Game of one-upmanship

…The former finance minister and ideologue of the PDP, Tariq Hamid Karra, started the PDP’s second inning on July 8 by attacking Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha, who a day earlier had charged the “PDP of being a pawn in the hands of fundamentalists and militants, backed by Pakistan”. Accusing him of misappropriating the Shrine Board funds and denouncing him as a “diseased and communal mind”, Tariq Hameed Karra said that “Gen. Sinha is…against the PDP leaders” because “they scuttled his concealed strategy of forcing a Hindutva agenda on Jammu and Kashmir by trying to use the Amarnath Yatra to realize his hidden expansionist agenda” (Indian Express, July 9, 2008). … …

The PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti, shared all the views of Tariq Hameed Karra and had gone several steps further on July 12. She had said: “The creation of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board was a folly of the NC, (committed) in connivance with the BJP, and (this wrong decision) was implemented to materialize the communal agenda of the fascist forces through the BJP’s blue-eyed boy S.K. Sinha”. She had expressed these views while addressing a day-long session of members of the party’s general council at Srinagar. She had also taken that occasion as an opportunity to castigate the NC and had said that it was because of the NC that Kashmir had been brought under the purview of such draconian laws as Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and that the people of Kashmir had fallen victims to the untold brutalities perpetrated on them by the dreaded Special Task Force (STF), which was a creation of the NC (Ibid., July 13, 2008). Her specific grouse against the former Governor was that he, like Ghulam Nabi Azad, had rejected the “PDP’s agenda and proposals, be it withdrawal of troops, dual currency etc…” (Kashmir Times, July 13, 2008). … …

Mehbooba Mufti’s efforts got supplemented when on July 26 Mufti Mohammad Sayeed returned from the United States after about two months foreign tour. Immediately after his return to Srinagar, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed convened a meeting of party workers at his residence, where he stated that it would be a great folly to regard the transfer of land to the SASB as “just an incident”…  …

The activities of the PDP had their direct impact on the NC, which, in turn, took a very tough stand on the land issue in order to neutralize the influence of its greatest political rival in Kashmir. Omar Abdullah, the NC president, who remained dormant for quite sometime, suddenly became very vocal on July 22. He told the Indian Parliament that day that “we will not give an inch of our land to the SASB” and he lamented that “he could not resign from the NDA Cabinet when Muslims were massacred in Gujarat even though his conscience had asked him to do so. I will not repeat the same mistake now by siding with the NDA” (and BJP) which “demolished Babri Masjid and committed massacre in Gujarat” (Kashmir Times; Indian Express, July 23, 2008). To convince the Muslims of Kashmir that the NC was for a permanent solution to the problem, Omar Abdullah told the parliament, “There was an opportunity to end our misery and resolve this problem when General Musharraf was heading Pakistan. He took several steps forward and wanted to shake hands with New Delhi. But their (centre’s) feet trembled and we lost a big opportunity. I have been literally screaming to make people in New Delhi realize how big an opportunity we are missing” (Indian Express, July 23, 2008).

Omar Abdullah was very much pleased with his performance. He wrote on his blog, “The fact that my speech struck a cord in the Valley and the rest of the country as well is a unique experience for me. The sad, but somewhat predictable, reaction to my speech in Jammu has been a source of much anguish for me” (The Tribune, July 27, 2008). His observation indicated that he had perhaps defeated the PDP and won over the Muslims of Kashmir. It again established that he still continued to consider Kashmir as his core constituency....

Sudden spurt in activities

It is very significant to note that between July 7 and August 3, there was lull in the separatist camp, though the JKLF chief stated on July 12 that the people of Kashmir were determined to fight for their independence and snubbed the “communalists in Jammu” for stopping supplies of essential commodities to the Valley (Kashmir Times, July 13, 2008); the APHC declared on July 31 that it will not allow the civil secretariat to move to Jammu; and Tehrik-e-Hurriyat Kashmir chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani declared on August 2 that the “land belongs to Kashmir”, “we will not give it to anybody” and that “plebiscite” should be held in Kashmir to ascertain the views of the people (Dainik Jagran, August 1&3, 2008). Besides, peace prevailed in the Kashmir Valley during all these 26 days. Only one violent incident took place in Kashmir during this period... on July 13, when people “violently clashed” with the workers and leaders of the parties like the NC and the PDP at the “martyrs’ graveyard” at Naqashband Sahib…

It appears that the Kashmiri leaders had been using this period to prepare themselves for a bigger assault. How else should one interpret a sudden call for Kashmir bandh on August 4 in protest against the developments taking place in Jammu? How else should one describe the continuous strike for several days across the Valley after August 4? And, how else should one interpret a sudden spurt in violent activities, which left one boy dead and 130 others injured, including 14 policemen?

