Patriotic Kashmiris have at along last displayed their strength by unitedly fighting for a just cause and won their first battle with Indian occupiers. And Kashmiris have got back the illegally transferred lands to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) by JK government and governor, obviously under instructions from New Delhi. They have achieved this feat thanks only to their courageous struggle by involving all sections of Kashmiris. Already the Indian government has finally had a talk with the Hurriyat leaders whom it until recently called “terrorists”.

The arrival of new governor NN Vohra has already stormed the Jammu Kashmir but met with failure. SASB land scam which would have been a reality reflecting the weakness of Kashmiris demanding their sovereignty back from occupiers from India, had the patriotic Kashmiris not risen to the occasion to come to the streets fighting for the cancellation of the nefarious deal, has been cancelled or at least put on hold until an official notification is issued.

Interestingly, the total area of the land that has been transferred to SASB is nearly 1000 kanal but on papers it is shown as 400 kanal only. Accusing PDP patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed of giving 187 kanal of land to Army at Nunwan village at Lidderhama in south Kashmir, Rs 20 crores are being spent to build Army’s Good will school there and that land has been transferred to Army on instructions from former CM and PDP leader Syed Mufti. Ghulam Nabi Azad, who assumed power after Mufti as new Chief Minister, secretly conducted the further dealing with SASB and others.

For the last one week Kashmiris have been struggling to get the order revoked and they have succeeded. Fresh clashes took place on 28-29 June between police and demonstrators in large numbers in valley, as the protests against transfer of forest land to the Amarnath shrine board intensified. Rejecting the appeal of Governor N N Vohra and Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, the protesters poured on the streets and thorough fares of the city, demanding revocation of order under which 39.88 hectares of forest land were transferred to the Amarnath board last month.

With the JK government continuing to be adamant in not issuing an order canceling the land deal, the protesters continued their struggle, engaged police and paramilitary CRPF in pitched battles at various places across the city. police fired several rounds of tear smoke shells at Budshah chowk and adjacent areas to disperse the mob. However, the police action proved futile as the protesters, after dispersing temporarily, reassembled to continue their agitation, they said. People had also gathered at Sonawar, Batamaloo, Jehangir Chowk, Qamarwari, Hazratbal, Lal Ded and Safakadal areas of the city.

Elections are around the corner in JK and India comprehended the urgency of the matter. Following a week of violent protests, JK cabinet decided to revoke the land deal order and authorities in occupied Kashmir reversed a decision to hand over land in the region to a group of Hindutva militants under the guise of Hindu pilgrims. Officials the state government had taken charge of logistics for a major annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountain grotto, annulling a move to allocate land to the group to build accommodation.

Collapse of JK government

The People’s Democratic Party has withdrawn its support from the Jammu and Kashmir government. All ministers from the party submitted their resignations to Governor N N Vohra, party president Mehbooba Mufti told media persons. “A meeting of our senior ministers and legislators was held today, where it was decided that the PDP could not continue in the government in the prevailing circumstances. All our ministers have tendered their resignations to the chief minister and a letter of withdrawal of support to the coalition government has been sent to the state governor,” said Mehbooba Mufti. “We had given a deadline to the chief minister to rescind the controversial land allotment order to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. From his attitude, it appears that the Chief Minister GhulamNabi Azad was in no mood to address the aspiration of the people in this regard,” Mehbooba said.

The decision to withdraw the support was taken at a meeting of the PDP executive committee, held under the chairmanship of Mufti. The withdrawal of support comes in the wake of widespread and massive demonstrations and protests across Kashmir against the forest land allotment to the SASB. The PDP decided to withdraw support two days before the deadline it had set for the state government. With the PDP leaving the government, the ruling coalition will now have only 87 seats in the state assembly.

Governor N N Vohra can either impose governor’s rule in the state or ask the chief minister to run a caretaker government till the state elections in October. The PDP’s decision to pull out from the coalition is an “attempt by the party to cash in on the sentiment of cancellation of land allotment to the SASB, which continues to rock the valley, and to reap a rich political harvest ahead of the polls in October.”

However, it needs to be seen how successful the party would be in its objective as the opposition National Conference has blamed it for the land allotment, saying both the state forest minister and the law minister, who piloted the proposal for cabinet approval, belonged to the PDP. The Congress and the PDP formed the present government in November 2002. For the first three years, the coalition was led by the PDP with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the chief minister. However, the coalition has been dogged by internal conflicts and controversies since November 2005, after Ghulam Nabi Azad became the chief minister.

