It is Kashmir again. Five days of violent protests followed after a minor girl was reportedly molested by an army jawan in Handwara in Kupwara district. Though the authorities claimed that there was absolutely no truth in the rumour and that the minor girl had denied that it was a soldier who had tried to molest her, the locals were unwilling to relent.
As the protesters took over the streets in north Kashmir, the army resorted to teargas shelling and, later, firing to control the situation. Five people, including a budding cricketer, were killed in separate incidents. Locals insisted that the girl was forced to give a clean chit to the army man under pressure. The authorities suspected the ISI hand behind the protests since it wanted to create trouble for the newly-installed State government of Mehbooba Mufti.
However, it was hard to sift the fact from fiction in the case of Kashmir, given two parallel narratives, one inspired by the ISI and its agents in the Valley and the other centering around the official New Delhi line which, in turn, is influenced by the enormous presence of the troops in Kashmir. Indeed, while the minor victim insisted even in the face of doubts raised by the protesters that no soldier had tried to molest her, her mother blamed the army personnel for the alleged crime.
However, as the protests persisted and a bandh was observed against the killing of people in police firing following the Handwara trouble, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court stepped in. At its directions, the victim of the molestation attempt was produced on Sunday before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Handwara, to record her statement. Her father was also present when she detailed the incident, again absolving the army personnel of wrongdoing. She told the magistrate that on April 12 while returning home with a friend she stopped to use a public toilet near the main market square in the town.
As she came out of the toilet, she stated, two boys assaulted her, dragging her and snatching her bag. Pointedly, she claimed one of the boys was in school uniform. Her statement on Sunday is virtually a reiteration of what she had told the police on day one when she had had first complained of the molestation attempt. In fact, her mother who claimed that her daughter was forced to exonerate the army personnel might be under pressure from the anti-India elements who are always in search of excuses to create trouble. Meanwhile, the authorities could have handled the protests more tactfully.
Once the rumour spread about the molestation by an army jawan, instead of countering through the local media, the army reportedly used excessive force against the stone-throwing mobs. Killing of people in firing by security forces further fuels resentment against the authorities. Separatists blame the authorities for unleashing a reign of terror. Following the initial trouble in Handwara, it did not take long for curfew to be clamped all over the Valley.
Internet and cell phone services too were suspended in order to prevent rumours and to stop further instigation of protests. Additional troops were to be stationed in Kashmir while the Army Chief General Dalbir Singh flew to Srinagar to take stock of the situation. The security forces were anxious to restore normalcy early, fearing a repeat of the 2010 events when the Valley was under siege for over a month. More than a hundred people were killed in clashes in 2010 between protesters and the security forces.
Quite clearly, the incidents of mischief in the Valley soon after the inauguration of a new PDP-BJP government signal difficult times ahead for Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. Separatists and their masters across the border cannot be happy with the path-breaking arrangement between the two parties, one predominantly Kashmir-centric and the other Jammu-centric. Unless all such incidents are handled with tact and restraint, and the use of excessive force is avoided, anti-India elements are bound to exploit them for ulterior purposes.
It is in the larger national interest that the Mufti Government succeeds so that it can restore normalcy in the State and wean the Kashmiri youth away from the path of self-destructive violence and insurrection in order for them to build their futures by joining the mainstream. Once Kashmir returns to normal, the new government should reach out to the alienated community of students and unemployed youths and try and accommodate their aspirations as far as feasible.
