People clashing with police in 2010 unrest - Photo Bilal Bhadur
People clashing with police in 2010 unrest – Photo Bilal Bhadur

Kashmir is caught in the grip of a vicious cycle of killings and protests, with state enforcing a curfew to break the cycle. Khursheed Wani takes a look at how the events unfolded and went astray.

When Shujaat-ul-Islam Baba, the 17-year-old orphaned salesman’s died on way to Srinagar hospital on June 29, the death count of unarmed civilians killed by police and paramilitaries reached 11 in a matter of 19 days. It was nightmarish for the impoverished Baba family of Anchidora to receive another bullet riddled body. At the peak of counter-insurgency campaign, when Islamabad was an Ikhwani fortress, Baba’s father Muhammad Ashraf had been gunned down. Baba knew that his ailing mother and dependant siblings needed him the most, so he ran away from a raging anti-government protest to hide himself. But that proved to be his last mistake. A contingent of police personnel spotted him and pumped a burst of fire. He died before doctors could treat him.

Baba was the latest victim of the cycle of violence that started with the killing of another 17-year-old Tufail Ahmad Mattoo in Rajouri Kadal of old Srinagar on June 11. Mattoo was also felled by police with a teargas shell instead of a bullet. In fact, the string of violence, started from Rajouri Kadal went up to Sopore and Baramulla in north Kashmir and finally descended at Islamabad.

With the frightening events the choc a bloc Srinagar streets and jam-packed tourist resorts began to be deserted. Shutdowns, curfews – declared and undeclared, and protests became the order of Kashmir.

Arguably situation in Kashmir is unpredictable. It takes hardly an hour to transform the bustling capital Srinagar into a ghost town. But, mostly the lack of foresight and misplaced approach towards handling the situation makes the things, sometimes, quite predictable.

Even Tufail Mattoo was not the first victim of the latest cycle of violence. He died on a day when now-jailed separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani had asked the people to protest against alleged human rights violations in Kashmir, in the backdrop of the killing of three village boys in Macchil sector of Kupwara. In the last week of April, officers of Rajputana Rifles, an Indian Army regiment detailed along the Line of Control, shot dead three persons and claimed that they were infiltrators who died in a “fierce gun-battle”. The media in Kashmir has no independent system to crosscheck the army claims, especially on the border skirmishes. The word of the army spokesman is taken as gospel truth.

The slain infiltrators, however, turned out to be local youth lured by army to be engaged as border coolies but eventually shot dead by deceit and passed off as infiltrators.

The new wave of resentment started in Kashmir when bodies of the slain youngsters were exhumed from Kalaroos graveyard for a reburial at their native Rafiabad village. The resentment in Rafiabad was understandable. The people had voted in large numbers in 2008 assembly elections (Rafiabad recorded 80 percent turnout) to elect youngest chief minister of the state who promised change and instilled hope amongst the youngsters. “We never expected body bags to be returned in lieu of the promises of employment,” said Engineer Rashid, a legislator who protested against the killings in Srinagar on the arrival of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in Srinagar on June 7.

Police baton charged the mourners when they were carrying the coffins of the slain youth on Baramulla highway. At one point, they were showered with teargas shells forcing them to drop the coffins. The pictures were published in local newspapers.

The separatists began to talk tough against the government and security forces. Even ruling National Conference and the opposition People’s Democratic Party cried hoarse on the killings. Omar Abdullah sought to take credit for unveiling the mystery of border deaths and lauded the investigations of his police. Prime Minister, too, conceded the mistakes of security forces, and reiterated his promise on zero tolerance.

Tufail’s killing took place when separatists had called for protests against Macchil killings. A common impression is that the authorities took his killing lightly. The protests in volatile interior city were not unexpected. The subsequent events in interior city witnessed two more deaths. One of Rafiq Bangroo who was beaten to death by CRPF and then of Javaid Ahmad Malla, who was part of a demonstration following the burial of his cousin Bangroo.

A senior bureaucrat told Kashmir Life that cycle of violence could have stopped at Malla’s death, if government had taken appropriate measures. The government ordered a probe to investigate the circumstances which led to the death of Malla. The divisional commissioner Kashmir Naseem Lankar has not started the probe, as the city is under curfew ever since the probe was ordered. The CRPF has, on its part, clarified that its men fired in self-defence when the miscreants tried to torch their vehicle. The Chief Minister also corroborated the CRPF version by saying that Malla’s death was “suicidal”.

