For the last three decades, the headlines around violence in Kashmir have focused overwhelmingly on casualties
Deaths – in numbers – feature prominently in news, reports of commissions and rights bodies and the discourse on bio-politics. Sample this: Although the number of people killed in Kashmir over last thirty years is highly contested and ranges from over 40,000 (Government of India) to over 80,000 (Hurriyat Conference), we still have some numbers. However, if one were to find out the number of people maimed in the conflict, there are no figures. Not even to contest. This, despite the fact that the number of people maimed in any conflict exceeds the death toll. One of the prime reasons for such situation is that the narrative of states makes us believe that wounded would recover — that they are not dead. Death, without doubt, is a great loss – but emphasis on deaths alone has taken the focus away from something equally devastating – (intended) maiming.
Rutgers University Associate Professor Jasbir Puar’s award-winning work ‘Right to Maim’ brings to fore new dimensions to understand sexuality and bio-politics. In the last chapter of the book, Puar unravels how Israel resorts to intentional maiming — of people and infrastructure – and this is one of the principal ways through which it exercises control over a colonized space. Deliberate maiming, she posits, is an extension or mutation of the ‘right to kill’ by states in warfare into what she calls the ‘right to maim.’ If one were to draw parallels between Puar’s work on Palestine and situation in Kashmir, there are apparent resemblances and exclusivities.
In Kashmir, tear gas, steel bullets coated with rubber and metal pellets are some of the most prevalent ‘non-lethal’ weapons in use. ‘Non-lethal weapon’ is a loose term for ammunition that supposedly does not kill. However, they not only kill but also maim the survivors, sometimes for life. On paper, the chances of a person dying due the use of these weapons are less compared to other forms of ammunition. However, in reality, they can be equally deadly whereas any weapon can be turned into a lethal one, depending on factors like intensity, use of force and distance, the use metal pellets in Kashmir has led to what author Mirza Waheed says might be ‘world’s first mass blinding’ exercise. The New York Times calls this an ‘Epidemic of dead eyes.’ Although put into use in 2010 – following a mass uprising in the Valley, after a staged encounter of civilians in Machil and killing of a teenage boy Tufail Mattoo by a tear gas shell — the use of pellets saw a unprecedented use in 2016 protests. According to state government’s own admission, the use of pellet guns resulted in injuries to 6,221 people in around seven months alone (between 8 July 2016 and 27 February 2017); among them, 728 victims had eye injuries, dozens have partially or fully lost their eyesight.
The pellet gun cartridges contain 500 to 600 metal pellets that resemble ball bearings. When fired, these pellets disperse randomly, with no way to control their direction and trajectory. Despite such high rates of grave injuries, the Central Reserve Police Force, a central paramilitary force, claims the pellet gun is the “least lethal” option they have for controlling crowds. The use of weapons, termed as ‘non-lethal,’ or ‘least lethal’ by states, including India, Puar points out, evades the optic of collateral damage. This gives an impression that such weapons are employed to follow a policy of ‘let live,’ whereas in reality, it acts as a policy of ‘will not let die.’ Such a policy involves targeting for (slow, optics-evading) death but not (immediate, attention-grabbing) killing. Many of those hit by pellets avoid visiting hospitals fearing they might be arrested. This forces them to resort to other means – such as taking the help of blacksmiths to remove metal pellets from their bodies. Hundreds of those who seek help from doctors still have pellets lodged in this bodies, causing them pain, anxiety and severe ailments.
In Kashmir, such weapons have time and again been used not only to maim but to kill as well. In August 2016, a bank security guard, who was returning home after work, was found dead with over 300 metal pellets inside his body. Shah bled to death on roadside while his family waited for him for dinner. His autopsy reports revealed that he had been shot at close range. The 23-year-old is among many killed by the use of pellet gun. Although the perpetrators have not been identified and no one has been prosecuted, Shah’s death is the only occasion when an investigation was initiated. Otherwise, no cases have been filed for (deliberate) maiming or deaths caused by it. With no cases, no one will ever be held accountable for their actions. Since its introduction, the government has either refused information about “efficacy and impact” of the pellet gun or have suppressed reports even by their own testing teams. While a petition to ban these guns is sub-judice in India’s top court, the Union government has refused to stop using pellets simply for the ‘lack of a better alternative.’ As a result of this, maiming of Kashmiris continues.
Apart from ‘non-lethal’ weapons, the use bullets to kill and maim has never ceased. India might one of the few countries in the world that have rewarded its soldiers for killing what it calls ‘its own people.’ In last decade or so, several reports and investigations have unearthed what Kashmiri people already knew – enforced disappearances, followed by staged encounters for cash, rewards and promotions. No one has ever been prosecuted. More than 8,000 Kashmiris are missing, while there are thousands of unmarked graves scattered all across the Valley. No one knows the identity of those buried in these graves, while thousands of kin wait for loved ones. Alive or dead, the bodies of Kashmiris are subjected to control both physically and through the terms that define them.
While in 1990s many civilians in Kashmir died in ‘crossfire,’ in more recent times, people are hit by ‘stray-bullets,’ sometimes children as young as six and people who were more than a kilometer away from a gunfight. Terms like ‘crossfire’ and ‘stray-bullets’ are terms often used for obfuscation of killings or (deliberate) maiming of a Kashmiri rendred as what Giorgio Agamben calls ‘zoe,’ bare life, in a ‘state of exception,’ where laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act or Public Safety Act favour the aggressors.
The damage is not limited to physical maiming. A 2016 report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) stated that almost half of adults in Kashmir show symptoms of significant mental distress. Similar to maiming of bodies, this alarming ‘maiming of minds’ plays a significant role to exercise a control over a region. One of the most glaring examples — similar to one that unfolded in Palestine – is of a 26- year-old embroidery artisan Farooq Dar, who was tied to the bonnet of a military jeep and paraded in 28 villages and allegedly used as a human shield against stone throwers. Dar is struggling to come out of the trauma and suffers from depression and sleeplessness. Maimed bodies, which result in maimed minds and maimed minds that debilitate bodies, as Puar puts it, are not merely by-products of war. In conflicts in Palestine, Kashmir and elsewhere, Puar’s groundbreaking work may redefine war crimes by questioning whether individuals and states can be held accountable for (slow, optic-avoiding) deaths and just not (immediate, attention-grabbing) killings or (deliberate) maiming of bodies and souls.
Gowhar Farooq teaches at AJK Mass Communication Research Center, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
mgowhar@gmail.com