Revisited Lessons from the Shopian Tragedy and It's Aftermath

The dastardly act of barbarism in Shopian, besides bringing Kashmir back to the crucible of turmoil, has yet again emboldened the accusation that Public Opinion in Kashmir is either neglected or ridiculed by the powers that be. Abraham Lincoln, the legendary 16th President of the United States, once said that "Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice". That said pundits of rationality often disregard Public Opinion as a conceited effort to organize and manipulate the ignorance of a society. Albeit, our logical pursuit to be objective and stay unfazed by inundating posturing and political gamesmanship during tragedies like the one in Shopian might be 'rational', it however risks the invested and divested trust of an entire nation, especially when it comes to places like Kashmir, where sentiments of secession and nationalism run deep -- where justice is a luxury for millions -- where constitutional rights are in abeyance.

Throughout the contemporary history of Kashmir, Public Opinion has always been dismissed as a misguided or misinterpreted form of idealism, a never ending trance of sorts, that defies logic and pragmatism while it curls and seeps under issues and tragedies to manifest into engulfing flames every now and then. At the root of this resilient sentiment lies an uncompromisable sentiment of Ethnic Nationalism. The etiology of public reactions to tragedies, atrocities and human rights violations is a metamorphosed derivative of the same sentiment -- a sentiment that cannot be wished away or one that can not co-exist with conventional politics of federal appeasement. Nonetheless, efforts have always been made to suppress this sentiment, by all means necessary.

This policy of 'ideological suppression', if I may, has automatically groomed our law and order machinery to be anti-public-opinion, and hence anti-people. The underlying belief that the State Police has been surgically made to enshrine over the decades proclaims that the people are almost always wrong -- "manipulated" and "politically motivated". All resentment is attributed to an allegedly omnipresent and viral spirit of exploitative separatism. So much so, that the singular focus of conflict resolution post any rights violation or political turmoil has been an 80 year old man with radical and inflexible beliefs. The same singular focus, a confrontational obsession of sorts, has elevated Syed Ali Geelani to the position of probably Kashmir's most popular political leader. What he says, without any doubt, goes. Exploitation, mesmerism or brashness -- call it what you may -- the Elephant is too big to hide, especially in a room as small as Kashmir. House Arrests and undeclared curfews to curb marches and processions, provide him with a suspended-release but prolonged political and strategic leverage. Somehow and for some unknown reason, or the absence of one, the mainstream never fails to lob a soft volley into Geelani's court, providing him with an opportunity to unleash a resonating response. Geelani, almost always delivers as soon as rampant misgovernance or heinous atrocities like the one in Shopian, manifest into political sparks.


This is the basic etiology of the political mess that Kashmir finds itself in. A blatant disregard for the history of this nation, for the sensibilities of its people and their raging resentment has kept the pot boiling, and not the other way round. Intellectuals on both sides of the Line of Control (LOC) have studied the Kashmir imbroglio in isolated perceptions without attributing much importance to it's political history. Now, it appears, the State is doing the same -- making a case for the socio-economic progress of Kashmir while disregarding a much needed political reform within the constitutional limits of India. A more optimistic and far reaching process of confict resolution will take time, greater confidence and mutual trust between India and Pakistan. The State Government, however, can deliver on it's mandate by:

1. Disbanding and disarming the notorious 'counter-insugency' groups within the State Police.

2. Restoring Constitutional and Civil Rights in the valley in totality, without any pre-conditions.

3. Initiating a Judicial reform at the District level.

4. Repealing AFSPA, on it's own initiation (Under Section 003) of the Act, without approval from the Central Government, if need be.

5. Granting global NGO's serving in the fields of Medicine, Human Rights and Education full and complete access to serve and operate in Kashmir.

6. Reign in on and prosecute the burgeoning number of renegades in South Kashmir.

7. Demilitarizing the State's civilian and non-frontier areas, not just by shifting responsibilities but by actually reducing numbers and imposing spartan human rights regulations.

