Fishing in murky waters: Political parties play a ‘blame-game’ card at Kashmir Valley

It is totally heartbreaking to see the political parties trying to score when Kashmir valley is fuming with repeated clashes among the civilians and the government forces.

Police say there were over 500 clashes between mobs and the security forces across Kashmir over the last four days. Of the 31 people who died, one is a police officer. This is  the worst violence seen since 2010 during which 112 died.

At least 16 persons were injured on Tuesday in South Kashmir’s Tral when protesters reportedly attacked the CRPF camp in the area and paramilitary personnel opened fire, sources said.

A police post was set on fire in Pulwama district. A youth was killed in Kupwara when security forces opened fire on protesters who attacked a police station.

Kashmir, which has been under curfew since Saturday, is running short of essential items, especially medical supplies which are urgently needed.

A new tactic of firing Israeli-style metal pellets has blinded dozens of demonstrators.

“We have received more than 100 patients in just two days with pellet injuries to their eyes – we’ve never received so many patients at once,” said a Srinigar doctor, who is not being named for his own safety.

“They are potentially blinded. The prognosis is very bleak. More than 95 per cent of these patients have multiple pellet injuries, dozens of pellets inside their bodies. It’s extremely damaging – devastating – to the human body.”

The Pakistani government has tried to exacerbate the anti-government sentiment in the Valley by declaring Hizbul Mujahideen’s Burhan Wani as “Kashmiri leader” and expressing outrage over his killing.

Wani was the poster boy for this youthful insurgency, having joined Hizbul Mujahideen, Kashmir’s largest rebel group, at the age of 15 after his brother Khalid was beaten by security forces.

He pioneered use of social media calling for azadi (freedom) from India to boost recruitment.

These lot things happened in the valley and still the national political parties are still indulged in the blame game rather than resolving the issue.

The accusations unheard

Underscoring the need to punish the military and paramilitary forces for the heinous crimes they had allegedly committed in Kashmir, renowned writer and social activist Arundhati Roy earlier said Indians would suffer in future for what the people of Kashmir had gone through over last two decades.

Roy accused India of not being serious in punishing the military, paramilitary, police and government backed gunmen who had been declared accused in various heinous crimes.

“Troops and paramilitary troops involved in various heinous crimes including custodial killings, disappearances, rapes and declared accused through FIRs and other reports have evaded action which has resulted in making them habitual offenders.

These habitual offenders when deployed in other states will commit the same offences against innocent people,” Roy said during a debate over the recent report released by Association of Parents of Disappeared Person (APDP) at Gandhi Peace Foundation Delhi organized by peoples union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).

“To continue its occupation in Kashmir, India has made its forces immune from every law there. If civil society of India and other human rights activist do not take appropriate steps after going through the report of APDP, we will feel ashamed in future,” she said.

Roy said the State High Court and government established human rights commissions had held military and paramilitary forces involved in various heinous crimes but both State and Government of India had not shown any seriousness in punishing them.

It is a matter of fact that the union government has always turned a blind eye, towards such accusations made by the civilians. We cannot let them commit such brutal crimes exploiting all the powers handed over by the government.

It is need of the hour to cross examine the Indian military brutality in the patch.

The spidery terrorism network

Naseer Ahmed Pandit, a young Jammu and Kashmir Police constable was the first to cast his vote. During an India-Pakistan match, he stood out for being amongst the few who cheered for India.

And on polling day, he went out of his way to feed cups of tea to paramilitary forces that fanned out across villages to provide security to polling staff.

Yet, one sudden day, Pandit disappeared and took his service weapons with him. His father realised he’d joined the ranks of terrorists after a press release issued by the Hizbul Mujahideen claimed him as a trophy.

Pandit’s father Ghulam Rasool describes his son as a social worker, a crusader who took action against drug peddlers and is still at a loss to fathom why the 29-year-old, who loved his police uniform, disappeared into the high mountains that ring his village in South Kashmir.

Rasool has not heard from his son since March 28, the day the cop reinvented himself into a terrorist. He’s seen him though – posing in pictures that have gone viral on social media.

Scores of homes – mostly in South Kashmir which is also the stronghold of the ruling PDP – scout the net for posts that may bring some news of their sons.

Like Pandit, these sons have melted into the dense forests in South Kashmir’s Tral area, adding muscle to a new trend in which young Kashmiri boys are giving up jobs and the comfort of their classrooms and choosing the path of violence.

The ground reality in Kashmir is changing slowly but surely and it can be gauged even from plain statistics. If in 2013, 31 local youths joined militancy, the number for 2015 (till September-end) jumped to 66, according to police records.

The national  political leaders and their subordinates should act more sensibly  in this time of emergency at the valley rather than playing a political card.