the changing political situation of then and now…

It is needless to say that Kashmir is witnessing phases of killing and violence during last 21 years. “Killings “ has become such a common word whenever anyone refers Kashmir .All the communities in Kashmir viz Muslims, Pandits and Sikhs have lost their brethren to sanguinary violence. Probably all the communities of Kashmir are looking for those who can empathize and sympathize with their pain, no doubt the heart of a common Kashmiri is bruised and wounded and has inured to pain, sufferings and Humiliation. The holy land of Rishis and Sufis has become the land of Human sufferings and Humanity is lost somewhere in this chaos.

Being a K.P, I too have witnessed death due to violent activities by terrorists who flaunted their A.K 47’s and killed scores of my Brethren in early 1990.They took Guns and killed many innocents with this belief that they are the soldiers of Holy war. Not once, the thought and act of killing unarmed KP , sounded absurd, unholy and irreligious to them. the crowds cheered them for their acts of crime…That was the beginning of downfall of Humanity in Kashmir. But amidst this madness there were many Kashmiri Muslims who cried on the death of their KP’s Brothers.

The viscous cycle of violence continued unabated, except some intermittent and brief periods of peace. The armed forces of India and terrorists backed by Pakistan played the cat and mouse game of killings with each other and many innocent kashmiris lost their lives in this deadly game. The strategies of warfare between Pakistan and India is constantly changing, but a war is a war whether hot or cold, and wars have killed people everywhere. Kashmiri Pandits, Kashmiri Muslims and Kashmiri Sikhs too are the victims of politics and war. KP’s became targets of those who advocated the concept of Islamic state. K.M’s became targets of those who didn’t wanted Islamic state and Sikhs became the targets of both the parties.

The separatist political parties of Kashmir are obviously paid handsomely by the Pakistani agencies to keep the pot of hatred against India boiling. This is the main reason that they are not interested in talks with the Indian central government. So what do the separatists do to ensure that peace never returns to the strife stricken valley? The answer is that they are using the religion to incite the hatred for India without considering the implications of their devious act. But this effort is akin to striking the head against a Mountain and the result will be injuries and precisely that is what is happening in Kashmir. There has been unprecedented increase in the injuries of common Kashmir whether police or civilian. Geelani’s Hurriyat have become the whole sole distributors of Pakistan sponsored concept selling of Islamic Jihad.

Somebody has to remind them that India is one of the most populous Muslim countries of World. This concept selling by the the geelani faction is believed to have made S.A.S.Geelani richer by some 20 million U.S $ in last 5-6 years alone. His prime responsibility of showing rosy pictures to gullible public has yielded results for his masters sitting across the Line of control. The world of dreams created by Geelani in the grab of religion has already killed thousands of kashmiris in the last two decades.

During my last visit to jantar Mantar on 8th Aug 2010, I was a witness to the propaganda by the young Muslims from Kashmir. A gentleman reiterated that both Kasmiri Muslims and Kashmiri Pandits are victims of terror and in the same breath declared that 207 pandits and one lakh muslims have been killed in the 2 decade insurgency. It was such a Hypocritical statement because the figure of 207 has been provided by the state government agency and the same government agency has put the tally of overall deaths at 37,000. Out of 37,000, the number of civilians killed by terrorists and para military forces are 11,135,security forces number at 5223 and terrorists backed by Pakistan killed are 19,273.Of course the statistics provided by government are not right. But 1lakh is an exaggeration by several degrees of magnitude; It means 14 death per day, every day for twenty years.

Now imagine 65 people have died in Kashmir by the direct or indirect involvement of Police and Pakistan backed terrorists during last 3 months. The after effects of these causalities are well known to all of us .Stone pelting, strikes and virtual shut down are the reactions of these deaths. Now imagine if 1288 would have been killed, what would have been the magnitude of reactions. These canards though baseless are being invented, marketed and subsequently spearheaded by Geelani faction.

Kashmir has in the past also witnessed several protests. I am witness to the death procession of late Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah a.k.a Sher-i-Kashmir(lion of Kashmir).As a young boy, I was taken by my Grandfather to some place near Chatti Padshah gurudwara, Rainawari to witness that procession. At the point where I was sitting and witnessing the procession, It took almost three hours for that procession to pass. Many people were crying and many were beating their chests in grief and many more fainted. It was as if someone from their own family had expired. That was also a time, and today It is the geelani who is controlling the political sentiments of Kashmiri Muslims. The phase of Late sher-i-Kashmir was temporary and the phase of Geelani is also not permanent. At that time The late Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was termed as “Lion” and the Present Hurriyat leaders as “Lamb”. The deadly mixture of religion and politics has metamorphosised the lamb into the Lion. Only time will tell who will be remembered in the History of Kashmir and who will emerge as the real winner and the real friend of the general masses.