The State Government of Omar Abdullah, has faced serious criticsm for how it mishandled the Shopian incident, and rightly so. Mehbooba Mufti's crocodile tears, it appears, have found a decent share of believers in the rural belt, as the ground situation worsens. Agreed that the Mufti brand of exploitative politics is not only melodramatic but also bereft of any authenticity. However, Mehbooba Mufti has successfully enacted this drama in very 'favorable' pitch conditions and with time, National Conference will eventually have to face the electoral repercussions.

For Omar, it's a now or never situation. As news about the back channel diplomacy between India and Pakistan opening up starts making rounds, the State Government should not shy away from but embrace an openly and genuinely nationalistic approach to assuage tempers and, for it's own good, retain it's traditional political base in rural Kashmir. The close and very visible proximity of the present administration to the powers that be in New Delhi have created an impression of distrust amongst it's own vote banks. History tells us that the closer mainstream political leaders in Kashmir get to the shot-callers in New Delhi, the farther they are pushed away by their own people in Kashmir.

The lessons are plenty and mostly intertwined but the most important lesson to be learned and remembered is the potency of Ethnic Nationalism and it's uncompromising and adamant personality. Hiding and camouflaging this sentiment or justifying it as a seasonal occurrence won't do the mainstream any good any more. The popularity of this sentiment far exceeds the resolution of the force that has been utilized to suppress it, not just physically but ideologically as well. What good are new hospitals, universities and electrified villages when the roads and lanes of Kashmir stay the same old ghostly retreats of anger and fury....

Autonomy, Self-Rule or SAR (Special Administration Region) are all unstructured and sparsely followed reactions of the same underlying sentiment -- a sentiment that is genetically and historically known to be immortal. Governments are, on the other hand, quite mortal. The more a public opinion is suppressed, the more unforgiving it's known to become.

Best,
Junaid

'To die on our feet or forever live on our knees' - The Shopian Double Gangrape/Murder Case

One of my good friends from the south of France once protested that humanity was not dead as I often remarked. "Humanity dies a thousand times a day in thousand different corners of this world and is resuscitated to be murdered again, and again....and again" Jerome said. This concept of a never-ending cycle of violation and resurrection all of a sudden hit home as the horrifying news of a young adolescent girl raped by an Indian Army Major in front of her parents made headlines in local Kashmiri newspapers the very next morning. Indian media outlets were of course too preoccupied with more important nuggets - the milk revenue of their Railway Minister's cattle farm, the traffic menace in the capital and Salman Khan's latest act of lunacy. And as the case was, Kashmiris - those confused half-fanatics, half-hypocrites, half-Pakistani/half-Indians up in the mountains were always too uppity having the nerve to attach vocal importance to the fulfillment of promises, the exaltation of justice and the reverence of civil rights. One more "rape" [Indian thought leaders often ridicule allegations of rape and molestation at the hands of their "gentlemanly" armed forces]....one more cooked up story, probably scripted in a smoke filled design room of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to attract global attention to a lingering "territorial dispute" - a purely 'geographical' birth defect. That both summarizes and elaborates the common perception about Kashmir and Kashmiris amongst most Indians. Everything and anything else is crazy talk.

It's estimated that a meager 9,500 women in Kashmir have been raped or molested by soldiers of the Indian Armed Forces, their allied renegades and several militants as well [who were ironically known to promote and advocate the cause of liberation]. In societies as socially conservative as Kashmir, the stigmas associated with rape certify that a majority of purported violations go unreported. Raising an outcry on the basis of these dastardly figures becomes harder when the pro-Indian Kashmiri leadership openly terms such allegations as sheer exaggerations. The huge disconnect between their perceptions of a common Kashmiri and the actual experiences of a common Kashmiri is enormous. Some were born into a "Kashmir" that is unknown to 99% of the people they administer, completely bereft of injustice and beastly persecutions - one filed with summer escapades to the meadows of Gulmarg and Sonmarg and picnics on the lakeshore drive. Others simply sold their souls to the highest bidders in New Delhi, signing of their lives to the pragmatism and practicality of subjugation under the guise of political and economic compulsion. So every time there is a violation of honor, of dreams and lives.....of men and women....young and old alike.......they, being true to their pledge of allegiance, ridicule the wails and tears of those who are left behind by victims [of this prolonged genocide] to endure lives of further persecution.

