India’s Still-Born Ceasefires

From the BOARD of EDITORIAL ADVISORS, Ms NASIM ZEHRA goes over the various ceasefires that never ceased hostilities within Kashmir.

In the case of the Kashmir issue the question of a life-infused or still-born ceasefire is a crucial one. After all in many capitals it is being viewed as the trigger for a trilateral dialogue dedicated to the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem. Unfortunately the developments over the last few months indicate that the steps that should have been taken, Dehli’s permission to allow the APHC leaders to visit Pakistan and Dehli’s willingness to enter into a bilateral dialogue with Pakistan, to ensure that the ceasefire actually becomes a trigger for the ceasefire have not yet been taken. While in extending the ceasefire for the third time India will earn international praise , the ceasefire as a stand-alone measure will unlikely initiate the dialogue process on Kashmir.

The economically, diplomatically and militarily more powerful player in the Kashmiri, Indian and Pakistani Kashmir triad , India naturally wants a ‘containment’ of the Kashmir issue. India, like all occupying forces believes it can ‘contain’ the problem. Hence, mirroring the Indian conviction of containment concern abounds. In many capitals energies are dedicated to how to ‘contain’ the legally, politically and morally legitimate Kashmir freedom struggle. For the struggle that rages cyclically in Indian-Held Kashmir (IHK). ‘containment’ formulas, therefore, authored by ‘experts’ proliferate in the files of Pak-Indian government men, bureaucrats, think-tanks, writers and track-II ‘diplomats.’

Among a genuinely alienated and defiant people application of force alone can never bring peace or stability. Not only because alienation is not a simply an enforcement of law issue but also because application of force to ‘control and crush’ the alienated will inevitably strengthen their resolve to defy force. Also more widespread the alienation among the people and more complex and organized the forms of resistance of an alienated people against those they consider the oppressors, the more intractable or irretrievable the situation. There is then often no ‘going back’ for the alienated who have taken to armed struggle combined with non-violent civilian resistance. This is the historically established logic so repetitively manifested in situations including the FLN-led Algerian freedom struggle, the PLO and subsequently Hammas-led Palestinian resistance movement to the Bangladeshi independence movement.. But it is not in the nature of the State as it is not in the nature of the individual to concede authority and advantage to the adversary on the basis of the experience of the ‘other’.

The monopoly of force enjoyed by the occupying force ends when resistance acquires an armed dimension. Then combining the agility and the surprise factor of non-conventional warfare with the moral authority the resistance moves into an offensive mode. This offensive mode leaves no choice for the military and para-military forces of the occupying force but to opt for increased and indiscriminate application of force on the resisting armed and unarmed men, women and children. At the ground level the pattern of the Indian occupation and the Pakistan-supported Kashmiri resistance is no exception to this rule. Hence, the cycle of heightened Indian repression and increased Kashmiri resistance continues unchecked.

Dehli continues in the logic that dicatates the behaviour of the occupying force. Its denies the ground reality, its supporters scoffs at the legal legitimacy of the Kashmiri struggle. Only the language of power and force combines with the effective propaganda techniques to find sympathy within India and abroad for what it maintains is a ‘made in Pakistan’ freedom movement. India manges to earn some sympathy and much blame for Pakistan. So much of Pakistan’s past blunders, even if facilitated by Washington and others, have now become the stick which India’s international supporters hope to use against Pakistan. For over a decade they have unsuccessfully tried the ‘stick technique.’ Pakistan will opt for a tripartite dialogue leading to a political solution for the Kashmir issue but it cannot advise surrender to a completely alienated people of the Valley.

Diplomatic developments in the last few months at ‘containing’ or , even as some observers would optimistically conclude genuinely addressing the Kashmir issue have included Pakistan’s maximum restraint move along the LOC and India’s ‘unilateral ceasefire. Casualties during the ceasefire period has naturally not abated, reflecting both the internal dynamics plus the the limit of Pakistani influence . There was some numerical reduction. The Indians have projected the ceasefire as a commitment to their increasing the “peace constituency” in the Valley. The Indian Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee is viewed by many, including some in Pakistan as a man genuinely committed to resolving the Kashmir issue. Following Pakistan’s maximum restraint decision Dehli also agreed to let the APHC representatives visit Pakistan to meet with the Mujahideen groups; a move that won India much acclaim home and abroad. However, after internal disagreements within Dehli on the APHC visit, Dehli has effectively retraced its steps on the issue. The visit seems off for the present. By doing so it has forced the APHC leaders to hieghten the political rhetoric against India which translates into increased public support for the armed struggle. India’s blaming shrill targeting Pakistan has again heightened.

