Shopian tragedy and politics of deceit

On 27th January two civilians were killed and nine others injured after army opened fire on protesters in Ganowpora village of Shopian district. Subsequently, one more injured civilian succumbed, taking the civilian death toll to three. On the request of opposition parties, the speaker of J&K legislative assembly allowed a discussion on the incident on 29th January. Taking part in the discussion the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah spoke on the urgency of stopping the bloodshed and violence in Kashmir. He candidly admitted that if the previous government was unable to bring peace to the state due to reasons emanating from weak coalition government in the state or intransigent central government, the present government led by Ms Mehbooba Mufti has a real opportunity to end the cycle of violence. Its coalition partner in the state, BJP, enjoys absolute majority at the centre. Omar Abdullah assured all possible support from his party for bringing about peace in the state.     

While taking part in the discussion Chief Minister Ms Mufti left no stone unturned in demonizing the previous regimes. She even blamed former Chief Ministers for “irresponsible behaviour” thus reducing any chances of political reconciliation with the opposition parties.  

   

Her speech was full of contractions. The first contradiction originates from the First Information Report (FIR) and magisterial enquiry being launched side by side. Jammu and Kashmir Police has booked an army unit under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 336 (endangering life). Army major Aditya of 10 Garwal and his unit have been named in the FIR. Simultaneously, the state government has also ordered a magisterial probe into these killings. Why is there need for a magisterial probe when the FIR itself names the army men involved in the carnage? Moreover, the state BJP legislators justified these killings and are demanding withdrawal of the FIR. Rebutting the state government’s attempts at prosecuting the guilty army men the Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Devraj Anbu said: “It is an initial step, they have lodged FIR. Everything will come out in an investigation. Notwithstanding what state government did, we had our own inquiry and are clear that we responded when we were provoked to the ultimate.” This statement essentially exonerates the guilty army men, thus hurting army’s own institutional credibility as a disciplined and principled force.   

The second contradiction relates to the peace process on Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Ms Mufti repeated said that the normalization process between the two hostile nations of India and Pakistan was the handiwork of BJP only supplemented by the efforts of PDP at the state level. As a matter of fact, Kashmir specific Confidence Building Measures and peace process was most successful during the UPA government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh. The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot bus services, Cross LoC trade, peace at the borders, people-to-people contacts, and other military and non-military CBMs increased during the UPA government. All such initiatives took a beating once Mr Modi took over as Prime Minister. Of course he invited Nawaz Sharief at his swearing-in but his government simultaneously attached unreasonable and unsustainable conditions for talks with Pakistan: “terrorism and talks can’t go together” and “Pak dignitaries visiting India can’t meet Hurriyat leaders”. Pakistan should and must act against terrorism emanating from its soil but does “not-talking” help us in any way. For the past four years, while the peace process was put on hold, there have been more ceasefire violations across LoC, record number of militants, civilians and armed forces killed in Jammu and Kashmir, and a record number of local youth joined the militancy.          

AFSPA and impunity to armed forces

The forces in Shopian, instead of firing below the waist, have fired directly into the chest and heads of the protesting mob. The FIR filed against the army is a futile exercise unless the draconian laws like AFSPA is not removed or modified in its operation. None of the previous cases against army have ever proceeded up to the prosecution stage. AFSPA makes it mandatory for the state government to seek sanction from the ministry of defence before prosecuting any Army personnel. And that sanction has never been granted. The ministry received 50 requests of sanction for prosecution from the J&K government. Sanction was denied in 47 cases while the other three cases are pending before it. The Pathribal and Machil fake encounters are two prominent examples where the armed personnel, who were even found guilty in the crime, could not be prospected due to shield provided by AFSPA and the Army Act. 

Leave aside the army chief even the one time champion of AFSPA revocation Ms Mufti said on Friday, 2nd February, that the time is not ripe for revocation of AFSPA. She said, “we want to reduce footprints of police and security forces in the valley, but can it happen in a situation when people in hundreds come out to attack security forces during encounters with militants ….. the footprints and powers of the police and security forces are increasing with the increase in bloodshed and violence in the state”. But the question is who is doing this bloodshed? Not long back on March 25, 2017, ahead of the by-polls in J&K, Ms Mufti raked up the issue of revocation of AFSPA. 

Why Kashmir is boasted as an “integral part of India” while Kashmiris are treated as the “other”. Army is there only to protest the country and its people from foreign aggression. Refusing the government’s call to act against the protesters in Islamabad the Pakistan Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said that we can’t use force against our own people. Why no such magnanimity is shown by the COAS on this side of the border.  

Dr. Bashir Ahmad Veeri is a former member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council. Views are personal

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