Deal strongly with the likes of Masarat Alam
Within weeks of being released from prison, separatist leader Masarat Alam is back behind bars. This is as it should be, for the likes of him are best kept incarcerated. Alam, a rising leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and expected to succeed Syed Ali Shah Geelani, is a known trouble-maker in Kashmir. He shot to infamy after leading the stone pelting incidents of 2010, which spurred violent clashes between the security forces and the public, and disrupted law and order across the valley. Since then, Alam, who is also the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Muslim league, has spent much of his time in prison. He has some 27 odd cases against him for causing public disorder.
Nevertheless, Alam, who claims he was “illegally detained”, was allowed to walk free last month, soon after the Government of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was sworn into power. At that time, the new administration of the PDP-BJP combine, had come in for a lot of criticism from many quarters, but the Government's hands were tied — it had no new legal ground to hold Alam back in prison. Moreover, the Mufti defended Alam's release on the ground that the Chief Minister wanted to take along all “stakeholders”, be they from “the mainstream or outside it”. While this seems like a noble plan on paper, one that prioritises the process of consensus building and allows space for dissent in an immensely complicated situation, it is also naïve. A veteran Kashmiri politician like the Mufti should have seen the pitfalls.
Either way, Alam's re-arrest only confirms the fact that, just like a leopard can't change its spots, a separatist rarely budges from his ideology. Within weeks of his release, Alam was back to his old habits. He and others of his ilk pounced on the death of a 24-year-old civilian who died on Monday, after reportedly being caught in an Army crossfire in Tral town of Pulwama district. On Friday, they had planned a huge protest rally in Tral but were arrested on their way to the city. Alam as well as Geelani had been put under house arrest a day earlier after they unfurled the Pakistani flag in Srinagar and chanted anti-India slogans.
Expectedly, these developments have been used by the usual suspects to spread discontent in the valley — violence erupted in Srinagar on Friday, resulting in clashes between security forces and the public. But the Governments, both at the Centre and the State, must not capitulate. Instead, they should send out a strong message that such activities will not be tolerated. The separatists are welcome to come to the negotiating table, discuss their grievances and seek solutions within the framework of the Constitution of India. But they cannot be allowed to bully the state, and the public for that matter, into accepting their ways and agendas. Meanwhile, the security forces in the valley must be restrained in their use of power, to avoid civilian casualties.