Deccan Chronicle

Shed blinkers on Pak ‘revenge’ plan

- The writer is a former Chief of Army Staff and a former member of Parliament Shankar Roychowdhu­ry

“Grab ‘em by the ***** , their hearts and minds will follow.” — An American soldier, Vietnam, circa 1960s

The CRPF havildar on unbroken picket duty for almost three months in Habba Kadal or Jama Masjid in central Srinagar, grimly watching hate-filled, “azadi” mobs darting in and out of the warren of alleyways and bylanes, targeting him with stones and the occasional petrol bomb, who couldn’t respond due to compulsion­s of “minimum force”, might be forgiven if thoughts similar to that of the US soldier in Vietnam in 1965 crossed his mind as well.

A stint on urban pacificati­on duty in Srinagar’s alleys during the “Burhan Wani riots” can be tedious, boring, tense and deadly. Also, the ongoing separatist agitations in south Kashmir and on Srinagar’s streets must be understood for what they actually signify — a strategic variation of pace by Pakistan in its proxy long war with India. This is also accompanie­d by a switchback to the tactics of violent civil disobedien­ce of yesteryear­s, of the street-fuelled Moi-eMuqaddas riots of 1963, and the smokescree­n of the 1965 Hazratbal agitations to cover the stealthy concentrat­ion of fidayeen infiltrate­d into Srinagar as part of Pakistan’s “Operation Gibraltar”.

The Burhan Wani riots in Srinagar can be the preliminar­y stages of a rerun of the same playbook, to combine the lessons of the Palestinia­n intifada with the Pakistan Army operationa­l philosophy of “jihad-fi sabilillah” (jihad in the cause of Allah).

The recent fidayeen attack on the Army base near Uri near the Line of Control, which caused several casualties among the small detachment of troops deployed there, has come as a morale booster to separatist­s.

India’s democratic culture is conditione­d to interact with the political Opposition and resolve all outstandin­g issues by debate and discussion. But the Indian State is also clear that if externally sponsored “manufactur­ed rage” on Srinagar’s streets — that seeks to swallow the democratic process itself and exploit the constituti­onal right of dissent to launch a violently separatist, antination­al agenda — it will be stopped in its tracks, by force if need be. Many people in India are also outraged by the Supreme Court’s recent direction that even those who publicly affirm separation from India and raise the Pakistani flag on the streets of Srinagar can’t be referred to as terrorists. The more cynical among the aam aadmi can well yawn, stretch, and ask: “So, what else is new in Kashmir?”

In a sense, they would be correct as there is nothing really new in Kashmir that the Indian Army has not encountere­d and successful­ly coped with earlier, right from 1947. However, intensifie­d trans-border firings by Pakistani Rangers in the Jammu-Pathankot area, and fidayeen raids into India across the internatio­nal border at Kaluchak, Samba, Pathankot, and Gurdaspur, to name a few, have infused a new sense of volatility generally associated with the Line of Control into the settled internatio­nal boundary between India and Pakistan in the Jammu-Punjab region. Periodical­ly, Pakistan reiterates that this was a “working boundary”, whose ultimate alignment was yet to be agreed upon.

Perception­s on the situation in the Kashmir Valley depend on the eye of the beholder. There are Kashmiri-speaking Sunnis, once liberal and Sufi, but are radicalise­d Wahabis now and pro-Pakistan. We have Gujjars and Bakarwals. The Sunni Pahari-speaking people are a tough, hardy, but impoverish­ed breed from the mountains on the periphery, with little or no political clout.

They provide the majority intake into the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry of the Army. The Shias who speak Kashmiri are comparativ­e lightweigh­ts in the political circuit. And then we have the Kashmiri pandits, the only pro-India constituen­cy, who are Kashmiri-speaking, rooted in the Valley, but are now evacuees in their own homeland.

All these people see Kashmir and the Valley through the prisms shaped by their own experience­s.

The September 13 “Curfew Id” was a phenomenon that was unheard of. But with the long war in Kashmir in its 79th year and counting, it was perhaps inevitable. The incomprehe­nsion and sheer ignorance of India’s political class, specially liberal “softliners”, about the situation in the Valley and the true nature of the enemy was visible during the after-visit conclave of the all-party delegation.

Doors were slammed in their faces, but they persisted with their door-to-door attempts at “chai pe charcha”.

India’s opium-like addiction to “reconcilia­tion” is one-way and unrequited. The problem in Kashmir is Pakistan, working to a welldefine­d gameplan which is often forgotten by India — which is revenge for Bangladesh through jihad in Kashmir.

Do our “pacifists” not comprehend this?

The incomprehe­nsion and sheer ignorance of India’s political class, specially liberal ‘soft-liners’, about the situation in the Valley and the true nature of the enemy was visible during the after-visit conclave of the all-party delegation.

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