Kashmir | News & Discussions.

[Patriot]

“India” is as much a country as the Equator

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Kashmir streets under army lockdown to end protest​

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN (AP) – 57 minutes ago

SRINAGAR, India — Indian-controlled Kashmir was under lockdown Thursday as tens of thousands of soldiers patrolled the streets to enforce a rigid curfew aimed at ending weeks of violent anti-government protests.

Shops and schools were closed, streets ringed with barbed wire and roadblocks were deserted, the region's nearly 60 newspapers were unable to publish and even residents with special curfew passes were barred from going outside.

Despite the curfew, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organization of separatist groups, issued a statement calling for more protests: "Military measures will in no way be able to break the will of the people."

The tension in this restive Himalayan region — divided between India and Pakistan — was reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against Indian rule sparked an armed conflict that eventually killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.

Residents say security forces have killed 15 people in the recent protests. The government's controversial decision to send the army was intended to prevent the protests from spiralling out of control and igniting another insurgency.

"The army will be deployed as long as it is necessary, but I sincerely hope it will not be necessary for too long," Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

He appealed to residents to observe the curfew and to parents to keep their teenage sons — who have been at the forefront of some of the violent protests — indoors.

"It is important that people do not come into the street and start stone pelting," he said Thursday afternoon.

Col. Vineet Sood, an Indian army spokesman, said the soldiers were giving support to the local forces. "We are ready to move anywhere, anytime," he said.

However, there were risks that using the army — instead of the police and paramilitary troops that usually deal with civil unrest — could further inflame residents, who accuse the military of being a brutal occupying force.

"The army has always been India's first and last resort in handling Kashmir," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key separatist leader, said in a statement. "Its ever-increasing presence in the state, whether in the barracks or on the streets, has been intended to consolidate its control over the territory and to intimidate people."

The Indian army is ubiquitous in Kashmir, but its operations are usually aimed at combating insurgents and it has not been used in crowd control since major street protests in 1990.

The volatile region is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan, and the rival nuclear powers have fought two wars over the territory. India regularly accuses Pakistan of sending insurgents over the heavily militarized frontier to stir trouble and has blamed the recent protests on Pakistani-based militants bent on destabilizing India, a charge Pakistan denies.

Kashmiri separatists are demanding independence from Hindu-majority India or a merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Even with the curfew in force, hundreds of doctors and other employees and at the S.K. Institute of Medical Sciences, a government hospital in the main city of Srinagar, held a protest inside their compound, denouncing the restrictions and chanting anti-India slogans. Police and paramilitary troops later dispersed them, said a police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing department policy.

On Wednesday night, thousands of protesters defied the restrictions for a few hours and held street protests. Pro-independence songs rang out overnight from the public address systems of several mosques, as they had in the months before the insurgency broke out two decades ago. Troops did not intervene and no clashes broke out.

With authorities canceling curfew passes given to journalists, none of nearly 60 newspapers published from Srinagar hit the stands Thursday. Many reporters spent the night in their offices.

"Not allowing media persons to move and cover the situation is tantamount to banning the media," the Press Guild of Kashmir said, denouncing "curbs and the use of force against media persons."

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Associated Press: Kashmir streets under army lockdown to end protest

 

[ChinaChina]

india s tianmen square?

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

The New Kashmir Anger​

By Krishna Pokharel

Over the centuries, Kashmir, nestled high in the Himalayas of the Indian Subcontinent, has nurtured several religions, dynasties and cultures. Since 1947, when India and Pakistan were carved out of erstwhile British India, the Kashmir valley has been a flashpoint for competing Indian and Pakistani nationalism, ambitious Kashmiri politicians and, since the late 1980s, religiously-motivated militants.

The huge number of people who have died in Kashmir since the insurgency began – at least 60,000 by one estimate – can make it difficult to appreciate the sanctity and value of each individual life that was lost.

The truth in Kashmir is elusive. Each attack, each act of violence, is recounted in at least three different versions. The militants say one thing. The government says something else. And average people have their own view.

Tensions are once again on the rise with a fresh spate of clashes between the security forces and stone-throwing Kashmiris. On Wednesday, most parts of Kashmir remained under curfew after the death of at least three protesters in Srinagar earlier this week. They were gunned down by security forces who were trying to quell anti-government demonstrations.

India Real Time spoke with Mohammad Ashraf Wani, who is not only a Kashmir scholar with three decades of experience studying the region, but a Kashmir native who has a keen sense of how locals feel living in the tinderbox.

