Over the last 58 days, Kashmir has witnessed the worst violence in decades. About 87 people, mostly teenagers, have been killed, and over 8,000 people have suffered injuries during protests-backlash from the Indian security forces. With the region still under curfew and essentials running short, the region is heading to a possible humanitarian crisis.
In the capital city Srinagar, residents are holed up in their homes. Indian troops patrol the streets armed to the teeth, monitoring any human activity in the lanes and by-lanes. Any assembly of people is seen as a potential start of a rally, and there have been hundreds of rallies since the death of the rebel commander, Burhan Wani.
The use of air-pump pellet guns has caused countless injuries. According to the latest count, around 125 civilians have eye injuries after pellets were fired in their eyes with precision. Over 15 percent of the pellet victims are under the age of 15, among them the 14-year-old Insha who has become a symbol of the viciousness of state violence. She was sitting on the roof of her house when pellets were fired at her face. Insha faces the possibility of complete blindness. At the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, where she is currently being treated to remove pellets in her eyes and brain, she writhes in pain, and asks if schools have opened.
Apart from blinding and maiming people, the Indian forces have trespassed into residential buildings beating up families. The neighbourhoods are full of broken window glass; the troops fire stone missiles after every protest. This has greatly terrified the people, and to cover the windows of their houses they use blankets.
This has been the pattern since the day of the new uprising against the Indian rule in Kashmir. It has resonance in the Dahiya doctrine, an Israeli military strategy used during the 2006 Lebanon War. It is a doctrine of an asymmetric warfare that envisages destruction of a hostile population as a means of establishing dominance over the resistance.
As many protesters in Kashmir throw rocks in retaliation against the weaponry used by the Indian forces, they escape into tiny lanes that dot the neighbourhoods in the city. The patrol parties damage the houses as they are seen as ‘protection’ for the protesters. The application of such a strategy has caused great suffering among the people of Kashmir. It has terrified the residents who have been forced to displace to other parts of the region, or leave Kashmir in refuge against the violence.
According to a report of the daily Kashmir Reader (http://kashmirreader.com/2016/08/18/ wounded-from-budgam-say-army-hounding-villagers-at-night), the army has made night raids in villages, arresting the young and causing destruction of houses. Such patterns are seen in almost every neighbourhood in the region.
Since the Modi government, India and Israel have been signing strategic partnerships to bolster ties. In 2015, in the UNHCR’s vote on a report criticising Israeli actions in the 2014 Gaza crisis, India abstained from the vote. This was a move that came as a shock to Palestinians who historically have had Indian support. The Israelis expressed gratitude.
With the ties bolstered, the strategies of Israelis in asymmetric warfare are increasingly being emulated by India in Kashmir. Israel has trained thousands of Indian military personnel in counterinsurgency since 2003. The Israeli-made TAVOR rifles have been in use since 2008 in Kashmir. The apathy towards Palestinians is heavily surpassed by the denial mode in India. Indian social media is filled with genocidal language used by Indians against Kashmiris. For India, the suppression of the Kashmiri uprising is equated with combating Pakistan.
This week India is sending an all-party delegation to negotiate with the pro-freedom Hurriyat Conference. Most of Hurriyat’s leadership is either under house arrest or in prison. Last week, Dr Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the leader of Hurriyat, was imprisoned after he proceeded to the Grand Mosque in Srinagar. The usage of pellet guns despite global outrage continues.
In such duality of messages sent by the government of India, by calling for peace on one side, and arming the troops to the teeth, Kashmir will continue to simmer. In the meantime, India will go on projecting itself as a peacemaker in the world. Unlike Israel, India has avoided use of airstrikes on civilian neighborhoods to avoid global condemnation despite denigrating its democratic values in the streets of Kashmir.
The writer is a Srinagar-based blogger and a storyteller from the Valley of Kashmir.
He curates at Lost Kashmir History