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Kashmir mayhem and isolating Musharraf

The Indian government's decision to release several Kashmiri separatists from the All Party Hurriyat Conference is an interesting gamble: On the one hand, it attempts to take the high road; on the other, it is perhaps meant for propaganda purposes. Perhaps, to be charitable, it is a genuine attempt at WHAM -- winning the hearts and minds of the people.

I am dubious, however. All sorts of palaver with these people, even if they actually have any popular support, will never put an end to the proxy war waged by Pakistan in the region. The war is a necessity for Pakistan's self-image and their army's existence.

Furthermore, I am baffled by all the talk of the special nature of the Kashmiris -- the 'Kashmiriyat' thing. I fail to understand why they are so different from other Indians that none of us can buy land in that state. There is a school of thought that the only permanent solution is demographic warfare -- flood the state with people from other parts of India -- exactly as the Pakistanis have filled Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with Punjabis. Or China with Han Chinese in Tibet. Or Israel with Jewish settlers in Palestine.

However, Kashmiris are by law, entitled to the same considerations and rights that all Indians are entitled to and therefore, I mourn the recent deaths of civilians. On the one hand, there are allegations that five people who were killed by the security forces were in fact non-combatants. They were said to be suspects in the massacre of 35 Sikhs in Anantnag during the Clinton visit.

On the other hand, there were seven people killed in firing in Barrakpore during a demonstration about the above incident. It appears that a number of (foreign?) militants infiltrated this demonstration and opened fire on the security forces. Civilians were killed in the crossfire.

In both cases, I am distressed that some civilians were killed, mostly Muslim Kashmiris. DNA tests have been conducted and if I am not mistaken it has been shown that the five suspects were not foreigners but locals. I am not sure if they were known militants or whether they were innocent civilians. This is important -- if they were in fact militants who had butchered the Sikhs, even if they were locals, it is hard to sympathise with them. The human rights of the outlaw and the renegade are not greater than the human rights of their victims.

In any case, these are unfortunate incidents. I am shocked at the alleged mistreatment of civilians. The press in India has, rightly, taken a stand on these incidents and has accused the state government and the armed forces of high-handed and callous behavior.

I do believe there are some extenuating circumstances -- especially in the shooting incident. When militants can easily infiltrate a supposedly civilian demonstration, there is something very wrong going on. The armed forces, when shot at, are justified in shooting back in self-defense. The civilian casualties are, in the clinical terminology of the Americans, "collateral damage."

Yet this is clearly a setback to the WHAM campaign. As observers point out, no insurgency can be sustained without the voluntary or coerced cooperation of civilians. I think it is clear that a number of civilian Kashmiris collaborate with militants. Some are perhaps jihadists, but others are probably just fed up with the Farooq Abdullah government. How do you win the hearts and minds of people under these circumstances? I have no idea. I hope someone knows.

Here is a rhetorical question -- why is the media so loud when hollering about the violations of human rights of Muslims, but not of Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir? The following report was in the Hindustan Times of March 30, 2000. No other paper carried this truly ghoulish story, reproduced here in its entirety. Thanks to reader Suprabha who directed me to it and it is on their web site too:

Police torture cripples SPOs, one killed

HT Correspondent (Jammu, March 29)

'A junior police official and his associates are believed to have unleashed a reign of terror on seven men for seven days. The men had apparently helped the army fight militancy.

'Seven men, belonging to a particular community, were rounded up on charges of theft but instead of being taken to the police station, they were reportedly illegally detained and tortured. Retribution allegedly ranged from peeling of skin to sucking of human blood, throwing kerosene, castration and much else.

'This punishment for helping counterinsurgency forces was inflicted in a village in Doda district less than a fortnight ago and it haunts the victims even today. While one of them is dead, the others are battling for their lives.

'Five of the victims were working as special police officers (SPOs) with the Delta Force of Rashtriya Rifles that is leading the anti-militancy operations in Doda district in the Pirpanjal Range of the Himalayas. The SPOs are recruited by the security forces to serve as local guides.

'When senior grade constable Showkat Ali led a party to investigate a case of burglary in the house of Ashraf Hussain of Amritgarh village, his intentions were clear from the outset. Though the FIR had named no suspects, he reportedly conducted raids on the houses of seven persons: Daya Krishan, Om Prakash, Vipin Lal, Mohinder Singh and Anar Singh (all SPOs), Nain Bhat and Uttam Singh.

