Afshain Afzal
The Kashmiri struggle for freedom and ultimate joining with Pakistan has gained a record momentum. It is wrong to deduce that this indigenous struggle has reached to present uncontrollable stage after repeated threat warnings by Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat. Interestingly, Lieutenant General JS Sandhu, in a statement said, “The approach of the Army has been very balanced in Jammu and Kashmir” and “Where the people get into a stone-throwing situation and mob violence against us, then we will have to act. So there is no doubt about it.” In the past, Kashmiris had been burying their unarmed and peaceful love ones with humiliation and disgrace due to their killings at the hands of Indian occupying military personnel, with allegations of their involvement in terrorism. One wonders should the Kashmiris allow Indian security forces to continue cold blooded murders in the name of self-staged encounters of Kashmiris and portray the operations as real by wounding and killing own soldiers.
If we recall, the Indian government introduced relief package to next of kin of those persons who died in militancy-related incidents in Jammu and Kashmir State. Interestingly, the lists also contained names of number of persons killed in fake military operations against militants. One such person was Khalid Muzaffar Wani, a student of Masters in Indira Gandhi National Open University, who died in firing by India security forces in Buchoo forest area of Tral on 13 April 2015. Khalid Muzaffar Wani was real brother of Kashmiri leader Burhan Muzaffar Wani, who was martyred by Indian forces on 8 July 2016, on the basis of allegations that he was an over-ground worker of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Another person was Shabir Ahmad Mangoo, a lecturer, who was severely beaten to death by Indian Army personnel during house to house searches to track protesters at Khrew, Pulwama on 17 August 2016. Ironically, Lieutenant General DS Hooda distanced Indian Army from all such fake encounters on the ground that such raids were not sanctioned by the Army authorities. The fact cannot be denied that the ruthlessly crushing of Kashmiris by Indian security forces is being carried out through Indian military and intelligence operations.
It is so embarrassing for the Kashmiris to face interrogations by Indian Army personnel and justify that they have no links with Pakistan and Indian agencies cooked stories like “Stones are brought in trucks from Pakistan and distributed among the Kashmiris who are paid Rupees 500 each for pelting the stones on security forces.” It is strange! How this is possible that in the presence of 8 Lac Indian occupying forces, deployed at throughout Line of Control (LoC) and LAC (Line of Actual Control), a Pakistani truck can cross the LoC. Interestingly, in the recent meeting between Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’ in New Delhi, the Prime Minister rejected to sanction additional amount as expenditure for the deployment of elements from 15 and 16 Corps and Para Military Forces including Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) to trouble areas in Jammu and Kashmir to maintain uncontrolled law and order.
In the standoff between the Indian occupying forces and Kashmiris, former Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that he had a sinking feeling that India had nearly lost Kashmir due to the use of excessive force by the security forces to crush dissent there. While reacting over Chidambaram’s statement, Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu said, “Chidambaram knows about the fragile situation in Kashmir as he has also served as the Home Minister. It is wrong to make such statements and not in the best interest of the country.” In another development, the former Indian Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah suggested resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan and demanded high-level judicial commission to look into reasons compelling the youth to take up arms so that death and destruction should come to an end. In the past, whenever, the Kashmiris came out to the streets to demand their right of self determination either they were silenced through brutal genocide or a dummy dialogue process between India and Pakistan was initiated to cool down the Kashmiris. One wonders how long Kashmiris would be treated as prisoners of their conscience and deprived of their rights.