With the PDP sticking to its guns refusing to come back to the coalition dispensation, the Congress party has begun wooing the other strong political outfit, the National Conference (NC) but without any visible success so far. National Conference President and MP, Omar Abdullah called on J&K Governor, N N Vohra here on 30 June. He was accompanied by Abdul Rahim Rather, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. They discussed issues emerging from the withdrawal of support by the PDP besides several matters relating to the overall situation in the State. The outcome of the “negotiations” is not clear yet now.

Indian Terrorist Attack on Geelani, others

Life in Kashmir remained crippled for days due to a spontaneous strike in protest against the illegal transfer of 800 kanals of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and police action against peaceful processionists that left one dead and more than 150 wounded just in two days alone. There have been several arrests and torture in JK so that life becomes “normal” and no one protests against Indian action.

The Indian paramilitary CRPF troopers attempted a ‘murderous assault’ over the veteran separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani hurting him severely 29 June evening. Geelani was leading a delegation of separatist leaders who were on their way to Bemina where a youth who was critically wounded in CRPF firing on Saturday had succumbed to wounds. Quoting an orthopedic specialist the spokesman said Geelani’s both arms have been hurt in the attack. The CRPF men wielding assault rifles and bamboo sticks pounced upon Geelani’s car and smashed it altogether. They tried to drag Geelani out but the supporters aborted this murderous assault on him .The doctor has ruled out the fracture but has advised him rest citing the traumatic impact of the assault. Geelani in a press conference had termed as “state terrorism” the shelling of smoke shells over him on June 23 when he led a protest march near Jehangir Chowk.

A lot of blood has flown under the bridges and many Kashmiris have scarified their valuable lives for the sake of their nation and India must wake up listen to their legitimate, patriotic demands. Leaders like Yasin Malik are right in saying that if a solution of Kashmir continues to elude, a deadly phase of war or “militancy” cannot be ruled out. Indian government should understand the patriotic mood of Kashmiris and decide to surrender sovereignty back to Kashmiris without any more delay.

Congress betrays Kashmiris, as usual

One can change the mindset but not a set mind and Indian mindset is already petrified and nothing seems to be possible now to alter that in the normal course. S K Sinha, former governor of JK said: “You blame us (the Hindus) for being communal but what are you” before leaving the state after completing his “legitimate” term of five years. Unfortunately this set mind has never allowed the powers in New Delhi to think beyond “terrorism”, Pakistan, its ISI and China. This is in spite of the fact that situation had witnessed a tremendous change on the ground with two successive “popular” governments in power and also renewal of people’s support to them.

The earlier decision to provide land though illegal dealing provoked rioting and protest demonstrations, with four protesters killed and over 300 others injured.

A 23-year-old Kashmiri died in a Srinagar hospital on June 29, a day after he was hurt in police firing. As his body arrived in a Srinagar suburb, protesters chanted “We want freedom” and “We will spill blood for blood”. Occupied Kashmir’s Indian Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad then said it was “in the interest of the state government and the people at large to not only provide all support and facilities to the pilgrims but also to ensure their full safety and security”. The Chief Minister said there could be any number of issues taken up by politicians for ”vote banks” but creating a situation where poor sections of the society were denied their daily bread was highly unfortunate.

Kashmiri leaders say the land transfer was a ploy to settle more Indian Hindus in the region and support state terrorist military operations to kill the Kashmiris. “The land was being diverted for creating facilities for pilgrims, but now that the state government will be doing that the order gets automatically revoked,” said pro-India politician Mehbooba Mufti whose PDP had pulled out of the state government over the issue.

Congress is keen to save the ministry until the elections at least. A day after the Jammu and Kashmir government took over yatra arrangements after the SASB withdrew its request for forest land, Chief Minister Azad appealed to people to resume normal activities and let peace prevail while asking politicians and other groups not to ”rake up” an already settled issue of land transfer. ”Since the issue arising out of the government order diverting forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) had been resolved amicably after the board gave in writing that it did not need the land, people should resume their day-to-day activities,” Azad said and had urged politicians and leaders of various groups not to put the people to inconvenience and trouble by raking up the already resolved issue.

