Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the Abrogation of Articles 370 and 35(A) for the first time, during a televised address on Thursday, 8th August 2019. This was received with mixed emotions all over Jammu and Kashmir as he touched a sensitive nerve. Article 370 gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir hovering with issues of disputes between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. However, Narendra Modi’s speech flowed on the wings of promises that may have set glimmers of hope into some Kashmiri hearts. While stating the loss of Kashmiri’s lives over the years, he said that Article 370 was being used as a tool to spread terror and was a hurdle to the development of Kashmir. “Articles 370 and 35(A) gave only separatism, nepotism, and corruption to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.” PM Modi said Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh would be the biggest tourist destinations in the world and urged the Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil film industries to come to J&K for shooting their projects.” He said promised the rights of minorities and workers, with proper voting rights, bigger markets for farming, and tourism, with safety and security guaranteed to all Kashmiris. He said, “Be it the colour of kesar or the taste of kahwa, the sweetness of apple juices or the juiciness of khubani, be it the Kashmiri shawl or Ladakh’s organic product, all of this needs to be advertised all over the world.” He also said that- “The vacant posts in Jammu and Kashmir will be filled. This will benefit the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. Local youth will receive employment. State companies, as well as private companies, will be encouraged to create jobs for the local youths in the state.”
Did the Abrogation of Articles 370 and 35(A) Keep Kashmiris Safe? Still unsafe in the most militarized zone in the world?
With the echo of new promises resounding around the Valley,instead of getting better,things slowly became worse. Official data suggests militants carried out around 29 targeted attacks in Kashmir in 2022 alone, especially on civilians that included non-local labourers and non-Muslim staff, and launched around 12 attacks, including grenade lobbing, on security forces posted in the Kashmir Valley.The deceased included three local grassroots representatives (Panch and Sarpanchs), three Pandits, a local female singer, a bank manager from Rajasthan, a teacher, and a salesman from Jammu apart from eight non-local labourers.
There were at least ten non-local workers that were injured by militants in the attacks. Three police officers were also killed in the targeted attacks carried out near their native places, official data suggests. It was soon evident that the J&K police faced more casualties compared to other security agencies, as 26 uniformed men lost their lives in 2022. The atmosphere is tense with regular funerals amid bitter wailing and sorrow. Through all this, anxious mothers are still waiting for their children who disappeared and there are at least 20 Kashmiri youths ‘missing’ since Article 370 move. Kashmir is classified as the world’s most militarized zone as well as the largest region occupied by security forces. It is re-militarized as India deploys more troops when on January 4th when the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs announced that it is going to deploy 10 military companies in the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The 10 military companies are being moved in from Delhi into the Valley. In 2019, the Center moved almost 50,000 military and paramilitary personnel to the region, in addition to the 700,000 already stationed there. Since 2019, militarization has increased slowly and stealthily. The Abrogation of Articles 370 and 35(A) came as a sudden shock to the unsuspecting people of Jammu and Kashmir. While the government had assured former Chief Minister Omar it would not be done, it happened out of the blue. In that eerie silence, peeping from windows, Kashmiris watched as the Valley started to close down. Curfews were imposed and then mobile internet services were suspended across the Valley. Phone lines snapped. Medical emergencies suffered through this. The government explained that it was a precautionary measure to maintain law and order, and the police said reinstated this. Then slowly and stealthily, over 50,000 military troops started streaming into Kashmir. Central Armed Police Forces, including RAF, CRPF, ITBP, and BSF have also been deployed in different districts of the Jammu region to fortify Kashmir to wade off threats of “terror attacks”. It must have sparked resentment when the Indian army took over 54,000 acres of land and after the abrogation of Kashmir’s nominal autonomy in 2019, also ending the requirement instituted in 1971 under which Indian occupying forces had to get a special certificate to take hold of land in Kashmir. The Indian state has also made changes in several acts and laws to permit the construction of permanent structures on Indian armed forces encampments for troops and their families, as well as on areas marked as “desired” or “strategic” by the Indian military.
Questions Hanging in the Cold Air, Why are these deaths considered mysterious?
