Democracy through intimidation and terror

Early this month when Syed Ali Geelani called for offering prayers (in absentia) for Osama Bin Laden, the administration responded quite unusually. Making a big departure from its past policy, it showed a great degree of composure and allowed Geelani to offer prayers. It was for the first time since he visited parents of Tufail Ahmad Matto, who was shot dead by police on June 11, 2010, Geelani was allowed to participate in any of his programmes.

Though Geelani led a large prayers’ meeting at Batamaloo, common people generally ignored his call. It was genuinely an occasion of great relief for the jerky administration. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in a fit of joy, tweeted: “I do not want him (Geelani) to become a hero”. Chief Minister’s tweet was carried prominently by newspapers and news channels, giving the impression that Omar Abdullah has decided to give room for his critics. But it did not take chief minister even a week’s time to change his mind and try out his earlier method of muzzling the dissent. On April 13 and 20, Geelani was placed under house arrest and his public rallies at Shopian and Islamabad were banned.

Curbing peoples’ movement on May 21 to stop Mirwaiz Umar Farooq from holding a rally in Sri

nagar on the death anniversary of his father Molvi Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone was yet another reminder that the chief minister inherits a political culture where there is no respect for opposite views. It was for the first time that Mirwaiz was stopped from commemorating death anniversary of his father.

Treating its opponents with extreme contempt and disdain is rooted in the entire political and power history of the National Conference. History places the NC founder Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah—though praised for heroic fight against Maharaja’s rule in 1930s and 40s—as the most intolerant politician and bigoted ruler ever produced in south Asian region.

Democracy was first tried and tested in Jammu and Kashmir in 1951 when elections for the constituent Assembly were held under Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah’s premiership. Out of the 75 members of the House, 73 were declared successful unopposed. In two other seats—Habba Kadal and Baramullah—two independent candidates, Shiv Narain Fotedar and Sardar Sant Singh Giyani challenged the offic

ial candidates of the National Conference.

Late Ghulam Mohammad Mir Tawoos (who retired as divisional commissioner in 1975) wrote in his memoir—Yadoo’n Kay Aansoo’n—that both candidates were dubbed as Pakistani agents and mauled and hauled to such a degree by the NC cadres and state machinery that they had to withdraw from the contest to save their lives.

Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah repeated the same method of fear and terror during by-elections in Ganderbal and Devsar constituencies in 1975 where Sher-e-Kashmir and his deputy Mirza Afzal Beg were seeking election to the state Assembly. Abdullah had joined the Indian mainstream after divorcing the Plebiscite slogan (which he propagated for 22 years—1953-75) following an Accord with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to take over as the chief minister of the state.

This time it was Jamaat-e-Islami which tasted the fruits of opposing Abdullah. Jamaat had fielded two senior stalwarts—Ashraf Sahrai and Hakeem Ghulam Nabi—against Abdullah and Beg. Both Sahrai and Hakeem survived murderous attacks by NC activists. In one attack in Ganderbal, one of the senior Jamaat leaders Saadullah Tantray of Doda (he passed away in 2007) lost his left eye permanently. At least 20 Jamaat leaders and supporters had got injured in this attack.

Around 50 Jamaat supporters and leaders were wounded in another attack at Kilam village in Devsar constituency where Hakeem Ghulam Nabi and Syed Ali Geelani were the main target of the attack. Qasim Sajjad of Islamabad, who was then in the Jamaat, suffered serious head injury in the attack. It took him around two months to recover. Nobody had given any chance to Jamaat nominees to win from any of the two seats but NC employed all the vile and violent methods to crush them to defeat.

Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah did not stop here. Two days after the election, Shaikh Abdullah imposed ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, closed down its schools, arrested hundreds of Jamaat activists and leaders. The NC continued with its wrath on Jamaat in later years as well. Kashmir witnessed massive protests against the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan. The NC directed all this anger against the Jamaat. Around 20,000 houses of Jamaat supporters and leaders were burnt, their orchards cut, and shops looted in the frenzy that gripped Kashmir for three days with state government acting at distant onlooker.