That is exactly what happened in Shopian, a newly designated district, on the 29th of May and the days that followed. On the evening of the 29th, Asiya Ahangar (17) and her sister-in-law Neelofar Ahangar (22) didn't return home from a routine trip to their family orchard of a couple kanals (land measurement used in India) situated an otherwise unharmful mile and a half from the Ahangar house. The duo never returned. Suspecting trouble, Neelofar's husband sought help at the local police station and filed a missing report the same night at 10:30 pm. A one-constable search with lanterns and a torch yielded no result and was conveniently called of at 02:30 am, when I presume, the policemen realized they were treading on controversial territory. The relatives were asked to go home and return the next morning. When the relatives returned, the doors of the police station were locked shut. Out of anxiety they resumed the search and while tracking the area around the Rambiar Stream [where the bodies were found].....guess what happened? The policemen reappeared, pretending to help in the search, this time with the SHO (Station House Officer) accompanying them. It's said that the SHO got down from his vehicle and almost impulsively pointed at the body of Neelofar Ahangar, Ashraf's wife, perched on a boulder in the stream, yards away from the District Police Line. The body was removed unceremoniously, violating the conventions of corpse recovery in criminal cases, and taken to the Police Station. What happened next, raised yet another red flag. The police failed to [some say deliberately] secure the spot of recovery. Adding insult to injury, the police then, upon recovery of Asiya's body down the stream, failed to not only to secure the spot of recovery but also the dead body, resulting in, forensic experts claim, criminal loss of evidence.

Both prima-facie evidence and local suspicion pointed fingers at the troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) of the nearby high-security camp. The bodies were badly bruised and pictures that I recieved three days later confirmed contusions, stress fractures and blunt-force trauma by taking a mere look at them. Yet, the auhtorities chose not to register an FIR (First Information Report) and conveniently termed the death as an unfortunate case of accidental drowning in ankle-deep water in a stream that has never claimed any lives in its entire recorded history. The bruises, fractures and gashes were attributed to 'trauma due to drowning' - drowning in an ankle deep gurgling, not gushing stream.

After both bodies were finally moved to the District Hospital, a team of local doctors lead by Dr. Hilal Ahmed Dalal and Dr. Nazia were instructed to conduct a crude medical "autopsy" in a hospital where doctors cited infrastructural deficiency as a reason to divert a pregnant woman in labor to Srinagar - completely normal delivery. The lady died on her way to the capital. This happened just a month ago. In just 30 odd days, the hospital had gained on its staff and equipment deficiencies and was now, all of a sudden, a reliable place to conduct such a high-profile and complicated medical autopsy [complicated beacuse the bodies were submerged in water and crucial physical evidence had been lost]. What happened next is unclear. The doctors claim that they were unable to conduct a PV (Per Vaginal) exam since the limbs of the victims were stiff. Hence, according to Dr. Dalal and Dr. Nazia, no PV exam was conducted "fearing loss of evidence". All along this attempted procedure, policemen rushed in and out of the chambers....talking in whispers and hushed voices. The SSP soon arrived and is said to have yelled at a few immortals for "complicating an ordinary case the prima-facie evidence of which ruled out rape and murder". The SSP is alleged to have said so even before he talked to the team of doctors or examining the bodies himself, which he in violation of conduct is said to have done.

All commotion aside, Dr. Dalal and Dr. Nazia both ruled out drowning as a possible cause of death - the skin color and condition, lack of apparent lung inflammation and the stiffness of limbs ruled that hypothesis out. Plus, even a blind man could see the injuries and gashes on both bodies. While a set of incompetent professionals, both those in teh uniform and those in white coats, yawned and debated and argued about what was to be done next......the situation outside the hospital grew tense, and understandably so. SP Mattoo's presence in the autopsy room angered the locals. As it turns out now, the gentleman is not the most popular of SP's Shopian has had in the recent past. Tempers soared.