Questions are buzzing around as that why in the most militarized zone in the world, civilians and even the armed forces are killed amid the heaviest security. Shockingly, even police officers have been killed in their homes. It is surprising that despite the security, no one has been able to tail the killers. Last year, killings were frequently increasing and for the first time as well, even migrant workers are being killed along with innocent civilians in targeted murders. In 2020, BJP members, Sheikh Wasim Bari, his father Bashir Ahmad, and brother Umer Bashir were killed at their home in the union territory’s Bandipore district despite heavy police security. The government said that a new terror group calling itself The Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the attack. The police say it is a front of the Jaish, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and HizbulMujahideen. However, no one has been able to catch them.
Who is targeting the local people? Civilians, such as teachers, doctors, shop owners, and others were shot by masked people who then fled. While it is suspected of course militant groups such as Jaish, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and HizbulMujahideen are behind the killings, there is skepticism in hearts. People ask how in a very heavily armed region with the ubiquitous presence of security forces, Kashmir barricaded and barbed, can such militants enter even police officers’ homes, kill them and flee like foxes with tails between their legs, without any traces of their whereabouts. There are questions that people do not even dare to voice, not even in their heads or hearts, so mum is the word and silence reigns amid sizzling queries racing through minds.
Why are the Tourists Not Affected? According to the government, Srinagar makes it one of the top destinations of 2023 to visit in Conde Nast Traveler’s latest article. Kashmir has always been a beautiful tourist location but the militant activities over the last few years ensured its decline. However, to see a rise in tourism amidst the heavily armed forces and stunning deaths of civilians and migrant workers, who never before were targeted does strike a strange cord in hearts. Why were the tourists left alone? Do the militants have no issues with Indian tourists, but rather with their Kashmiri people? This question sends shivers down spines because what sort of new killers is Kashmir dealing with?
Bollywood Shooting Returns to Kashmir: Intriguingly, Bollywood shooting returns to Kashmir stamped with beaming confidence in their paths of safety while residents, Kashmiri Pandits, and even armed forces are not secure! Rajkapoor’s 1949 film “Barsat,” which introduced the Kashmir valley’s natural beauty to a massive Indian audience was a big hit. This started the beginning of Bollywood’s intrinsic ties with Kashmir. After that, Bollywood producers made the valley their preferred destination. Do the militants have a natural love for Bollywood thus leaving them alone? It seems highly unlikely because militants have adversity to India’s Bollywood for many reasons. Thus when militants leave the bright stars of India alone while killing local Kashmiris, this again stirs up introspection on the nature of the selected killings.
Why are Kashmiri Pandits being killed after the Abrogation of Article 370? Earlier, Kashmiri pandits lived in safe security within the walls of their home but the 2019 Abrogation of Article 370 started to shake the foundation of Kashmiri Pandit homes when killers swooped down on a murderous spree where more than 14 Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus were killed in Kashmir Valley according to data presented by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Rajya Sabha. As the killers went on their targeted killings recently, ten Kashmiri Pandit families left their village in the Shopian district in south Kashmir out of fear and arrived at Jammu. The government said in August 2021 that nine properties in Jammu and Kashmir have been given back to Kashmiri Hindus who fled the Valley due to terrorist violence in the early 1990s. It had said at the time that the government was taking steps to restore several ancestral properties of Kashmiri Hindu families that left the region between 1990 and 1992. Is the giving back of lands infuriating the land mafia?
If It Is The Land Mafia, Then Why Are They Also Killing Local Kashmiri Muslims? The question is asked if the local land mafia in the region is killing Kashmiri Pandits due to their return and perceived takeover of their old lands, then why are local Kashmiri Muslims also being killed? The patterns of killings are not making sense.
