Shah, head of Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadees, have declared stone pelting as “un-Islamic act.” These men have argued that “Islam is all about tolerance and discipline and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has taught us to refrain from violence.” But the youngsters have paid little heed to such appeals by Islamic scholars.
Until the recent past, stone-pelting was limited to a couple of areas of Srinagar city and to Baramullah and Sopore towns. But now it rampant in almost all major towns and sensitive areas of the Valley.
The situation is worsening steadily. On Octuber 3, in south Kashmir’s Shopian area, four civilians, including two women, were wounded when security forces opened fire on protesters agitating against the arrest of a local youth.
It is not only violence that harms Kashmiris but frequent curfews by authorities and constant hartals by separatists have also shattered the people here. Experts say that the prevailing situation has deeply traumatised Kashmiri society.
“Fear, distrust and sadness have psychologically traumatised our whole society to a great extent,” Dr Mushtaq Margoob, a psychiatrist at Srinagar’s Government Medical College, told TSI. According to Margoob’s estimate, “19% Kashmiris suffer from severe depression while 16% have post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“The psychological trauma linked to the current unrest in the Valley has been enormous. People are suffering from the tremendous stress and tension due to ongoing cycle of violence,” the psychiatrist added.
Many people had expected the recent visit of a 40- member all-party parliamentary delegation headed by home minister P. Chidambaram to provide salve to the wounds of the Valley. But it seems that neither the visit nor the home minister's announcement of an eight-point peace package has turned things around.
On Saturday, on the occasion of International Non-Violence Day and the 141st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, people in Kashmir Valley enjoyed the first hartal and curfew-free day since Eid (September 11). But the very next day life across the Valley was paralysed due to curfew and restrictions.
Due to the continuous turmoil and unrest Kashmir is also collapsing economically. Every common Kashmiri has taken a hard hit. Noted economist and Kashmir University professor Nisar Ali told TSI that the state exchequer has lost Rs 8000 crore during in a little over three months.
“There are 21 public sector establishments, 50,000 small-scale enterprises and around four lakh other commercial establishments in the Valley which have been closed in the course of this unrest. This has accounted for a loss of Rs 8000 crore till now,” the professor said, throwing light on the worsening situation in the Valley.
The state government has been repeatedly imposing many kinds of restrictions to suppress the angry people. Even the media has been banned. Newspapers had not been allowed to hit the stands for 25 days during the past four months. Several times, the police seized copies of newspapers from the printing press.
All the local television news channels have been banned. Journalists are being given curfew passes by the district magistrate. But more often than not the security forces and police personnel refuse to honour these passes. SMS services have been completely banned for four months.
Despite all these severe “measures”, normalcy still seems a far cry in the Valley. Analysts say that “oppression, curfews and restrictions cannot be the answer to the grievances of the people. It can only make things more difficult.”
“The government must bridge the gap between the state and the masses. To do that, Kashmiris have to be given a sense of security and honour. Just announcing an ex-gratia relief to the families of those killed and releasing some youths cannot restore normalcy,” said noted social activist Zarief Ahmad Zarief . '
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