Mission Kashmir

There was a time when the Kashmir valley was as calm and strikingly beautiful as Kashmiri women in their traditional dress. The Dal Lake which flows like a loosened, glowing hair of a beautiful lady used to be tickled by umpteen numbers of houseboats carrying wide eyed tourists from all over India and abroad. Those were the golden era of Kashmir and its people. But those happier times have been put to death by piercing machine gun bullets, shot both from 'patriotic' rifles as well as 'anti national' rifles.

Now what one can see in the face of Kashmiris is a haunting fear and desperation for being dragged between insurgency and counter insurgency. Extremist elements in the valley have always been on the look out for a bait to create a communal divide among Kashmiris. So when the issue of transferring around 39.88 hectares of forest land to Amarnath Shrine Board arises, Kashmir once again starts bleeding.

Political parties such as BJP, PDP and the Hurriyat are taking advantages of the volatile situation in Kashmir. Their over enthusiasm to fish in the troubled waters of Kashmir will only further deteriorate the situation. These parties are playing the inflammable communal card to gain political mileage. For nearly two months Kashmir has been on the boil over the land row. Supporters of Amarnath Shrine Samithi blocked the Jammu highway in protest against Government’s revoking of land transfer to the Shrine board after widespread protests from the PDP and Hurriyat.

This blockade resulted in the economic slowdown of the valley as this is the only link to connect Kashmir to other parts of India. The Muslim population in Kashmir had a feeling that Hindus wish to break their economic back bone. This feeling, infact, proved to be decisive brush for those who want to paint Kashmir in communal hue.

The call to all fruit growers in Kashmir to cross the LoC to sell their produces in Muzzaffarabad caught the authorities by surprise who until that moment pretended to have not seen or heard about the highway blockade by the Hindu groups. Situation really went out of control when the police tried to prevent the mob lead by separatist leaders from crossing LoC on Aug 11. The ensuing police firing to disperse the agitators resulted in the death of separatist leader Abdul Aziz Sheikh and five others.

The very next day Kashmir saw unabated violence and arson in which 21 people died. The overall death toll has reached more than 26. Though a relative calm prevails in Kashmir now, the tension is not yet over.

J&K government has called both Hindu and Muslim factions to the negotiating table in an effort to ease the mistrust between the two communities.

Pakistan sponsored terrorism to divide the Hindu Muslim harmony in the region is gaining ground once again. The sporadic firing to Indian military posts from across the boarder was part of ISI plot to push in terrorists to the valley to unleash fresh terror.

The ‘Azad Kashmir’ slogan that had been a constant nightmare for both the Army and the Indian government was not much heard about in the last 13 years. But the same proverbial demon has again awakened recently, sniffing the rottening atmosphere in the valley.

According to media reports, the protest rallies were marked with astonishing anti India sentiments and an increasingly ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. But Mr. Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, one of the Hurriyat Conference leaders says this does not mean that Kashmir should be made a part of Pakistan. According to him people were trying to express their resent over the entire system that prevails in J&K even after 61 years of independence-of the countless rapes of women by the Army, of oppression, of tortures, of people go missing without any trace etc etc.

The resonating ‘Azadi’ slogan will prove to be a detonator to a wide spread ‘anti India explosions’ if the govt lacks prudence in taming it. The separatists’ call for an independent Kashmir will send similar waves to other parts of India with devastating effects. This will prompt similar demands from the whole of North-East as there is so much anti India feelings among people. The Maoists movement is gaining ground in North East with local militia actively joining hands with Maoists in subversive designs against Indian government.

The common factor both Kashmiris and people in North East rue about- the Indian government’s laxity in providing socio-economic stability and governance. So the ‘solution’ to end anti India movements cannot be administered through the barrels of guns. Simple common sense, a bit of practical approach and greater feelings of responsibility towards its citizen are the essential combinations to make that ‘wonder drug’ that heals the ‘anti India syndrome’.

Government authorities and various political parties who speak volumes on the ‘integrity’ factor of Kashmir, and the separatists who preach for an independent Kashmir have often forget one core factor in common- the very fate of innocent Kashmiris who did no sin other than being born in an enchanting abode named Kashmir.

Hey mere Khudhaah, mere Kashmir ko aman dilade! Ameen...