Tariq Ahmed
This distressing daily living has taken a heavy toll on the psychology and wellness of ordinary citizens. A detailed report released this month by the Forum for Human Rights in Jammu & Kashmir (FHR J&K) paints a grim picture of Kashmir’s shackled citizens’ plight. The report notes that India’s repressive tactics “have enormously impacted public health and caused trauma and stress amongst the people of Jammu and Kashmir, violating the rights to health and medical care under the Indian, and Jammu and Kashmir constitutions. The rights of children to a trauma-free environment have been arbitrarily ignored.” A slew of draconian laws – for example, Public Safety Act (PSA) and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) – have been in place as swords against the people and as a shield to protect the armed forces. PSA, for example, allows the state to detain anyone without formal trial for two years. People from all walks of life— politicians, human rights activists, journalists and religious and student leaders – have faced the PSA’s dragnet. The state needs not furnish any reason for detentions, and the detainees have no right to legal representation. They can be re-arrested within hours under a new set of excuses if they somehow obtain a court reprieve.
The military authorities resort to the blasting of the dwellings and shoot and kill anyone who poses resistance. They vandalize and blow up citizens’ homes as retribution for people’s support for the protesters and fighters. They molest, harass and even take hostage, the family members of protesters. The devious provisions of AFSPA shield the military personnel from prosecution in the civilian courts. The impunity pervades the entire spectrum of militaristic governance. In addition to 900,000 heavily armed personnel, a network of intelligence officials, spies, moles, mercenaries, digital and cyber-security experts, etc maintains a tab on the unrest which has shown no signs of abating. They disappear, deport, incarcerate, molest, injure and kill protesting civilians and tout them as foreign militants. The dead bodies of the civilians are secretly ferried to and buried under fictitious identities at faraway uninhabited prairies on Srinagar-Kargil highway. This tactic circumvents public mobilization -which is commonplace in densely populated areas. The ploy makes it impossible for the families to trace their loved ones when buried in mass graves. It thus affords the state a plausible deniability. Often, those disappeared and killed during fictitious encounters are buried under false foreign identifies, giving them non-Kashmiri sounding surnames. Cache of arms, ammunition and other incriminating ‘evidence’ of guilt, including a Pakistani phone number, a passport, and other identity cards, are then ‘recovered’ from the deceased. These cynical tactics provide legitimacy for the killings and readily flammable fuel for the media anchors for their incendiary prime-time news analyses.
It is no exaggeration that the India- Pakistan dispute over Kashmir will be resolved only when the Indian media chooses to do so. Until then, the saffronized media will continue to shape public perception under the pretext of superficial patriotism without being burdened with the need for sensible journalism. It has been widely acknowledged now that ethical reporting in India has ceded place to ‘war-crazy’ journalism. Once the onslaught of lies has turned the public opinion against Kashmiris and Pakistan, the army violence against Kashmiris is perceived by the Indian public as justified and even eagerly celebrated. Any Indian voices against human rights violations are trolled into silence by the netizens, publicly shamed or physically abused by the vigilantes, and invaded in their personal and private spaces by the police.
Willfully enraged, the BJP vigilantes across India take on Kashmiri students, travelers and trades people, contributing to a hostile living environment, impacting their education and trade activities. They become the targets of verbal abuse and physical violence, often causing grievous injuries and sometimes even death. Invariably some of the outspoken Kashmiri students are terminated from the educational institutions, jailed or sent back home. While the unrestrained national media spews poison on the national television, the local electronic and print media in Kashmir has been placed on life support through a new media policy. The above-cited FHR J&K report notes: “The local media has been one of the worst sufferers…The new media policy, which introduces censorship by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) in coordination with security agencies, is a death blow to the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression.”
As it stands today, no end is in sight for Kashmir’s prolonged suffering. Far too much blood has been spilled and the repressive methodologies to quell peoples’ political dissent have not worked. Among the many competing national security narratives operating in South Asia, the dreadful tales of Kashmiri people’s pain and suffering must be foregrounded. Kashmiri voices must be centered. The time for historical animus, rabid nationalism, ideological intransigence and constant strife is over. The time for reconciliation through justice is now. The peace will not come at a gunpoint. It will come when justice served. Ah! When will Kashmir’s agony end!—Concluded.
—The writer is freelance columnist, based in North America.
