The most deadly year in a decade has left Indian-held Kashmir facing a grim future, experts say.
Kashmir politicians and independent Indian experts say the presence of 500,000 troops in IHK and an election in India in 2019 leaves little hope for an end to the bloodshed.
The Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a rights group, listed 586 dead in its annual 2018 toll.
“I don’t expect anything to change in the coming year or so. Life will continue to be uncertain,” political analyst Siddiq Wahid, of the University of Kashmir, told AFP. “An election year in India means there will be an uptick in hardline Hindutva politics over Kashmir. The BJP will try to strongly align Kashmir with its muscular Hindu nationalism,” said Wahid.
Security authorities acknowledge that the hardening positions mean more young Kashmir men turning against the foreign occupation. “There has been no effort to engage the opinion (of Kashmiris) in any kind of a political process,” said Manoj Joshi from the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think-tank. The atmosphere of fear and mistrust runs deep. Kashmiri civilians in turn are showing a greater willingness to express public defiance. Many take to the streets hurling stones at the Indian army when they lay siege to villages. Thousands attended the funeral in December of 14-year-old Mudasir Ahmad Parrey, believed to be the youngest freedom fighter killed in the resistance movement that started in 1989.
Published in Daily Times, January 2nd 2019