Omar fails the test

Though Kashmiri youth have preferred stones to vent their desperation till now, it may not take them too long to take a different recourse if the democratic space continues to shrink
Iftikhar Gilani Delhi

Rafiabad region bordering volatile Sopore in north-Kashmir had voted overwhelmingly in November-December 2008 assembly elections (80 per cent turnout) braving guns and boycott calls. Though Kashmir watchers had been warning of a burst of violence in absence of a lack of political initiatives and pausing of dialogue process with Pakistan, they could hardly fathom that a new wave of resentment will start from this region, celebrated by analysts a year-and-half ago for rejecting separatism. 

In the last week of April, army informers had lured three village boys in this region to join as porters in the Rajputana Rifles, a regiment deployed at Macchil sector in northern-most Kupwara district. In order to win laurels and medals for checking infiltration and battling so called Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists, senior army officers posed these hapless porters as infiltrating terrorists and killed them in a fake encounter. "We never expected body bags to be returned to us in lieu of promises of employment and development," said Engineer Rashid, MLA from the nearby Langet assembly segment. 

As the hardliner leader Syed Ali Geelani called for protests against these killings, an unending spiral of violence led to 11 deaths in 19 days, mostly of people in the age group of 14-19 years. The moderate face of separatism, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, believes that the yearning for freedom has transferred to the new generation. "They are restless, impatient and will not settle for just promises and incremental progress," he told Hardnews. 

The pictures of jean-clad young boys opening their shirts and daring security personnel to shoot at them are alarming. In Sopore, where security forces were returning after killing two militants holed up in a house, they were booed by local youth on June 25. Eyewitnesses told Hardnews that tensions that consumed four lives in the town started with an argument between the youth and troopers whose vehicle had got stuck in a pothole. 

"They were teased for killing militants by using excessive force, and blasting the house with canons from a distance, instead of daring an equal and hand-on-hand battle. In response, the troopers opened fire, killing a youth on spot and injuring many," said a local youth, Raza (name changed). 

Analysts and psychologists describe it as a disturbing trend both for India as well as Pakistan, already on the edge. Any delay in a political initiative to find a widely acceptable solution to the Kashmir problem is a recipe for disaster and an open invitation to generate more "suicide bombers".  

Though the Kashmiri youth have preferred stones to vent their desperation till now, it may not take them too long to take a different recourse, if a "political and democratic" space continues to elude them. 

In Kashmir, an alliance of local National Conference (NC) and the national Congress has always proved to be politically a lethal cocktail. The Rajiv Gandhi-Farooq Abdullah accord of 1986 followed by mass rigging in 1987 elections gave birth to militancy. 
Many in Kashmir believe that people have still not forgiven the NC for the tie-up with a national party that has bestowed upon them two decades of harassment by the central forces and the militants. "The Abdullahs are trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds," says a senior NC leader.