'The hapless seven are said to have been rounded up and taken to a remote corner of Amritgarh village where they were confined for seven days before being taken to the Kraraa police station. It was during this period -- from March 8 to March 14 -- that the seven members of a particular community were allegedly subjected to barbaric torture. Daya Krishan, who was castrated, died. Showkat Ali and his associates, in a gory display of cannibalism, even ate the dismembered body parts of Daya Krishan. The six others are in a critical condition.

'The policeman and five others -- Abdul Rashid, Khurshid, Abdul Razak, Mohammad Shafi and Mohammad Ayub -- have been arrested. Further investigation against them is in progress. This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Mushtaq Ahmad Lone in a statement in the State Legislative Council where this issue was first raised by sole BJP member Daya Krishan Kotwal on Tuesday.

'Interestingly, Mohammad Ayub and Abdul Rashid were also SPOs. Om Prakash, who is under treatment in the Government Medical College hospital, told media persons that the nightmare continued unceasingly for seven days. "Sometimes Showkat would beat us, then he peeled off Daya Krishan's skin and then castrated him." He said the police official would suck the blood of the victims after inflicting wounds. He would then "hurl abuses at us and say 'call your army jawans whom you help against the Mujahideen.' There was no mercy shown to us."

'Two of the victims, Mohinder Singh and Anar Singh, were reportedly let off on March 13 after their relatives paid a bribe of Rs 8,000 to Showkat Ali, a fact that was admitted by the Home Minister in his statement in the House as well. The release of the rest of them came when the locals sought the army's help. The incident has sent shock waves throughout the state.'

As is usual with the 'secular', 'progressive' Indian media, nobody cares about the torture and murder of Hindus. And where are the human rights mafia? Imagine the fuss if these victims were Muslims or Christians!

And this is more than communal, it is anti-national -- notice that it is a state policeman in Jammu's Doda district who is 'punishing' those involved in counter-insurgency operations. And others also putatively in the same counter-insurgency operation took part in these monstrous deeds. With friends like these, no wonder the Rashtriya Rifles are vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

On a different topic altogether, I am appalled at the Indian foreign ministry's antics at the Non-Aligned Movement in Cartagena, Colombia. The Indians are congratulating themselves no end, I am sure that the NAM has agreed to exclude all 'military-run states'. This the Indians consider another famous victory in isolating the military dictator Musharraf's regime in Pakistan.

I think this is an incredible waste of time and effort, for several reasons: 1. Nobody cares about the opinions of NAM anyway -- it is a relic of the Cold War and I think India should formally resign from NAM. India needs to persuade lesser nations to now align with it, not be unaligned with anybody. A better idea -- send Sitaram Yechuri, Kuldip Nayyar, Shabana Azmi and Praful Bidwai as permanent Indian representatives to NAM. That will keep them occupied and out of mischief in India.

2. Pakistan has been isolated enough without India doing very much. The snubs by Turkey and Malaysia must have stung especially hard, them being Muslim states. The Americans also made it clear that for their own reasons, they will keep Pakistan at arm's length. India's point is pretty clear to all concerned and we should 'stop selling after the sale is over.'

3. It is easy enough for some country far away to not deal with Pakistan, but India has to have some kind of dialogue with Pakistan as they are, alas, our neighbour. Therefore we need to keep some lines of communication open with them, as I said in my column 'The General in his Labyrinth' immediately after the coup.

4. Let us not get misty-eyed about Pakistan's civilian rulers. Let's see, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif. I may have missed something, but was any of them particularly chummy with India? They represent the wishes of vocal Pakistanis -- and they seem to be quite anti-India. So what's the difference between talking to a hostile elected person and a hostile military dictator? At least in the latter case, you are dealing with the real power, not his proxy masquerading as a democrat.

5. This effort shows that the Indian obsession with Pakistan continues, alas. Let go, dear Jaswant Singh et al Could you try to pretend India is not the equal of a tinpot dictatorship? That India has bigger fish to fry than a bunch of ghazal-singing jihadists? That you should be spending your efforts building a Southeast Asian/East Asian alliance to contain China?

Rajeev Srinivasan