The 55-year-old, a history professor at the University of Kashmir in Srinagar, says the latest street demonstrations are different from the violent militancy that erupted in 1989. Now, the discontent is largely about economics and not religion, he says, and it isn’t militants, for the most part, who are unleashing their anger. “This time it’s common people, generally youth,” Mr. Wani says. “This time there is no intervention of radical, gun-toting politics.”

Changing demographics are playing a big part in the shift. With increasing literacy, young people are “more conscious of their political rights,” he says. “Combine that with unemployment, which is becoming a serious problem in Kashmir. These two factors have had the pot boiling.”

The situation on the ground in Srinagar is tense. The Army has been deployed in the streets, aiding the state police and paramilitary forces, Press Trust of India reported Wednesday. Col. Vineet Sood, a spokesman for the Indian Army in Indian Kashmir, told India Real Time, “We are trying to instill confidence in people and send strong message to the inimical elements to resist from violence.”

The wounds in Kashmir trace back to 1947, when the ruler of the mostly-Muslim region decided to make it part of India during Partition. Pakistan has never accepted that outcome, but neither have many locals, he says. “Kashmiris have been denied their right to determine their own future,” Mr.Wani says.

Mr. Wani’s suggested course of action to resolve the long-festering Kashmir dispute: “realistic” dialogue between the Kashmiri people, India and Pakistan. How can “realistic” be defined? “The Kashmiri people, India and Pakistan need to realize that they cannot be sticking to their thinking of 50 years back,” he says, adding that many Kashmiris would prefer the creation of an independent Kashmiri state. “They are neither with India nor with Pakistan.”

Goodwill between the three parties may not be enough, however. “I see no hope of peace unless the international community intervenes,” Mr. Wani says. “It’s high time it did because what happens in Kashmir affects the future of the world.”

As he daily views young Kashmiris taking to streets shouting slogans against India, Mr. Wani remembers his own political past. “Twenty years back, we were bubbling with enthusiasm and passion for freedom of Kashmir and with age we have calmed down. We are replaced by two generations of Kashmiri youths who are more passionate about these issues,” Mr. Wani says.

The New Kashmir Anger - India Real Time - WSJ

---------- Post added at 05:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:30 AM ----------

india s tianmen square?

There have already been many ....

At least 68,000 people dead in Kashmir...

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Kashmiri deaths​

Dawn Editorial
Thursday, 08 Jul, 2010

The rising number of civilian deaths in Indian-administered Kashmir highlights the failure of India’s policy that has relied on a coercive apparatus instead of political tools to crush the current wave of protests in Srinagar and elsewhere.

So far 15 people have been killed since trouble began in mid-June with the shooting to death of a schoolboy by Indian troops. It is significant that it is the urban areas which are the bastion of the Kashmiri unrest, the protesters being unarmed people. This says a lot about the character of the movement against Indian occupation and belies New Delhi’s claim that foreign elements are behind the stir. As top Kashmiri leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the other day the struggle was indigenous and that “these killings will not deter us from pursuing our goal of independence”. If only the Indian leadership could grasp this truth.

Regrettably — and it is a measure of the failure of Islamabad’s diplomacy — the world at large, including lame duck OIC, has taken no notice of the unrest in the valley and of gross violations of human rights there. Fortunately, some human rights’ bodies, including those in India, keep tabs on the situation and do not fail to draw the world’s attention to the special ‘search and arrest’ powers which enable the Indian security agencies to suppress the Kashmiri people. Last week, Amnesty International asked the Indian government to hold an inquiry into the civilian deaths and take action both against security personnel and against protesters found involved in rights’ violations. New Delhi is now reported to be considering modifying if not withdrawing the special powers which the security personnel regularly abuse to deal with Kashmiris.

Force has failed to crush the Kashmiri people’s yearning for freedom. That New Delhi should abandon political means is stupefying. Even the Indian army chief had the good sense to declare that the situation in Kashmir needed a political solution. In a newspaper interview last month, Gen V.K. Singh, while claiming that the army had done its job, said, “Now the need is to handle the situation politically.” This is coming from the head of an army which has deployed a minimum of half a million troops in the valley to hold the Kashmiri people back.

While the Indo-Pakistan relationship is bogged down in India’s Mumbai obsession, one hopes Pakistan’s foreign minister will make his Indian counterpart realise, when the two meet on July 15, that an end to the rights’ violations in the valley will help create an atmosphere conducive to forward movement on normalising Indo-Pakistan relations.

