The Indian movement’s drama at Hazratbal shrine in Kashmir has come to an end, it will take some time for the public to know the exact circumstances under which 65 militants were captured by Indian security forces. India’s claim is that the militants came out of the shrine one by one and surrendered to the security forces. The government claimed that the one month old crisis was resolved without firing a single shot. That Indian forces will overpower the militants sooner or later was a foregone conclusion. India had deployed a large military force around the shrine, and a handful of militants could not have fought it.
The only way for the Kashmiri people to end Indian army’s siege was to peacefully surround the army. That was attempted but the Indian forces drenched the Kashmiris with their own blood when active centers of mass resistance such as at Bijbehara were ruthlessly crushed. When India now claims that the Hazratbal “crisis” has been resolved without firing a single shot, it is only being hypocritical because the incidents at Bijbehare and at Lal Chowk will naturally claim greater attention than the standoff at Hazratbal. Equally noteworthy are the Indian claims, obviously made for international propaganda consumption, that the militants wanted to destroy the holy hair of Prophet Mohammed and that there were certain Pak armed nationals holed up inside the shrine. These propaganda planks have now been totally forgotten by Delhi.
It could be observed now that the Indian strategy in encircling the shrine was threefold: 1. to appease the Hindu fundamentalist psyche on the eve of elections to the five state Assemblies by focusing on the mosque that the ruling Congress (I) was no less Hindu than its principal political opponent, the BJP, 2. To. Correspondingly demoralize the Kashmiri liberation movement by showing that the people of the valley are too timid to face the Indian Hindu army’s might; and 3. to sabotage the prospects of early talks on Kashmir with Pakistan such Prospects had become bright after Ms.Benazir Bhutto took over as prime minister to meet India’s condition that it would talk to an elected government of Pakistan, since India’s had nothing to offer at the discussion table, it was thought convenient to ensure delay so that Indian elections pass off without the Kashmir nuisance. India did not succeed in achieving its arms dramatically due to pressure from the international public opinion against violence. The drama ended up with Kashmir claiming far greater international attention as a point of international discord than ever before.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 19, 1993
