Author: Jagmohan
Publication: Organiser
Date: April 22, 2007
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=180&page=15
Introduction: Helping terrorists by proxy
Unjustified is the demand for withdrawal of
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. By and large, the conduct of the Indian
army has been commendable. As a part of the propaganda by the terrorist-outfits,
a number of concocted or highly exaggerated stories about human rights violations
are circulated in the media.
If there was any doubt that Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed's demand for 'demilitarisation' of the state of Jammu & Kashmir
and withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act was not justified,
the same should stand removed by March 30 incident at village Thiriat in Rajouri
district. Here, in a house, five Hindu labourers were segregated from their
Muslim colleagues, lined up and shot in cold blood. The ease and confidence
with which this brutal act was performed showed how strong is still the presence
of terrorists in the State. They even stayed in the same house for the night,
cooked and ate their food and left only in the morning. The grim ground-level
reality was further reinforced by the broad-day killing of a senior Congress
leader, Jan Mohammad Kakaroo, in Baramulla on April 1.
In the context of prevailing conditions and
in the backdrop of the last 18 years of bloody turmoil, which has so far caused
death of about 42,000 persons, the demand for demilitarisation of the State
is not tenable. The sizeable presence of the Indian army is primarily to deal
with the deadly forces of subversion and terrorism that have been let loose
in the State by Pakistan's ISI and its outfits-the forces that have been equipped
with and trained in the most lethal modern weapons designed for carrying out
guerilla warfare. If the operation of these forces is brought to a halt by
the ISI and if the infrastructure of terror built by it, both within and outside
the Valley, is dismantled, the Indian army would go back to its barracks and
restrict itself to its routine duty of guarding the borders. Clearly, for
bringing about demilitarisation in the State, the network of terror and subversion
has to be removed first. The cart cannot be put before the horse. Mufti's
idea of securing demilitarisation without creation of conditions that make
the presence of army unnecessary is risky. It may result in spilling of more
innocent blood.
In this connection, it needs to be underscored
that, despite the presence of the army, the terrorist-outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiba,
Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahiddeen are able to terrorise the people.
On October 4, 2006, for example, they mercilessly butchered a Dental Surgeon
of Handwara with a barber's razor because he was considered to have disobeyed
their 'Islamic Instructions'. A day before, they killed another resident,
Mohammad Shafi, for having dared to join the Territorial Army. For keeping
mobile phones, hairs of the young ladies were cut in full public view. Last
week, on March 23, the terrorists dragged a sixteen-year old girl, Gulshan
Wani, from her house in village Harmain in South Kashmir and killed her in
cold blood. Her alleged fault was that she had reported to the authorities
that the two terrorists belonging to Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami had raped her.
What would be the scale of terror if the army is withdrawn?
The fanatic elements represented by such organisations
as Asiya Andrabi's 'Dukhtaran-e-Millat' (Daughters of Faith) and Mian Abdul
Qayoom's 'Forum Against Social Evils' have been frequently intimidating the
common Kashmiris to follow the 'true Islamic way of life'. The attempt is
to fundamentalise the Kashmiri Islam, which has been traditionally liberal
in outlook and synertic in practice.
The central message of Kashmir's patron saint
and the founder of the Rishi Order, Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani, was: "There
is one God/But with a hundred names/There is not a single blade of grass/
Which does not worship Him". It was Sheikh's preaching that kept the
Kashmiri ethos within the overall cultural mainstream of India even after
a very large part of the Valley's population had been brought within the fold
of Islam. The followers of the Rishi Order abhorred killing. Like the Jains,
they were careful not to harm even to insects. Sheikh Nooruddin went to extent
of refusing to walk on the grass lest it should be damaged.
It is this texture of Kashmiri Islam that
is sought to be changed, radicalised and put in the extremists' mould of Wahhabism.
The modus operandi for doing so is plain coercion. Under the cover of removing
'moral evils' from the society, the places of entertainment are aggressively
picketed and all modes of behaviour which the demonstrators consider are not
in accordance with the strict tenets of Islam are denounced. The people are
virtually forced into submission.
The cool calculation is to raise the tempo
of religious frenzy, expel the liberal strand of Islam from the mindscape
of the common Kashmiri, fill the vacated space with the rigid and virulent
form of Islam and inject the ideological virus of extremism for ever in the
body-politic of the State. In case this calculation materialises, pro-Pakistan
elements would achieve what they have so far failed to achieve through the
techniques of terror and subversions.
If, on the other hand, anyone tries to strengthen
the traditional Islam of Kashmir and show its liberal and moderate face, he
is hounded out. In November 2006, Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, a preacher of comparatively
liberal Brelavi sect was severely intimidated by way of a bomb explosion caused
by the fanatical followers of Jamaat-e-Islami and Tablighi Jammat. In absence
of army or its adequate presence, the level of this type of intimidation of
liberal elements is bound to go up.
Equally unjustified is the demand for withdrawal
of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. By and large, the conduct of the Indian
army has been commendable. As a part of the propaganda by the terrorist-outfits,
a number of concocted or highly exaggerated stories about human rights violations
are circulated in the media. Quite a few overzealous human rights activists
also fall into the trap of the anti-national forces. The army has the mechanism
to deal with the violators. Out of the 890 complaints it received, during
the period January 1990-April 2006, 854 were investigated. Only 24 were found
to have some substance. 47 soldiers and officers were punished, some with
even rigorous imprisonment. There have, in fact, been quite a few cases in
which the officers have lost their own lives in order to save innocent people
from being killed in cross fire.
The individual misconduct of officers and
'jawans', either under provocation or otherwise, cannot be avoided in any
army. Even the army of one of the most democratic and civilised country of
the world, the United States, had to suffer in reputation on account of what
has been called "sadistic, blatant and criminal acts" committed
by some of its soldiers at Abu Gharaib in Iraq. The test of bonafides of the
army lies in its mechanism of accountability. In this regard, it should also
be kept in mind that if the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is withdrawn
from the state of Jammu & Kashmir, similar demands are bound to be made
with increased intensity in the north-eastern states.
An intriguing question that demands an answer
in connection with newly acquired posture of People's Democratic Party is:
Why a leader of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's standing, who has in the past played
a significant role in strengthening the bonds of Kashmir with the rest of
India and who has held the high office of the Union Home Minister, should
be exposing the state of Jammu & Kashmir to new dangers? The answer, in
main, lies in the destructive traditions of the State's politics. From the
very day of accession, the State's leadership, with a few notable exceptions,
has always placed personal and party interests above those of the country
in general and of the State in particular. Is it not the time for Mufti to
rise above this unfortunate tradition and to rethink his stand and also for
the Union Government not to vacillate or yield to unjustified pressure?
(The writer is a former Governor of Jammu
& Kashmir and a former Union Minister. He can be contacted at E-48, Panchsheel
Park, New Delhi-110 117, E-mail: kjagmohan@rediffmail.com)
