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| Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain |
-Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain
"...Kashmiri perception finds reflection rather confirmation from the letter of Afzal Guru to his lawyer. He has clearly stated that those who assigned the job of facilitation of accommodation for attackers were members of the notorious task force of J&K police. Since two year long mobilization of forces failed to yield any results the operation needed to be covered up, for that purpose some Kashmiri had to be implicated and hanged..."
A conflict zone often becomes an arena of dirty games of intelligence agencies where morality, law and human life take a back seat and everything is decided on the basis of tactical considerations. On advent of Bill Clinton, Kashmir experienced massacre of innocent Sikh villagers to portray Kashmir Muslims as a xenophobic community before the visiting dignitary. In order to cover-up the operation some Muslim boys were picked up and gunned down as culprits. The fact was confirmed by Pandian Commission. In 2010 some boys from Sopore were lured for recruitment as porters in army and subsequently gunned down on line of control as intruders for securing gallantry awards for ‘valiant soldiers’.
Having lived in such an atmosphere Kashmiris have become skeptical. It is this skepticism that made them to perceive parliament attack as an orchestrated act. Mostly people over here perceive it to be an act of same type as was accomplished prior to 1971 war through hijacking of an aeroplane from New Delhi and its burning down at Lahore airport. At that time immediately euphoria overtook JKLF camp which was a little known and marginalized group at that juncture. They perceived it to be repetition of what Palestinians were doing through hijacking of aeroplanes and getting a lot of media coverage.
Maqbool Bhat welcomed Hashim Qureshi but subsequently it was established through a Pakistani court of law that the action was an operation of security agencies. Simply a prelude to 1971 war, aimed at blocking of the air transit facility between East Pakistan and West Pakistan and the act provided a pretext for India to do so. There were so many in India who wished to go for similar adventurism on analogy of 9/11 attacks that were used by Americans as a ploy to target Afghanistan.
Parliament attack occurred in this scenario and no one among Kashmiri militant groups owned it. BJP wanted to use parliament attack as a pretext for a similar attack against Pakistan. Bereft of any understanding of futility of such an exercise in a nucleraised sub-continent BJP government in fact did mobilize more than five hundred thousand troops on Pakistan border after this attack. The mobilization remained there for 22 months without any result.
Kashmiri perception finds reflection rather confirmation from the letter of Afzal Guru to his lawyer. He has clearly stated that those who assigned the job of facilitation of accommodation for attackers were members of the notorious task force of J&K police. Since two year long mobilization of forces failed to yield any results the operation needed to be covered up, for that purpose some Kashmiri had to be implicated and hanged.
A Kashmiri because he is presumed to be a terrorist unless otherwise proved. Afzal thus became an scapegoat whose guilt couldn't be established thus had to be targeted more to ‘satisfy collective conscience of society‘rather than demands of justice. Afzal joined militancy as a nationalist. Like other JKLF militants he surrendered and wanted to live a normal life. Far from embarking upon rehabilitation of former militants state in Kashmir makes it a point to unable such persons to settle down. For every job one has to get a non-involvement certificate from police which is seldom issued. Vulnerable, jobless former militants are then used for accomplishment of all the dirty jobs relevant or irrelevant to operations of security agencies.
Guru too faced the same situation. He addresses his last letter to whole Ummah. His participation in insurgency and tryst with Indian security establishment transformed him and he became a religious person. From a nationalist he became a devout pan-Islamist. A militant who had given up the gun was pushed to gallows thus making him a martyr for his nation. A state which boasts about democracy and human rights wasn't courteous enough to facilitate or allow a decent burial to a martyr. Right to decent burial is an inherent and inalienable right available to every human being even if he happens to be a rival combatant.
It is enshrined in Geneva Conventions to which India is a party. Denial of this right and no-communication to family constitutes a crime against humanity and a blot on human rights record of India. Ordeals of Afzal Guru remain the experience of all those who had given up the gun in varying degrees. They are pushed to a situation where inhuman and degrading treatment becomes their destiny. One whole generation of Kashmir is being articulated in the same way.
Timing and manner of hanging Afzal Guru is reflection of the parochial mindset that has been hallmark of Indian politics since pre-partition days. Pandit Nehru vetoed the Cabinet Mission Plan to ensure his ascendance to prime minister’s position without any hindrance. He became prime minister but British India got divided in two dominions. Indira Gandhi promoted extremism in Punjab to score electoral gains against Akalis and was consumed by it. India had to pay a heavy price in the form of Punjab insurgency. Rajiv Gandhi resorted to adventurism in Sri Lanka and became a victim of it. He opened the doors of Babri Masjid and ensured Congress ouster from power. With elections in near future Afzal Guru’s hanging was pursued with political motives igniting the dormant volcano of Kashmir, deepening the state’s sense of deprivation with unanticipated immediate and remote repercussions for whole of the subcontinent.
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Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain is an .
He can be contacted at showkat_Hussain@rediffmail.com .