On February 19, the Indian President K. R. Narayanan blamed Pakistan for “acts of barbarism in the garb of jehad.” He said “There has been no let up in much less an end to cross-border terrorism and vicious anti-India propaganda, originating from Pakistani soil. Many innocent lives continue to be lost every day to acts of barbarism by those who cloak them in the garb of jehad.” As always blaming Pakistan for the absence of bilateral dialogue he said “Should Pakistan create an atmosphere conducive for meaningful talks, India will be more than ready to resume the dialogue process.” He warned of relentless and continued use of force against “terrorists.”

As India complains to Pakistan and to the international community that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop “cross-border terrorism” it is in fact saying that Pakistan is not helping us ‘get off-the-hook’ on Kashmir. Dehli understands that unless it can reclaim the monopoly of force by crushing the armed wing of the freedom struggle, it cannot win the war in Kashmir. As some members of the Dehli Policy Group which recently visited Pakistan candidly stated during their dialogue with the Pakistanis there is no confusion in Indian policy-making circles that Kashmir is not getting resolved because Pakistan is “not letting us settle the matter with the Kashmiris.” Indian settlement with a civilian force will be through unquestioned application of force. Force would combine with some development package, with minimum political concessions aimed at ‘pacifying’ the alienated Kashmiris.

It is, therefore, no surprise that what is transpiring at the ground level is opposed to the diplomatic initiatives. The ground level dynamics have moved into an enhanced resistance mode. The trigger in this round of heightened resistance was the death in police custody of a JKLF activist. The public manifestation of this resentment was confronted with the application of force by the Indian military and para-military forces.

According to the Indian daily Hindu of February 20, India’s 15 Corps commander Gen Mukherjee has been quoted in the Indian media news reports today as having said: “We too are human beings. We too can commit errors... I give my solemn word to the bereaved families and to the people of Kashmir that those of my men who are blameworthy will be brought to book and be dealt with according to the law.”

Many within the Indian establishment are annoyed by this confession since it will prevent them from blaming the Kashmiri freedom fighter for the death of civilian protestors.

Explaining the background the Hindu further reports “The Haigam incident, which involved a 29 Rashtriya Rifles unit, occurred on the Sopore-Baramulla highway on Feb 15. According to preliminary reports, a convoy going to Baramulla was blocked by local residents protesting against a custodial death. The company commander (a Major) apparently asked his troops to use force in order to disperse the crowd. According to reports, the troops over-reacted to the situation and opened “large volumes” of fire on the protestors, killing five persons and injuring several others. Aware that militant groups would use this incident to provoke the locals, the Corps Commander ordered a court of inquiry into the incident and apparently asked for an explanation from the Commanding Officer of the 29 Rashtriya Rifles.”

The best illustration of the deep alienation that the Kashmiris living under Indian occupation experience after every bout of Indian repression is the report “Back to Square One” written in the Srinagar-based daily The Kashmir Times of February 18. Reporter Masood Hussain’s report from Baramullah merits reproduction at length.

“Friday was quite a different day. Tyre-burning mobs preventing any movement, pan-Islamic sloganeering resonating the strained atmosphere and separatist leaders manning roads instead of cops - all these scenes were galore as this reporter almost inched the 37 KMs distance from Srinagar. To many, these scenes reminiscent of 1990s were an indicative of a U turn.

In this small gloomy hamlet, with apparently mixed Shia-Sunni population, over 15,000 people from all the neighbouring villages converged in buses, trucks, horse-driven carts and hundreds on foot. “We came to sympathise with these families here who were killed by the troops on Thursday”, said Mohammed Abdullah of Choor village. The mourners shouting slogans - Yehan Kya Chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa (We would have the Islamic Rule) - had come from far away village from Wagoora, Nowpora, Sopore, Putkhah, Choor, Seer, Amar Ghad, Ali Bagh, Bulgam, Pattan, Palhalan and Sangrama.

Abdul Ahad, an employee in the Regional Transport Authority, whose son Naeem-ul-Ahad is undergoing treatment for severe head injury at the SKIMS in Srinagar, said: “It was so abrupt and inhuman that we failed to understand what the provocation actually was”.