Asking the people of Kashmir to observe a complete hartal on august 4, Syed Ali Shah Geelani said that the “Hindu communalists” in Jammu were “attacking and butchering Muslims” (Amar Ujala, August 3, 2008) and, hence, they had to be taught a lesson for the conspiracy they had hatched against Kashmir. It was a wild allegation, a white lie coined simply to inflame passions in the Valley. Not a single Muslim in Jammu had been butchered.

It was not just Syed Ali Shah Geelani who denounced the Jammu agitation and termed it as “dangerous”. The PDP, the NC and the CPI-M also used a similar terminology for the developments in Jammu. While PDP president Mehbooba Mufti dubbed the Jammu agitation as “dangerous” (Adarsh Mail, Jammu, August 3, 2008), Farooq Abdullah of the NC and Mohammad Yuosuf Tarigami of the CPI-M asked the “secular forces to come forward” and tackle the disturbers of peace and communal amity in Jammu. They aired these views on August 2 (Kashmir Times, August 3, 2008). The following day, the NC and the PDP said that the agitation in Jammu would lead to the state’s division on communal lines. Mehbooba Mufti even accused the Congress, the NC and the BJP of hatching a conspiracy against Kashmir and asserted that their role would negate all the efforts aimed at ensuring the success of peace process between Pakistan and India (Dainik Jagran, August 4, 2008). Yasin Malik of the JKLF, who had not been in the news for quite sometime, suddenly decided to go in for fast-unto-death on August 5 (Indian Express, August 5, 2008). The same day, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed called on Governor N.N. Vohra and expressed “grave concern over the slide in normalization process that was initiated in 2002 and called for immediate confidence building measures to prevent further deterioration of the situation” (Daily Excelsior, August 6, 2008). …

Disinformation campaign

… Omar Abdullah’s parliament speech on July 22 and the suicide committed by Kuldip Verma on July 23 had given an altogether new orientation to the Jammu agitation. These developments had not only emotionally surcharged the Jammu’s political scene, but also added to the anger of the already rather angry people. … the authorities imposed curfew in most of the cities and towns of the Jammu province and deployed in strength the army, the Rapid Action Force, the CRPF and the dreaded Kashmir Armed Forces to crush the movement.

These knee-jerk official steps, instead of lowering the morale of the people of Jammu province, led to a situation under which they thought it prudent to give their movement a more assertive and aggressive orientation. The result was a complete strike across the province, barring a few places in the Muslim-majority districts of Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch and Rajouri, between July 23 and August 31. It was during this period that the people of Jammu took all conceivable steps to attract the attention of the authorities to the cause they were fighting for since June 22. One of the methods they took recourse to was to converge on the national highway in large numbers and block it. This resulted in disruption of traffic for a few hours and it happened only six seven times during all these 39 days of complete shutdown in Jammu.

It was inconceivable that the people of Jammu would have thought in terms of creating a situation that would cause huge financial loss to the people of the province working in different sectors. The economic blockade would have, it needs to be underlined, jeopardized the economic interests of the people of Jammu more as compared to Kashmir because their economic prosperity depended primarily on sound and intimate trade relations between the two main regions of the state. In other words, the traders of Jammu would have incurred huge financial losses, had the people resisted exports of goods from Jammu to Kashmir. … …

It is important to note that if at all there was some disruption in the traffic movement between Jammu and Kashmir and the vice-versa, it was because of other causes, some of which were very deeper, including the hostile attitude of certain elements in Kashmir to the non-Kashmiri truck drivers. Three of the causes were quite notable. One was curfew, which had slowed down movement of trucks. It was also because of curfew in Kashmir that vehicles were not allowed to move out of Jammu for a couple of days. In spite of the curfew, more than 9,000 trucks carrying merchandise, fruits, medicines, petroleum products, including LPG cylinders, and other essential goods of day-to-day use plied between Kashmir and Jammu between August 1 and 13. The other was the closure of all business establishments owing to general strike in Jammu, as also for a number of days in Kashmir, and then there was the serious problem of unloading of goods from the trucks. It was not the job of the army or the police to unload goods from the trucks. The third, and the most serious one, was that intolerant ideology in Kashmir, which had indoctrinated certain elements to the extent that they would not only attack and damage the vehicles belonging to Jammu and other parts of the country, but would also mercilessly beat the non-Kashmiri drivers.

