May 20, 2011

Challenging Course of Political Discourse

The assassination of Kashmir's Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadees head Maluana Showkat Ahmad Shah by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on 8 April highlighted the challenges faced by moderate religious as well as political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadees is a religious group of Sunni Muslims that primarily aims to establish Wahabbi Islam in Kashmir with the support of Saudi Arabian funds though majority of Kashmiri Muslims are Hanefi Muslims. He was a close associate of the JKLF chief Yasin Malik. The Maulana has been attacked on several occasions in the past. He is the third clergyman killed after Maulana Mohammad Farooq, Mirwaiz of central Kashmir was killed by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists at his Nigeen residence on May 21, 1990 and Mirwaiz of Anantnag, Qazi Nisar was killed by terrorists in 1994.

The cleric was Bengali speaking and was critical of stone-pelters, calling their action un-Islamic. Some intercepts of messages from PoK indicated instructions to the perpetrators that the killing should be blamed on Hindu outfits but it  is more than likely that people of Kashmir will see the light of the day with the Jamaat el Hadees though being a Salafist not propagating extremist philosophy of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa who share the same strain. The killing was a clear message to the moderate Salafists that they would be eliminated in case they oppose extremism.

            The militants were possibly worried over increase in intensity of political engagement in Jammu and Kashmir with different streams of civil society, political parties and even separatists attempting to engage the populace to derive maximum mileage from the overall tempo for political resolution. The discourse in Kashmir has thus moved from that dictated by militancy to that of political interlocution and dialogue. This is evident with all party formulations now wanting to engage even separatists in Kashmir. Thus the announcement recently by the BJP right wing nationalist party which opposes application of Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir wanting to engage separatists is a good sign.

However the process is unlikely to be smooth, the assassination of Shah was one instance. This was also evident when the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference suspended its former chairman, Maulana Abbas Ansari, for holding talks with the Central team of interlocutors, Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari. The interlocutors who had announced talks with Mr Ansari a Shia leader were taken aback. "We thought since Maulana Ansari is such a senior leader, his meeting us would have had the tacit backing of others. Obviously, we were wrong. It's a stunning setback," said a source close to the interlocutors. "This is a lesson in Kashmiri politics for the Delhi team. If they had met Ansari sa'ab, they should have kept quiet. Their desperation to show the Hurriyat was finally onboard backfired. Now they can go back and have round tables with college students," said a Hurriyat leader.

Meanwhile militants across the border are also hoping that the ongoing process falters and militancy can be revived. “An important meeting of command council was held under the chairmanship of Hizb supermo and UJC chairman, Syed Salah-ud-Din, in Muzaffarbad, wherein it was decided that well organized armed and political struggle would continue till Kashmiris achieve their basic rights.” The United Jihad Council (UJC) and the Hizb Mujahideen calls for an armed struggle to renew the militancy in the Valley may be too late as there are strong currents of change in Jammu and Kashmir with politicization of militancy having taken place, scope of revival of an armed phase may not be possible in the near term. While terrorism and acts of political violence such as bandhs, stone pelting and strikes would continue it may take some time before these could be converted into another phase of militancy as the momentum for the same has been clearly lost. Therefore the Hizb would have to review its strategy and attempt to influence the space differently.

To preempt tensions building over any issue, the Central government also relaxed the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) such as CRPF, BSF etc. recruitment rules to facilitate eligibility conditions for all sections of the people in Jammu & Kashmir including the Jammu region. Jammu & Kashmir will now be on par with States like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura so far as relaxed eligibility conditions are concerned The speedy action took the wind out of a possible agitation being planned by hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to launch protests during the coming summer against the state government's decision to issue Dogra certificates to members of that community. The anomaly was that Dogras were identified by their ethnicity while other parts of the state on their geographic entity. In Kashmir where identity is the key issue such differentiation has been highly sensitive.

Panchayat polls held in Jammu and Kashmir panchayat polls after 10 years with heavy polling recorded of over 80 percent in most areas and is another indicator of the people’s quest for normalcy. Meanwhile 725 Kashmiri families have approached the government to facilitate home coming of their kith and kin who crossed over to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). A high level committee comprising representatives of the Jammu and Kashmir government, Ministry of Home Affairs, Army and others will scrutinise all the applications and verify antecedents of the militants who want to surrender. "If everything goes well, we expect the first batch of militants to return home by June," sources said. The special surrender and rehabilitation policy, announced last year, covers all people (and their dependents) who crossed over to PoK between 1989 and 2009. The scheme includes identification, screening, travel, debriefing, rehabilitation and reintegration of the militants willing to give up arms.

Related Article