DAWN.COM | Editorial | Kashmiri deaths

 

[Ganga]

It took ninety years for Sub continent to take Independence from Britishers after 1857 independence. Kashmiris have been fighting for Independence since 1947.

I dont think so.If you remember 65 when Pakistan launched operation Gibraltar and send several thousand troublemakers into Indian Kashmir, the locals immediately informed the authorities abt the intruders which led to the total faliure of the operation .If they wanted independence they could have sided with them .Furthermore there were no protests or rallies in Kashmir prior to 1989.

 

[civfanatic]

whats the big deal??
the situation demands so.. Army is deployed to help police & local administration to regain peace.

yeah the peace of graveyard .... Which indian state wants to foist upon us ....

 

[Areesh]

I dont think so.If you remember 65 when Pakistan launched operation Gibraltar and send several thousand troublemakers into Indian Kashmir, the locals immediately informed the authorities abt the intruders which led to the total faliure of the operation .If they wanted independence they could have sided with them .Furthermore there were no protests or rallies in Kashmir prior to 1989.

Don't you think you are propagating state propaganda as facts here.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

... If you remember 65 when Pakistan launched operation Gibraltar and send several thousand troublemakers into Indian Kashmir, the locals immediately informed the authorities abt the intruders which led to the total faliure of the operation .If they wanted independence they could have sided with them .Furthermore there were no protests or rallies in Kashmir prior to 1989.

How many 'locals informed the IA'? All it takes is a few shepherds here and there to tip off - you cannot extrapolate the sentiments of millions from the fact that a handful of locals might have tipped off the IA.

 

[karan.1970]

There have already been many ....(Tianamen square)

At least 68,000 people dead in Kashmir...

I will repeat what every Pakistani says when we compare Kashmir and NWFP

Is Bejing considered a disputed area?? If not how does T S compare to Kashmir??

Anyway had the 2 be similar, there would have been a total censorship on the news coming out of J&K.

 

[Areesh]

Britisher's weren't ready to see as many people killed as we are ready to. India's integrity is uncompromisable.

Wow what a logic.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

I will repeat what every Pakistani says when we compare Kashmir and NWFP

Is Bejing considered a disputed area?? If not how does T S compare to Kashmir??

Anyway had the 2 be similar, there would have been a total censorship on the news coming out of J&K.

I assumed the comparison to TS was in the context of the military crushing anti-government opposition and killing innocent civilians - the two events are obviously not directly analogous.

 

[Ganga]

How many 'locals informed the IA'? All it takes is a few shepherds here and there to tip off - you cannot extrapolate the sentiments of millions from the fact that a handful of locals might have tipped off the IA.

How many locals helped the intruders?very few if not none.The entire operation was based on the presumption that the locals will help the intruders.Infact so confident were the planners that they did not inform the Pakistani air force abt the plan.Infact there was no back up plan if this op failed.

This showed the confidence they had that the locals would side by them and Gibraltar would be a success.But certainly that was not the case.

 

[ChinaChina]

I will repeat what every Pakistani says when we compare Kashmir and NWFP

Is Bejing considered a disputed area?? If not how does T S compare to Kashmir??

Anyway had the 2 be similar, there would have been a total censorship on the news coming out of J&K.

all the same u r killing innocent unarmed civilians

 

[Areesh]

A bit off topic but anyways.
Kunal Kapoor attacked by students in Kashmir


Shooting in Kashmir is never an easy task. Actor Kunal Kapoor experienced that while shooting for Lamhaa in the valley. Kunal is playing a young political leader in the film directed by Rahul Dholakia.
In Lamhaa, there is a scene where Kunal is giving a lecture to the students about Kashmir in a school. The shooting was going on peacefully when all of a sudden a student raised his voice and objected to what Kunal was saying about Kashmir.
Kunal says, "I was saying my lines when suddenly some students said that you are not making sense and everybody joined them. However, there was another group of students who were supporting what I said. This small argument led to a big argument where both groups started arguing with each other."

He further elaborates, "In the midst of this big argument, I didn't know what to do and I was simply standing. Then suddenly from nowhere a student came and shouted, 'Kashmir ko kya chahiye?' (What does Kashmir want?), and the rest answered in one voice 'Azadi' (freedom).
When asked if they were able to shoot that sequence on that given day, the actor said, “No ways. We had protection from the army, but when this happened they requested us to call it a day. There were more than 400 students who were a part of this big argument and an army guy told us to move from there or someone might just shoot us. He was not referring to students, but that area was very sensitive and we just followed his instructions."

Kunal Kapoor attacked by students in Kashmir