Separatists’ Action Plan
The separatist groups began to call protests after the Srinagar killings, jostling with each other to take lead in announcing programmes. While Mirwaiz Umar Farooq asked all separatist groups to join hands for forming a joint strategy, Yasin Malik of JKLF started courting arrests along-with his supporters. The hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Geelani went a step further. On June 25, Masarat Aalam, a former Hizbullah commander and General Secretary of Hurriyat, addressed a press conference at an undisclosed location, to announce a detailed schedule for protests. Masarat had gone underground following the arrest of his mentor Ali Shah Geelani and a massive crackdown against separatist leaders and workers. What was significant in Masarat’s announcement was launching of “Quit Kashmir Movement”, a reminiscent of late Sheikh Abdullah’s rebellion against feudal rulers.

Mirwaiz Umar, who broke the jinx by staging all-of-a-sudden protest demonstration towards United Nations Military Observer’s Group in India and Pakistan and landed temporarily in police station, also announced Sopore March on June 28 to protest killing of three youth in Sopore.

Second phase of violence
On June 25, Friday, an encounter took place between militants and security forces at Krankshivan in Sopore. The security forces claimed that most-wanted Lashkar-e-Toiba militant Abdullah Unni was in the house besieged by hundreds of troopers.

During the exchange of fire, the house was completely razed. Two bodies were found in the rubble. After the Friday prayers, a rumour spread in the volatile town that a local teenager has been killed in the encounter and passed off as a militant. The police insisted that both slain persons were Lashkar militants who were involved in a series of killings including that of Traders Federation President Ghulam Nabi Khan.

Abdullah Unni, they said, escaped the cordon. The news of the death of “teenager” spread like a jungle fire and youngsters came out to stage demonstrations in protest. At Chanakhan, a group of tempestuous youth threw rocks on CRPF bunker and later attempted to torch the vehicle of a senior officer. The officer was returning from the encounter site. Police said that after sensing trouble, the CRPF personnel on board, opened fire on the protestors killing one Shakil Ahmad Ganai on the spot and injuring six others. One of the injured Firdous Ahmad Khan later died on way to hospital.

Government sees Sopore as a separatist bastion. A recent report prepared by a senior police officer on Sopore’s defiance traced its roots to people’s allegiance to late Sofi Muhammad Akbar and Syed Ali Geelani, two uncompromising anti-India leaders.

A senior writer from the town said that killing of two protestors was bound to evoke harshest reaction from the people. After the killings, thousands of people came out on streets from every possible outlet of the labyrinthine town to pour resentment. “The situation was out of control,” admitted a police officer. The authorities imposed curfew on the following day, which continued without relaxation for five days.

On June 27, another youngster Bilal Ahmad Wani was shot dead with a rubber bullet in neck, again by CRPF, allegedly for violating prohibitory orders. The killing added more fuel to the situation.

On June 28, authorities preempted the Masarat Aalam’s appeal for protest demonstrations in educational institutions by declaring two-day holiday for schools and colleges. The government offered a plausible reason that parents of the students insisted for it. However, what the authorities could not preempt was the Sopore March announced by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

Thousands of people gathered in Mirwaiz’s pocket borough Rajouri Kadal on Monday to march towards the northern town. The police allowed the marchers to proceed outside Srinagar city, but put up barricades on Srinagar-Baramulla Highway near Hokersar and tried to disperse the procession. This led to a violent clash injuring scores of police personnel and protestors. The police exercised restraint in dealing with the crowd even as some policemen were beaten up by the protestors.

Around the same time, hundreds of protestors attempted to break the cordon to join curfewed Sopore people. The attempts were made at Palhalan, Pattan, Baramulla and Delina while as many attempts to defy the curfew were made from within the town. At Delina, protestors engaged a column of CRPF for a pitched battle. In the afternoon, a nine-year-old boy Asif Hassan Rather ventured out of his house to look for his mentally retarded brother Tauqeer who had not reported home since morning. “Asif died when CRPF personnel shot him in chest from a bulletproof vehicle. The forces’ vehicle was moving in reverse gear when they spotted Asif. Then a bullet was fired from the small window. He fell down and died instantly,” said an eyewitness.