There Are No Real Reasons Why People Are Randomly Being Killed: No militant group has come out in a video to state why they are killing the Kashmiris. Last year in a strange incident, eyewitnesses in Rambagh say three unarmed boys were dragged out from a car and shot dead on the streets of Rambagh in front of them. Minutes after police said that “three militants were killed in a shootout” in Srinagar, eyewitnesses have declared that “three boys were taken out from a car and shot dead on the street”. In a viral video, shared both on Twitter and Facebook, eyewitnesses insist that the three were “unarmed and were shot dead by the armed forces in front of us”. In another heartbreaking video, the daughter of Altaf Ahmed who was killed in the Hyderpora encounter said sobbingly that around 10 a.m., there was a call from her uncle who was crying telling her the news, and then she heard horrible screaming. She ran to the spot and saw her father dead and she asked the security forces, “Uncle why did you do this? How could you think my father was like this?” In answer, they laughed at her mockingly when she asked them how could they kill her innocent father. She said that her cousin told her that her father was taken three times, and the third time, they shot him down. Saima Bhat, the slain man’s niece, said her uncle was an innocent man and not involved in any militant activity. “My uncle has been murdered. He was used as a human shield in a staged encounter. He runs a hardware shop and owns the complex where the forces had come for checking,” she said. They were on the Barzulla Bridge, searching for his body after they failed to get it on visiting the PCR and police station. They want to at least give him a decent burial. Out of the four killed in the encounter in Srinagar last year, AltafBhat was used as a human shield and had no links with any militant group. On Monday night, the family staged protests demanding the body of Mohammad Altaf. Police officials said that the house owner was injured in a terrorist fire and later succumbed to his injuries. “Terrorists have been hiding on the top floor of the building. As per the source and digital evidence, he has been working as a terror associate. Search is still going on,” Vijay Kumar had said, IGP of Kashmir. A video from the family where the daughter says that there was no proof that there were militants in the building and claimed that innocent civilians were shot. There was no backfiring as would have been had there been terrorists. She said they took her father once and sent him back and then again took him and the first time, they fired at him along with others and claimed they were not terrorists. Through tears, she said that her father was innocent and her brother is in class III, asking for his father, and does not know he is dead. She asks, “What can I tell him?” In the video, she is heard begging the government to give them his body and she claimed that there were no militants in the vicinity, but they killed three innocent citizens because they were Muslims. In another incident, a dental surgeon, MudasirGul, was killed in the firing in Kashmir taking the death toll to four after he was shifted to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, reports said. Innocent civilians are being killed by the masked and no questions can be asked, like a deer hunted down wildly, their lives have been snatched away.
Kashmiris Have Questions But Are Keeping A Stoic Silence: As citizens, the Kashmiris have questions. One cannot ask the dead what happened, and of course, which killer will give anyone an answer. As responsible citizens, the only people citizens can question is the government. However, Kashmiris are reticent to ask questions due to many broken promises and unfulfilled pledges. Some very disgruntled Kashmiris feel this is all part of a bigger conspiracy to finish them off by destroying their economy because nothing of what was promised is fulfilled in terms of jobs, industries, tourism, and of course a sinister feeling of death prowling around. Thus, lips are sealed tightly and hearts are closed, with a few opening up in trust, just a few. It will take endless years to heal decades of violence and wars in Kashmir. Violent conflicts, especially of an intrastate nature, are a critical threat to human security because of their wide-ranging and drastic impact. Key factors that can cause conflict include a state’s history, the personalities of its leaders, and external actors. Beyond conflict, major threats to human security target the health of people, law and order, state authority, the economy, and the environment. Due to the political unrest densely infiltrating different parts of Kashmir, sales have dropped drastically due to the massive lockdowns, On 21st February, the Center announced a new property tax from April 1, 2023, and they will now be required to pay Rs. 4000 for electricity, whereas previously, they were paying only Rs. 1000. All this seems to be illogical in their hard times when they do not even have enough income, with low tourism, poor sales, no jobs, and no new industrial growth. Many unresolved mysteries and questions are lurking in local people’s minds. For the last two years, the police authorities in Kashmir do not hand over the bodies of militants killed in encounters to the family for last rites claiming that their funerals will create a law and order situation and this too is not allowing the needed closure. Whom will the Kashmiris pour their questions before? Will the government put their aching hearts at rest and give them solutions, and no new taxes? So, they are mostly silent, watching, waiting, and wondering, when will they be safe and who is behind those killings. To address them, a better understanding of the components of security is needed, and associated with this, the sources of threats to this security. It is much better to address issues before they threaten lives and livelihoods for all the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the minorities, Kashmiri Muslims, Kashmiri Hindus, Kashmir Pandits, the armed forces, the migrants, and all others because the sanctity of life has to be safeguarded for everyone. The right to life is a basic human right.
(The author a freelancer writes for several International publications. Views are exclusively her own. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)