....And the siege continues

Year 1993: It is a calm October afternoon. The fall colors look beautiful and the breeze is a little chilly. However, the serenity did not last too long and was broken by the sound of gunshots. Within a few minutes we found out that armed militants were surrounded by the army in a neighborhood near mine. These gunmen and many civilians took refuge in a mosque, less than half a mile from my home. I could see the beautiful white marble dome and the minaret of this lovely mosque in our neighborhood. The mosque was sieged and so was the entire neighborhood, including ours.

In a situation like that the world gets divided into two groups those in uniform with guns on the streets and the civilians without the guns inside their homes. I belonged to the second group. Nobody knew how long it was going to last. It lasted over a month while the negotiations between the army and the holed up people were in progress. During this time we were under curfew. For the first week we could not get out of our houses at all and the weeks after that we could go out only for an hour. Army was positioned even in the homes of our neighbors' attics. At the end of each hour the securitymen atop these houses would blow a whistle signalling us to head back to our homes.
My father was Additional district magistrate at that time. He was the one responsible for giving out curfew passes to get out of the area in addition to his other duties of trying to break the deadlock. However, I did not use this opportunity because I did not want to leave my home and family behind. The one hour break in curfew broke the monotony of our lives. I would hang out with my friends.

While we were under siege, the rest of Kashmir wasn't normal either. Life had come to a halt. People were demanding the siege be lifted and one of those protests turned very ugly. On October 22, people of the town of Bijbehara came out in a rally and as they walked through the town, the border security forces fired on the group leaving 40 dead and 160 injured. The investigations that followed, concluded that the security forces were involved but nobody has been arrested or punished yet. While we were under siege, this town was burying their dead. Kashmir was hit by yet another tragedy, one of the many.

Eventually, after over a month of negotiations with the people holed up inside the mosque, the government reached an agreement and all of them were allowed to walk free to avoid any bloodshed. Those who were carrying the guns were also allowed to leave, only to be killed in another house in the same neighborhood a few months later. The people holed up in that mosque surivived that ordeal, but the protesters of bijbehara were not that lucky.

While the siege was physical, it left a psychological impact. An entire population was restricted to their homes. Such a collateral damage is very dangerous. It was getting more and more difficult to really stay normal. The one hour deal in curfew was not enough to find enough food. However, human endurance was at display as the neighbors helped each other. Traditionally kashmiris have been storing food in their houses which came in handy during that month and so did the kitchen gardens. While people took care of the food to some extent more or less, 40 people and a month of our lives were snatched from us forever.

Sixteen years later people are still struggling to live a normal life. Although the siege of our neighborhood was lifted after a month, the siege of Kashmir still continues. It may not be apparent as the siege of 1993, but it has a much deeper impact on the way the civil society functions in Kashmir.

A 12 year old falls to police violence on the birthday of non violent Gandhi

Gandhi led one of the most non-violent struggles in the modern world, to lead India to freedom. While India takes pride in the non-violent tactics of Gandhi, its police rarely displays this pride on the ground. In Kashmir people witness police violence day in and day out. On october 2nd this year, when India was celebrating 140th birthday of Gandhi, its police painted a street of Kashmir, red, with the blood of a 12 year old boy. He was killed by a smoke shell fired by the police.
It makes good sense to celebrate non-violence but how about practicing it on the streets of Kashmir once for a change, may be on the birthday of Gandhi at least. I don't understand, what would happen if people are allowed to express themselves once without hurting them, without killing kids. Shed the hypocrisy of celebrating the non-violence of Gandhi when your police in Kashmir is perpetrating the violence of the worst kind. They don't even spare kids. I am at loss of words to express my disdain for what has happened on October 2nd. After all that Kashmir has gone through, does India still think it is going to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiris. I suggest going through a reality check.

