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| Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain |
-Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain
"...Kashmiri perception finds reflection rather confirmation from the letter of Afzal Guru to his lawyer. He has clearly stated that those who assigned the job of facilitation of accommodation for attackers were members of the notorious task force of J&K police. Since two year long mobilization of forces failed to yield any results the operation needed to be covered up, for that purpose some Kashmiri had to be implicated and hanged..."
A conflict zone often becomes an arena of dirty games of
intelligence agencies where morality, law and human life take a back seat and
everything is decided on the basis of tactical considerations. On advent of
Bill Clinton, Kashmir experienced massacre of innocent Sikh villagers to
portray Kashmir Muslims as a xenophobic community before the visiting
dignitary. In order to cover-up the operation some Muslim boys were picked up
and gunned down as culprits. The fact was confirmed by Pandian Commission. In 2010 some boys from Sopore were lured for
recruitment as porters in army and subsequently gunned down on line of control
as intruders for securing gallantry awards for ‘valiant soldiers’.
Having
lived in such an atmosphere Kashmiris
have become skeptical. It is this skepticism that made them to perceive
parliament
attack as an orchestrated act. Mostly people over here perceive it to be
an act
of same type as was accomplished prior to 1971 war through hijacking of
an aeroplane from New Delhi and its burning down at Lahore airport. At
that time immediately
euphoria overtook JKLF camp which was a little known and marginalized
group at
that juncture. They perceived it to be repetition of what Palestinians
were
doing through hijacking of aeroplanes and getting a lot of media
coverage.
Maqbool Bhat welcomed Hashim Qureshi but subsequently it was established
through a Pakistani court of law that the action was an operation of security
agencies. Simply a prelude to 1971 war, aimed at blocking of the air transit
facility between East Pakistan and West Pakistan and the act provided a pretext
for India to do so. There were so many in India who wished to go for similar adventurism
on analogy of 9/11 attacks that were used by Americans as a ploy to target
Afghanistan.
Parliament attack occurred in this scenario and no one among
Kashmiri militant groups owned it. BJP wanted to use parliament attack as a
pretext for a similar attack against Pakistan. Bereft of any understanding of
futility of such an exercise in a nucleraised sub-continent BJP government in fact
did mobilize more than five hundred thousand troops on Pakistan border after
this attack. The mobilization remained there for 22 months without any result.
Kashmiri perception finds reflection rather confirmation from the letter of
Afzal Guru to his lawyer. He has clearly stated that those who assigned the job
of facilitation of accommodation for attackers were members of the notorious
task force of J&K police. Since two year long mobilization of forces failed
to yield any results the operation needed to be covered up, for that purpose
some Kashmiri had to be implicated and hanged.
A Kashmiri because he is
presumed to be a terrorist unless otherwise proved. Afzal
thus became an scapegoat whose guilt couldn't be established thus had
to be targeted more to ‘satisfy collective conscience
of society‘rather than demands of justice. Afzal joined militancy as a
nationalist. Like other JKLF militants he surrendered and wanted to live
a
normal life. Far from embarking upon rehabilitation of former militants
state
in Kashmir makes it a point to unable such persons to settle down. For
every
job one has to get a non-involvement certificate from police which is
seldom
issued. Vulnerable, jobless former militants are then used for
accomplishment
of all the dirty jobs relevant or irrelevant to operations of security
agencies.
Guru too faced the same situation. He addresses his last letter to
whole Ummah. His participation in insurgency and tryst with Indian security
establishment transformed him and he became a religious person. From a
nationalist he became a devout pan-Islamist. A militant who had given up the
gun was pushed to gallows thus making him a martyr for his nation. A state
which boasts about democracy and human rights wasn't courteous enough to
facilitate or allow a decent burial to a martyr. Right to decent burial is an
inherent and inalienable right available to every human being even if he
happens to be a rival combatant.
It is enshrined in Geneva Conventions to which
India is a party. Denial of this right and no-communication to family
constitutes a crime against humanity and a blot on human rights record of
India. Ordeals of Afzal Guru remain the
experience of all those who had given up the gun in varying degrees. They are
pushed to a situation where inhuman and degrading treatment becomes their
destiny. One whole generation of Kashmir is being articulated in the same way.
Timing and manner of hanging Afzal Guru is reflection of the
parochial mindset that has been hallmark of Indian politics since pre-partition
days. Pandit Nehru vetoed the Cabinet Mission Plan to ensure his ascendance to
prime minister’s position without any hindrance. He became prime minister but
British India got divided in two dominions. Indira Gandhi promoted extremism in
Punjab to score electoral gains against Akalis and was consumed by it. India
had to pay a heavy price in the form of Punjab insurgency. Rajiv Gandhi
resorted to adventurism in Sri Lanka and became a victim of it. He opened the
doors of Babri Masjid and ensured Congress ouster from power. With elections in
near future Afzal Guru’s hanging was pursued with political motives igniting
the dormant volcano of Kashmir, deepening the state’s sense of deprivation with
unanticipated immediate and remote repercussions for whole of the subcontinent.
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Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain is an .
He can be contacted at showkat_Hussain@rediffmail.com .
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