Dr Ajay Chrungoo
Subversive war in Jammu and Kashmir is not only about keeping the destabilizing internal security challenges alive through calibrated terrorist attacks from time to time. In the recent past it has been more about successfully deploying blinkers on the policy making about internal security by using the democratic space and the fault lines in the nation building processes in the country. Separatist establishment through its subversive tentacles has forced the government at the helms to focus primarily on managing public perception more than the impending security challenges.
In the last week of February this year, a “confidential document” of the J&K Police was made available to the print media. It contained the data of the latest census conducted by the state police about the number of active terrorists operating in the Kashmir province. As per this census 104 terrorists are active in the province out of which 60 percent are of foreign origin.
The self patting by the State Police and the administration, after they made the census of the active terrorists operating in Kashmir province public and the State Police Chief proclaimed decimation of the terrorist command structure in the state, must have been still on when the terrorists struck in a big way in Pulwama town of South Kashmir, followed by a major strike in Kathua district of Jammu province.
In Pulwama, the incident took place outside the well guarded court complex. Two terrorists fired upon the two cops on routine duty from a close range. One of the cops died on the spot while the other succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.
These strikes were not merely for rebutting the government claims. They have been followed by a spate of strikes with an alarming frequency. Just a few days back on April 13, two policemen were killed in a terrorist attack on the house of a NC leader at Khrew area near Srinagar in Kashmir province. Two Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists were killed in the subsequent police action. Days before this terrorist strike near Srinagar, on April 8, three security personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer of Rashtriya Rifles, and two terrorists were killed in a fierce encounter in the frontier Kupwara district of North Kashmir. The encounter and the exchange of fire continued throughout the night. The terrorists who were killed belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba. Huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the place of encounter.
On March 28th, a major fidayeen terrorist attack on the Army camp in Kali Bari, Kathua of the Jammu province near the LOC, took place. Three heavily armed terrorists intercepted a Bolero near Dayalachack, Kathua in the Jammu province, asked its occupants to alight after separating the driver. They sprayed bullets on the disembarked passengers and drove away. After two and a half hours at 7.15 am, they stormed the Army’s III rocket camp some 15 kilometers from Dayalachack at Janglote. An alert sentry repulsed the attack and then in a day long encounter all the three terrorists were killed. An army jawan and two civilians were also killed in the terrorist attack.
Whether the terrorist had come from across the LoC or from inside is still not clear. However in the last two major terrorist attacks on LoC, one in Keran sector of Kashmir province and the other one in Samba district of Jammu province, the fidayeen squads had come from inside.
The attacks on military targets and the attempts to capture territorial pockets along the LoC, orchestrated not from across the border but from inside in the hinter land, as the Keran episode depicted, reflects the graduation of the strategic and tactical perspectives of terrorist regimes operating in the state to a different level.
The assessment of the State Police about the fast depleting manpower of the terrorist regimes on the ground becomes doubtful because the latest terrorist strikes show that terrorist cadres are being deployed directly in very high risk operations. Terrorist regimes faced with depletion of manpower usually resort to using IEDs and Hand grenades to conserve its manpower.
This disconnect in the assessment of the Government about the internal security situation and the capability of the terrorist regimes operating on the ground to unhinge the apparently normal situation in no time will be a prime security concern in any other country. The disconnect, nonetheless, reflects critical flaws in the analytical approach of the Government at the helms in assessing the ground situation.
Normalcy/Abnormalcy Discourse
The political discourse on the internal security situation and the consequent Government policies in Jammu and Kashmir exhibit the features of oversimplification, trivialization and reduction. This discourse has defined normalcy or abnormalcy relying predominantly on three indicators:
i) Number of violent terrorist acts in relation to corresponding earlier period.
ii) Number of active terrorists operating on the ground.
iii) Conduct of the tourist season and Amarnath pilgrimage
Two more indicators in addition to the above have also been deployed once in a while, however reluctantly, but mainly by the security establishment. These are:
i) Infiltration bids along the Line of Actual Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) in relation to the corresponding earlier period.
ii) Firing incidents across LoC and IB in relation to the corresponding earlier period.
Political leadership in the State has, however, related the infiltration attempts more to the efficiency of the security establishment rather than the relentless and unabated campaign of low -intensity war being waged in the state. Similarly firing incidents along LoC and IB have been put in the domain of the Foreign or Defense policy rather than indicators of continuity of internal destabilization.
This model of assessment of normalcy or abnormalcy in the State deployed by the political class leaves many issues unexplained. They are briefly elucidated below here:
1) If terrorist acts and the number of active terrorists have decreased decisively then does its impact reflect in the political environment in the State particularly in the Valley?
Why are both the regional parties in Kashmir valley , Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which ruled earlier in alliance with the Congress and National Conference(NC) which is ruling presently in alliance with the Congress, both maintaining the position that democratically elected Governments in the state are only a day to day arrangement to take care of local needs. Is this the result of the all encompassing coercion, which even the supposedly decreased level of militancy in the State is still capable of exerting on the political class on the ground? Decreased militancy should have lead to decreased coercion on the ground and the exuding of confidence of the mainstream political class.