Getting anxious, SP Mattoo yet again, for the umpteenth time during the course of events till now, chose to violate the code of conduct in such investigations by asking one Dr. Bilquees to join an already clueless team, adding further chaos to an already confusing and volatile situation. All of a sudden there were tear-gas shells pouring at the mourners, further drawing local suspicion towards the security forces. The SP later said that this was done so that a team of doctors from Pulwama could reach the hospital to conduct the second "post-mortem". The team from Anantnag had already taken some samples and cleared way for the team from Pulwama to carry on a second medical examination. [Neither a "post-mortem" nor an "autopsy" was conducted. These terms have been confused with a superficial medical examination].

Dr. Nighat Chiloo, after conducting the second medical examination, is said to have broken down and admitted, in the presence of Neelofar's father, that the duo were "Gang-raped". Witnesses saw her leave the chambers in a state of shock, weeping profusely. Still no FIR. Still no FIR.

As the news gained momentum, I called a senior activist of our student union constituent party from the Shopian Degree College to inquire about the ground situation and the local comprehension of the tragedy. After an hour long phone conversation, I was assured that the girls were gang-raped and murdered, while or after they were violated. Village folk are simple in their assertions and comprehension when faced with humiliation and adversity. They don't cook stories.....especially not so when the dignity of their daughters and sisters is concerned. I, immediately, called all our student union leaders in Kashmir and asked them to get in touch with the bereaved family and offer all necessary help while starting preparations for peaceful student protests in Pulwama and Srinagar, besides of course Shopian. I felt that public outcry would force the authorities to revisit a case that was close to being dubbed an accident. Luckily the people of Shopian and those of surrounding districts wasted no time in coming out of their homes and accusing the State Police of shielding the criminals behind this beastly tragedy. Had that not happened, the government was on it's way to close the case and make all of us look like stupid conspiracy theorists while they were at it.

After a few hours, or the next morning, I received an email from a good friend who happens to be a senior government figure in the present administration accusing me of attempting to "keep the pot boiling". I was told that the medical examination had ruled out not just rape, but sexual activity as well, that there were no injuries that would suggest any violence. My friend asked me not to draw any conclusions and wait for the facts to emerge before "organizing" any protests. [By now we had backed the call for a complete shutdown on the 1st of June and were mobilizing our activists in Srinagar, Pulwama and Baramulla to hold peaceful protests against the manner this case was being handled [read mishandled] at every step of the way. I was told that both set of doctors had "certified" that there were "no injuries on the bodies". I was also told that the river had been flowing above the usual mark due to recent rains and in an attempt to reach their home through an uncharted short-cut, the girls had lost their footing and drowned.......[drowned in ankle-deep water in a stream that had witnessed no drownings in it's recorded history]. This was the exact same version the State Police had established and self validated in Shopian under the supervision of SP Mattoo. After a series of back and forth replies, I was convinced that the State Police had now not just misinformed the administration but was also actively and deliberately concealing facts and manipulating the course of events to favor it's initial stand. Regardless, the administration should have exhibited more sensitivity and gone with the tried and tested policy of using common-sense in such cases. A minister should have visited Shopian within the first 12 hours of the bodies being found. A forensic team from SMHS Hospital, Srinagar should have been rushed to the spot. Moreover, an FIR should have been registered even pending the FSL (Forensic Science Lab) Report in affirmation of the Supreme Court directives in cases where rape is suspected as cause of death in a criminal investigation. None of this was done. Not for almost a week after the bodies were found.

The Police, it now appears, is inexoricably involved in the case in some way, shape or form. Their efforts to conceal the tragedy and dubbing it as an accident was due to their fear of repercussions. But why did the newly elected government led by a well-meaning, no-nonsense Chief Minister fail to uphold the trust that people had reposed in it in such an embarrassing manner? Might be because of this underlying belief that Kashmiris tend to "over exaggerate" the excesses committed on them by the security forces and politically manipulate every chance to "keep the pot boiling". As I said earlier, we have no shoulders to cry on.......no ears to address and no rising sun to observe......we are the half-Indian, half-Pakistani uppity sons and daughters of a 'territorial' conflict, fueled by one single 80 year old bearded man.......as if he were the Pied Piper of Hamlin and we were the proverbial blind mice.

