Why Kashmir is burning? Truth about the crisis and its roots.
The word crisis is not new for the residents of Kashmir valley. But last year they realised that the situation was on boil and it had never been worse. After Indian security forces killed Burhan Wani, a young militant commander of Kashmiri terrorist group Hizbul-mujaheddin, on 8 July 2016, violent protests sparked in almost all of Indian administered Kashmir and some parts of Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The state is in turmoil since then.
Young men and women, who saw Burhan as a leader of Kashmir’s freedom movement tahreek-e-azadi, are seen protesting and targeting Indian security forces every day. With protesting ways as harmless as raising anti-India slogans to as violent as pelting stones on Army soldiers, situation is quite tense.
But to understand the roots of this crisis, we need to go back in time. Not one or two years back, we have to go seventy years back. The year was 1947. After a huge economic loss in world war 2 and pressure from rising freedom movements, Great Britain(now UK) decided to free India from it’s empire which spanned almost one third on the planet’s landmass. The responsibility of smooth transition of power was given to Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of British Raj. A partition plan was presented in house of commons and it was proposed that India will be divided in two dominion — India and Pakistan.
The task was not easy because India, which is now a single undivided nation was made up of thousands of independent princely states and presidencies. Princely states were ruled by Maharajahs of royal families. According to the partition plan it was left on these princely states to decide which dominion (India or Pakistan) they want to join or if they want to remain independent. Kashmir was one of such state rules by the royal family of Maharajah Hari Singh.
Maharajah Hari Singh decided to remain independent. But because the partition was done on the basis of religion and Kashmir was a muslim majority state and Hari singh was from a Hindu family, Gilgit Scouts (a paramilitary organisation set up by British army and constituting of local muslims) joined hands with Pakistani army and revolted against the maharajah. Pakistan also sent it’s own irregular army from North West Frontier Province to raid Kashmir. News of loots, violence and rapes by raiders spread. Hari Singh asked India for help and joined the dominion of India after signing an instrument of accession. On 27 October 1947, Indian Army set foot on Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian Army freed some parts but could not make Pakistan leave all of territory. There was a stand off and Pakistani army refused to step back. Then prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru took the matter to united nations security counsel. The counsel advised both nations to demilitarise Kashmir, step back and create pre-independence conditions in Kashmir. Both nations refused to back off and the plebiscite was never applied. Now Pakistan had control on a vast area of north-western Kashmir which was now officially an Indian state.
In 1965 and 1971 Indian and Pakistan fought two major wars over this dispute. After that a agreement was signed in which a line of control was to be marked between Indian and Pakistani administered Kashmir.
One thing to note here is that as soon as Kashmir acceded to India, Sheikh Abdullah became state’s prime minister(as the chief minister of J&K was called before 1965). He went out of the favour of central government of India and was dismissed from the position only to be appointed again as chief minister in 1974. Soon after his death his son Farooq Abdullah formed an alliance with Indian Nation Congress(the ruling party of India) and stood for elections in 1987. His opponents blamed that the elections was conducted in favour of Abdullah. This led to an uprising in Kashmir, in part by those who did not have a chance to win, and this uprising later became the Kashmir insurgency.
Many rebel groups or separatists took up arms. Some wanted Kashmir to be a part of Pakistan and others were in favour of an Independent Kashmir. Soon this escalated to regular fighting between armed forces and rebels. Thousands of people died in this conflict. In 1990 Armed Forces(Special Powers) act, AFSPA was declared in the state which grant security forces the following powers.
- Arrest without a warrant and carry a search without consent.
- After given warning fire upon and use other force like pellet, which may cause serious injury or even death, against the person who didn’t obey rules of disturbed areas.
- Stop and search any vehicle or vessel reasonably carrying suspected thing.
- After taken in custody the person is handed over to nearest police station as soon as possible.
- Army officer have legal immunity for their action and there can be no prosecution, suit and other legal proceeding against anyone acting under the law.
The rebel or terrorist organisations, are believed to be backed by Pakistan’s intelligence service ISI. Since then these organisations and Indian special forces fight on a regular bases. Many people have lost their lives.
The situation calmed down a bit after 2004 (In 2003, terrorists attacked Indian parliament) but it again escalated in 2008 and now the is on its peak.
Almost every day Indian TV channels shouts of sad news of martyred soldiers, died civilians and encountered terrorists. Young men, after every namaaz session on Friday, protests against Army and raises anti-India slogans. These protests often turns violent when protesters throw stones and security forces have no other options than firing pellet guns. many times innocent people are the who suffers.
In my opinion this problem deserves world’s attention and if it is not solved soon, Kashmir will continue burning. India and Pakistan now have hundreds of nuclear missiles aiming at each other. And if another war broke out the entire South Asian subcontinent will be vanished in ashes.
