The entire population, he said, was one on cag question of “Azadi” (freedom from India). The Indian Government could find none to spy on our people. Most spies are outsiders who have been driven out of the valley. Only those Sikhs who worked as spies of Delhi had to leave Kashmir. Otherwise, we have no quarrel with Sikhs. It is false to say that we drive out Kashmiri Pandits, Actually, this was done by Jagmohan and his security forces and others operating without uniforms. Let any one point out a single instance of Kashmir Muslims causing any harm to the Pandits or their property. There is a long tradition of secularism in Kashmir broken by B.J.P. man, Jagmohan.

“Kashmiri people are secular”

“Nevertheless, most Kashmiri Muslims love their religion. When they talk of Kashmir’s merger into Pakistan they do so in accordance with Islamic injunctions. Today Kashmir is merged into Pakistan; tomorrow Pakistan is merged into Iran and so on. The aim is to fulfill the historic Islamic injunction of creating one Islamic state the world over. There is not much disagreement with this approach in Kashmir. J.K.L.F’s strength among the masses is marginal although we are working hand in hand to achieve our basic aim namely Azadi from India”.

In other words we were face to face with a pro Pak militant, naturally, he rules out the possibility of any talk with the Government of India except for the discussion of modalities of the “Azadi”.

Militants run short of arms

What is the perspective of the armed fight? How far are the Kashmiris of his persuasion equipped with arms? These were the other questions we put to the militant.

He admitted depletion of the flow of weapons from across the border although he claimed there was great upsurge for armed fights with India’s security forces. “Our quom (nation) is ready to fight”, he stated. It appeared from his observations that the Government of India had partly succeeded in sealing the border and Delhi’s success was pinching the militant. “Sarhad par jayange, Klashnikov layenge” (we shall cross the border and come back with Klashnikov rifles) is the key word in Kashmir, said the militant leader.

A Pandit speaks out

Pandit H.N. Wanchoo, General Secretary of Peace & integration Council and a prominent Pandit leader, in a statement expressed his satisfaction over the dismissal of Jagmohan. He demanded that Jagmohan should be prosecuted for his communal based policies, mass murders, barbarity, house searches and acts against the modesty of womenfolk. He appealed to the masses specially the youth organisations to help restore peace so that the Indian Government was pressed to take political steps. To save the people from barbarity, atrocities and to take political steps, there was a great need of peaceful atmosphere.

Pandit Wanchoo congratulated the Kashmiri people for their bravery and perseverance in face of State terrorism. They proved that the Kashmiris will never bow before repression. He hoped that the Kashmiris would not allow the “Hindu communalists” to succeed in their nefarious designs. He commented on the restoration of publication of newspapers and said that the unity of the Press had compelled the Government to bow before them. Unless the people were won over, the Repressive actions would never succeed, Pandit Wanchoo added.

Kashmiri civil servants appeal

One hundred thirty seven officers of Kashmir appealed to “the conscience of the world” to raise their voice against the murders of unarmed and innocent Kashmiris and compel the Indian Government to stop repressive measures in Kashmir. They stated that “the massacre near the Islamia College tore the heart of the sky and compelled us to open our mouths to protest against the massacre. Kashmiris had been showing great patience for the last four decades but the State ran amuck with the advent of this New Year and the guardians themselves annihilated the lives and property of the public. Darkness and night ambushes have come upon the people. The forces who have been trained to fight enemies, attacked the innocent people of the valley with their bloody paws in the name of curbing terrorism. The poor Kashmiris have been suffering immeasurable repression and atrocities which pale into insignificance the repression in Israel and South Africa.

“When the people the world over are freeing themselves from the chains of repression and lawlessness of different systems, we have observed in silence that Kashmiris are being pushed into the dungeons of stateorganised, legal barbarity. The laws of medieval age have been enforced and all existing laws and rules have been put aside. To conceal the reign of terror, the state has opened its coffers to corrupt pressmen who are not tired of telling lies and spread canards to misguide the outside world”.

Conclusions and general observations

Two main issues have been dealt with in this report One, the assassination of Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq and two, the firing on the Muslim moumers on May 21,1990.

On Mirwaiz’s assassination, conflicting views have been expressed. Most common people in Kashmir refuse to subscribe to the theory that Maulvi Sahib was done to death by pro Pak militants. On the Other hand, B.B.C. Correspondent, Satish Jacob, a well-informed person, whom we interviewed, is quite assertive that the militants killed him.

P.H.R.O. investigators see logic in both these versions. We, therefore, leave the issue of Maulvi Sahib’s assassination open to be clinched by scientific enquiry and judicial assessment.

Was Mirwaiz a longo wal in making?

