Jammu and Kashmir Changing/Evolving Context The Rise in High Intensity Conflict By Zaheer Khan: Advocacy and Data Management Coordinator: Handicap International
New paradigm shift pulls Kashmir back to bloody war of 90 s Map indicating the highly volatile districts of Indian held Kashmir It is hard to demarcate the onset and end of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. The impacts are severely affecting the people especially civilians. Whereas peace is the biggest causality in the state which is sandwiched in between the two Asian nuclear powers. The only thing unchanged since the dawn of first armed insurgency during 1980s remains is uncertainty. With more than a decade s distance when the calls of peace were finally in the air and political analysts termed Kashmir as low intensity conflict, the hope for peace was lingering with the voting out of long reigning Kashmir s pro-indian mainstream National Conference from power in 2002 Assembly elections. For a couple of years from 2002 violence-weary Kashmiris turned their backs on the militancy with their hopes tied on the newly elected People s Democratic Party s (PDP) agenda of Self Rule to address their grievances. By the mid-2004, militancy was clearly in decline. Bitter internal fighting among the militant groups (HM breakdown/killing of Divisional Operational Commander by its own cadres) and India s counterinsurgency operations weakened the militant umbrella of 13 organisations operating from Pakistani Kashmir. But also, with public support evaporating the militancy lost its justification. However, just after few years uncertainty enveloped the state again with civilian mass uprisings in August 2008. In the mean-time the whole of the state turned to mass protests that saw many Kashmiri youngsters shot dead or grievously injured. However, still militancy was not seen to be an option and calls for a return to arms evoked little or no public response, despite 2008 and 2010 mass uprisings witnessing more than 200 unarmed civilian teenagers dead on the streets of Kashmir. Since the mid-2015, Kashmir has seen a new breed of militants, almost all of them local, and the way people have been joining funerals of the slain militants also defines a new paradigm-shift of new conflict in Kashmir. Militants are hero-worshipped for the first time in more than two decades with the unprecedented rise of public support openly showcasing the fight against the Indian state. To such an analogy things appear to have been changing in the Valley over the past few years. As the crowds at funerals indicate, militants are emerging heroes again and worryingly alarming the notorious conflict of 90s. Public support for militants has also been on display during armed encounters between the militants and security forces. Civilians pull together at sites where search operations or gun battles rage and engage in the Indian troops by stone-pelting and sloganeering so that militants can escape. As for violence-related fatalities, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed 117 in 2012, 181 in 2013, 193 in 2014 and 174 in 2015, with civilians accounting for a small fraction only. A child running for his life after security forces hit tear gas shell in Down Town area of Summer Capital Srinagar (Courtesy Kashmir Media) However the 2016 turns out to be one of the furious and bloody year for the Jammu and Kashmir. The frequency of encounters between Indian forces and militants in June this year has been recorded two encounters per day.
Kashmir witnessed around 87 militant deaths; and around 50 causalities of Indian Security forces during more than 30 encounters in the first six months of 2016, which is multiple times higher than the previous years. Moreover, the number of violent clashes, including stone pelting incidents, which left more than six civilian deaths and hundreds injured this year, crossed the 100 mark in just first six months. On the other hand civilian uprising with everyday clashes of youth and Indian security forces on the streets of Jammu and Kashmir, which has witnessed the killings of more than ten civilian youth and hundreds injured in the last four months is dragging the Kashmir Valley back into chaos. This year saw an unprecedented rise in the encounters between militants and Indian army with 50 militants being eliminated in just a few beginning months, the highest number for the period in the last six years. The roots of the Kashmir issue stretch back to the partition of British India in 1947. After an aborted attempt at remaining independent, what was once South-Asia s princely state of Jammu and Kashmir got divided between the two new countries of India and Pakistan, with a de facto border known as the Line of Control. The armed rebellion against Indian rule in Kashmir started in the late 1980s. In these years of violence, the estimates of the number of people killed in Kashmir range from 70,000 to 100,000. It s a big problem, a challenge for us to conduct anti-militant operations now. And we are losing the battle for a narrative. The Indian Army has also started acknowledging the change in the state with one of the senior military commanders in Northern India, Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, recently told the Associated Press (International News Agency) that soldiers have little hope of competing against the rebels for public sympathy. It s a big problem, a challenge for us to conduct anti-militant operations now. General Hooda added that they are losing the battle for a narrative. The revival of pro-militancy sentiment is such that cricket teams in Kashmir are named like, Burhan Lions, Aabid Khan Qalandars and Khalid Aryans, which bore the names of Hizbul Mujahideen militants. The Burhan Lions for instance draw their name from 21-yearold Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the hugely popular poster boy of the militancy in Kashmir today. Youth like Burhan are part of the new generation of militants operating in the Valley. Unlike their predecessors, they are educated, well-to-do, not averse to revealing their identity and adept at using social media. Photographs and videos of their speeches calling on Kashmiri youth to pick up arms against India are immensely popular. There was an increase in incidents of suicide attacks, from two in 2014 to six in 2015. The number of explosions and resultant fatalities, however, registered increase, from 15 and six respectively in 2014 to 37 and 11 respectively in 2015. Pampore encounter, where