[Reader-list] Two Sad incidents

[Junaid]

Dear Shuddha,

I agree with you completely that the death of infant Irfan due to a
scuffle between parents and the protestors in Baramulla is an
inexcusable act. Those who are responsible must be brought to justice,
and they deserve severe punishment. This is not the only incident that
has made me very skeptical of letting young men take independent
control over the Kashmiri struggle. In 2008, I witnessed a Kashmiri
bureaucrat and his family humiliated and slapped by protestors when
their car passed through protesting youth. The bureaucrat kept
pleading that they were running from Jammu where they had been
attacked by protestors. It was only after intervention by some mosque
elders that they were let through. At many places it's sheer "rage" as
you pointed out, and "frustration and machismo" as Sonia mentioned,
instead of a clear political program that drives these spontaneous
protests. But it think it has another reasons too.

These protests largely started after the Indian government came down
heavily on peaceful protests in 2008. Though there were stone-pelting
incidents before but they were neither consistent nor so widespread.
>From August to December 2008 the government put Kashmir under weeks
and weeks of intense curfews and arrested hundreds of political
activists and commoners. This crippling of life--and stiffling of
protests--was coupled with the election drama. The entire election
took place under curfew, as they happened district by district. Indian
government was conducting elections for Kashmiri people against
Kashmiri people, many people would say. But in any case the scope for
any sort of peaceful resistance was obliterated by the Indian
crackdown. It is in this context that stone-pelting became a mode of
expressing dissent. I don't agree with this mode, because it lacks
clarity and has a potential to go totally wrong, as Irfan's death has
just showed. It creates anger among Kashmiris themselves. Many
middle-class Kashmiris (quite typically!) have become wary of it, they
think of it as an inconvenience in their daily lives. It also lends
itself to great manipulation and sabotage. Last year a few masked
stone-pelter came out of nowhere in Anantnag on a "normal" day and
started pelting stones on private cars. Local people got together and
rounded them up, and it was found out that they were carrying BJP
cards (yes, the BJP has a 'presence' there!). They were handed over to
the police, but were released immediately, and no charges were filed.
"Policemen in civvies" has become a common phenomenon during these
protests. In fact only a couple of days back JK Armed Police men beat
a bunch of "Policemen in civvies' to pulp. It is not known why it
happened or what the policemen-in-civvies were doing.

Junaid