The NC’s terror campaign in 1977 was even worse when a multi-party alliance—Janata Party—including Awami Action Committee of Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Farooq (barring Jamaat-e-Islami) dared to challenge Abdullah in Assembly elections. Noted historian Prem Nath Bazaz, who himself included among the top leaders of the Janata Party, has compiled a 222-page book—Democracy Through Terror and Intimidation—recording attacks on opponents, more particularly, Janata Party (JP) supporters by the NC activists.

In one of the attacks, Dr Jagat Mohni, the JP nominee for Habbakadal was hospitalized with serious head injury broken teeth and jaw-bones. Bazaz records a shameful incident when NC cadres attacked a young girl (17 year) at Budshah Chowk, stripped her naked by tearing up her clothes in full public view. Recounting his own experience Bazaz says: I along with Ghulam Mohiuddin Qarrah went to see Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah (he had fallen ill in the thick of the election campaign) at his Gupkar house. NC supporters present there attacked our car. A police officer escorted us to nearby Ghulam Mohammad Shah’s house. While seated in the living room, one after the other, Shah and Mohiuddin Matto entered and in a barrage of words hurled filthy abuses at us threatening to tear us to bits. All this happened in presence of Mirza Afzal Beg who did not utter even a word to stop them.

Salahuddin, Ashfaq Majeed, Ajaz Dar, Maqbool Illahi, Ahad Waza, Ashraf Dar, Yasin Malik, Javaid Mir and hundreds of militant commanders and leaders are also the creation of NC’s continued policy of terror and intimidation. Few have forgotten how NC’s combat squads captured polling booths, beat up polling agents, jailed poll campaigners and stopped candidates and counting agents of the rival Muslim United Front (MUF) from entering the counting halls in 1987 assembly elections. How brazenly those elections were rigged by the NC with the help of state machinery to its advantage everybody knows.

How NC unleashed Task Force and Ikwanis to settle scores with its political opponents between 1996 and 2002 must be fresh in everybody’s mind. What Omar Abdullah has been doing ever since he took over as chief minister in January 2009 is in continuity of his party history. His tweet on May 7 was just an aberration rectified right in time.

"Resolution Of Kashmir" - Declared as the Best Resolution by International Center of Religion and Diplomacy , USA

By : Mehboob Makhdoomi

"I do not find any point in starting this essay with the history of Kashmir. In my essay, only few historical instances will be brought into the lime light, where ever required.

Resolution of any problem can be ascertained by the deep understanding of the cause of the problem.kashmir imbroglio, although being a vexed issue is not complicated to understand at all. History stands witness to each and every incident. I repeat, it’s crystal clear. Then the question arises, why is it still unresolved even after 60 years? There are many answers to it. India’s adamance, few mistakes by Pakistan, and last but not the least is the confused Kashmiri leadership.

It is not wise to call Kashmir just a bilateral issue. The fate of 13.6 million people can not be decided by the two foreign countries or any organization which does not represent Kashmir’s truly. Pakistan's representation of Kashmir is always being seen at, with dubious eyes at the international platform. No country can trust Pakistan’s sayings about the condition of Kashmir. Many countries and organizations perceive India and Pakistan both as occupants and do not differentiate them, saying both of these nations have their vested interests in it.So my point is that the bottleneck of the problem is weak and bifurcated Kashmiri separatist leadership, so are the people. This has given rise to the two obstacles in between Kashmir and its freedom.


