By RASHID AHMAD
During my stint as reporter with Hindustan Times (from February 2001 to September 2009) I would often be asked for reporting “soft” and “off-beat” stories. Deaths and human tragedies, which used to form the most of the news in Kashmir, would, on occasions, be casually cast off as “unwanted”. “People (readers) are tired of such stuff. They want something new beyond deaths and destruction”, my seniors would say. Sometimes such stories would be demanded amid thick of human tragedies car or bomb blast, custodial killing or a forced disappearance case.
It was quite irritating to look for such stories from under the debris of human tragedies. I would argue with them: you are asking for kutta, billi stories from a place where cries of mourners (of the dead), growls of wounded, sighs and sobbing of orphans and widows fill the air every moment. My line of reasoning would work on occasions, and I would, without any trouble and distraction, file my copies.
Death and fear has been dominating Kashmir for the past over 20 years. Official figures put the number of dead persons around 47000. There is no official, record of wounded, maimed and tortured. Unofficially, the figure of the dead is quite higher. Separatist leaders say around 100000 people have died since the first bomb exploded in Kashmir in 1988. Around 60,000 others have got wounded and maimed in the incidents of firing, bomb blasts and torture in interrogation centers.
Indeed a huge price by a small people of just around 10 million.
What is even more disquieting is that the majority of the victims had been the younger generation in the age group of 18-35. Independent sources say that the youth formed the 3/4th of the dead persons and more than it of the maimed and tortured.
The reason is simple. Launching of armed struggle was the individual initiative of Kashmiri youth, who formed the major part of the militants as also their over ground supporters. They were not inspired by any political leader nor had they got lessons from religious leaders for it.
I remember slain Al Jihad chief commander Ghulam Mohiuddin Shaikh alias Maqbool alias Khaleel-Ur-Rahman once saying that he left Jamaat-e-Islami to join Al Jihad only because “Syed Ali Geelani discouraged me from joining militancy”. “I wanted to cross the LOC for arms training and went to Geelani Sahab for advice. After enquiring about my family background he (Geelani) told me to attend my old and ailing parents and said it would be your real Jihad”, Khaleel said. He was killed in an encounter with security forces in 1993.
Khaleel’s was not an isolated case. Hundreds and thousands others are there who joined militancy against the wishes of their parents and elders not to speak of political leaders. Former Ameer (chief) of Jamaat-e-Islami Hakeem Ghulam Nabi was not keen supporter of militancy. His son Zabehullah was an active member of Hizbul Mujahideen, who got killed in a clash with security forces in mid-90s.
Former MLA Mir Mustafa was killed by militants for being pro India but his son Bilal got killed as a senior commander of Al Jihad while fighting security forces. The list is long and would need a voluminous book to record the zeal and zest of Kashmir youth for the gun.
When the first bomb exploded in Kashmir in 1988, some people termed it as the “handiwork of Indian intelligence agencies, who wanted to destabilize and demoralize chief minister Farooq Abdullah”. The perception worked in some circles for some time till Ajaz Ahmad Dar was killed in an encounter with police outside then DIG Ali Mohammad Watali’s residence in Raj Bagh in September that year. He was first Kashmiri, in the renewed movement for azadi, to die with a gun in hand, exposing the introduction of gun in Kashmiris urge for Azadi.
Here came another language rule and term some misguided youth, who numbered a few dozens. But the early 1990 saw mobs of youth joining militant ranks. Over 100 armed groups came into being, who replaced the entire political structure in Kashmir. They did not include any particular class of youth. They were all illiterate, literate, students, professionals, doctors, engineers and from all sections of the political and social classes. From a son of a cobbler Abdul Hameed Shaikh to a son of a chief engineer Nadeem Khateeb (a pilot who flew planes in America) holding guns and tossing grenades became a passion for Kashmiri youth.
It was a sudden outburst of emotions, piled up through decades of political discontent. It would not be out of place to say that Syed Salahuddin, the symbol of ongoing armed struggle against Indian rule contested Assembly elections in 1987. The pioneers of militancy like Mohammad Yasin Malik, Javaid Ahmad Mir, Maqbool Illahi, Ajaz Dar, Ashraf Dar and hundreds others were acting as field agents and poll campaigners for Salahuddin. It was fraud played in the name of elections and farce of democracy that ignited the flames of armed rebellion in Kashmiri youth. Anger and rage was already there. What was needed to burst into flames was to set off the ignition pin.
