After showing surge for two consecutive years since 2016 summer, the street protests in Kashmir have witnessed a significant dip as the overall law and order situation has improved by 60 percent, an official report has revealed.
The districts and towns in Kashmir that showed upward trend of street protests (in 2017 and 2018) followed by violent clashes between protestors and security forces too have shown “satisfactory improvement”, an officer privy to the report disclosed. He said that “efforts put in by families of youth, hectic counselling of youth at district level and the joint strategy of police and other security agencies have “started bearing the fruit.”
A senior officer, quoting the report, said that in Srinagar, Friday protests have shown a drastic decline this year so far as compared to 2017 and 2018. “Similarly, the stone pelting hubs in south Kashmir districts that include Kulgam (Redwani, Khudwani towns), Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag too have shown satisfactory results. There is a significant improvement in law and order situation and that is because of the declining trend of street protests in south Kashmir districts that were the epicentre of protests in 2017 and 2018,” he said, insisting not to be quoted by name.
“In 2017, South Kashmir recorded 187 incidents of violence and in 2018, these incidents reduced to less than 100. This year only 22 incidents of stone pelting and law and order disturbances were witnessed. The figures exclude incidents that happened during recent polls.”
The officer said that one of the important factors was that participation of youth in protests also decreased to a large extent.
In north Kashmir, except the joining of two teenage boys into the militant ranks and the subsequent protests that occurred on the day of their killing this year, only 17 incidents of protests, clashes occurred since January this year. “In 2017, northern districts had witnessed 87 law and order situations/incidents followed by 54 in 2018.”
Budgam and Ganderbal districts have been declared “relatively peaceful districts” by the security agencies. In Budgam, 36 incidents of stone pelting took place in 2017 followed by 26 in 2018. In Ganderbal, no major protest occurred except that took place on the killing of Kashmir University professor Muhammad Rafi in 2018. The district, however, witnessed a surge in protests in 2017 and the number of stone pelting incidents in the area recorded was 46.”
The street protests in Kashmir have shown a declining trend at a time when local militant recruitment too has gone to its lowest ebb since 2017. Greater Kashmir recently reported that only 23 local boys joined militancy this year so far against 30 till April of 2018.
A senior police officer said that their efforts are not to allow the prevailing atmosphere take any ugly turn again. “We are focusing on clean encounters and maintaining a humane approach with the people. The major responsibility is to keep the peace intact and to make it as a permanent feature,” he said.