Main roads occupied by the paramilitary forces, and by-lanes by protesters, the blocking of lanes within mohallas with stones, wooden logs and planks is apparently done to stop the movement of government forces and employees, and for forces who otherwise at many instances have barged into localities either to counter the protesters or to carry on the nocturnal raids. But it is a stressful serious concern, God forbid if any falls ill or suffers a heart attack it will take them lot of time to reach the hospital and can cause untimely death. On main roads paramilitary forces intercept and interrogate, ask lot of questions and in by-lanes small children of age group of 10 to 12 behave like security forces.
The state has become a den of forces in uniform and without uniform who rule the city at their own will.
At a time when separatist leadership is insisting people especially youth to maintain discipline during their protest marches in respective localities, in contrary to it, reports are pouring in abundance wherein common people face harassment and even thrashing at the hands of unknown youths, who are frequently seen blocking the roads, pelting stones on private vehicles not giving safe passage even to ambulances and even abusing elderly population. Even after Geelani Sahab has asked the society to identify the miscreants and hand them over to public.
I became myself a victim of their brutality. The common man faces the onslaught from both the sides. After government forces, now unknown youth who I call miscreants have started targeting them.
A local from downtown said, we are not now afraid of security forces, still they play safe with us, but the small children who don’t know what they are doing, stone pelting has become an enjoyment, entertainment and game for them. They love to break glasses of vehicles without allowing them to talk or clear their point. This is disgusting on the part of parents who allow their children to do all this, the most tragic part is that elderly persons who are present there take pleasure out of it, they even don’t consider it their moral duty, that if a person is out in his car or on his bike, to listen to their grievances and then take any decision, nobody is happy or willing to go out in such dangerous circumstances but emergency compels them to take risk and move out.
The way the things stand demeaned, can create dent in the ongoing movement, it is deplorable that what is seen on the roads only children occupying the roads, lanes, is running in a desultory and destructive manner. Coming back to resistance struggle, many Kashmiris want to know what their crime is? They shout they are neither anti-Indian nor pro-Pakistani. They are simply Kashmiri who lost their childhood and schooling to curfews, crackdowns, chugs, strikes and cross firings.
The situation is worsening day by day and taking an ugly shape. Another generation of Kashmiris is being radicalized and becoming scapegoats. The interactions and observations suggest that in 1990’s when youths opted for gun to challenge Indian rule over Kashmir. Those that time who opted for guns were having very humble socio-economic and education back ground, not knowing the political past of the state. The educated lot who joined were either jamm’at ideologues or politically disgruntled or both.
But today as we see, the present generation is altogether different. They are literate and well aware of the past history of Kashmir and know what blunders New Delhi has been committing since 1947.
It gives sleepless nights and restive days to see children of teenage groups are very active in the present unrest blocking roads and not listening to anybody. We at our times while hearing that Army is coming even if they were kilometers away, we used to run away and flee with our elders for safety, but today’s youths March towards the army camps and police stations to give vent to their anger and frustration.
To be very frank many Indians who live in different states do not know even where Kashmir is and what is happening there. They have no knowledge about the crisis in Kashmir, when they see Kashmiri taking procession and demonstrate against the atrocities, afflictions, killings don’t look at these gatherings beyond anti India demonstrations. They treat us as traitors, without knowing why we are doing this.
Now to put it this way, instead of laying limits within which a dialogue can take place, the government, through the all-party delegation, should ask Kashmiri nationalists what they want and see how far it can go to accommodate them within the framework of the Constitution. The New Delhi never took Kashmiri issue seriously, over the years complains a human rights worker, Indian government has always undermined the credibility of every local politician who has tried to work with them, there remains the crucial questions of whom to talk to, and about what.
Till now nobody is able to answer this.
The views presented in this article are the Author’s own, and does not in anyway depict the views of the Kashmir Digest. This is an Op Ed.
Syed Abadi Hamdani
Freelance Writer
Writes on Social, Economical and Environmental Issues.