How bloody has the paradise become? Thursday, Jul 4, 2013 Seema Mustafa The armed forces should withdraw from Kashmir. Two boys killed in Kashmir by the Indian army that opened fire on innocent young people. The police have confirmed the report and filed an FIR of murder against the soldiers of the 13th battalion of Rashtriya Rifles. The mainstream political parties in J&K have condemned the incident. The army has come out with the usual, “we were not at fault”, statement that merely takes away from its reputation, and convinces no one. And for the moment that is where the matter rests. This is a major travesty of justice but predictably, it did not make it to the top headlines of either the print or television news. No one stopped to remind the “nation” that Indian democracy never provided for the army to wilfully shoot two innocent young people, and walk away, sure in the knowledge that it will not have to pay for the crime. No one wrote volumes or shouted hysterically about the fact that the Indian army as an institution was to defend and save Indians, and not kill them at will. And that the men responsible for the attack should be arrested, tried and punished. The deputy commissioner of Bandipore, where the deaths occurred, has already told the media that an FIR for murder has been registered against the battalion, and that there is no need for an investigation as the charge has been established against the army. Some journalists are, surprisingly, among those juxtaposing this incident with the terrorist attack of an army convoy that killed eight soldiers. This reprehensible attack was roundly condemned, but where is the comparison? The attack on the army was by terrorists who preach and practice violence. The attack on the two young boys was by an institution of the Indian state, supposedly there to protect and honour civilian lives. The state exists to act against terrorists with all the might at its command. The victims of terrorism can turn to the state for help. But in the case of the murder of two Kashmiri boys, where do the victims go when the state itself — in the form of the army or the police — turns against the people. Who will protect them? Who will defend them? Who will ensure justice? Terrorism, though debilitating and frightening, can be acted against if the state is strong and willing. State terror, on the other hand, is traumatic and terrifying as the citizen is totally helpless with nowhere to turn to for help. In the Kashmir valley, the people have been totally disempowered, having surrendered their freedoms and rights to the state that justifies this as part of its “crackdown” on militancy. The army in the valley has immense powers and authority, which it doesn’t enjoy in the rest of India. In fact, the face of the army in Uttarakhand is unrecognizable in Kashmir, and vice versa. In Kashmir and the Northeast it is menacing and scary, in Uttarakhand it is compassionate and caring. The argument that some will offer to counter the last sentence is: “the Kashmiris are terrorists so what do you expect the army to do, hold their hand?” This is the worst possible retort, with mainland India rushing to dub an entire people as terrorists. This is because it does not care sufficiently to understand that this is not quite the case, and that innocents are becoming targets of politics that seeks to isolate them and place them on the periphery of decision-making so that their voice is not heard, or if heard is dismissed as ‘extremist’. It is amazing how New Delhi is able to cut off its limbs, namely the border-states as if these do not exist. The most heinous incidents reported from these ‘far-flung’ areas are ignored by the establishment, with human rights violations and the absence of justice not figuring in the discourse of the day. So a young woman can spend her entire life fasting for the withdrawal of AFSPA from the north-eastern states, but her protests fall on deaf ears. Instead she is harassed and persecuted by the so-called security forces. Similarly, the cries for justice emanating from Kashmir are blown away by the winds of injustice, with mass graves, mass rapes, enforced disappearances becoming part of Operation Cover Up. It is amazing how the worst kinds of crimes are ‘covered up’ with the people left to suffer in silence for years. In Kunan Poshpora, the young women raped by soldiers on that fateful night have turned old, the old women have died, and yet there is no sign of justice 22 years after the incident. For these women, time has stood still; it was as if they were violated only yesterday, as they see their unmarried daughters suffer, and their sons dropping out of schools because of the stigma attached to rape. The issue is not the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act; the issue is the withdrawal of the army itself from the Valley. The policy towards Kashmir must change. No one in Kashmir protests when action is taken against terrorists in shoot-outs that are fairly commonplace in the Valley. In fact, reports of ‘encounters’ in which militants are killed do not attract violent protests in Kashmir. But when young people are killed, or picked up and they disappear without a trace, all in the name of a shadowy war, then trauma, grief and alienation pour out on to the streets. Till date not a single person has been arrested for the death of 118 young people, one after the other, for ‘crimes’ a little more than pelting stones. How can this be accepted? How can all this be condoned? When and where will it all end? The writer is a senior journalist and author. Views expressed are personal.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 13:34:46 +0000
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