The killing of pro-Pakistan firebrand youth Burhan Wani in
July was ostensibly the trigger for this
blood shot season but the cause and consequence are evidently much deeper.
Equally clear is the fact that both cause and effect need cooler heads shunning provocative appeals or resort to stones and
gun pellets. While the longer term solution will take time, political heads
across the valley and the sub-continent need to re-start the dialogue,
interrupted the nth time, a shorter term reduction.
For a start, the use of pellet guns or 12-bore guns which
eject splinter shots as a crowd control
weapon should be outlawed, not just in Kashmir but anywhere in the
country or world. Civil protests need civil remedies, not an impatient jump to
lethal weapons. The administration’s response should be calibrated and gradual.
Peaceful marches should be allowed and protesters allowed to use their lung
power and shout slogans.
Water cannons should be employed in the first instance if the
protesters turn unruly and refuse to
disperse in defiance of official appeals on loud hailers and other modes of
persuasion. Water cannons will definitely cool down good numbers of protesters who will start melting away after
one, two or more charges.
The die-hards can be tackled with normal policing -- baton or lathi charges
assisted by mounted police (on horse) if necessary. In case of protesters indulging in stone throwing or
other violent acts, tear gas and laughing gas, yes laughing gas -- ask the chemical gas experts, should be
tried to turn the tables on the demonstrators.
A small number of hard core protesters could always be there
to the bitter end for whom rubber bullets, not rifle shots or pellet guns,
may be necessary. And the police,
paramilitary or other personnel must be trained to shoot below the waist and
not shoot wildly. A recent report has
suggested that the CRPF men operating in Kashmir and elsewhere are too fat and bad
shots for the demanding job that they have to deliver.
Pellet guns and other deadlier weapons like hand grenades and
the rest should be used only against
armed militants and infiltrators prowling along the Line of Control or sneaking
into the interior.
Such a calibrated approach for crowd control under the
command of capable officers with well trained men on the ground could go a long
way in avoiding the death toll and injury casualties that are national loss and
shame. The events of this summer, undoubtedly the work of agents provocateur
from across the LoC, are nevertheless a blot on our democracy. We shouldn’t let them succeed, certainly we
shouldn’t let them bleed us. Kashmiri
lives are our lives and the eyes of the
Valley youths are our eyes. Let nobody blind them. And torching of our
valley schools is equally unacceptable. Let nobody deprive our children of
their right to education. We can’t let down this generation of our children to
go without schooling.
Step Number Two for us
is to have a relook at Afspa (Armed
Forces Special Powers Act) which has been in force since 1990. It has been a standing irritant to all sides
for too long. A comprehensive rethink of this measure which has lasted more
than a quarter century is long overdue. It calls for a gradual overhaul.
To begin with Afspa’s extensive visibility needs to be
reduced. The posting of gun-carrying paramilitary personnel at Lal Chowk in
Srinagar or along the Dal Lake Boulevard and other popular spots across the
Valley in full glare of the civilian
population does no good to anybody. Billet the armed men inside offices or buildings from where they can
be called out at moment’s notice, if needed in emergency. This constant display
of adversarial imagery must be avoided at all costs. Make no mistake, such
display of CRPF and other paramilitary presence is highly adversarial in
character. It is equally damaging to the psyche of the poor men in military
style uniforms.
The visible presence of uniformed men should be strictly left
to the J & K state police personnel.
Gradually when the tempers cool down, as they had cooled down
during the previous five years before this year’s eruption, step by step removal of Afspa forces and regulations from parts
of the Valley and interior areas should be undertaken as a demonstration of
mutual confidence. The presence of armed forces should primarily be along the Line
of Control and border areas. Such steps could have been taken during the
previous five years when the so-called militancy was negligible. The
opportunity was missed. But soon when it comes up again, it should be taken up
with both hands as a show of mutual confidence between the civilian population
and the paramilitary forces. The centre and state governments need to accept
this challenge with courage and confidence. The nation has erred on the side of
caution for too long.
And finally an all-out Indo-Pak dialogue, currently at its
nadir since the mid-September Uri strikes, counter-strikes and tit-for-tat killings across the LoC, must be revived.
The two neighbours did move a lot closer to each other during the leadership of
Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh, and General Pervez
Musharraf but internal circumstances conspired against peace. That wider search
for peace and dialogue must resume. Peace is not only possible, it is
inevitable. India and Pakistan cannot go on bleeding each other forever. If Europe
can establish peace after hundred year wars, so can we.