1. LOSS OF THE FREEDOM PASSION; Kashmir’s have never felt to be part of India, they always aspired for their freedom, but they were predominantly ignorant, so they needed a reliable, wise and influential torch bearer. They got few but at the end of the day all of them turned out to be cheaters. so due to the known reasons, violence broke out in the valley. It was not the war between few organizations and India. It was a civil war. It was raised by the local populace of Kashmir, it was so popular that if India would not have been able to succeed in confusing the militant outfits and the people of Kashmir and if it would have persisted 1 or 2 years further with the same zeal and passion, India had to leave the valley. India’s first success was the internal rift in Kashmiri militants, a gang war like situation prevailed, when hizbul mujahideen and Jammu Kashmir liberation front began to kill each other due to their ideological differences, leaving the war against India aside. So with this, local population was divided as both these outfits had mass public support.
This broke the back of Kashmir freedom struggle.

The second setback to the struggle was a very ugly name in the history of Kashmir, i.e. KUKA PARRAY, the very unfortunate formation of so called ikhwaan. India succeeded in indoctrinating hundred's of kashmiri youth, majority of whom were former millitants,to surrender and gave them arms, ranks, unlimited power and utilized them to curb the militancy, because, they being locals and involved in militancy before, knew each and everything about the militants, their thinking and way of operating. Although majority of these so-called ikhwanis have been killed by the militants now, but the damage done by them to the freedom struggle is irreparable. This second setback cooled everything down and this betrayal even killed the freedom passion in the local populace. There was a lack of trust. Nobody would know who is who. Even there were many families which had its members in different rival organizations. On the whole, India played a very intelligent politics in curbing Kashmir’s struggle. India could not have been successful in doing all this directly without getting locals into it.

2. INADEQUATE INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT; According to united nations resolutions, Kashmir is a disputed territory whose people have to exercise their rights through a free and fair plebiscite under U.N. So this dispute was internationally recognized, but now Kashmir has lost that support to a great extent. There are again 2 reasons for it. a).immediately after the armed resistance erupted in the valley, there was a huge exodus of minority pandit community, a plan mainly engineered by the then governor general of Kashmir, Mr. Jagmohan, and many other unpopular reasons are responsible for it. This helped India to label the Kashmiri uprising purely Islamic; India was successful to frame this issue on communal lines, to a great extent. So this defamed the uprising in many parts of the world.

b). Another setback was the September 11, 2001 attack on twin towers and pentagon in the united states of America, after which America’s 'war against terror' was launched all over the world. So in this post-9/11 world, it became hard for international community to differentiate between freedom struggle and terrorism. The word 'terrorism' became so popular that anybody with a weapon, for any cause, was labeled as terrorist. According to America, their prime suspect was Sheikh Osama bin laden, for whom they attacked Afghanistan and then suspected him to be in South Waziristan, which is a Pak-Afghan border area. America found Pakistan to have huge no. of Osama sympathizers, and Pakistan somehow managed to convince America and saved itself from devastation, although it was at the brink of it. So, now it was a cake walk for India to link Kashmir issue with the international terrorism. According to India, 9/11 attack had a direct link with Kashmir and it even succeeded in highlighting this link to a great extent.So these two reasons, especially the second one destructed the Kashmir’s international support as India claimed to be the terror victim like USA.
So, till now I have sorted out the basic two problems, which if dealt with delicately, and solved, the day is not far when we can see a free Kashmir.

Now the remedies to solve the problems;


50% of the problem is solved if its cause is predicted and then understood properly so at the present moment by figuring out the causes of this problem, we have solved it partially.There are two steps to be taken to resolve the Kashmir dispute, which means to solve the above two problems. So the two steps of remedies are;

1. Revival of that freedom passion in Kashmiri people which was in them at the inception of the popular uprising.

2. succeeding to get the sincere interference of international community especially the major players like United States and United Kingdom.


The second step is spontaneous to the first one.