This process had started in Kashmir as early as on June 26, when the supporters of the separatists and opponents of the land transfer order attacked and damaged as many as 18 oil tankers at Ganderbal and Rawalpora (Srinagar) for the second time. It was this incident which infuriated the members of the Jammu-based Oil Tanker Drivers and Conductors’ Union, with its president Ranjit Singh Raina threatening that his union would stop fuel supply to Kashmir in the event of the unruly elements in Kashmir not stopping attacks on oil tankers and drivers and conductors. The threat had no impact. With the result, the Jammu-based Petrol Tankers Owners’ Association president Anand Sharma announced suspension of supply to the Valley for 72 hours from July 1, saying he could not risk the precious lives of drivers and conductors who had maintained supply line between Jammu and Kashmir against all odds (Daily Excelsior, July 2, 2008). Besides, he said: “We have nothing against the people of Kashmir. Our fight is with the PDP, the NC, the Congress and the separatists who incited people to attack our vehicles near Ganderbal and Sanat Nagar depot where green flags were hoisted on our vehicles and drivers thrashed” (Indian Express, July 6, 2008). The fuel supply to Kashmir was resumed on July 8 (Ibid., July 9, 2008). …

The authorities ensured enough supply of all essential goods, including petroleum products, fruits, medicines, grocery items and so on to the Kashmir Valley. Everything was available in plenty. Governor N.N. Vohra, Chief Secretary S.S. Kapur, the army generals and the Union Home Minister repeatedly declared that the national highway was fully secure and that the trucks between the two regions were plying smoothly…

There was consensus among the authorities on three issues: Many truckers were reluctant to carry the supplies since the fear was still there and the massive protests in Kashmir and firing incidents had sent them back; the separatists raised the economic blockade of Kashmir as a “rallying” point by unleashing a “misleading propaganda”; and the situation was being exploited to raise demands and slogans for opening the cross-LoC route for trade and movement of goods. … …

The aim of the Kashmiri separatists was to arouse anti-India feelings in the Valley through the bogey of economic blockade. Their single-point agenda was to put pressure on New Delhi so that the Uri-Muzaffarabad route was opened for truck service and the extremists and separatists could make easy money and heighten terrorist-related activities in the Valley with a view to forcing New Delhi to quit Kashmir. Hence, the need for an aggressive disinformation campaign. …  …

However, it was on August 9 that the Kashmiri separatists, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, ably backed by the UJC of Syed Salah-ud-Din, decided to stake the lives of the people of Kashmir by asking them and the truck drivers to march towards Muzaffarabad on August 11. “We have decided to run trucks on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road on August 11; the truck caravan will start from Srinagar fruit market and will be joined by other caravans from different markets of the Valley along its route; at Sangrama, they will be joined by the fruit trucks from Sopore”, declared Syed Ali Shah Geelani during the press conference (Indian Express, August 10, 2008). Chalo Muzaffarabad was the basic upshot of the Kashmiri separatists and they did everything to motivate and instigate the people to tread the suicidal path. “Shrine Board does not need land” was yet another refrain of theirs’.

Earlier on August 6, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq of the APHC had given a similar call and his threat was coupled with the assertion that “we will not give land to the SASB” and that “we are planning to launch another movement calculated to make the Indian army vacate 8 lakh kanals of land, which was under its occupation in Kashmir (Amar Ujala, August 7, 2008). Besides, he had demanded division of the state on communal lines and urged the Muslims of Jammu province to join the separatist movement (Dainik Jagran, August 7, 2008).

The Chalo Muzaffarabad decision enjoyed the backing of the Pakistan-based Jamat-u-Dawah of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir-based United Jihad Council of Syed Salah-ud-Din. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed hailed the decision of the Kashmiri separatists and others to “sever their trade ties with India and restore them with Pakistan” and assured Syed Ali Shah Geelani that his “workers would wait for the marchers at Chakothi on the other side of the Line of Control”. “We urge Kashmiris to persevere and assure them that they have the backing of entire Pakistani nation”, said Saeed, who was also the founder of Lashkar-i-Toiba. …

That the PDP would also join the separatists and participate in the march to Muzaffarabad was a foregone conclusion. As expected, on August 10, Mehbooba Mufti declared that her party would take part in the proposed march. She justified her stand and said, “It is our right to work with our people in search of an alternative trading route. If Punjab can trade across Wagah-Attari border, why not Kashmir?” …

As was expected, a number of human rights organizations, including People’s Democratic Forum (Karnataka), Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee and the People’s Union for Democratic Rights, joined the disinformation campaign unleashed by the Kashmiri leaders…  It must remain a matter of shame that these human rights activists did not take cognizance of the violent attacks launched by the extremists on the non-Kashmiri truck drivers and that they willfully sided with those who were exploiting the non-existent blockade for forcing India to concede their unsettling demand for cross-LoC trade.      … …

