Why Kashmiri youth pick up the gun instead of pen?

Whenever I get ready for sleep the thought which strikes my mind is about the life of our fellow Kashmiri brethren, whose future looks very grim and dark. The people living in the besieged Valley cannot even raise their voice as there is communication blockade. One who dares to raise his voice, concern and dissent fares of facing the wrath of both the power and men in uniform.
We too fare as we know that the dissent will land us into jail. But our consciousness doesn’t allow us to keep mum, so we raised our hands and write down the lines through the ink of our pen. How long we tolerate this cruelty as the world is keenly watching but the materialistic things came before their eyes as they prefer trade over human values which stop them in raising their voice and concern. Even the United Nations which guarantees us the right to self-determination watches as mute speculator.
From the past seventy years what we saw only death and destruction. We saw our loved ones falling to the bullets of the oppressor. These are the words of the famous martyred rebel Dr Manan Wani “Occupation is not easy to understand, it’s a very complex and multifaceted phenomenon. The decade’s long bloody conflict has turned Kashmir into one of the most politically mature nations of the world.”
With time we all have somewhat understood the complex functioning, structure and machinery of occupation. India as a colonial state is slowly but steadily failing in justifying its colonial rule to the people of Kashmir.
But, occupation is like a cancer thus, we as a nation and community have to evolve and update ourselves of the new military, mental and diplomatic tactics of India as a colonial state. India is very cleverly trying to confuse the people of Kashmir by manufacturing the narratives suiting to justify their military presence and oppressive measures used to contain the populace of J&K.
Certain individuals are assigned powerful and resourceful positions and then made to befool the people by bringing new discourses (irrelevant) and trying to make the old and actual ones seem outdated and irrelevant.
One day we see some bureaucrat writing ‘India is the only rational choice Kashmiris have’ and the other day a politician will question ‘why militants feel dignity in death’. I will here try to deconstruct some of such vague arguments and expose the hypocrisy behind them.
A teacher (school, college or university) who teaches students honestly or a doctor who works day in and out to treat his patients humanely or a student protesting the atrocities of occupation honorably or a stone palter who throws stones on occupying forces while facing bullets in return, or a columnist who writes fearlessly or a journalist who risks his life to report the truths from ground zero or a person who just talks about the occupation or a lawyer who fights legally in a court, or a government employee who is sincere in his duties or for that matter a policeman who performs his real duty of maintaining law and order (not terrorizing, killing, maiming, and torturing natives), we are all soldiers of resistance.
Hence, for Indian politicians the number of deaths in Kashmir is just a vote gaining policy in India. The corpse of a Kashmiri is sold in election market to satisfy the collective conscience of a nation.
Soldiers take pride in raping women and shooting innocents, and Indian masses are indoctrinated with the narratives by jingoist media to such an extent that they actually support all this.
This is not restricted to Kashmir only, the situation in north East Indian states, Naxal areas and tribal regions in mainland India is no good than this. Rapes, killings, torture and human rights violation by Indian army is very common there too.
Democracy in Kashmir has always been used to fortify military occupation by taking refuge in black laws like AFSPA, DA & PSA, while using local collaborators. And the irony is that these local pro-occupational politicians since the times of Sheikh Abdullah have always been used as a cannon fodder to serve the interests of India and it’s occupation, these henchmen are later on thrown after use just like tissue papers, if and ever they demanded or spoke for the rights of people.
There is no reason of unemployment for Kashmiri youth to pick up the gun instead of pen otherwise they are well educated and belonged from royal families. Why they left the luxrious homes, royal life style, and families. Everyone might be known about Dr Rafiq Shah Assistant Professor why he left the respectable job and picked up the gun, why Dr Manan Wani left the PhD degree in the last year, why Zakir Moosa left the engineering college, why Burhan Wani the intellectual and expert in networking join the militancy, why Dr Sardar Safzar and Reyaz Naikoo joined the militancy. They all are well educated and belonged from royal families. The main reason of joined the militancy is oppression and atrocities by Indian forces forced these young youth pick the gun instead of pen.
From the past seventy years what we saw only death and destruction. We saw our loved ones falling to the bullets of the oppressor. How can we forget the Kunan and Poshpora the two villages in Kupwara District where the women of the whole village were raped by the men in uniform in the dead of the night. Even elderly women 85 years of ages were not spared. This gruesome incident is one of the darkest chapters of Kashmir conflict.