1. REVIAVAL OF FREEDOM PASSION IN THE PEOPLE; I strongly confront to this notion that Kashmir’s are tired of striving for freedom. It’s only because of the impaired leadership machinery. Even being without a monopolistic leader, Kashmir’s still continue to strive for their goal to a great extent. They still boycott august 15, India s Independence Day, October 27th, when Indian troops entered Kashmir, all elections under Indian constitutions and many more. Although Kashmiri leaders do proclaim a strike call on these days but the reality is that the people do it for themselves and not for the call given by these leaders. But we can not deny the fact that a sincere leader is indispensable for this goal to be accomplished. So my point over here is the need of a passionate, sincere, knowledgeable leader, who has a full public backing. Revolution has always been brought up by single persons, so we have to wait for such a person for whose tones people will dance to. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had enjoyed such a support just few decades ago but he failed at the end and ditched his own people. Now we need one more sheikh, provided he does not ditch the people. I am emphasizing the element of the public support enjoyed by him.

Mathematically, we need sheikh Abdullah - treachery.

Such a person even has the ability to mesmerize the people with his demogoguery.He can bring all the people from all shades under one roof and set a common goal for them. Kashmir’s should not abstain to such a situation saying it can lead to more violence, but they should comprehend this fact that everyday people die and nobody cares, it has become a norm of the life now. So is it not better to face it at once by facing the Indian pressure and coming out on the roads irrespective of age, sex, educational backgrounds etc etc ? Exactly the situation of 1989 is to be rejuvenated, but without the gun. gun can be detrimental to the struggle this time, it can give room to India for calling itself terror victim and earn sympathy. So the war is to be waged with power and passion, as was done before but including intelligence and unity this time. The whole world is to be shambled with such local protests. Educated youths are to be involved in this and they be given chances to enter the revolutionary machinery, so that they can go front and speak up in front of the world effectively. It is to be highlighted at the intellectual level. It should become a fashion. People should know what their actual rights are. And all this can be done by that leader who can get the masses behind him.

India has always been strategic in curbing the voice of Kashmir by enforced disappearances, rapes, plunder,custodial killings, imposition of various draconian laws like POTA (prevention of terrorist activities act),AFSPA(armed forces special powers act), artificial ghosts in early 90's to terrorize people and now their latest trend is to indoctrinate Kashmir’s new generation. This year India conducted Gandhi jayanti on a high level in Kashmir asking students to participate in it and even chief minister Ghulam nabi azad asked people to follow Gandhi's principles in this life and keep Islam for the hereafter, and recently on an eve of children's day, children were asked to recite the much debated and controversial Indian patriotic song VANDE MATARAM, which is not only against the kashmiri sentiments but even against Islamic sentiments. This is a religious interference. This is the most dangerous Indian strategy, which could be detrimental to the cause of Kashmir to a great extent, if not dealt with properly. People, especially children should be made aware of these deep conspiracies hatched by New Delhi.




2. SUCCEEDING TO GET THE SINCERE INTERFERENCE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND EVEN THE UNITED NATIONS; as I said earlier, this step is spontaneous to the first one. When such a scenario comes into the being, there is no other way out for the world community to force India for solving the problem.International community never takes cognizance of any dispute unless it is not serious and a threat to the world or regional security. Kashmir dispute has already caused 3 wars between Pakistan and India and now both of these arch rivals have nuclear power, so the next war between them is a threat to the whole of South Asia and the world peace. So this threat is to be practically realized by the world. Pakistan has been pressurizing the world even on this point but as I said earlier that now it is not being considered true Kashmir representative. Islamic world should be insisted to play a role in it. Organization of Islamic countries (OIC) conducts Islamic conference every year and every time expresses its solidarity with the Kashmir cause, but just verbal support does not suffice. All Islamic countries should stop all kinds of trade and relation with India and pressurize it to solve Kashmir. I am emphasizing Islamic countries, because we all know that Kashmir is a Muslim majority place so getting such kind of support is pragmatically comparatively very easy. After getting the Islamic support, Kashmir should turn towards the west. It should organize programmes in which English speaking youth be nurtured and made knowledgeable about the issue and sent to the universities of the United states, united kingdom, Australia and even to the strong Indian allies like Russia. This program should be launched at the high level with huge funds and responsible, knowledgeable people to take care of it. So in this way, Kashmir can build up its young intellectual army against India with non violence and India will be bound not to do anything with it.