As someone rightly said - The absence of tension is not peace. The presence of Justice is!


The time, now, has come for us to decide........if we want to die standing on our feet or forever live on our knees as the sons and daughters of a lesser man, a lesser nation and a lesser God......?


Junaid Azim Mattu
World Kashmiri Students Association (WKSA)

The Case Against Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Feudalism and Political Mediocrity

Amongst numerous words of wisdom that my legendary Headmaster at Bishop Cotton, Shimla armed his disciples with; one of his principles about leadership rings loud and clear in my ears even today. Mr. Kabir Kumar Mustafi, a man of great philosophical prowess and objective insights often said, "Leadership is not a right, but a privilege". And from personal experience at school, through college and in the corporate world, I have often come face to face with this undeniable spirit of Darwinism, which invariably contradicts hereditary and feudal political systems. You need to earn every single drenched grain of faith that is reposed in you as a leader to understand the weight and complexity of the issues you jostle with dawn to dusk, year to year.


A cursory look at the history of Kashmir's political struggle that started in 1932 on the premise of empowerment and liberty, exposes the atrophies and systemic deficiencies that have plagued our leadership platforms and robbed our suffering masses of hope, strength, justice and inspiration in the face of adversities, invisibility and socio-political apathy. Instead of being bestowed with submerging servants who threw themselves into the kiln because of their faithfulness and patriotism, destiny left us with heirs, priests, head-preachers and familial legacies. The burdens of our past have robbed us off the liberty to look ahead, the vision to envision and the courage to differ. Centuries of abject slavery and lack of a voice has left an indelible mark on our social and political landscape. Our own 'vanguards', 'Quaids' and 'Tarjumaans' have treated us as sheep in need of herding rather than a people waiting to be inspired and empowered with reins of their own lives and dreams. The "Karakulli and Gown Brigade" (KGB), as I caustically call our torchbearers of nobility, have inherited lifelong political contracts, which are completely disconnected from the pursuit of those goals that we seek to achieve. Where else in the world would serfs sit on their thrones of vassalage and sing hymns and psalms of 'self determination'? Isn’t that the copybook definition of hypocrisy? The least we can do is let them know, in clear terms, that we are not as stupid as we have been historically perceived and portrayed to be. We get it. We really do. And, more importantly, our patience has finally run out.

Ralph Nader, a man of incomparable resolve and passion for social justice, says, "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers". Leaders, ladies and gentlemen, I believe are produced under rays of inspiration, passion and patriotism in a liberal environment of accountability, sincerity and humility. But, how do you make the Monarch accountable? How do you make him work for the faith you end up reposing in him? A Monarch, as sad as it might be, has no Annual Performance Reviews [APRs]. He has a seal of nobility, a beautiful gown and a shining, glistening long staff to lead us forth. He is the shepherd of the faithful. His people, as I asserted, are in need of being herded and led to grazing pastures. We, in Kashmir, have our Popes, Bishops, Castles and Catholic Churches too. We just call them 'Mirwaizs', 'Grand Muftis' and 'Jamia Masjids'. The nomenclature and the prohibition of wine seem to be the only discerning factors. Everything else is monozygotic. And yes, the Pope is elected to his throne. The Mirwaiz is born to his.

But even His Holiness The Pope, exhibits a basic minimum sense of discretion in surrounding himself with competence and intelligence, sincerity, inspiration and grace. He realizes that symbolism motivates and moves. Can you imagine Pope Benedict standing on the Papal Gallery in the Vatican with a Roman version of Bilal Lone flanking him, idyllically staring down our television screens, ridiculing our trysts with oppression and our prayers for respite, consistently managing to insult our intelligence and scratch our unhealed wounds with his blatantly lacking bag of intellect/credentials? After centuries of slavery, deprivation and suppression, don't we deserve something a tad better? How much more premium do we need to pay in blood to buy the right to competent, articulate, educated, strong and resolute leadership?