If the position taken by PDP and NC that their participation in elections and subsequently in the democratically elected Government is just an arrangement to take care of the day to day needs of the people it is just the stand which the separatists would want and in fact Hurriat Conference, both factions, have taken from time to time. It means the democratic regime is functioning through a process of self-delegitimisation or has become an instrument of legitimization of separatism. This reality when seen in the light of the presence of active terrorists, whatever their number may be, on the ground capable of inflicting violence in the civil domain and on the Governmental apparatus as well as security establishment and also the increasing grip of the separatists on the local political order and democratic space, presents a grimmer picture of the ground situation than the Government would like people to believe.
The killing and intimidation of the members of local Panchayats and the public resignations of many of them demonstrates the concrete coercion deployed by the terrorist regimes on the ground. But more glaring is the impact of this coercion. The members of Panchayats who have resigned and those who have chosen not to do so and the family members of the Panchs who were killed have meticulously avoided blaming the terrorism for their predicament. Instead all of them have invariably blamed the Governments in the state and the Center for one reason or the other. This inability to stand up to the challenges posed by the terrorist regimes and a universal tendency not to give any affront to the terrorist cause indicates the sway and the reach of the fear which the existing levels of militancy are still exerting on the internal environment of the state.
2) If the terrorist acts and the number of active terrorists have decreased then has its impact enhanced the freedom of expression of the society?
Terrorism in a society invariably undermines freedom of expression. Terror strangulates the capability of normal dissent of a people living in a society. It seeks to enforce conformity in the public discourse where diversity of opinion becomes a taboo and a disqualification. Dissent becomes a risk. Weakening of the grip of terrorism on the society reflects in re-emergence of dissent and tolerance to dissent. In Kashmir we are yet to witness emergence of free speech and dissent. This is despite the claim of the State Government that terrorism has decreased by more than a margin of fifty percent.
In fact a reverse phenomenon of increasing conformity has been seen in last few years. Not only the behavior of the political class but also that of civil society groups and NGOs and the local media is showing an attitude of brazen conformity. Acts of alleged human rights violation by the security forces are taken into notice suo motto and campaigns of media trials and civil society protests get unleashed instantaneously complimented by prompt endorsements or recognition by the mainstream political establishment as well as the political leadership at the helms. The acts of atrocities by the terrorist regimes rarely get a suo motto attention. Whenever they come to light they fade away soon due to lack of attention and dearth of takers in the domain of media, civil society groups and the mainstream political parties.
Take the case of the alleged rape and murder of two ladies of Shopian which has plagued the public discourse for last few years and led to a protracted civil unrest in the area. Conformity in the public and political behavior was evident from the very moment the gruesome act came to public light. Even though no evidence was available to link the incident with Army, yet, from the word go, campaign of blaming the army was unleashed through direct or indirect insinuations from the leadership at the helms as well political leaders of various hues including the separatists. When it came to the public domain that not the army but personnel of the State Police were allegedly involved in the affair the discourse continued to blame Army and the paramilitary forces. The Civil Society groups, the local media, the separatist and the mainstream leadership demonstrated an amazing conformity. And even after it came to light that the local doctor had tampered with the forensic evidence including the vaginal smear to prove that it was a rape it did not cause any outrage. The conformity has been brazenly apparent in ignoring such facts which can change the entire context of the issue and allowing them to fade away from the public memory.
This voluntary censorship and abstinence by the civil society is visible in almost all cases were terrorist regimes are explicitly involved in acts of human rights violation. Selective killings by the terrorists never become the focus of human rights campaigners. The matter is allowed to fade into oblivion or at the most may be put to rest by a symbolic condemnation.
The Kashmiri Hindu employees who have been recruited in Kashmir valley in last few years as per the Prime Minister’s employment package have put themselves on record through many written testimonies that they are experiencing routine communal harassment at their work places and in an atmosphere of intimidation most of them are unable to speak about it.
Same is the case of the Sikh minority living in the valley. The regular conversions of their women folk, and the harassment which they experience every now and then, find expression rarely in the public domain. And whenever such issues come to the fore their leaders have to come out with statements like the threatened Panchayat members blaming the Government for their plight rather than the shadow of the gun and the communal campaign which looms large in every nook and corner there.
The Christian Pastor in Srinagar was charged by the so called Supreme Court of Shariat that he was indulging in conversions of local Muslims to Christian faith. He was grilled during a hearing of this pseudo-court and the local police issued a warrant against him. He had to run to Jammu to seek a bail against the warrant issued against him as no lawyer was prepared to plead his case in the valley court.
The ladies rock band which played Sufi poetry in Srinagar had to withdraw after a reprimand by the Muslim clergy. The young Muslim girls who were part of the rock band had to withdraw and lie low. The leader of the PDP and former cabinet Minister Sh Muzaffar Beg publicly admitted that fear and intimidation was ruling the roost in the valley in response to the religious ban on the ladies rock band.
This increasing conformity to the dictates of the fundamentalists and separatists is either an expression of the extent of coercion which the terrorist regimes are capable of exercising on the public mind or an endorsement of the agenda which terrorist regimes are pursuing. In an atmosphere of fading militancy conformity should also fade away.
(The author is Chairman Panun Kashmir)
Follow our WhatsApp channel