CONCLUSION; India is a big country with an obdurate stand on Kashmir, so kashmiris should follow the above furnished two point theory of reviving their freedom passion and getting international support, with patience and perseverance.i am sure it is not difficult to do, but it needs joint efforts. Although Kashmir’s are making efforts but not in the right direction, all efforts by them should make one confluence and form an effort pool. I am certain this is the only best solution for it, which is really productive and does not ask for lot of blood shed.


Contact: www.kashmiryouthintellect.webs.com

The essay competition titled ‘How could Kashmir, the oldest unresolved dispute, be settled’ was  judged independently by Brian Cox, Senior Vice President, ICRD (International Centre for Religion and Diplomacy) in the United States who evaluated the essays and his decision was final.The winner was Mahboob-ul-Haq Makhdoomi of Indiana University, Pennsylvania, while Himanshu Goenka of London School of Oriential and African Studies and Tawseef Kashoo of University of Kashmir, Srinanagar were adjudged the second best.

KASHMIR: THE LINES DRAWN WITH BLOOD

Rivers are red; blood is flowing in the rivers from Kashmir. Raja Mujtaba

By Brig Samson S Sharaf

The story of Kashmir is a Greek Tragedy with successive lines drawn in blood. The struggle of the aspirations of the people aside, it is also an endless tale of betrayals, geo strategic intrigues and cantankerousness.  The intrigues within, Nehruvian biases, Patel’s Machiavellism, the Kashmiri uprising followed by the tribal invasion, Radcliffe Award, the divided riparian, accession of Bikaner, Tibet, the Ceasefire Line and now the Line of Control.

If Narendra Singh Sarila the ex ADC to Lord Mountbatten is to be believed, all this was the fallout of the British geostrategic designs to contain a communist Russia and China. He goes on to write, “In agreeing to Jinnah’s project, the British also managed to whittle down Jinnah’s territorial demands to the minimum required for Britain to safeguard its defence requirements”. Plan for smaller Pakistan was not worked out by Mountbatten in 1947 as generally believed but by Lord Wavell in 1945”

Tragically, Pakistan’s unstinted support has been shadowed at crucial moments by the same overbearing allies. When I hear slogans like, ‘Kashmir runs in our Blood’, I often take it a prelude to forgetting the Kashmiri People and putting Pakistan’s interests first. But beyond the true aspirations of the people it also demonises those who played a role to stir the freedom struggle, amongst them, the Progressives of Lahore.

The late Professor Samuel Martin Burke, a founding member of Pakistan’s Foreign and Nuclear Policy understood the Congress and AIML mindsets. His books on framing of Indian Policy elucidate just that. He wrote that accession of Kashmir was crucial to Nehru’s dream of a rediscovered India of antiquity. A Muslim majority state suited his concept of secularism. Fabian socialism held a romantic appeal for the progressives, amongst them Faiz, Mian Iftikharuddin and Khan Abdul Qayum Khan who were also the Congress points men for Sheikh Abdullah, the symbol of resistance to the rulers of Kashmir. The division of Punjab ensured that India retained a land route to Kashmir, control of rivers and important head works in East Punjab. Bikaner, the State with biggest ammunition depots of united India ceded for these waters. In the days of Hind Chini Bhai Bhai and enamouring a socialist agenda, Nehru-Patel even traded off Tibet for Kashmir. These facts blow holes through Sarila’s belated revelations that undermine the struggle for Pakistan.

But the progressives of Lahore once the pride of Congress knew and challenged these motives. The trio of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Dr. MD Taseer and Mian Iftikharuddin enjoyed close relations with both GM Sadiq and Sheikh Abdullah. Later Hafiz Jullundri and Maulana Daud Gaznavi also made efforts to win him over to the AIML. This is precisely why Indian historians label these gentlemen as shameless intriguers of Pakistani left and a blot on the history of left movement in the Indian sub-continent. But these stalwart leftist Muslim Leaguers were also a pain in the neck for the feudal Unionists who were to later become the power base of Muslim League in Punjab. Close to the partition and later, they effectively insulated Qaid e Azam from these leftists and later drew their blood through military regimes.

