It all started when I was about 6 years old and I heard the word militant. Our locality elders were whispering militants had killed an informer somewhere in a nearby village. Their associates were killed couple of weeks ago in an encounter and the house where they had taken refuge was razed to ground. Elders were saying the house owner was living in sheer penury. “Where would they go in these frosty days?” Someone among them asked. I was terrified by mere mentioning the name of militants, for me they were like enemies of common masses. In my mind the word militant sounded like a monster. After some days forces cordoned off our village to track down the militants who they believe were hiding in our village. Forces were very rude to villagers. Some were dragged and beaten to pulp. My parents advised me not to venture out of home. Soon army men barged into our house and search every corner. They used rather filthy language. They hurled a volley of invectives over us and asked for militants. I wondered why they were asking us for militants when we had nothing to do with them. They left our house saying, “khilav unko murgae” treat them with chickens.
Now I was quite confused who were our enemies’ militants or Indian forces. Then after almost five years, a tragedy unfolded in our village. A well know engineer was killed by unknown gunman in early hours of night and people in our neighborhood said that ikwanis killed him. Some said they were about 15 in number. A new word “Ikhwan” struck my mind. I thought who these Ikhwanis were and why they killed our fellow villager? I was frightened and worried about my family and other fellow villagers. As years passed by, I came to know by elder friends that militants were our well-wisher and they took up arms for us, to save us from brute Indian forces and Ikhwanis. Friends and other fellow villagers would frequently talk about the bravery of some famous militant. My many friends were very enthusiastic about joining militant ranks one day. I used to avoid saying anything about joining militant groups.
Few years later, an encounter broken out in our neighborhood between militants and Indian forces this lasted for 4 hours. Four militants were neutralized in the encounter. The house where the militants had taken refuge was gun powdered and in a jiffy it was in flames. A day after the incident, people from other villages made a beeline for the encounter site. Folks were raising slogans like “hum kya chahte Aazadi”. A man sporting snow white beard delivered a speech to the mob that had converged there. Indian army rushed to the spot and 70 percent of the crowd escaped from there. Four years after that encounter, an event was held at my village namely Safre Aazadi (journey of freedom) and the guest was Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front ( JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik and my village reverberated with the slogans of freedom. Well-nigh all the people of my village participated in the event. A protest rally led by Malik passed through different alleys of town with people carrying torches culminated peacefully after a few hours. Then there came 2008, 2009 and 2010 uprisings. I participated almost in all these uprisings and followed every programme of separatist leaders like other valleyites. I turned every inch a rebel and my goal was contributing to freedom struggle in every possible way. My family and relatives were always convincing me to stay away from these “dangerous acts”. But I always paid a deaf ear towards to them. Images of mammoth gatherings demanding Aazadi carried by various newspapers made me more and more enthusiastic about Kashmir freedom struggle.
Social media became another way of giving vent to my anger against civilian killings. I was actively and passionately writing my opinions on Facebook. After a couple of years I finished my B.A and pursued a post graduate degree in International Relations ( Peace and Conflict Studies) . After attending a string of lectures, I learned may new things. Terms like peacemaking, peace building, peace keeping and models like Hour glass model, Nested paradigm etc were all I heard first time in my life. Many other things I learned throughout my course were how International Relations between states work, how they use it for their national interests, what are aims and objectives of International organization like United Nations (UN), European Union(EU) ,South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC), Association for Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) , African Union (AU) , Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The two year course helped me in understanding different dimensions of Kashmir Conflict. I also learned how some groups use conflicts for their own vested interests.
I also understood how leaders of India, Pakistan, and Kashmir are using common people for their own interests and how religious sentiments control masses. Pan-islamism is the main tool of many off-stream political leaders and many innocent young men of Pakistan and Kashmir fall in their traps and took to arms and form rebel groups. They join their ranks for the sake of Islam but they hardly know what their leaders do behind the curtains. When one of the militant commanders had the gumption to speak against such leaders he was branded as a misguided and immature. To my little knowledge, the present situation in Kashmir is throwback to 90s where civilian killings were a normal routine whether by Indian forces or militants (like informers and police personals). In 1990 there were multiple disputes within militant groups which finally proved devastating for them. Today it seems they are again on same the same path. They still hold different ideologies and motives. We Kashmiris are in a fix who to support and who not to. Since my childhood days, I have been a mere spectator of hideous incidents involving bloodshed and violence.
In my opinion, there is a need of policy shift in handling Kashmir issue. One important point is the subject Peace and Conflict studies is a must read and should be introduced in higher secondary level or at college level in order to have broder and actual understanding of conflict. Killing must end from both sides. Dialogue is the only way forward to end this long -drawn -out conflict. All the stakeholders of Jammu and Kashmir including Kashmiri pandits should be allowed to have their say in dialogue. Both Hurriyat and Indian leaders must hold unconditional talks to resolve the issue. While government of India must show much sincerity in initiating a meaningful dialogue, Hurriyat leadership in Kashmir should also shed the habit of shutting doors on those who want to talk to them. Local militants ought to be taken on board as they could act as peace spoilers. Same is true with stone pelters. Guns are roaring since 1989 from all three sides i.e India, Pakistan and Kashmir and killing is the only aim of all the three facades. Time to introspect for all that killing is not taking us anywhere. Hope Ramazan ceasefire will bring more to Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) and sooner people of this region may get some sigh of relief.We all must realize—sooner the better—that violence breeds violence.
(The author is a student of International Relations (Peace & Conflict Studies) at International University of Sciences & Technology Awantipora. His views are personal)