The Himalayan Mountains know best what happened on the cold dark night of February 23, 1991, deep in the Kashmir valley. But is it because what these mountains had seen occurred nearly three decades ago, in two nondescript villages, that India and the rest of the world today choose ignorance and indifference?
The Kunan Poshpora incident was an alleged mass-rape that occurred on February 23, 1991, when unit(s) of the Indian security forces after being fired upon by militants, launched a search operation in the twin villages of Kunan and Poshpora, located in Kashmir’s remote Kupwara District. The residents of the neighbourhood stated that militants had fired on soldiers nearby, which prompted the operation. Some of the villagers claimed that many women were allegedly raped by soldiers that night.
The First Information Report filed in the police station after a visit by the local magistrate reported the number of women alleging rape as 23. However, Human rights watch asserts that this number could be between 23 and 100. These allegations were denied by the army. The government determined that the evidence was not sufficient and issued a statement condemning the allegations as terrorist propaganda.
While the Government’s investigations into the incident rejected the allegations as ‘baseless’, international human rights organizations have expressed serious doubts about the integrity of these investigations and the manner in which they were conducted, Human Rights Watch stated that the government had launched a “campaign to acquit the army of charges of human rights violations and discredit those who brought the charges.” Her mourning clumsy belly, weaved with stitches no longer clung to her murdered uterus fearful of being raped again by the world’s largest democracy.
More than 29 years later, Kunan Poshpora victims await justice. As the world celebrated International Human Rights Day, in Kashmir, the women who were allegedly raped in Kunan Poshpora and Shopian once again came here, hoping to get justice. I will wait for justice until my last breath. My modesty was outraged and I am mentally disturbed,” said Jawhara.
Social impacts on society. The students going for higher education in the nearby Trehgam and Kupwara were taunted due to the incident and most of them choose to drop out after class eight. Families not involved in the incident at the same villages have disassociated socially with the victims’ families. Villagers claimed that it was difficult to find grooms for their children.
The Shopian rape and murder case is the abduction, rape and murder of two young women allegedly by Indian troops in mysterious circumstances between 29 and 30 May 2009 at Bongam, Shopian district in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir. Two women who were sisters-in-law went missing from their orchard on the way home on 29 May 2009. The next morning, their bodies were found one kilometer apart. Local police rejected the allegations saying that the women appeared to have drowned in a stream.
One of the main reasons is to pick up the gun instead of pen is Human right abuse in Kashmir.
Human rights abuses in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir State are an ongoing issue. The abuses range from mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech. The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and various separatist militant groups have been accused and held accountable for committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians.
Women in Kashmir have suffered enormously since the separatist struggle became violent in 1989-90. Like the women in other conflict zones, they have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed. A few of them were even jailed for years together. Kashmiri women are among the worst sufferers of sexual violence in the world. Sexual violence has been routinely perpetrated on Kashmiri women, with 11.6% of respondents saying they were victims of sexual abuse.”
Due to the impact of the conflict, a number of people in the valley suffer from various psychological problems like stress (normal or related to traumatic event), anxiety, mood and post-traumatic disorders. At the beginning of the insurgency there were 1200 patients in the valley’s sole mental hospital. In 2016, the hospital is said to have been overcrowded with more than 100,000 patients.
The Sopore massacre refers to the killing of at least 43 persons by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) after they tried to break the restrictions imposed in the town of Sopore in Kashmir on 6 January 1993.
Another remembering incident in Kashmir everyone is aware about Gawkadal Massacre.
The situation in valley was tense post 1987 elections which were believed to be rigged by Indian government to ensure the defeat of the pro-independence or pro-autonomy parties. This led to the discontentment and rebellion against the Indian government.
To suppress the Kashmiri voices Indian government then appointed the most notorious and forceful administrator Jagmohan. On 19th Jan 1990, the night Jagmohan was appointed governor, there were massive ‘warrantless’ night raids led by Indian security forces conducting house to house searches mostly in downtown Chotta Bazaar, looking for illegal weapons or hiding militants. Almost, hundreds of innocents were detained and none of them were found to have any weapons and neither militants. It was also reported that security forces molested many women while conducting these night raids.
Although, Jagmohan put the whole city under
Continued on Page5