Is the gun our
friend or foe?
Like a good
physician, a political leader keeps a constant watch over his people. He makes
prescriptions according to the changing mood of the people as does the physician
prescribe according to Health State of his patient.
When a nation begins
its struggle for realisation of its rights, the leadership takes full care that
the people are made to make as little sacrifice as is possible. If the
objectives are not realised through civil disobedience, then the prescription
for political struggle can be changed. In 1918, Gandhiji had launched the
struggle against the colonial power. A crowd in Calcutta got enraged and set a
police station on fire in which a few Englishmen and some local police
personnel were killed. Gandhiji immediately stopped his movement saying
that he would not place the foundation of his freedom movement on the blood of
innocent people. He knew that a violent movement would consume the lives of
millions of people.
Unfortunately,
pseudo-leadership leads the people in Kashmir. It is neither able to diagnose
the disease nor prescribe a proper remedy. Their prescription at the moment is
violence and the use of gun, which serves the interests of many actors on the
scene. They do not mind if the patient dies by inches just for the improper
treatment meted out to him. In a struggle of violence when weapons are used,
one with larger resources, weaponry, manpower and better technology has the
upper hand. However, in some cases, the world opinion did help the weaker
struggling nations to achieve their goal as in Vietnam and in Afghanistan. The
truth is that at both the places, the real fighting was between two super
powers of the day, the USA and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
What
has the gun given to Kashmir’s?
The gun has brought
an end to the culture of coexistence in Kashmir society.It has exacerbated
extremism and sown the seeds of communalism secular polity has been devoured by
the monster of communalism. The gun has consumed the generation of Kashmiri
youth in streets and market places, in mountains and gorges, in streams and
over glaciers. Thousands of young women have been widowed and thousands of
children have been rendered orphans. The gun has actually strengthened the
criminal elements in society. Family feuds and personal
vendetta are being
settled through the use of gun. On the basis of gun, properties have been
acquired forcibly and declared the act as legal and permissible. The weapon is
being used for petty purposes and interests to the extent that under the fear
of gun, matrimonial relations have been imposed upon unwilling partners. The
gun has destroyed all such institutions as are essential infrastructure for the
social and cultural development of a society like the schools, colleges,
hospitals, bridges and other structures. The gun has closed the path to reason
and found a short cut to the resolution of political differences by liquidating
the political opponents. This difference of opinion has consumed many a
distinguished scholar, intellectual, physician, and many others whom the
society finds after centuries of waiting and expectation. What a tragedy that
this enormous national treasure has been reduced to dust by the gun.
Take whatever
dimension of Kashmir politics during the last one decade, you will find that
violence and gun culture have spread nothing but wholesale destruction of
Kashmir and the new generation of Kashmir’s. Indian and Pakistani armies both
claim to be the friends of Kashmir’s while painting each other as the enemy of
the Kashmir’s. But when both of them play with ammunition and gunfire on the
line of control, it is only the Kashmir’s who get destroyed, their houses are
razed to ground, and their cattle are killed. Their fields are turned into
ruins and their crops are set on fire. Thus Kashmir’s become the targets of the
bullet of both the armies. A closer study reveals that while Pakistani army
supplies guns to the Kashmir’s thus contriving his death, the Indian army guns
him down while trying to disarm him. Kashmiri leadership has become a hostage
to this death drama of Kashmir’s. Of course, while sitting in closed-door
rooms, these leaders condemn the gun and call the violence as poison for
political process.
Every conscientious person is aware that killing any person on the basis
of his political differences is in fact the butchering of the concept of
political opposition. This in fact is the death of political evolution. Activists of
National Conference are being killed on the basis of difference in political
views. If this is the practice then what can stop National Conference activists
meting out the same treatment to their political opponents? We know of such
reprisals enacted by JKLF and Hizbul Mujahedeen groups some time back. This is
what took place between the activists of Hizbul Mujahedeen and Kuka Parry group
also. Today the renegades are being butchered and they respond in the same
manner. How unfortunate that the entire
Kashmiri nation is engaged in a fratricidal killing. We know of no other
community that is so seriously engaged in destroying its own generation. If the
tempo of this fratricide continues, what will be the end result for the
Kashmiri nation? Where shall we find succour for our orphans and where
shall we find suitable matches for our young girls of marriageable age? What
will happen to our progeny?. And then the million dollar question shall remain,
viz. the purpose for which we had taken up the gun, did we achieve it?
