Compared to the valley, the relative peace in Jammu and ladakh in the aftermath of the Masarat Alam incident shows that the ‘Kashmir problem' is not a pan-State issue but confined to a few troublesome pockets
The developments that unfolded in Jammu & Kashmir, following the anti-India event, which took place in Srinagar, on April 15, and thereafter, have once again confirmed that there is absolutely nothing that is in common between the Kashmiri leadership, the people of Jammu and the ladakh region. The events have only re-established the fact that the three regions subscribe to mutually exclusive ideologies — one patently pro-Pakistan and the other religiously pro-India — and that the contradiction is irreconcilable.
On the black day, when Kashmir-based spokespersons of Pakistan such as Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Masarat Alam and their supporters, organised an anti-India rally, many Pakistani flags were hoisted, pro-Pakistan and pro-independence slogans were raised and seditious speeches made to provoke anti-India protests across the valley.
“Jammu & Kashmir is not a part of India. We are not Indians; our goal is Pakistan; our ideology is Pakistan; our soul is Pakistan; our watchword is Pakistan; our battle-cry is, Pakistan and Hafiz Saeedka kya paigam, Kashmir banega Pakistan”, Alam and those assembled at the anti-India rally, repeatedly said this to incite anti-India hatred.
The scene was frightening and Alam and others enacted the anti-India act near the police station and also under the very nose of higher authorities. The authorities in the State not only knew beforehand that Geelani, after his return to Srinagar from Delhi on March 15, will address an anti-India rally, but they also knew that his seditious speech will be broadcast live to certain selected audiences in Pakistan.
A report filed from Srinagar to The Tribune on April 14, in this regard read: “Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani will return home from Delhi tomorrow and address a rally on the city outskirts. The speech will be broadcasted live to select audiences in Muzaffarabad, the capital city of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and in Islamabad. Sources in the administration said the PDP-BJP Government had decided to allow Geelani to hold the rally, his first in recent months.” Clearly, what happened in Srinagar had been meticulously planned and certain authorities concerned were very much in the loop.
It was an event that naturally alarmed, shocked and disturbed the entire nation, as it was after years, that Srinagar witnessed such an ugly scene, making many a concerned Indian feel that an insidious influence was at work to recreate the 1990-like situation that had compelled the miniscule minority of Kashmiri Hindus and thousands of Sikhs to quit their homes to become refugees in their own country. The despicable event led to a national outrage and there were strong protests in different parts of Jammu against the unpardonable crime that Geelani & Co had committed.
Besides Jammu, several parts of the country, including Bangalore and Varanasi, also witnessed protests. There were demands for the immediate arrest of the Pakistani mouthpieces in Kashmir and the Union Government was urged to take stringent action so that a moral effect was produced.
The result after much dilly-dallying was the house arrest of Syed Ali Shah Geelani on April 16 and the arrest of Masarat Alam. What happened in Kashmir and Jammu in the wake of the arrest of Masarat AlamIJ In Kashmir, a few 100 unruly elements under direct control and guidance of All Parties Hurriyat Conference(M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who otherwise dislikes Geelani and Alam, as well a Jammu Kashmir liberation Front leader Yasin Malik and Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party president Shabbir Shah, created a serious law and order problem in the adjoining areas of Jamia Masjid, Srinagar. The areas which witnessed stone-pelting, clashes with the police and the Central Reserve Police Force and tear gassing, were Nowhatta, Gojwara, Malarata and Khawaja Bazar in Srinagar and in Tral town in Pulwama district of Kashmir, where a Kashmiri youth got killed during the gun-battle on April 14. There was peace in the rest of the valley.
As far as Jammu and ladakh were concerned, none in these two regions came forward to express solidarity with those who were either put under house arrest on April 16 or those who were sent to the police lock-ups a day later. Instead, outraged people held demonstrations in different parts of Jammu. Jammu houses a sizeable Muslim population — nearly 30 per cent — and in many areas of Jammu adjoining the valley Muslims are quite numerous. These areas did not witness a single anti-India protest against the arrest of Geelani or Alam.
Similarly, ladakh, where the Muslims constitute almost half of the strategic region’s population also, as expected, was normal. The political scene of the State was no different on April 17, the day the people were asked by Geelani and other separatists to observe a bandh in Kashmir to protest the arrest of Alam. Only parts of Srinagar city were affected by the shutdown call.
The peace and tranquility in these areas once again vindicated those who held the view that the so-called ‘Kashmir problem’ was confined to a few pockets in the valley and Srinagar city; that the Kashmiri separatists thrive on the support from vested interests in Pakistan and certain other hostile nations.
(The writer is former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jammu)