‘It’s time now, we need to apply our mind’

Abdul Gani Bhat

THE entire world mourns the death of thousands of innocent people in United States of America. It was a terrorist attack and a big tragedy. We feel the pain of the people of America; in fact we feel its intensity the most. The people of Kashmir are cowering in the corners of their homes, crying in pain and mourning the killings of their youngsters day in and day out on their own soil. They cannot celebrate death.

We Kashmiris relate to killings, whether they happen in the streets of Palestine, Bosnia or anywhere in the world because we know what it means. This was the reason the All Parties Hurriyat Conference decided to go against the hartal call two weeks ago.

A stage has reached in the history of our freedom movement where we need to apply our mind. As and when such a thing shapes up, sounder counsel prevails. we did not agree with the hartal call given by certain elements motivated by sentiments alone. We have been condemning terrorism in all forms all along. We have been demanding an impartial judicial inquiry to unmask the ugly faces involved in the mass killings of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, whenever it may have occurred. But this was never acceptable to the Government of India.

There was a hartal in Kashmir despite our call. That too, has a reason. Amidst the roar of guns, the noise of politics is occasionally lost—let alone a saner, sounder political design. What is more disgusting is that the people who talk against terrorism overtly and covertly created a situation where the people of Kashmir had no alternative other than shutting down everything.

You have to see who benefits by this hartal, and they played a role to make it a success. When we said no to the hartal, we meant to convey that as victims of state terrorism we must join the global coalition—not only in condemning terrorism but in addressing issues which give rise to terms like terrorism, communalism and criminality.

We are fully aware that there is a vicious design to link the terrorist attack in America with our movement and give it a bad name. There is a saying in Kashmiri, which explains this evil design. It is said that a camel ate up cotton in Qazigund in south Kashmir and lo and behold, a weaver was punished in Khadanyar 100 kms away in north.

The Kashmir dispute was born in the matrix of the partition of India. When Kashmir’s Maharaja was forced to leave Kashmir, he signed the so-called instrument of accession at Jammu (although this is disputed). This was accepted by the Government of India with a condition that as soon as normalcy returned, the future dispensation of the J&K State will be referred to the people of J&K State with a view to ascertaining whether they want to join India or Pakistan. This condition, in fact, was enshrined in this instrument as an additional proviso.

But the Government of India honoured it more in breach than in observance. Similarly, it was the Government of India that took the Kashmir dispute to the United Nations and everybody knows the fate of those UN resolutions.

This denial of the basic right of people to express themselves in accordance with the principles of democracy later took a different turn—the armed struggle. This struggle has to be understood with reference to State violence forced on the people of J&K. Violence breeds violence like hatred breeds hatred. It is violence as communication because the four-decade-long non-violent means to achieve the right of self-determination was not allowed to succeed by sabotage and ruthless force.

What was Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s plebiscite front? It was a non-violent freedom movement spearheaded by none other than the father of the present chief minister Farooq Abdullah. Later the Muslim United Front’s (MUF) participation in the electoral process was the constitutional endeavour of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to resolve the dispute on the floor of the State Assembly. It too was exclusively non-violent.

It is therefore as illogical and unacceptable to link the Kashmir dispute with the tragedy that struck Americans in New York and Washington. The struggle of Kashmiri people for their right of self-determination does not and cannot fit even remotely in any definition of terrorism anywhere in the world.

The people of Kashmir die on the soil of Kashmir at the hands of soldiers who are all non-Kashmiris. Look at the size, resources and power of India and the smallest, weakest and probably the simplest people of Kashmir. It is crystal clear who is the victim and who is the terrorist.

But we also understand this campaign against us. The oppressors have been always using weapons to beat freedom lovers—one such weapon is to label them terrorists. Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar and hundreds of others like them are martyrs and national heroes of free India. They were terrorists for the British empire.

There have been many such efforts to bring disrepute to Kashmir’s freedom movement. First they tried to communalise the movement. Then they tried to commercialise it and buy us over; then they started the criminalisation of our movement by organising and arming renegades.

While an active campaign to root out terrorism is essential, we have to draw a line between a freedom movement and terrorism. History bears testimony that no freedom lover can pass for a terrorist. Our boys have not picked up guns to kill innocent people but to force the Government of India to listen to reason and allow people to express their will in regard to the future disposition of Jammu and Kashmir.

We believe that as a consequence of the tragedy that struck America on September 11, leaders across the world will now understand the pain and indignity we are subject to in our own land and mount pressure on the parties to seek a settlement of the dispute in the interest of permanent peace.