Have we achieved even ten per cent of our goal? Have we made any progress in
making Kashmir part of Pakistan or independent? To what extent have we been
able to mould world opinion in support of our cause? The simple answer to all
these questions is a big NO.
On
the ground
The ground reality
is that a decade of unrelenting violence has rent asunder the fabric of our
society and polity. Today we stand divided on ideological basis. Violence has
rapidly increased the number of our graveyards, our widows and orphans.
External elements have been provided full freedom to interfere in our affairs
and matters. Today we are more than 85 per cent in the control of these
external elements. Our economy has shattered. Educational institutions have
seen decline and downfall. Ignorant elements deliver life threats to the honest
journalists for saying the truth. In other words those leaders and political
entrepreneurs claim to be the upholders of the birth right of Kashmir’s, namely
the right to self-determination, are not ready to allow the Kashmir’s to speak
the truth. Thus the permanent victims of gun and brutalities today in Kashmir
are the youth and the truth.
Calls for strike
Day in and day out,
calls for hartals and strikes are given, The pseudo-leaders consider these
calls and their results as a symbol of their power and strength although they
knew it better than anybody else that these strikes are observed only out of
fear of gun and not out of any sincere sentiment. A common Kashmiri is fed up
with these calls and strikes. This is what could be gathered from the speech
made by Yasin Malik, which he made at the grave of the martyrs after being
released from the jail. He said,” people should take note talking of peace and
peace alone, the outside world gets a wrong signal.” This means that ordinary
people were now talking of peace only. Many years ago, I had advised the
Kashmiri leadership to put only that they can carry much of burden on the
shoulders of the people as without distress. If the people get the impression
that they could not get anything in return of immense sacrifices they have
made, then they would get disappointed and distance themselves from the
struggle. This is precisely what is happening today. More than 35 thousand
Kashmiri young boys and girls have migrated to other parts of India to receive
education and training for career making. There are many chances that the
Indians will benefit from this special manpower in final analysis.
International
public opinion
Human Rights
Commission holds its meetings at Geneva twice a year. For last ten years, India
and Pakistan along with some Kashmir’s on either side have been trading
accusations of human rights violations against each other. Till date the UN did
not appoint a Commission that would conduct inquiry into these allegations. The
OIC raised hue and cry that in Indian part of Kashmir, the Indians subjected
Kashmiri Muslims to repression. But with the passing of each day, these OIC
member countries increased the quantum of their trade with India. Larger and
larger labour force from India is coming to these countries and helping the
home country with foreign exchange remittances. Thus India’s economy is
receiving a boost through it. After Kargil fighting, India made it known to the
whole world that whatever is happening in Kashmir is because of Pakistan’s
interference. The world was convinced with India’s allegation of
"cross-border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan." The pressure mounted
on Pakistan by world opinion in the matter of Kargil shows that India had
succeeded in making them concede what she had been alleging against
Pakistan.
Hijacking of an
Indian airliner from Nepal by Kashmir related militants gave another handle in
the hands of the Indians to tell the world that Pakistan was interfering in
their matters and exporting terrorism in the country. Three persons set free
against the released of the passengers went to Pakistan.
Track
II
In today’s
international political strategy, most of the matters are discussed under Track
II dispensation. It means discussing in closed-door meetings on informal levels
but with formal recognition. India has a host of evidences to prove that
Pakistan is sending foreign Militants to fight in Kashmir and that she is
providing training facilities to Kashmiri militants for "terrorist and
subversive" acts. The world has not only accepted this stand of India but
has turned a blind eye to the use of excessive force by Indian security forces
to quell the movement in Kashmir. Of course, occasionally the Amnesty
International or some other human rights organizations may speak a word or two
to assuage the hurt feelings of the
Kashmir’s. However,
India has been able to convince the world that human rights violations in
Kashmir might occasionally take place because of the use of gun and the cross
firing that follows it. When an infiltrator from the other side of the line of
control seeks shelter in some house, the security forces arrest them. In the
course of this action also some innocent people get killed because there is
firing on both the sides. In short on international level, it is
confirmed that international opinion cannot be smoothed in favour of Kashmir
struggle because of the indiscriminate violence to which the militants have
resorted.