March to Muzaffarabad

The disinformation campaign unleashed by the Kashmiri separatists and leaders like Mufti Mohammad Syed and Mehbooba Mufti had succeeded in inciting the people to tread a path which was fraught with serious consequences and which involved threat to life and limb from the very beginning because no government worth its name would have ever permitted the protestors to move towards Muzaffarabad. This became amply clear when nearly 1.5 lakh people joined the march to Muzaffarabad. It appeared the Kashmiri leaders had pushed the Valley back to the pre-1990 position. For, it was for the first time in 17 years that so many people had taken part in the pro-independence march. It happened despite the fact that most of the top-ranking separatists and prominent fruit traders, including Bashir Ahmed Beig, Ghulam Raool Bhat, Irfan Hafeez Lone and Mukhtar Ahmad Wani were placed under detention on August 9 and 10 and that the Union Home Minister had declared that there would be no march towards Muzaffarabad. Shabir Ahhmad Shah of the JKPDP and another Hurriyat leader and chairman of the People’s League Sheikh Abdul Aziz perhaps were the only two top-ranking separatists who succeeded in reaching Sopore to lead the march.

The march was not a peaceful affair. The marchers confronted the police and paramilitary forces at different places, besides torching 4 police vehicles and Sheeri Police Station. The police swung into action not because they were marching towards Muzaffarabad, but because the protestors had targetted the police station, torched 4 police vehicles and injured a few policemen. As a result, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a prominent Hurriyat leader, and 6 other protestors were killed and more than 300 others suffered injuries. According to National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, Sheikh Abdul Aziz had been shot dead by one of the participants in the march to Muzaffarabad with a view to provoking a large-scale anti-India violence in the Valley. The killing of Aziz provoked more violence across the Valley. However, the march towards Muzaffarabad continued. This perturbed the army… it was with great difficulty that the army and paramilitary forces tackled the situation and foiled the attempt of the indoctrinated people of Kashmir to march towards Muzaffarabad. … …

The army and the paramilitary forces maintained restraint because of pressure from the higher authorities, who had just then ordered the transfer of the CRPF Inspector General Sunil Kumar Jain from Kashmir to Delhi and deleted his name from the list of those chosen for the President’s police medal for their “distinguished services”. They were to be given the President’s medals on August 15 (Amar Ujala, August 23, 2008). … …

Convinced that the situation was quite conducive for fomenting anti-India troubles in Kashmir and internationalize the Kashmir issue, the separatists organized a march to the office of the United Nations Military Observers’ Group (UNMOG) on August 18 ignoring the objections raised by the State Government (Kashmir Times, August 18, 2008). Several thousand people took part in the march. They were carrying in their hands green flags and shouting anti-India, pro-independence and pro-Pakistan slogans with the police and the CRPF watching the anti-India activities as mute spectators. The separatists had urged the people to carry green flags and “fly only this flag”. (The APHC’s flag is green, with the slogan “Nar-e-Taqbeer, Allah-o-Akbar (Divine slogan: God is Great) written in Kashmiri across it.) …

Government response

Significantly, the Union Government and Governor N.N. Vohra, who had done nothing during all these days to pacify the agitating people of Jammu, was more than willing to open the Uri-Muzaffarabad route for truck service overlooking the pernicious views of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and others of their ilk. The Mirwaiz had said that the opening of cross-LoC trade through Uri-Muzaffarabad road would be the “first step towards Kashmir’s economic independence”. On the other hand, Yasin Malik had said: “Freedom is closer, after the opening of cross-LoC trade” (Kashmir Sentinel, February 2009). The response of the Union Government was also disturbing because it had ignored the fact that the pan-Islamic economic mafia had always attached utmost importance to the “increased porosity of Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir” because it would help it in matters relating to “drug trade, Hawala transfers and counterfeit money”(Ibid). It should have taken cognizance of all this, plus the interest shown by the Dubai-based Kashmiri Muslim traders in the cross-LoC trade. After all, these were all matters of grave concern. … ….

The need of the time was to review its stand on the cross-LoC trade. Instead, the Union Government went ahead to accommodate fissiparous tendencies and announced that it would send a delegation of chambers of commerce on either side of the Line of Control to discuss the various aspects of this trade. At the same time, it blamed Islamabad for the delay. …

Excerpted from Chapter 5 of Conflicting Perceptions, by Prof. Hari Om, Yak Publishing Channel, Jammu, 2009 [Pages 417; Price: 975/-]

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