The death of teenager stoked the fire further. Angry protestors charged more ferociously on the security forces with slogans of “blood for blood” and shower of rocks. Some protestors marching from the Seloo area were intercepted by the security forces. After clash with the marchers, the CRPF opened fire resulting into death of another 19 year old Tajamul Bashir Bhat. In three days, the death toll reached five in north Kashmir. All what the authorities did to prevent the escalation of violence, was the imposition of strict curfew in Sopore and Baramulla.

Dance of Death Moves South
A simmering discontent was prevailing in south Kashmir as deaths repeatedly occurred in Srinagar and north Kashmir. Was it a lull before the storm? On June 29, a group of youth took to roads at Mattan Chowk at 10am and started shouting slogans against the killings in Srinagar and Sopore. The protest was peaceful. However, eyewitnesses said, a CRPF party deployed in the area, panicked at the slogan shouting.

Without resorting to cane charging or teargas shelling, one of the personnel, in an effort to chase away the protestors, fired a bullet that pierced through the limb of a protestor Arshid Ahmad. The firing infuriated the protestors and they went on rampage. A local reporter who witnessed the scene told Kashmir Life that hundreds of youngsters emerged from everywhere to join the protests. The air rattled with slogans—“Go India Go, and We want Freedom”.

According to locals, at around 4:15pm, a police party led by SHO Islamabad Muhammad Ayoub Rather, opened indiscriminate fire on protestors. He was accompanied by SHO Mattan Abdur Rauf, SI’s Masarat and Parvez besides a contingent of CRPF. Ishfaq Ahmad, an eyewitness to the carnage told Kashmir Life that the protestors fled away from the scene when the cops opened the barrels. “The police officers ran around like predators following prey. At SK Colony they entered into the premises of a house where three youngsters were standing in the courtyard. The cops opened indiscriminate fire on them,” he said.

The police bullets hit seven civilians. While 15-year-old Ishtiaq Ahmad Khanday and 17-year-old Imtiyaz Ahmad Yatoo died instantly, Shujaat-ul-Islam Baba and four other injured persons were rushed to hospital. Baba with a bullet wound in head died before the doctors could operate upon him, his relative Ali Muhammad said.

A doctor in district hospital Islamabad told reporters that the targeted youth had bullet wounds in head, chest, neck or shoulder. “Had the cops fired on legs, the toll may have been on the lower side,” the doctor was quoted as saying.

As death count soared throughout Kashmir, the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) termed Kashmir a laboratory of Indian military’s violent experiments. Convener of IPTK Dr Angana Chatterji said Kashmir was a laboratory of violent experiments conducted by Indian military and, armed forces had got increasingly powerful in the state.

NC’s predicament
The senior leadership of the ruling National Conference (NC) knew that the spate of teenage killings was ominous for the party. The party leader and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was already under flak for holidaying at Ladakh and Gulmarg when killings in Srinagar took place in third week of June. So, observers believe, when CRPF men went berserk in Sopore and killed three protestors, a senior minister in Omar’s cabinet Ali Muhammad Sagar realized that enough is enough. He convened a late night press conference in Srinagar on June 27, to spit venom against the central paramilitary. “The CRPF has gone out of control. There is total lack of command in their ranks,” he thundered. He asked the Home Minister P Chidambaram to intervene and reign in the CRPF.

Sagar, who is Law and parliamentary affairs minister, observed that the CRPF should have exercised maximum restraint while dealing with the situation in Sopore. “There was a protest of just 10 to 20 youth in Sopore. CRPF should not have opened fire at them,” said Sagar. “New Delhi should seriously look into what is going on in Kashmir. Otherwise, people will further be pushed to alienation,” he said.

But, Sagar was left alone in his accusations against the CRPF. First, the head of the coalition party Saifuddin Soz discovered worms in Sagar’s statement. “Mr. Sagar’s statement that CRPF was not obeying the orders of the Government has not produced any positive results on ground. The veracity of that Minister’s statement can be verified only when the J&K Police corroborates the assertion,” Soz said with a reprimand to the senior NC minister. “The persons responsible in the system to maintain peace must appreciate, in full measure, that any attempt at blame game at this critical time will complicate matters further,” he said.

