Kashmir Update - July 2010

From June 11, 2010 onwards, 15 protesting civilians have been killed in Kashmir valley by Police and Paramilitary forces. Starting with the first death of a 17-year old student by a police teargas shell, each death has sparked a new cycle of violence. Hardline separatists urged residents to march to the streets and continue with the protests. Kupwara and Handwara in the north, Kakpora and Pulwama in south and Gandherbal in the east , Sopore, Srinagar and Anantnag were the maily affected places. Eight more companies of the BSF and the CRPF have been sent to assist the police.

The army was called in to control the situation. No local newspapers hit the stands for the second day running amid tight restrictions on the local and international media. The state's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, under pressure to contain the violence. Union Home Minister has appealed to the people of Kashmir to respect the curfew. He also urged parents to discourage their children from participating in the mob violence.

The protests have been characterised by stone throwing by hundreds of protestors throughout the day. Separatists have devised stone-pelting as an instrument of organized and orchestrated protest. Instead of acting tough against the professional stone pelters, the government declared a rehabilitation package for such 'surrendered stone pelters'.

 

The Union home ministry has found evidence that stone throwers in the Kashmir Valley are being paid from abroad by Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives through a money-transfer agency. One of the well-known agency in the business of channelling funds across countries has been used by the Lashkar operatives in Pakistan to route money to Dubai and then transfer it to Srinagar and other towns in Kashmir. The remittances for throwing stones sometimes as less as Rs 300 daily have been tracked by intelligence agencies. In the last year, the agencies were perplexed by observing transfer of small amounts of money from places in Europe to Kashmir. The riddle has apparently been solved now. Involvement of hardline separatists in engineering some of the violence in the Kashmir valley is indicated by an intercepted conversations. According to the transcript, two of the office-bearers, Ghulam Ahmed Dar and Shabir Ahmed Wani were heard planning at least 15 people more deaths among the protestors.

Protests in Kashmir in recent years follow a known pattern. Anything can provoke anger - blasphemous cartoons, America's invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan, Pakistan's Lal Masjid, Kashmir's infamous sex scandal, murder, rape, or for that matter the death of a militant in a gun battle with the Indian Army or police. Roadblocks follow the demonstrations and any vehicle that passes by becomes a target of stone pelting. Police personnel swing in and the action starts. The area around the mosque every Friday afternoon smells of burning rubber tyres and tear gas, and one can also intermittently hear the sound of cracking windshields. In the months of Apri-June, 2010, 716 incidents of violence have been reported in the Valley and more than 200 paramilitary personnel injured.

Pro Pakistani lobbies are exploiting the situation for their advantage. The Kashmiri-American Council has asked the international community to conduct an impartial probe into the killings of innocent unarmed civilians in the heavily militarized Indian Occupied Kashmir.Commenting on the massive riots taking place in Kashmir, due to the deaths of more than 17 civilians including women and children, Dr.Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of the Council, stated the myth of Indian democracy and respect for the rights of others has been exposed with the deaths and injuries throughout the occupied Kashmir.

[Contributed by mksri]