Anti-Kashmiri Hypocrites and Traitors

Identifying himself with thousands of Kashmiris protesting on the streets, Kashmir’s Grand Mufti, Mufti Bashir-ud-Din termed the pro Indian leaders Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and his predecessors Mufti Mohammad Syed and Farooq Abdullah as “traitors of Kashmiris who are hell-bent on selling the Valley to India .” It was first time that the Grand Mufti of Kashmir took part in an anti-India and pro freedom rally. He announced that he would soon unveil a protest program to resist the “nefarious anti-Muslim and anti-Kashmiri designs of India . “We will not tolerate this onslaught from India which is being executed by Congress, PDP and National Conference. I am ready to sacrifice my life for the cause of Muslims and Kashmiris,” he shouted amid vociferous slogans by the people.

Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani came down heavily on Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing it of safeguarding India’s interests in Kashmir,” and terming PDP’s pull out from the Government as a “drama. PDP has pulled out from the government for safeguarding India’s interests in Kashmir. They have been told to sacrifice power for few months and act as sympathizers of the people till the agitation against land transfer subsides, Geelani told a news conference. By withdrawing support Mufti wants to gain sympathies of the people in the forthcoming elections. “People need to remain aware and should not fall in his trap.” They have got no love for Kashmiris. They are power hungry. Their claims are a hoax as 127 youth were killed in custody during Mufti’s regime.

People of Kashmir are now very much aware and vibrant now owing to terrorist attacks on innocent Kashmiris in a sustained manner. The younger generation has proved its desire for freedom. Every thing in Jammu Kashmir ahs been converted into Indian and pro-Indian., while terrorist military forces are continually added there to make Kashmir a unbreakable cantonment and the India now like a silent criminal. The Moi-Maqqadas movement and how it was diverted to serve Indian interest. The mass uprising that time got associated with the release of late Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah rather than seeking right to self determination. Every thing the politician do only to safeguard their personal interests.

An Observation: First Victory

Finally, Kashmiris have every reason to say with dignity that they have won a small fight with their terrorist occupiers. The historic popular uprising demanding the cancellation of the nefarious land deal has taken the New Delhi strategists by sudden surprise. And Indian government retreated from its decisions for the first time in post-independent Indian history. In this backdrop the long spontaneous protests and strike signify something new. This simmering discontent for past many years and decades have now burst as a volcano and took shape of a pro freedom and anti India movement.

The issue of transfer of 800 kanals of land to SASB by all accounts is a small issue when compared to thousands of kanals which are under the occupation of security forces for the last two decades that too without a single line order from any government functionary. But India thought any thing India does in Jammu Kashmir would go unnoticed and unhampered. The way people spontaneously poured into streets protesting against Land Transfer makes it once again clear that the roots of discontent have run deep into this soil, and the popular resistance is an indigenous growth, not the handiwork of people across the line, as New Delhi always wants the world believe.

Any upheaval in Kashmir in the past few decades has been dismissed as a “creation of Pakistan and the Kashmir media” by those helming the matters in the corridors of power in New Delhi. That is the reason why governments in Srinagar and Delhi always first make blame game and take time, rather are reluctant, to rise to the occasion and make efforts to douse the flames of public anger and discontent. Though the unrest has staged a comeback after pretty long time that too in a different form, i.e. an organized public movement not at the “gun point”, but it still took the Government of India at least four days to call a high level meeting and discuss the issue. Otherwise it was routinely being ignored as part of the situation fuelled by “separatists” who are “branded” as Pakistani in New Delhi records irrespective of their “doubtful” loyalties.

This time it was an impression that Kashmir is being re-conquered and any piece or amount of land can be used for any purpose at will. It is not the question of land being transferred to a Shrine, discovered by a Muslim and the pilgrimage nurtured by local Muslims for more than century, but it is the writing on the wall for those who dismiss Kashmir problem as creation of media, Pakistan and its ISI with handful of ‘Islamist’ militants pushing it through the guns and grenades. The case is different. It is the discontent of 65 years which continues to brew and resurface anytime suitable for it.

Apart form winning the war on illegal land dealing, Kashmiris have also forced Indian leaders to enter into dialogue directly with patriotic Kashmiri groups, mainly the Hurriyat. Discontent and political disillusionment and alienation makes a deadly combination which can burst like the present situation, anytime and even the mightiest power cannot contain it. So it is time for all policy makers to change the set mind and allow a grand reconciliation in Kashmir in preparation for their eventual re-independence. They have already won the first round of the struggle now and they will achieve full independence from India as their legitimate birth right.

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DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal
Researcher in International Relations,
Analyst, Columnist & Commentator
South Asia
E Mail : abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com
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