The Valley of Kashmir continues to moan and groan on account of

the recent carnage and sufferings with there being no solace in sight.
Street-level militancy and social media keep afloat the battle cry
of Azadi. Rights groups from all over India have protested against
the high-handed treatment of the Indian state machinery. Indias
government and a section of the media miss no opportunity to blame
Pakistan for stoking the inflamed situation. This stance refuses to
acknowledge the changing dynamics of the homespun movement,
which is amorphous and spontaneous, with instant and visible fallout
for India. The role of the formal and traditional leadership has
become irrelevant, as street power has gained prominence. Instead of
engaging with the Kashmiris, New Delhi prefers to tackle them
through militaristic power. This cycle only enables the situation to
.remain at boiling point
Blaming Pakistan for interference in Indias domestic affairs amounts
to deflecting the issue. Pakistans concern emanates from a deep
sense of empathy, which requires a dispassionate understanding. Not
many people in India will know that a swathe of people in Pakistans
Punjab has an interminable lineal and kinship bond with the people
of Kashmir. There is a sizeable population of people of Kashmiri
descent concentrated in the urban areas of Rawalpindi, Jhelum,
Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sialkot right up to Lahore. Appellations of
Butts, Mirs, Lones, Dars, Rathores and Wanis are not unknown on
this side of the divide. This segment of the population is fairly active
in politics, business and the civil service, and cannot remain
.oblivious to the plight of the Kashmiris in Indian-held territory
A section of the Indian media continues to question the rising tide of
militancy in Kashmir, asking whether violence could justify any
cause, even a legitimate one. This is the same argument, which
stretched further, has helped India use the typology of terrorism to
quell indigenous, localised resistance movements. This platform has
further helped it to legitimise its militaristic stranglehold in Kashmir

through excessive deployment of armed personnel, giving them

unbridled powers to shoot at sight, and on warning, which is seldom
given. New Delhi has exercised this power for nearly three decades
now without any qualms. The nature of the current militancy is
making an innate difference and the world is in a far better position
to understand the driving force behind the homespun movement,
.which is spontaneous and has maximum outreach
The Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) of 1990 has been at
the centre of all the controversies raging in Kashmir. The law was
promulgated to notify disturbed areas and deploy paramilitary forces
controlled by the central government to quell disturbances and
normalise the situation. The law gives unbridled powers to the
security forces to deal with situations in any manner they deem
appropriate without any accountability mechanism whatsoever.
Under the law, the central government, over and above the state
government, has the power to declare an area disturbed and move in
its forces, which have the power to shoot any person they feel is a
threat to peace. The paramilitary force can also detain and confine a
person on suspicion as well as break into houses. Urban Kashmiris
are now sick of untimely knocks and breaking in of their doors in the
middle of the night. Under the law, members of the security forces
have complete immunity from prosecution in ordinary courts. To
hold the forces accountable, an aggrieved person is required to move
the central government and there is no timeline given to decide such
grievances. The central government hardly ever takes any step that it
feels might lower the morale of its forces. As a result, incidents of
custodial killings, torture, gang rapes and forced disappearances
have a well-documented history. It is time now for New Delhi to
seriously consider how far this law has been successful in securing
peace and laying the foundations of tranquillity. It may also reflect on
how far it has led to widening the alienation of the Kashmiri youth,
.which are the victims of its draconian measures

Governments, the world over, resort to special legislations to meet

exceptional situations. All such laws have a sunset clause and a
provision for judicial review. AFSPA fails on these counts. Indian
security analysts admit that incursions along the LoC have
appreciably declined. As a corollary, there should have been a
corresponding decrease and pulling out of paramilitary troops from
civilian areas, but there has been no such movement. The civil society
and rights groups have been airing their concerns against gross
violations of human rights in Kashmir. In this regard, hosts of
commissions, including the Jeevan Reddy Commission, the Santosh
Hedge commission and the Justice Verma committee, had called for
the discontinuance of the law. While acknowledging acts of gross
violations including reported gang rapes, these commissions were of
the view that there was no effective mechanism to hand down justice
to a culprit in uniform. There was a recommendation to try sexual
offences in ordinary criminal courts but the suggestion was thrown
.into cold storage
New Delhi seems to be hostage to the deep state, which is in no mood
to see the annulment of this draconian law. Two former Indian army
chiefs have opposed such a move while those who have spent their
lifetimes in the intelligence network and the civil service are of the
view that the law has now become counter-productive and is
alienating Kashmiris, especially the youth. As long as the law is in
place, long-term peace in Kashmir and an improvement in the
security situation will remain illusive dreams. It is the same deep
state that earlier on scuttled an accord between Pakistan and India
on Siachen. It is quite a task for the Indian civilian set-up to square
with the veto power of the deep state on measures to improve the
.situation in Kashmir
There is a thinking within India to engage with the Kashmiri
leadership. The question arises as to which leadership it should
engage with. It is time now to act unilaterally to win back the
Kashmiris and pull them from the precipice. India needs to come up

with a plan to demilitarise the civilian areas and ensure far less
visibility of the paramilitary forces. It seems to be making the same
blunders as were committed by Pakistan in 1971, where a strategy of
holding on to the land while alienating the Bengali population was
adopted. In the age of information technology and social media, New
Delhi should realise that it is losing internal space in Kashmir in the
.cyber war by over-militarising the states physical spaces
Pakistan also needs to revisit its posturing. Rhetoric of Kashmir
banay gaa Pakistan is in no way going to help the cause of those on
the streets of Srinagar who are battling for Azadi. We need to rein in
the Tahaffuz-e-Pakistan marchers. Some of them are under UN
sanctions and possess a penchant for jumping onto moving trucks at
public places all for the sake of a photo-op. This is not going to help
.the current relentless struggle, which must remain indigenous
.Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2016