ISLAMABAD – A 10TH Jan report in the First-post magazine has highlightedthat more and more youth, particularly the educated ones and those fromwell-off families in Indian Occupied Kashmir are joining militancy. Thishas spurred a new security concern in the Valley. First Post report alsostated that the recent shift towards militancy of a scholar from Kupwara,Manan Wani, who was pursuing PhD in Geology at the Aligarh MuslimUniversity (AMU) is being seen by Hizbul as a “rebuff to India’s propagandathat youth are joining militant ranks because of unemployment and economicproblems”.
Speaking about Manan joining Hizbul, its chief Syed Salahuddin said that,“for the past several years, the educated youth have joined Hizbul to takethe ongoing movement to the logical conclusion.
While Indian media would project it as a new phenomenon, Kashmiri youthfighting for liberation of Kashmir has people from all walks of life, itincludes; students, labors, social media and human rights activists,teachers, professors, artisans, writers and intellectuals. There is alsomassive participation of womenfolk and young girls; in their own way, theyalways take part in rallies and processions to register their resentmentagainst Indian occupation.
As quoted by First-post, former Hizbul commander Zaf Akbar Bhat said thatthat there has been no letup in the number of educated youth joiningmilitancy since it started in the 1990s. Bhat said that a number ofmilitant commanders who were killed earlier were also “highly qualified”.“Joining of youths like Manan sends across a message to the internationalcommunity that the freedom movement in Kashmir is running due to theconviction of people and that it was not about issues of unemployment.”
“A number of educated men like Ghulam Mohammad Mir, who was the Ameer ofHizbul and had done his Masters in three disciplines, were killed.Commander Masood Ahmad Tantray was also a postgraduate in two subjects andhad pleaded the need for the return of peace to Kashmir before the Indianhome secretary in 2001,” he added.
Security officials see the entry of educated youth in militant ranks as anew threat. Even family members of police officials or active policemen arejoining militancy. In a recent Fidayeen attack on a CRPF camp at Pulwama,in which five force personnel were killed, one of the militants was 16-yearold Fardeen Ahmad Khanday, the son of a police constable.
Al Jazeera report on 6th May, gives a dismal picture of Kashmir Valley,Indian security forces confronting rebels in urban and rural areas,gunfight and thud of fire and explosions, martyrdom of Kashmiri youth,hundreds of residents marching towards the gun battle areas to help therebels escape, triggering more violence between civilians and Indiansecurity forces and stone pelting by youth, amid slogans of ‘Hum lay Kayrahein gay azadi’. The funeral processions of Kashmiri youth swell to tensof thousands of people, who would bury the martyrs wrapped in Pakistanflag, and the cycle is repeated almost every second day.
India who claims that Kashmir belongs to her should just look at thepictures of Pakistan flags in funeral processions and ask a question, isn’tit an expression of sea of hate for India and an ocean of love for Pakistan?
Indian Army Chief ‘s rhetoric that ‘Azadi not possible, you can’t fightus’, came in the backdrop of growing anxiety in Occupied Kashmir populationand also highlights psychological and physical fatigue of Indian Army.Bipin Rawat went on to boast, “These numbers (of militants who are killedin gun battles with the army) don’t matter to me because I know this cyclewill continue. There are fresh recruitments happening. I only want tostress that all this is futile; nothing is going to be achieved by them.You can’t fight the army,” .India today stands thoroughly exposed due toinhuman conduct of her forces and a laundry list of atrocities includesrapes, missing persons, mass graves, indiscriminate use of pellet guns,search and warrant campaigns and making the Occupied Kashmir as the largesthuman prison on the earth.
Induction of ISIS into Kashmir valley was never supported by genuineKashmiri leaders and it appears that Ajit Doval’s doctrine of sustainedchaos in Afghanistan and Kashmir valley have the same agenda. Now AjitDoval’s ISIS enterprise has started appearing in other states like Kerala,Karnataka and Indian North East. Indian intelligence agencies are nowtrying to develop a perception that Muslim youth in India is being affectedby ISIS ideology and all internal problems faced by India are foreignsponsored.
The Wire (a major Indian online outlet) exposed the link between ISIS andBJP. ‘Assam police has detained six alleged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)members for questioning over the recovery of a purported ISIS flag in LowerAssam. As per local media reports, on May 7 night, acting on a tip-off,police in Nalbari district’s Belsor area picked up the BJP members fortheir alleged role in sticking the flag to a tree in the area. The membershave been identified as Tapan Barman (from Kaihati), Dwipjyoti Thakuria,Sorojjyoti Baishya and Pulak Barman (from Belsore), Mojamil Ali (fromChamata) and Moon Ali (from Baruakur). Barman has been identified as aformer Congress councillor who shifted to the BJP and is presently a memberof its district committee.
On May 3, villagers found the flag with the message “Join the ISIS” writtenin Arabic stuck to a tree in a paddy field in Koihata area of the district,following which they informed the nearby Belsore police station. The policetook off the flag and told local reporters that it would conduct an inquiryas to who might be responsible for it. The incident created a flutter inthe area as six similar flags with “ISIS NE” inscribed on them were foundin the state’s Goalpara district on May 2.
International community and Human Rights organizations have to realize thatit’s a matter of lives of 12 million Kashmiris and can no more besacrificed on altar of Realpolitik and selective interpretation of UNresolutions on Kashmir by India, and, that India has hoodwinked thehumanity for too long and time has come to solve this longstanding issue asper the will of people of Kashmir. The long road for peace in South Asiapasses through the Kashmir Valley and there is no other way.
tags: Kashmir
By : Adeela Nauren. The writer is a freelance journalist.
adeelanaureen@gmail.com