The latest Indian military’s order for Kashmir, according to its governor, is:”climinate militancy.” In other words, it means “kill the anti-India Kashmiri youths.” This type of order was enforced in Punjab a few years ago. The result was that thousands of Sikh youths vanished from their homes and their bodies, too, disappeared. The aggrieved parents had been going to courts all these years socking to know the whereabouts of their near and dear ones, The Indian courts have been passing strikingly similar orders, directing the investigating agencies to launch criminal cases against the policemen responsible for the abductions and possible killings, The people of Kashmir had a taste of the military’s blanket order ‘On March 30 when at least 22 “militant youths” were done to death after an alleged encounter with them near the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar. The killing evoked widespread protests and the valley went on strike for days. The militants belonged to the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Siddique group). Interestingly, the group’s leaders were holding political discussions with the Indian authorities prior to their gunning down by the army.
The all party Hurriyat Conference has described the killings as “custodial deaths” and not because of any encounter, these killings come on the heels of the murder of civil rights activist Jalil Andrabi by unidentified persons but most Kashmiri political activists blame it on the Indian intelligence men. Along with the mass murders comes the move by the Indian authorities to deploy National Security Guards around 11 mosques in the valley. Officially, the reason given is that the move is aimed at thwarting the militants from desecrating the mosques. Why the N.S,G. of all the Indian security outfits? Because, apparently this outfit consists of
hardcore, well regimented upper caste Hindus who deeply hate all minorities. The real aim obviously is to capture the places of religious worship of the Muslims to frustrate the members of the community to gather at these places for their prayers and political deliberations. ‘This strategy was applied by Indian authorities around the Darbar Sahib complex in Amritsar and elsewhere in Punjab soon after the operation Blue Star in 1984. The still bigger aim appears to be to provoke and demoralize the Kashmiri people so that they do not participate in the ensuing election. Even the pro India National conference is determined to keep away from the election presume ably because its leaders believe that the elections in the valley may not eventually be held. At any rate, India is not creating a terror on the eve of the nominations so that no unwanted person files his papers. No. wonder, the military governor, K.V. Rao, unabashedly
‘states that he is not in favor of interactional observers being permitted to oversee the conduct of elections in Kashmir “because that impinges on our sovereignty.” Apparently, India wants to assert its sovereignty to rig elections in Kashmir and claim in the same breath that it is “world’s largest democracy.” Is the world Naive enough to permit the two simultaneously? Iris a pity that the World public opinion is not raising its voice in an effective manner 10 protest against the brute force used in Kashmir by the Indian authorities, Let the international human rights groups like the Amnesty Imitational, the Asia Watch and similar other organizations take a lead to enlighten the public opinion about India’s fascist ways of dealing with the freedom loving people of Kashmir and their legitimate aspirations, It is an admitted fact that all previous elections in Kashmir were rigged by the Indian state. Must the same be allowed to happen once again?
Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1996