Conviction

There have been hundreds of inquiries into acts of violence and killings in Kashmir. Rarely do we see any convictions, though. I don't care who the perpetrator of the crime is: army, police force, paramilitary, militants, unidentified gunmen, whoever, all I want to see is the conviction in murder. A very reasonable demand but almost impossible to see in Kashmir.
This absence of justice leads to frustration and a sense of helplessness. A few big recent cases that shook this valley: Tabinda Gani(14) raped and killed by 4 men, who were arrested but we haven't seen any convictions yet; sexual exploitation of young girls by top police officers, bureaucrats and politicians, a case handled by the top investigating agency of India, Central bureau of Investigations (CBI), yet no one has been convicted for the past 3 years; a recent case of rape and murder of two young girls (17 and 22)in Shopian, top police officers of the district have been arrested for a cover up and destruction of evidence, yet no one has been convicted; some unidentified gun men killed a man and his 3 year old son, no body has been arrested.
These are just a few examples. There are thousands more. Conviction rate, probably the lowest in the world.

Mr. Chief Minister

For those of you who are not aware, chief minister is the head of the state, his equivalent being a governor in the US.

When Omar Abdullah came into Kashmir main stream politics (supports accession with India), I was wary of him. He had spent most of his life outside of Kashmir and I had never heard him speak Kashmiri either. I wasn't sure he associated himself with the people of Kashmir. I mention not ever publicly hearing him speak in Kashmiri, because a language of a place is closely associated with its culture. If you don't know the language of a certain people it becomes very hard to understand their culture in entirety and therefore feel their pulse. This is important for a person trying to lead them out of misery.
However, he surprised me with his pro kashmiri arguments on Indian national tv during peoples massive reactions to the transfer of Kashmir land to non-state subjects (according to the Indian constitution, article 370, nobody other than a kashmiri can own land in Kashmir). This transfer violated this article. His eloquence of speech and moral position made me feel that after all he does seem to be different. Infact I found him to be a better representative of the kashmiri sentiments at that time than some of the separatists, who claim to understand the kashmiri nation better than the mainstream political parties. I became his fan when he said the following words on Indian National TV ' How come whenever kashmiris come out on streets to protest, they are showered with bullets. Use of less violent measures like water cannons is totally unheard of in Kashmir' . The sentences may not be exactly the way he said them, but he used these words. This was long before he became the head of the state.
Now that he is the head of the state, more than a month ago 2 young girls, Aasiya (17) and Neelofer (22) were raped and murdered in Shopian, allegedly by the security forces. One man judicial inquiry initiated by the chief minister indicated security forces agency to be responsible without naming the real culprits. According to one of the ministers in his government, Abdul Rahim Rather, four police personnel, the former Superintendant of police, Javaid Iqbal Mattoo; the deputy superintendent of police, Rohit Baskotra; the station house officer, Shafiq Ahmad; and sub-inspector, Gazi Abdul Karim, already under suspension, would be arrayed as accused in the case registered with the Shopian police station “in so far as their role in the destruction, dissipation, and suppression of evidence is concerned.” Following this incident a month ago, people came out to protest in large numbers thoughout the valley.

With Shopian fresh in the memory, in yet another incident, in Baramulla, people came out to protest the alleged molestation of another woman by the police. Four young men were shot dead and a number of others injured by bullets. I don't know whether that woman was lying or telling the truth, what I don't understand is why the lives of those four young people were snatched for being part of a protest demonstration. What happened to the water cannon argument Mr. Chief Minister? You are in charge now, aren't you? One of the dead was a second cousin of my wife, shot in the head. I have seen friends and neighbors die during the past 20 years but this time the loss was closer to home. Amir was only 19.