Might
of the State
The world endorses
the principle that those using the gun to get their demands accepted should be
met with the full might of the state. All countries in the world apply this
principle. In 1954-55, Pakistan, resorting to this option, brutally suppressed
the rebellion in POK. The Punjab Constabulary blasted private house with
detonators. Should I venture to write in detail about this event, readers may
attribute it to my bias. As such, I shall
refer to Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan’s book titled" Muqaddima Kashmir,"
published by Jung Publishers in 1987 for the first time. Three or four
times the President of PoK, Sardar Qayyum is an ardent supporter of Kashmir’s
accession to Pakistan. He writes as this (pages 110 - 111): “
The entire area was given in the control of
army. There was exchange of fire between the army and the rebels in Rawlakot,
Barel and Palandhari and people on both sides got killed. Punjab Constabulary
was deployed. The repression unleashed by this force on our people is too
horrendous to recount. They indulged in misbehaviour and excesses to the
farthest limit. In the bazaars of Palandhari, they put ropes in the necks of
many an honourable citizen and dragged them along the streets like cattle. They
would order their captives to give out a dog’s bark or a cat’s mew. Then they
were subjected to lashing. They huddled no fewer than fifty persons in one
prison cell normally made for one prisoner. They left no stone unturned to
oppress and tyrannise the people ”.
Sardar Qayyum writes:
“The policemen would suspend a whip on a pole
along the pathway and then order the people to salute it. This was one way of
humiliating the people. They would under orders assemble the people in the
locality and then make them hold their ear lobes. They were allowed to go back to their homes after dusk many people had to
pawn their cattle and even their womenfolk to raise funds to pay the land tax.
In many cases the taxes were realized for the fourth or fifth time because each
revenue officer would want to realize it during his tenure.”
Clinton’s
visit
President Clinton’s
South Asian visit generated hope among the Kashmiri people. Some of the
Kashmiri leaders even thought of fixing a meeting with President Clinton. They
were heard saying that if India did not obstruct, the meeting had almost been
fixed. This speaks for classical innocence of Kashmiri leadership.
International protocol lay down that if the head of a state visits another
state, nobody could stop even the staunchest of that state’s opponent from
meeting the visit dignitary. Clinton did make a formal reference to Kashmir,
which meant nothing. But of course, addressing the people of Pakistan on TV
during his stopover, he exhorted them to give up violence and come out of the
siege of Kashmir issue. The way in which President Clinton changed his airliner
while landing in Pakistan gave a clear signal to the world that Pakistan was
involved in the politics of terrorism. Nobody was left with any doubt about it.
Those who do not try
to understand international politics and those who do not see beyond the veil
of human rights of western countries, they will not be able to know where the
interests of these countries lie. An American Congressman said on TV that India
talks business with the US while Pakistan talks of Kashmir. The US must decide
in the light of her interests. This is what not only the Asian but also
the people all over the world need to understand. Western countries care for
their interests. That has been their policy in the past and shall remain in
future as well.
Religious
extremism
Religious extremism
has engulfed the entire world. There is bloodshed in Algeria. There is
terrorism in Egypt. There is fighting in Chechnya. There is talk about Osma bin
Laden. There is the question violence in Kashmir and the Philippines. There has
been the New York Trade Fair bomb blast. In all these incidents, there is
reported to be the hand of religious extremists groups. The activities of
religious extremists have brought a bad name to the Muslims all over the world.
The impression everywhere is that Muslims are extremists. It is regrettable
that a religion like Islam that teaches peace and which literally means peace
should be tarnished by the unbecoming acts of the militants among the followers
of this faith. How then can a common Muslim accept that these people are
fighting a war for Islam? Moreover when we say that Islam is the second largest
religion in the world, the question is what and where is the threat for Islam?
Are these so called Islamic fighters bringing anything but death and
destruction to Muslims? More than 65 per cent of the total drugs produced
in the world are produced in Afghanistan. But the rulers there claim to have
established an Islamic theocratic regime. How can one convince the world
that Afghanistan is an Islamic state? What type of Islamic State is it when it
brings death to the entire world in the shape of drugs?