This was a clear snub to Sagar. The CRPF’s top brass also maintained that the killings at Sopore and Srinagar were purely actions in “self-defence” when irate and unruly mobs attacked the personnel. Home Minister P Chidambaram, whom Sagar had requested to intervene, also toed the CRPF line. Sagar came under flak from bevy of quarters for berating CRPF. It was pointed out that CRPF is part of Unified Headquarters, which works under the command of Chief Minister.

Omar breaks silence
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s silence on killing spree was enigmatic. This led to the grapevine that he might get the marching orders from the Center. But, on June 29 afternoon, journalists were hurriedly called to CM’s Gupkar residence where he briefed the media on the prevailing situation. The salient feature of Omar’s briefing was the announcement to impose curfew in the Valley so that the violence does not spread to unaffected areas. He maintained that the police and CRPF action was justified in retaliation to stone-pelting and beating up of cops on duty. “It takes two hands to clap. While we have asked the security forces to exercise maximum restraint, it is these sorts of incidents (stone-pelting), which evoke retaliation”, he said.

Omar described the situation as extra-ordinary and not a simple law and order matter. “It is battle of wits, ideas and ideologies, not a matter brought about by absence of authority. The anti-national forces and vested interests together bring the innocents to forefront,” he said.

Omar admitted that there was anger amongst the youngsters but fumbled when he was asked to explain the origin of anger and disenchantment.

Omar’s main message was that the government would use the tool of curfew effectively to put brakes on the spread of violence. He was flanked by Congress minister Taj Mohiuddin and Tara Chand to put a point across.

Interestingly, soon after Omar’s press conference, the Srinagar-based journalists received a copy of Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement. “I have just heard the statement made by Shri Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and I endorse every word of that statement” was the opening line.

Chidambaram sought to clarify the CRPF’s position. “The CRPF is deployed in J&K to assist the State Police. Under standard operating procedure, CRPF and the J&K Police carry out their assignments jointly. Invariably, it is the State Police Officer who is in charge of the deployment and performance of duties assigned to the CRPF. I am told that, as far as possible, Magistrates are also present when the security forces are deployed to control rioters and to restore law and order…

“I join the Chief Minister of J&K in appealing to the people of J&K to respect the law and, especially, observe the curfew regulations wherever curfew is imposed. I would especially appeal to parents to ensure that their children are at home when curfew is imposed. The object of imposing curfew is to ensure that crowds do not collect and stones are not pelted. The Central Government will support the J&K Government in its efforts to put an end to violations of curfew, stone pelting and rioting.”

Chidambaram, on June 30 went a step further. After Prime Minister called a meeting on Kashmir situation in Delhi, Chidambaram linked the outrage in Kashmir with Lashkar-e-Toiba. “We have reliably learnt that Lashkar-e-Toiba is behind the incidents of violence”. He described Sopore as hub of Lashkar militants and believed the two militants who died in Krankshivan belonged to the same outfit. Interestingly, Chidambaram did not mention the killings in Islamabad and Srinagar.

Curfew imposed
The Center’s decision to impose harsh curfew in Srinagar, Sopore and Baramulla was a well thought over decision. It reminded the people of late Ghulam Muhammad Shah (in 1984) and Jagmohan (1990), when prolonged curfew was imposed. After June 29 killings in Islamabad, the imposition of curfew prevented the loss of life. Observers say that imposition of curfew was even more necessary in the backdrop of Amaranth yatra that started July 1. “The vested interests had started to link the upsurge in Kashmir with Amaranth yatra to make it communal. Even a rumour was spread that a temple was attacked in Islamabad, which was absolutely baseless”, a divisional level officer told Kashmir Life.

State’s Authority
Some observers believe that Omar Abdullah gave up his authority after the crisis situation erupted in the Valley and simply followed the dictations from the home ministry. Reliable sources said that even the directions to impose curfew, crackdown on stone-pelters and separatists and to exhibit empathy with CRPF poured from the south block. Chidambaram even went to the extent of instructing the Chief Minister to visit the troubled areas along-with ministers. “This is unprecedented. Chidambaram is virtually running the state affairs from Delhi,” a senior journalist told Kashmir Life.

Perhaps this is the reason that former Chief Minister and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed described the union government’s response to the current crisis as “an insult to people of Kashmir”.

“Linking the genuine anger and anguish among people here with terrorism was nothing short of an assault on their self respect and dignity. Disconnect between the union and the state is deliberately being fuelled to push the people to wall and justify the crackdown on unarmed people,” Mufti said.

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