Afzal The Martyr

The Call

I was woken up by a call at 9:00 a.m on 9th February, 2013,”Afzal Guru has been hanged in Tihar Jail” said the voice on the other side. This was something that almost every Kashmiri knew would happen one day but no one thought that it would come so soon and this sudden. There were no good bye calls to his wife or words of love and wisdom for his son, and no blessings from his mother. He died amongst strangers. The great nation was happy, justice had been served, a strong point made. The bad guy met his fate in the gallows and the good guys rejoiced in their achievement.

I hung up the call and slept back, thinking how could they have not analyzed the impact of this in the valley ahead of time?

The rest of the day was filled with news channels airing debates, exclusives, interviews and some showing concern for how this will affect the lives of common Kashmiris. What transpired in Kashmir was a strict curfew, restriction in movement, stone pelting and the usual response by the security forces to control the situation by use of force.

Afzal Guru hanged: What did we learn?

I remembered a conversation that I had a few years earlier with a friend who was visiting Kashmir. Afzal Guru’s case was still going on at that time although the loopholes in the case were becoming increasingly evident. During the course of conversation I asked him what he thought would happen here in Kashmir if Afzal is hanged? His immediate response was “I am afraid if our (un)wise leadership think it’s a good idea to hang the poor guy, we might be facing a very motivated generation of children who won’t think twice before killing or getting killed”. The latter part has come true with an increase in local youth joining militancy and Burhan becoming the new face of insurgency on social media. Though this rise can’t be contributed directly to Guru’s hanging, it can’t be denied that the youth saw the hanging as a message that the rule of law comes secondary when the state and centre deals with Kashmiris.

“Afzal Guru hanged: What did we learn?” This was the caption that was flashed again and again on one of the news channels for some time.

So what did we learn?

We learned was that the protests in 2008 were unexpected, 2009 was a fallout of 2008 and 2010 was simply a failure on the part of those in power to listen. But those in power did succeed in breeding hatred in kids by arresting them and showing them a side of the law that would make them immune to human emotions or regard for life. From playgrounds and school rooms they were taken to lockups and court rooms. They were taught the meaning of word torture — no surprise that many of them left the lockup as changed individuals and picked up a gun to fight the state.

There are people analyzing the outcome of the hanging and its effect on Kashmir in the newspapers and on television but, for a common Kashmiri like myself, it became clear that they had no idea how profound the impact of Guru’s hanging would be in Kashmir.

If hanging Maqbool Bhat ignited the flame of first insurgency in the Valley, how could anyone think that hanging Afzal Guru would not do the same?

New Chapter

Afzal Guru was a case that was debated, dissected and followed by many. It was a case of resistance in the making all these years — children in Kashmir grew up hearing about it, watching it on television, hearing prominent lawyers calling the whole case as a sham. Now that Afzal is no more and his family has been denied the right to lay his body to rest, a new chapter has opened in the Kashmir book.

The collective consciousness of the people has made Afzal Guru a martyr.

It has made it possible for the conflict to stay alive in the Valley. The money will still flow, politics will still be played, people will still be angry and mothers will still lose everything. Maybe all of this won’t happen tomorrow, next month or next year, but some where the anger and the hatred will spill onto the streets time and again. The trial of Afzal was a media trial that gave reason and motivation to a new generation of Kashmiri youth to see India as the oppressor who should be fought until death. It’s not a mere coincidence that there has been a spike in militancy-related incidents in the valley in the last few years. The conflict is not just resting on support from across the border anymore — the vast majority of militants are home grown and locally trained and, at some level, most of them saw the hanging as a sign to pick up arms and fight the state.