During Yeltsin’s
president ship, Chechnya got autonomy and they chose their own President. They
should have rebuilt their country, provided educational facilities to the
people and worked towards their upliftment. They should have entered the
computer age and become rivals of the Russians. But instead of this they
blasted bombs in Moscow, or kidnapped the Russians in buses. The result was
their total destruction. Russia razed it to the ground. In Algeria and Egypt,
the Islamists mercilessly butchered their own men in buses, cars, on the roads
and in houses. Bombs were planted which shattered buildings and cut people into
pieces. What did the terrorists gain from it? What did the Muslims get from
unleashing killing and loot and arson in Somalia? In Pakistan Shia-Sunni
sectarian conflict consumed innocent lives in mosques, Imam Bargahs, market
places and in crowded places.
India
is let off the hook
Violence and gun
unleashed by the militancy give a free hand to India to perpetrate oppression.
The proliferation of gun goes in favour of India. In the first place, India
finds vast training field for its forces in guerrilla warfare in Kashmir. Like
Afghans, no country in the world is prepared to provide political or military
support to the Kashmiris. The arms supplied by Pakistan are of light caliber,
which can be countered by India easily. India can continue with this type of
conflict for a century. She has no dearth of manpower not of weaponry. The arms
and ammunition seized by India from the militants in Kashmir can equip one full
Brigade. The gun has given the Indians a clear opportunity of liquidating
Kashmiri youth after arresting them on charges of colluding with militants. The
security forces of the land where Ram and Sita and Gandhiji preached the lesson
of non-violence learnt for the first time in Kashmir that they had a license to
kill human beings and humanism. The outside world is a silent spectator to all
this because there are vested interests.
Pakistan’s
role
Pakistan has helped
its people and nation to come to the brink of insolvency. Her military rulers
and intelligence agencies have anchored their existence on fomented enmity
against India. Entire Pakistani nation has been made a hostage to this
scenario. No institution in Pakistan is safe from the jackboot of neither
military nor it ever. So much so that even the Supreme Court too has been made
hostage to the whims and wishes of the military dictators. Be it the verdict of
Justice Munir in favour of Governor Ghulam Mohammad and against democracy or be
it the verdict of “necessity” by Justice Anwarul Huqq during the regime of Zia,
or be it the recent decision of the Supreme Court on the seizure of power by
General Musharraf, the institutions of justice have always submitted to the
power of the gun. Is it not unfortunate that the Supreme Court has given the
military ruler a right to rule for three years and has thereby given the
military rule the legal support for dismissal on October 12, 1999 of a
democratically elected government? What is more, a gun wielding military man
can now change the constitution unanimously framed during Z.A. Bhutto’s regime.
Like this is not to found anywhere in the world.
There have been
rebellions. People in power have been assassinated. Constitutions have been
abrogated. But the judiciary has seldom legitimized oppression. The question is
how can Pakistani institutions speak of justice before her military rulers? The
former Law Minister in Nawaz Sharif government namely Khalid Anwar was
presenting the case against military intervention in the writ petition against
the dismissal of Mian Sahib. He said that the army was the most corrupt
institution in the country. He said that all the institutions in the country
together spend nearly 69 billion rupees while as the army alone spends145
billion rupees.
The Chief Executive
remains outside the purview of Ehtesab or accountability. In this way,
Pakistani army has found only one source to sustain itself on this huge
expenditure and that is the Kashmir issue. How then can Pakistani army wish
that Kashmir issue be resolved? If the Indian army is shelling from the control
line and thus killing the people in PoK, why does the Pakistani army return
fire when it know that only Kashmiris will be killed as a retaliatory action?
Why don’t they shell the border villages in Punjab and Rajasthan so that not
Kashmiris but Indians would be among the killed? The politics of gun is a
necessity with Pakistan army. Likewise Indian security forces and some Indian
extremist politicians to find a necessity in continuing the policy of gun
because the Indian security forces have found a training field in Kashmir. But
have the Kashmiris and their leadership ever tried to ask what did they get out
of this gun?. The answer is that they get nothing but death and
destruction.
Further
division of Kashmir
Hurriyat Chairman
Mr. Geelani has proposed further trifurcating of Kashmir. In truth he has not
committed a crime by making such a statement. Jamaat-e-Islami never made a
secret of the fact that it has been fighting for Kashmir’s accession to
Pakistan. According to Pakistan’s plan called Operation Topic, the aim is to acquire
Kashmir Valley. Will further division of Kashmir resolve the tangle? No, it can
never happen. Therefore the only solution for Kashmir issue is that both India
and Pakistan allow Kashmir to be united and Jammu and Kashmir becomes a secular
state giving internal autonomy to all regions of which it is comprised.
