Prof Gani, Omar must force others to tell the truth

Time of confession for armed forces, guerrilla groups in J&K

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Feb 7: ‘I-am-the-good-you-are-the-evil’ has been the hardline of all actors of violence in the Kashmir conflict. Consequence is inescapably the casualty of truth. Players of all hues, without exception, have indulged in causing harassment to opponents, kidnapping, murder, enforced disappearance and displacement.

Kashmir is a small place and, in most of the incidents, it does not take years to learn who has done what. Public perception has erred in very few cases. What a slain separatist leader’s son has been saying and withdrawing for years and what the senior Hurriyat leader, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, has revealed at a conference here in the beginning of last month, are actually open secrets in the Valley.

It appears reassuring when the Hurriyat and MUF founder is holding “our own people”---euphemism for separatist militants---responsible for killing Kashmir’s politicians, clerics and intellectuals in 22 years of the armed conflict. And, equally reassuring when Chief Minister is unambiguously holding his own troops guilty of killing an innocent civilian in Handwara.

Prof Gani and Omar Abdullah have a bounden responsibility to be clear in the matters of ‘mystery killings’. The only politician of quotable quotes in the separatist camp, Prof Gani is, by his own admission, personally aware that innocent people like his brother, Mohammad Sultan Bhat, Professor of Law Abdul Ahad Wani and cleric-politician, Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq, were eliminated by none other than militants. Before returning to power in January 2009, Omar had repeatedly said that his government would constitute ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ to narrow the chasm between followers of diverse political ideologies in Jammu & Kashmir.

Had the half-truths and total falsehood remained restricted to the State and the non-State actors of violence, it would have been no strange. It, in fact, assumed menacing proportions when groups claiming to be constituting and representing civil society, opted to become cheerleaders of the political icons and populist narratives. They showed little hesitation in according the society’s sanction to merciless killings of innocent and uninvolved civilians, let alone blowing up Tehseen Billas into shreds on the streets in Srinagar.

Constituents of the civil society laboured to hide the truth when gunmen, widely perceived to be separatist militants, wiped out families, like that of Gopalpora (Chadoura) in December 2002, when babies were gunned down in the laps of their mothers and thousands of others were hanged or shot dead under the labels of ‘informants’, ‘anti-movement elements’ and ‘pro-India political activists’. Scores of the kidnapped are still untraced. Mainstream politicians in the state were critical of such ghastly incidents only when they were out of power.

On the other hand, everybody from the nationalist media to the political and bureaucratic leadership in New Delhi equipped the Police and armed forces with a free license to kill, kidnap and persecute.

Massacres at Gawkadal, Chota Bazar, Hawal, Tengpora Bypass, Habbak Crossing, Handwara, Sopore and Bijbehara had no obscurity. Few were condemned and fewer investigated. There were scores of “high level inquiries” but no prosecution, no punishment to the guilty. Even in the recent matters of the killing of five innocent civilians at Pathribal, that was impressively investigated by CBI, Army at the highest level has taken the stand of rescuing the guilty officers. J&K Armed Forces Special Powers Act continues to be the ultimate weapon in the arsenal.

If this is the behaviour of the world’s “most disciplined army” in the world’s “largest democracy”, what could be expected from the half-baked, illiterate, frenzied and indoctrinated guerrillas in the matters of individual killings or the massacres of Wandhama, Chtitisinghpura, Sangrampura, Mir Bazar Qazigund, Kokernag, Lasjan and Nadimarg.

Now that the best-kept secrets with regard to Kashmir’s bloodshed are unfolding fast in a natural manner, leaders like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Bilal Gani Lone, Shabir Ahmed Shah and Yasin Malik should take the lead in breaking the ice if they have to morally defeat their opponents.  

The political parties, their armed wings and those who have meticulously shifted from pressing triggers to filing petitions in the Indian courts, have directly and indirectly claimed responsibility of killing hundreds of people in their daily statements, particularly in 1989-2000 period. They must now claim the greater moral responsibility---confess and apologise.

On the other hand, Corps Commanders like Syed Ata Hasnain should stop to rescue the guilty with cliché arguments. How does it matter whether 21-year-old Manzoor Ahmed Magray was taken away from his home or gunned down in ambush outside. Greater facts are that he was not a militant, did not carry any guns or grenades, had a right to life and died from the State’s bullet. SOP was violated by way of not involving local Police and the village headman with the “operation”. Even an apology and ex-gratia relief from the organisation should not be enough.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has succeeded in dousing the fire in Handwara but heads of security forces should realize that same can not be the case at every place. Telling of unadulterated truths---and a transparent follow-up action--- from both sides alone could bring the real thaw in Kashmir’s misery.

END