School girls join protest, Centre mulls fairer force
The authorities have snapped Internet services in in Jammu and Kashmir or parts of it as many 28 times in past five years, thereby denying the access to social networking sites by their users.
However, analysts see a blanket ban imposed by the government on social media this week as a deliberate attempt to keep things simple or seeing at them through a mindset that does not match ground realities.
A proxy ban on the social networking during law and order situations in the past failed to push the Valley’s youth inside their homes. On the contrary, it brought its Internet-savvy generation too out only to join the stone-pelting brigades.
However, it is a fact that social media has been used by many Kashmiris as a tool to voice political sentiments and protest against alleged atrocities by security forces.
The Valley’s stone-pelting phenomenon is something which goes beyond use or misuse of social networking and alleged funding from across the border.
It is actually rooted in the political dilemma of its Muslim population and a corollary of the failures and broken promises of successive governments.
Those who indulge in it call the pursuit as their own ‘Intifada’. It has only spread in the recent months with Burhan Wani’s killing acting as a catalyst. ‘Kani Jung’ as the stone-pelting pastime of Kashmiri youth is known in local parlance and literally means ‘stone war’ sparks off even at slightest provocations.
Though women participation in ‘stone-pelting’ pursuit is not a new phenomenon as it dates back to 1960s and 1970s when the Valley had plunged into turmoil over varied issues and saw the fairer sex fighting the uniformed forces alongside the menfolk, the manifold participation of them in ‘Kani Jung’ this time, as has been admitted by the officials too, is a worrying trend.
Female students were seen hurling rocks at policemen during the recent widespread protests by student community which has sent the authorities into tizzy.
The home ministry has come up with the idea of raising an all-women India Reserve Battalion to primarily deal with incidents like stone pelting by females. But Kashmir watchers say that administrative and military measures have failed in the past and will certainly not do any good now. The answer to the predicament lies in political engagement of its alienated population particularly youth.