However, we cannot shut our eyes to certain facts and circumstances, The Mirwaiz was willing to open dialogue with the Government of India through George Fernandes and the latter went on record stating that a meeting was scheduled for Sunday prior to the assassination day. This piece of information looks credible when seen in the context of Jacob’s assessment of Mirwaiz’s stand, In the event, could it be surmised that the Mirwaiz was emerging as “Kashmir’s Longowal” (a quisling) and he was bumped off following the same pattern? This lead will have to be kept in mind while inquiring into the assassination of the Mirwaiz and when such an enquiry is held.

As for the May 21 firing, there are volumes of evidence to suggest that it was not only totally unprovoked, brutal and inspired by communal passion but was preplanned, albeit hastily. Between the points of time of mourning procession starting from Saura Medical institute and its convergence on the Islamia College square. Jagmohan seizes an opportunity

In view of Jagmohan’s description of Kashmiri Muslims as a gang of terrorists worth eliminating to save Kashmir for India, an ideal opportunity was at hand when Lakhs of them were moving right in front of the well positioned light machine guns, This opportunity was boldly seized by Jagmohan and his Advisors, We find it unacceptable and as no more than coldblooded hypocrisy that the firing incident came to Jagmohan or Marwaha as a “news” conveyed to them by journalists.

P.H.R.O., however, cannot be certain about the number of causalities. For one thing, the number given out by the Government of India is a white lie. The Kashmir activists or journalists could not publish more than 36 names of the dead and 76 of the injured. Collecting information itself is an uphill task in view of the prevailing police raj. The allegation that many bodies had been thrown into the Jhelum or disposed of otherwise could not be brushed aside off hand.

What is, therefore, required is the establishment of a Civil Rights Commission as suggested by Subramaniam Swamy to go into the entire episode. The question is who will set up this commission? Swamy’s suggestion, made in Parliament, does not have many takers. The media ignored it, the so called national political parties were not interested in pursuing it and the Government was busy merrily rewarding Jagmohan, the chief culprit of the massacre. A regimented system for Kashmir

P.H.R.O. conducted the investigations against a terrible background. A complete iron curtain separated the Kashmir Valley from the outside ‘world. The regime of the curfew is all pervading. There are severe restrictions on outsider Indians seeking to enter the Valley. All local newspapers were close down for weeks. Most Journalists were asked to shift to Jammu, a Hindu dominated town close to Punjab. Even the Government controlled Doordarshan and All India Radio, Srinagar, were shifted from the Valley.

‘Thus a particular system of information was allowed to operate.so that there was no clue as to what was happening in the Valley. Even the Prime Minister and the Home Minister were seen in the Indian Parliament to be somewhat handicapped for want of proper, straight forward information on the May 21 incidents, It appears leaders of the B.J.P. were more informed than others. In the highly regimented system of information the messages received from Jagmohan and his coterie were read out in the Parliament which, on the face of them, were unconvincing.

The Prime Minister and the Minister of State for Home Affairs referred to “human rights” of Kashmiris but their statements lacked conviction and the necessary will and equipment’s to protect these human rights. The Government leaders, in the face of the supremacy of security forces top brass, looked so timid that they dared not hint at even a cursory enquiry to find out facts pertaining to the May 21 incidents.

A call to international community

Apart from the wholesale killings at the slightest or no provocation at all, what should shake the world is the punitive, inhuman curfew regime introduced by Delhi in the Kashmir Valley. Prof Soz revealed unending curfew restrictions lasting one time for 15 days at a stretch in Srinagar. The untold suffering the curfew regime imposed on the people was brought home by MPs as well as others.

P.H.R.O. would like the world public opinion to react strongly to New Delhi authorities’ cruel strategy of punishing the Kashmiri masses for their political views. A campaign of protest against the frequent and prolonged use of the curfew in the Valley should be mounted all over the world.

A sick democracy

As noted earlier, there is something basically wrong with the kind of democracy India practices. Key issues and information with bearing on minority communities and regions get automatically blacked out by the so called national news agencies, the Press Trust of India and United News of India, not to mention the Government electronics media. Even the so called antiestablishment on matters the minorities regard as foremost in importance to them.

Thus, Indian Express, for instance, which prides itself as the largest circulating English daily in India and the one that pretends to fight for Press freedom and democracy is found in the company of worst fascists on issues dear to Muslims, Sikhs Christians, Dalits, backward communities, etc.

For instance on the instant issue, Indian Express (May 26, 1990) wrote the following:

A disastrous retreat”

“The decision to recall Mr Jagmohan from the Governorship of Jammu and Kashmir is a disastrous one, a retreat by the National Front government in the face of pressure. And it cannot but reinforce the perception that this is a vacillating Government, a reinforcement which will have the most disastrous consequences in part after part of the country from Kashmir to Punjab, from Assam to Tamil Nadu.

“By late January Kashmir had bolted out of India. The apparatus of governance had evaporated. It is not Just that the secessionists had come to dominate the situation, in practice secession had become a fact.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 12, 1990