Radcliffe had hit Pakistan’s interests in multiple ways. The Indian plan for annexing Kashmir was obvious. It is debatable if Jinnah knew of the invasion plans. What is definite is that Dr. Taseer and Mian Iftikhar travelled repeatedly to Kashmir to galvanise support in favour of Pakistan.  They found an ally in Prime Minister Liaqat Ali who after the aborted visit by Mr. Abdullah in October 1947 gave the go ahead for the invasion. The invasion plans were a secret shared only with Khan Abdul Qayum Khan, Mr. Aslam Khattak, Khurshid Anwar and General Akbar. Some researchers write that an understanding to levels of over confidence existed between Jinnah and the Maharaja of Kashmir and that Jinnah was sure that Kashmir would join Pakistan. Ultimately, India managed to scare him to submission. Some opine that the tribal invasion was the catalyst.

A careful reading of the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharajah Hari Singh is convincing to the minute legal details. It is a deliberate, well drafted and a sound document seeking to secure the immediate and long term interests of the Kashmir-India Nexus. In no way does it appear to be a document prepared in a hurry when Lashkars from Pakistan were knocking at the doors of Srinagar and Sheikh Abdullah threatening a local uprising. If we carry out an analysis on the amendments in the Constitution of India as regards Kashmir, it is revealed that the progression of amendments is chronologically congruent to the points enunciated in the Instrument of accession in that progressively all control ultimately shifts to India.

Field Marshal Manekshaw’s own memoirs challenge the Indian version and describe the confused state of mind of the Maharaja when he flew to Srinagar with V P Menon to get the Instrument of Accession signed. He writes,

“We went to the palace. I have never seen such disorganisation in my life. The Maharaja was running about from one room to the other. I have never seen so much jewellery in my life – pearl necklaces, ruby things, lying in one room; packing here, there, everywhere. There was a convoy of vehicles. The Maharaja was coming out of one room….Eventually the Maharaja signed the accession papers and we flew back in the Dakota late at night”.

If this be the state of the Maharaja’s Palace, how could he be logically expected to write such a fool proof document?  It is most probable that Sardar Patel and VP Menon with the help of some jurists first made amendments to the 1935 Act (a contravention of the Partition Plan) and finalised the Instrument of Accession.

Manekshaw’s memoirs also contradict the Indian assertion that the Maharaja wrote a letter on 26 October 1947 to the Government of India, the same day that Menon and Manekshaw landed at Srinagar. He also narrates that the entire entourage of Kashmiri Leaders led by Mr. Abdullah and those who later supported India were present at the Srinagar Airport lighting the runway with pine torches to see off Menon. This proves that these elements acted on the beck and call of Sardar Patel and Nehru to scare the Mahraja into submission and that Jinnah was right in ignoring them as double gamers.

The amended Government of India Act of 1935 provided in Section 6 that “a princely Indian state shall be deemed to have acceded to either of the dominion on the acceptance of the Instrument of Accession executed by the Ruler thereof” as a logical heir to the British Crown was legally misconceived. In the case of Madhav Rao, the Supreme Court of India found it strange that India should have claimed that the Government of India inherited any aspects of the paramountcy exercised by the British Crown. Again the Indian Supreme Court in Premnath Kaul and the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, in Magher Singh, observed that with the lapse of the British paramountcy, the princely Indian state became an independent and sovereign state in the fullest sense in international law a stand also taken by Pakistan. As the Governor General, it was Mountbatten’s duty to ensure that clauses of the Independence Act of 1947 should not have been changed by India in the 1935 Act and therefore declare the Instrument of Accession illegal. He did not do it and troops were airlifted to Kashmir within minutes for a pre determined occupation

Published by Opinion Maker