It would not be going overboard to say that separatist sentiment had been dominant among people of Kashmir since the division of India, which culminated into two sovereign states India and Pakistan in 1947. It took different manifestations at different times. Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah-led Plebiscite Front (1953-75) was one of its earliest expressions. Even as Abdullah never believed in secession from India but he used to galvanize support for himself with the slogan yeh mulk hamara hai, iss ka faisla hum karenge it (Kashmir) is our nation, we will decide its fate).
The formation of Jammu and Kashmir National Liberation Front by Maqbool Butt in late 60s was yet another face of Kashmiris’ political discontent. Butt was trying to organize Kashmiri youth for an armed movement against India. But it aborted midway as he was arrested and sentenced to death in 1968. He escaped from jail in 1969 only to return in 1976 to accomplish his unfinished agenda. He was arrested in Langate and ultimately hanged to death in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in 1984.
Then came the formation of Al Fatah. This armed resistance outfit was shaped up by another overzealous group of Kashmiri youth Ghulam Rasool Zahgeer (late), Nazir Ahmad Wani, Fazlul Haque Quraishi, Dr Farooq Ahmad Bhat and others. The group had close links with the Plebiscite Front and had the patronage of Front president and Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah’s deputy Mirza Afzal Beg. The group got exposed when some of its activists looted a branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank at Hazratbal. The Al Fatah had set up its headquarters at Barsoo village in Pulwama. Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi personally visited the headquarters after the group got exposed.
When Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah bid adieu to Plebiscite Front to join mainstream politics under a compromise with Indira Gandhi in 1974, separatist sentiment took another form. Several groups, though mainly with political agenda, including Peoples’ League, Muslim League, Islami Jamiat-e-Tulba, Students Islamic League, Islamic students Organization came into being to symbolize and channelize separatist sentiment. Many a big names in the ongoing movement owe their existence to these groups. Shabir Ahmad Shah, Naeem Khan, Mahmood Sagar, Tajammul Islam and many others have their past linked with these groups.
Despite nerve for arms, these groups however were by and large political. They fostered and promoted the anti India sentiment through passive resistance. Around 10,000 spectators gathered at Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium to support West Indies in a one-day Cricket match against India on October 13, 1986. Clive Lyod, the West Indies captain, at the end of the match, was reported to have said that he did not think even for a moment that he was playing in a foreign country. “It was like playing in Jamaica”, he was reported to have said.
During India-Pakistan Cricket or hockey matches people in hordes would come on streets to celebrate Pakistan’s win. Javaid Miandad’ last ball six against Indian bowler Chetan Sharma in a one-day Cricket Match at Sharjah in 1986 was celebrated across Kashmir for about one week. This kind of resistance continued just before 1989 when youth of Kashmir collectively decided to rise in armed revolt against India. Those who did not opt for gun volunteered to work over-ground to provide logistics, shelter, food and guidance to safe routes away from the eyes of police and security forces. The armed rebellion got social sanctity as hundreds of thousands of people used to hit streets in favour of militants and raising slogans against Indian rule.
Like any other country, India responded with full state might and military power to quell the rebellion. The clash of ideas and integrity left the trails of death and destruction around. Around new 500 graveyards have come up in Kashmir in the past 20 years.
As a corollary to the law of nature, militancy, after 20 years, must have shown a gradual decline but the sentiment for Azadi seems to have grown stronger. The last year’s mass rebellion over the transfer of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board is a perfect indicator. The land row rebellion erupted after about six years of relative peace in the state.
Kashmir, in outward appearance, might look peaceful today but it’s potential to rise in revolt remains always there. It took the whole world off-guards by taking to gun just over a little feud (rigging in elections) in 1987. The transfer of land to Amarnath Shrine Board too proved a major provocation to launch another form of protest. Provocations are all there but how and when they burst into public protestations remains always unpredictable.
It is general mindset here. No amount of military might, political power or material corruption can change it.
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