Ahad is cousin of slain Jaleel Ahmad Shah, the young man, an erstwhile JKLF activist, whose corpse was being demanded by the village-protesters when they were fired upon. “They arrested him on Monday night somewhere in Sopore, the army raided his home on Wednesday night, demanding a gun, which was never there and then we heard his body was thrown on the road in Baramulla and the people came on the streets demanding the body”, he said.

In the firing his sister Nusrat also received a bullet. As the separatist leaders Shabir Ahmad Shah and Naeem Ahmad Khan were making speeches in the Eidgah at Shalbug, the crowd was busy in fierce sloganeering.

Some new slogans were heard - Lashkar Say Rishta Kya, La Ilaha Illala (what relates us to Lashkar (-e-Toiba) it is God Almighty), Kashmir Police Say Rishta Kya, La Illaha Illala. These slogans which roped Lashkar with Kashmir police indicated the mass thinking at the ground level, perhaps it was well understood by the Lashkar recently when it withdrew its threat to the police after the PCR attack.”

The Resolve Will Grow

The continued oppression and torture of the Indian forces in IHK will sustain if not further steel the resolve of the Kashmiri people to confront the Indian forces. The cost of confrontation remains heavy. While many individuals must lament the costs there are many others who have paid the price of resistance in blood as they have seen their kith and kin get killed, maimed and tortured. Killing and torture often comes unprovoked from an occupation force that has acquired the siege mentality of those it has occupied. The irony is that the oppressor adopts the psychological framework of the one he is trying to crush. Heightened Increased violence unleashed on the Kashmiris ironically sharpens their resolve. There is less and less at stake for them in the status quo-stripped of dignity, security, freedom and respect even life itself becomes a cheapened commodity. Ironically the oppressor is contributing to the new construct- the cause of dignity, self-respect and defiance. There is then an inverse relationship that obtains. The oppressed had rid himself or herself of the emotional and debilitating physical construct of his oppressed state. His cause gives him the freedom to disregard the material constraints. The transference takes place. Despite all the gadgets of force at his disposal, fear gradually drapes his existence. He is losing the psychological battle. Not Delhi but its thousands of agents of oppression that over-apply force. A logic that asserts itself on man-made plans often disrupts plans that are illegitimate.

Following is a classic example of the kind of gruesome incidents of torture that repeatedly inject renewed vigour and militancy into the 11 year old Kashmiri upsrising. This report was published in the Srinagar-based Kashmir Times of February 23 produced the following story:

Victim of Brutal Torture, Imam Prays for Death

SRINAGAR, Feb 22: (KT News Story) Offering prayers at late hours cost him dearly. Surviving a near death, this 30 year old Imam of Channa Moholla mosque at Rafiabad cries with pain. Ghulam Hassan Kumar has joined the long list of people, who have fallen victims to the torture of security forces.

Kumar was picked up by the security force on February 8, when he was returning home after offering prayers. “It was eight in the evening and it was pitch dark. I was returning when crabbing voice pierced through the air. `Hands-up’, he told me. After a while I saw soldiers encircling me as if they have caught hold of a big fish”, he said.

Down groaning with pain, Kumar is praying for early death on the hospital bed. His two legs were burnt and body crabbed. “They were demanding weapon, which they said was in my possession. I begged for mercy and pleaded innocence. But they did not listen to me”, said the Imam.

Narrating the horrifying tale, Kumar said security forces tied him and put his legs on the logs of wood. “They lit the fire. My legs were burning and I was crying with pain. But this did not deter them to continue their tactics. I was praying for death, but they were just laughing at me”, he said.

Working as watchman at the residence of a fruit merchant, who happens to be Sikh, Kumar was also acting as Imam at the mosque. “I have a large family to feed. That was why I was acting as Imam besides working as watchman. On February 8, when I was returning home after offering prayers, the security forces men arrested me and blind foldedly, took me to the camp where I was tortured continuously”, said Kumar.

Doctors attending on him at the hospital said the condition of the patient was critical. According to them, he has suffered 40 per cent burns.

“We are trying our best, but his condition is very critical. He has developed puss in his wounds. We are trying to disinfectant his wounds and also stop side-infections”, said the doctors.

Cries and shrieks echos from the ward in which he is admitted. Tears trickles from Kumar’s eyes when he talks to a doctor or a para medical staff. His wounds are oozing puss continuously. “I pray to God to let me die peacefully. My pain is unbearable”, he said.