Offer
for talks
The release of
Hurriyat leaders from the Indian prisons created the worldwide impression that
India is talking to the people. Some of them are reported to have secret talks
also. A 100-minute secret meeting was held in the private residence of the
Kashmir University Vice Chancellor between a senior Hurriyat leader and the
Indian Defence Minister. But at the same time the APHC has put the entire
Kashmiri nation into confusion in regard to their talks with the Government of
India. The State Department of the US has appreciated India’s initiative of
talking to the Hurriyat leaders. Pakistani leaders have expressed their
indifference to these talks thereby adding to the confusion of Hurriyat. It is
out of this confusion and chaos that the Hurriyat has demanded tripartite
talks. From this the entire world community got a signal that by demanding
inclusion of Pakistan in the talks, Hurriyat is performing the role of a
supporter of Pakistan.
The question is not
that APHC has made any wrong demand because Pakistan is a party to Kashmir
dispute because she has occupied Gilgit, Baltistan and PoK. The question is
that in the context of Indian part of Kashmir, talks will take place between India
and the Kashmiris on that side. Pakistan joining the talks at a certain stage
is but natural. But why should Kashmiri leaders advocate the case of Pakistan?
Therefore the demand of the Hurriyat betrays lack of political sagacity. At the
same time, why should not Pakistan offer the PoK leadership to talk with
Islamabad as is done by the Indian government? If India gives Hurriyat leaders
to meet anybody including the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi, why
should not Pakistan given the same freedom to PoK dissidents to meet the Indian
High commissioner in Islamabad?
If
there is no gun?
Kashmir and Kashmiri
leadership should immediately reject the politics of gun. Not only that, they
should declare gun as the enemy number one of Kashmiris. They should declare
that the gun and violence are the worst enemies of their movement. They should
adopt the path of non-violence as their line of action to bring them to their
cherished goal. Yasin Malik and his colleagues have presented an example to
this effect in recent days. When the Kashmiri nation rejects gun and gun
politics in letter and in spirit, then the only sources responsible for
violence in Kashmir would be the Indian and Pakistani forces. Kashmiri youth
will no more be victimised for border crossing, arrest for alleged gun running
and of custodial killings. But in civil disobedience scenario, killing of
innocent and unarmed people will strengthen international opinion in favour of
Kashmir’s. Indian rulers will not more find an excuse to tell her people and
the world at large that she is obliged to fight terrorism in Kashmir. This will
also bring to an end the business of those who are making fast buck from gun
diplomacy. Any oppression or repression against the journalists will go into
the account of Indian or Pakistani forces or renegades. At the top of it,
Kashmiri intellectuals will find space and confidence to write the truth and
convey it to the people. Those who have left Kashmir will find opportunity
conducive for returning to their places of origin. Kashmiri nation will not be
tarnished for alleged murders on the basis of political differences and more
women and girls of our land will be saved from becoming widows and orphans. No
more graves will have to be dug for the Kashmiri youth.
The last thing that
I think I have a right to say in the capacity of the son of the soil. The pain
that has accumulated within my breast for Kashmir and Kashmir’s is that
Kashmiri leadership should try to realize the pain and suffering of a common
Kashmiri. The pain inflicted by a prospect of arrest or by becoming a victim of
terrorism or getting killed in the process. The pain that is inflicted by the
dark prison cell turns the black nights into a monster. They should realize the
pain suffered by a widow who is obliged to look after the orphans. They should
realize what it means to the young generation of Kashmir’s who find nothing to
sustain them. They should realize what happens to the parents of those dear
ones who have been put to eternal sleep in their graves. This all is
beckoning them to play the role of an efficient physician, diagnose the disease
and make the proper prescription. The prescription of gun has brought the
Kashmiri nation to the brink of disaster. This is the time that strategy should
be changed keeping in view the ground realities. This is the time that
non-violent movement is given a chance. This is my appeal to the leadership and
I hope they will listen.
This article was written in January 2008, and was published in various newspapers and magazines, also in Pakistan.