Kashmir Intifada

Kashmir has woken up to another bloody Sunday. Two more youths have died in CRPF firing. That makes the count, more than a dozen in a fortnight. More than thirty in the last month. India's paradise is burning and no one seems to have a clue on how to douse the fire.
On TV, Kashmir's young, but inept Chief Minister calls for stricter policing, as if killing people with bullets was not strict enough. Far away in Delhi, the Prime Minister, seems to second that. The Cabinet Committee on Security calls Kashmir a 'law and order problem'. And therein lies the great tragedy of valley and how India is losing it.
Make no mistake about this. If governments, both in Delhi and Srinagar, don't correct their course we could end up losing yet another generation of Kashmiri youth. One was lost to militancy in the decade after 1989. The other could be lost to stones, at the turn of this decade.
For many people outside the valley, and particularly those in the national media, it's difficult to fathom what's fuelling this violence. This is not just "Lashkar elements creating mischief", as the Home Minister of India would want you to believe. This is the pent-up anger of an entire generation who have woken up every morning to the sight of men in khakhis or olive greens. This is the ordinary Kashmiri saying enough is enough. This is urban warfare, but it has nothing to do with guns and militancy. Stones are the new weapons in this spontaneous outburst. This is Kashmir's Intifada.
But what's driving this kind of rage? After all, what does an eighteen something wearing a headband screaming "Azadi", really want from life and from his government. For the teeny boppy, Nike and Adidas sporting, stone throwers of Srinagar, this is resentment at being stopped everyday at some check point or the other and being asked for an ID proof. Day in and day out, for the last 20 years. This is resentment against the young kids who were gunned down by security forces in Machil after being promised jobs. The government still hasn't punished any of the guilty. Forget punishment, some of those officers were rewarded with lakhs of rupees in cash. This is resentment against Neelofar and Asiya Jaan who were raped and murdered in Shopian, but the entire state conspired to protect the guilty. Death and humiliation can be pretty random in Kashmir. And pretty frequent. No questions asked, no answers sought. And that's precisely what's fuelling the rage of the young Kashmiri.
The government of India sees these 'boys' as wanton lawbreakers. Ordinary Kashmiris think they're simply conveying the deep-seated anger of a community suppressed for so long. Ever since these kids were born, all they've heard in dinner-time conversations are deaths, custodial killings and rapes. In fact, there's not one Kashmiri youth who hasn't had a relative or acquaintance killed, branded a 'terrorist' or raped.
And no matter what the government of India thinks, simply palming off all the blame to Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar will not help. To regain its lost paradise, India needs to start listening.

Zakka Jacob

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