Being the devil’s advocate, I will without inhibition try to look at this story’s other side as well. You were seventeen when our feudalistic and exploitative socio-religious system proclaimed you as Kashmir’s next patriarch. The sacrifices of willing, patriotic and passionate men were risked on inexperienced, young shoulders. But, it’s not like we had a chance. How can we even think of having a political leader who doesn’t have a feudalistic religious title or backing? Now, that’s way too uppity and blasphemous. How dare I! Maybe I’m a Wahaabi or a Jamaati [By elimination] not to believe in the sacrosanct sanctity of the Mirwaiz institution, since the only decent thing to do would be to wipe tears off of my emaciated cheeks as a man claiming to be my Pope sings poignant sermons melodramatically with rhetorical brilliance every Friday in a mosque that ironically hosted our pledge to socialistic and egalitarian reform and justice decades ago.

My argument stands on the basic foundation that choosing people for responsible jobs like political heads of revolutions or representatives of exploited citizens of a subjugated territory by accident of birth is undemocratic: a modern "classless society" where everyone has equal opportunity is incompatible with a hereditary monarchy of sorts. As a symbol and spokesperson for the Kashmiri nation, why is an unexposed, rich, upper class, uniquely privileged blue-blooded gentleman a better choice than someone elected by popular majority or through the natural evolution of leadership, for example Maqbool Bhat, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah [yes you got me, I’m a sycophantic traitor], Nelson Mandela, Omer Mukhtar or Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi?

One of the blatantly self-imposed counter arguments is that the service and sacrifices the Mirwaiz institution has rendered for the welfare and rights of Kashmiris make an argument like this one imprudent. Appreciative of such graciousness, we should then relieve the individual members of Kashmir’s religious royal family from the extreme pressure of public duty, a pressure that they have not chosen, and that has wrecked so many of their private lives. That is the least we could do as a grateful nation. The implied unwritten role for the Mirwaiz as the nation's spokesperson at time of triumph or trial is dangerously monochromatic. Leave aside whether anyone can or should attempt to speak for a heterogeneous nation any more, does the present elitist, unexposed and city-confined Mirwaiz speak convincingly for all of his people? Can we expect the next heir to do any better? For how long will we continue to elevate to the apex of our society someone selected not on the basis of talent or achievement, but because of genes? For all the hypocritical tributes that leaders of Hurriyat pay to meritocracy, for so long as we have a hereditary monarchy in the shape of the Mirwaizary Institution, Kashmir enthrones and glorifies the exact opposite.

What will come out of this never-ending and ulterior criticism hammered out in alleged bad-faith? Hopefully a debate; an introspection into the core dynamics of our failure to channelize two decades of mountainous sacrifices into a globally recognized political movement. Hopefully this sets forth a collective plea from a battered, accused and persecuted nation to its lords, serfs and dukes; a plea that enshrines the values of egalitarianism, justice and meritorious service. Hopefully this invites inquisitions into an archaic practice of pronouncing ‘representatives’ and human almightys based on family lineage, especially in places where political shortcomings, incompetence and lack of imaginative zeal translates into more suffering, more morbidity and more shattered dreams.

The time, oh powers that you are, has come to disband the fallacy of Hurriyat Conference and come forth from behind our smoke screens to face a people, a nation and an entire generation in need of answers, inspiration and opportunities cradled in liberty, dignity and self-determination. Kashmiris don’t need a band of priests, lords, Yodas and diamond dealers to discuss their fate behind locked doors and hand carved panes. Kashmiris need to be equal partners in the journey that charts their place in time and safeguards their moments in future. We don’t need a priest who preaches down to us without the slightest exposure to the cruelties and travesties we have risen against. We don’t pelt stones to exhibit our rogue mentalities but as a lost resort of expressed resilience – the same resilience that made all of you relevant in the 'greater scheme of things.'




Junaid Azim Mattu
President
World Kashmiri Students Association (WKSA)