Indian security forces suffered 29 causalities among 8 deaths after militants stormed a CRPF convoy in the outskirts of Srinagar. Youth at funeral prayers of HM militant at Kupwara Kashmir Nevertheless, the number of Districts from where fatalities were recorded increased from 13 in 2014 to 14 in 2015. According to India s Ministry of Defence (M-o-D), the number of cease fire violations had increased from 347 in 2013 to 583 in 2014. In 2015 the violations has crossed the mark of 410. In a worrying pattern, local security forces continue to desert the state s police force. In one such incident, Naseer Ahmad Pandit deserted the 11th Battalion of J&K Armed Police, guarding the house of Roads and Building Minister Altaf Bukhari, decamped with two AK rifles and two magazines in the night of March 27, 2015. After escaping, Pandit and three of his associates joined Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM). Two more such cases have already been recorded in 2016. On January 14, 2016, Constable Shakoor Ahmad Perry escaped with four AK-47 rifles from the Sub Divisional Police Officer s (SDPO) office at Bijbehara in South Kashmir s Anantnag District, where he was posted as a personal security officer to the SDPO Bijbehara, Irshad Ahmad Bhat. Furthermore there are several incidents of snatching of weapons from Indian security personnel. Kashmir is believed to be the world s highest militarized zone with a presence of over a million troops across the borders in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sample Survey: Summary Report on Services Available for People with Disabilities in Kashmir On an average there are around 125 (1.68% of total population) persons with disabilities in the below mentioned villages, out of which 36 (28%) are male, 28 (23%) are female and 61(48%) are children with disabilities. Introduction A youth lost his index finger due to tear gas shell during clashes between police forces at northern district, Kupwara on June, 24, 2016. (Coutesy: Zaheer Khan, Advocacy & Data Management Officer MRE) A sample survey was carried out by Handicap International along with its implementing partner Hope Disability Centre to identify the different type of services available for people with disabilities in Kashmir and identify impact of conflict on villages, people with disabilities and approach of government authorities towards people with disabilities. The villages of Palhallan and Kenchan were selected randomly from Pattan and Boniyar blocks of district Baramulla respectively for the purposes of survey. The survey was conducted by community workers In order to collect the data, the questions were asked to 10 persons in each village. In this analysis our results are calculated based on the average results. Observations: On an average there are around 125 (1.68% of total population) persons with disabilities in the above mentioned villages, out of which 36 (28%) are male, 28 (23%) are female and 61(48%) are children with disabilities. Furthermore it was observed that out of 125 people with disabilities around 72 persons have been disabled due to conflict which makes up to 57% of the total population of persons with disabilities and out of this 72 persons disabled due to conflict around 52 are children disabled due to conflict which makes around 72% of population affected by conflict. While calculating the services provided to people with disabilities by government it was found that only 60 (48%) of people with disabilities have received some services from government and the most affected are women with disabilities, this signifies the double discrimination towards women with disabilities, one is of being the women and second is of being disabled. The services provided by the government were not enough for a persons with disabilities to be integrated into the society, as most of the people who have received services were only provided Aids and appliance (Not of good Quality), Disability Pension & Disability Certificate, few have also received hearing aids, educational scholarship & Livelihood support and none have received physiotherapy, Prosthesis & Orthosis, occupational therapy, Speech therapy, visual aids and any kind of medical support. The Palhallan village is having 01 health Centre with 02 doctors for a population of 14206 at Palhallan and for Kenchan village there is no health centre or doctor available and they have to go to other villages for the treatment, one can imagine the amount of pressure health services is having in the village, with the result people with disabilities often get neglected, and are not able to access the health service. Like most villages of the state the conflict has not spared Palahallan and Kenchen as well, lot of children have been disabled due to conflict, many families have become dependent on others because they have lost their bread earners, people were not able to do their routine business (shops, farming), unemployment is increasing day by day, children not able to go to school regularly, women feel unsecure if they want to go to farm fields, the youths are not provided government jobs as many of them have been booked under various state acts, People with disabilities are not able to receive treatment on time and there are uninformed delay in pensions. The government is not even keen to uplift people with disabilities, they don t focus to improve health services, they don t treat them well, and they don t pay even attention to people with disabilities when they visit their offices. Clashes between Police and youth after Friday prayers in the Capital city of Srinagar
Media References https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=c_z4-8nqpbq A short video film titled, Kkashmir s New Age Militants, made by one of the top investigative journalist, Harider Baweja of India. http://www.kashmirmonitor.in/ news-we-are-losing-the- narrative-in-kashmir-goc-16- corps-105027.aspx http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/ countries/india/states/jandk/ timeline/ Pampore encounter, where Indian security forces suffered 29 causalities among 8 deaths after militants stormed a CRPF convoy in the outskirts of Srinagar. http://indianexpress.com/ article/india/india-news-india/ pampore-encounter-ends-bodiesof-two-let-terrorists-recoveredin-edi-building/ http:// www.hindustantimes.com/indianews/5-crpf-jawans-killed-inkashmir-highway-attack-twomilitants-shot-down/storyauh1u95etbvh9ajuwfxnyo.html http://zeenews.india.com/state/ jammu-and-kashmir This Year 2016 violence