Anger Erupts Again in Kashmir
ASIA--PACIFIC, 8 Apr 2013
Kashmiris protest the execution of Mohammad Afzal.
SURROUNDED BY snowcapped mountains, the Kashmir Valley, under Indian occupation since 1947, is once again boiling over in anger at the state-imposed siege and the unprovoked bloodshed against the population.
The valley has been engulfed in anti-India protests since a Kashmiri Muslim man, Muhammad Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, was secretly hanged on February 9 in India’s Tihar jail. Afzal was accused of having a role in an armed attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, in which nine Indian policemen and five attackers were killed.
Afzal’s family was not informed about his hanging, and his body was buried in Tihar jail. The Indian government refused his family’s request to return his body. Sushilkumar Shinde, India’s minister of home affairs, said in a statement that “the body has been buried according the jail manual, and there was no way it could be handed over.”
This was second time that a Kashmiri was hanged and buried in Tihar jail. In February 1984, Maqbool Butt, the founder of a pro-independence armed rebel group called the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, was put to death and interred on the prison grounds, also without informing his family. Now, the families of the two victims of the Indian state are joining together to demand that both bodies are returned.
On the morning of Afzal’s hanging, Indian authorities imposed a strict curfew, closed the main highway in Kashmir and cut off the Internet and phone service.
But this has not silenced the population. There have been numerous mass protests since the execution, and more than 350 civilians and 100 police and paramilitary troops have been injured in the clashes. Among the five people who died, three were killed by Indian forces.
One of these killings caused Omar Abdullah, chief minister in Kashmir, to break down in front of members of the state assembly. Abdullah asked why Indian forces had opened fire on a small procession of protesters.
Abdullah blamed the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which gives Indian forces immunity for the atrocities they commit. Abdullah claimed he demanded that India rescind the act–but the following day, the Indian government claimed it had received no such demand from the chief minister.
Adding to the discontent is the fact that Afzal’s role in the 2001 attack is far from clear. Writing in the New York Times, Indian journalist Manu Joseph wrote:
[T]he execution has raised a number of deep concerns. Taken together, they point to a disturbing question: Is the Indian justice system competent, consistent and fair enough to grant the state the moral authority to terminate a human life?
Whether or not the current protests recede, they have already shown that India’s claims about the valley–that it is peaceful, and dissent is confined to a small number of “terrorists”–are wrong.
India has always failed to correctly read the situation of Kashmir. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people and left hundreds of thousands of families affected by the fear and trauma of torture, enforced disappearances and killings. There have been two recent mass uprisings in the valley, in 2008 and 2010–during which around 200 people, mostly students, were killed by occupation forces.
Now, the hanging of Afzal has fueled the anger of the people of Kashmir. Since the execution, Kashmiri youth say they believe no dialogue is possible with India. There is a possibility that this outrage can lead the youth of the region to resort to guns and set off a new armed rebellion.
In the meantime, though, the spirit of Kashmir’s rebellion has been strengthened by the recent protests. Afzal’s hanging has convinced more youth that they have to counter every the statements from India that challenge democratic rights for Kashmir. There will certainly be more demonstrations and rapid responses to future actions of the Indian government. This can lay the basis for a continuing resistance that can inspire coming generations.
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ON MARCH 13, two rebels attacked a camp of Indian paramilitary forces near the summer capital of Srinagar, killing five people and injuring several others. Both the attackers were killed on spot.
The attack is seen as a breach in the uneasy peace that has existed recently, but it is also a sign of things to come as resistance builds against India’s continuous repressive measures. In just the last month since Afzal’s execution, hundreds of youth and pro-freedom leaders have been arrested, while occupation forces have used pepper gas, tear gas shells, bullets and beatings in an effort to crush dissent.
Solving Kashmir dispute is not difficult as it has been made out to be. The people of the valley have been demanding the right to self-determination, and this has been denied to them since 1947. There will be no peace in Kashmir and South Asia if the issue will not be resolved in accordance with the demands of the people of the region.
Three basic steps could be taken to move closer to winning self-determination for Jammu and Kashmir: India must all its draconian laws like AFSPA; release the political prisoners and form a team, involving local activists and lawyers, to investigate human rights violations; and withdraw its army and paramilitary forces from the state so that it is no longer the world’s most militarized zone.
It is time for India to look at Kashmir with a desire to solve the conflict, and not merely to buy time for its “peace process” that is really designed to strengthen India’s rule.
“People are trapped in history,” the African American novelist James Baldwin wrote, “and history is trapped in them.” This is true in Kashmir, where the history which lives in the people as memories can build their consciousness to protest and struggle.
Go to Original – socialistworker.org
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