Kashmir is no Iran

As I hear non-stop news about the protests in Iran and the views of the US senators and congressmen and women on those protests, I wonder how Iranians managed to attract so much International attention.
On June 12th, Ahmedinijad was reelected as the president of Iran after a landslide victory. Soon after the results were declared the defeated candidates led by Mousavi alleged voting fraud and a stolen election. The supporters of Mousavi started street protests to have the elections annulled. The protests are going on as I write this post.
The coverage that these protests are getting is unprecendented. A few days of street protests in Iran against what the protestors call a rigged presidential election, has garnered tremendous support from the west and the western media. The news channels primarily show amateur videos and analysts present their opinions on these human rights violations. While I am against any human rights violation I can't understand why the media and the elected represntatives of the western governments are so vocal this time. Some of you who are reading this might be wondering my inability to comprehend this response when it seems a morally upright reaction. The reason is I don't believe it is only about human rights, I hope I am wrong.
My reaction is based on the response (or lack thereof) of all these governments on the human rights violations elsewhere, particularly Kashmir. Kashmir has been seeing such protests and the brutality of the security forces for the past 20 years and not an eyelid has batted. We have not seen even a millionth part of the response shown by the world for the developments in Iran, when we consider Kashmir. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, thousands of young men have disappeared, there are tens of thousands of orphans and widows, hundreds of women have been raped, but nobody outside of Kashmir seems to notice anything.
I am not sure what it takes to receive the world's attention because if it was the human rights violation Kashmir should have been a headline for the past 20 years. So what is it? Anybody out there, with an answer?

It sends shivers down my spine

Two young girls, aged 17 and 22, were raped and murdered in the Shopian area of my homeland, Kashmir. The locals allege Indian security forces to be responsible. People have been protesting for the last 13 days demanding that the perpetrators of this barbarity be found and punished.

Government as usual has been vague and slow in its response. The head of the state started with a denial, declaring that these young women had drowned in the brook near which their dead bodies had been found. After a few days of protests and the reports from the forensic labs, it was confirmed that the girls had been raped before being murdered. As a result, the state government initiated a one man commission of inquiry into the incident.

An eye witness came forward to depose before the commission. It is reported that he saw the Indian army men surrounding a military vehicle. According to this witness he heard the shrieks of some women calling for help, 'Bhayou mey bachaao' (brother save me), 'Moojey mey bachaai' (mother save me) coming from inside that army vehicle. This person was seen by the men guarding the vehicle and asked to leave, which he obediently did.

I am not sure what these shrieks mean to anyone reading this, for a kashmiri, atleast in my case, it runs a chill down my spine. These are the words of extreme helplessness and I quiver after reading them and thinking about the agony and pain that those girls must have gone through. It is a shame that something like this could happen. I pray that the barbarians who did this get exposed before the world and face justice for this inexplicable crime.

Elections Again

The largest democracy of the world, India, is in the middle of electing its next parliament. It is a big deal all over India and Kashmir is no different but for distinct reasons. Kashmiris are debating whether they want to participate in these elections or not. Those who oppose any participation argue that voting means acceptance of India's rule in Kashmir. While those in favor of voting believe it is not related to the right of self determination. The most prominent voice against the elections being that of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the leader of Hurriyat(G) organization, seeking the right of self determination.
There is another faction of Hurriyat(M) led by Molvi Umar Farooq. This organization initially declared that elections and struggle for freedom are two separate issues and refused to call for boycott. However, the people's reaction soon made them reconsider their opinion and they joined Geelani and other separatist organizations calling for the boycott of these elections.
Although pro-india Kashmiri parties which include National conference and Peoples democratic party have been, and are, in support of the elections, they still believe that Kashmir issue needs to be resolved regardless of the elections. The stand of these parties is as always expected.
There was a significant development though. One of the prominent pro-freedom leaders, Sajad Lone, decided to run for the elections. His reason, he wants to represent Kashmir in India. He argues that he still wants freedom from India but he will fight this in the parliament of India. Strong change of approach, but it seems like oxymoron, to me. Whenever you run for an election you automatically accept the constitution of that country and how can you fight the same constitution in the parliament that has been created based on the very constitution, that you are against.
Democracy in India allows the freedom to be in either camp: support elections or not. However, there is a difference between what is on paper and the reality on ground. The reality is that all the people supporting boycott are treated ruthlessly(see picture below). This is the tolerance for dissent and a display of democracy on ground in Kashmir.

Source: Picture in Daily Rising Kashmir dated 29 April 2009 by Farooq Javed

Kashmir language keyboard

I am pleased to share with you that Fedora (linux) operating system has a kashmiri language keyboard now.
I contributed the keyboard mapping to Fedora(redhat) and it has become a part of the m17n (language pack) library. It will be available in the current fedora version 10, with the next update release of m17n contrib. You can check out the kashmiri keyboard in the cvs repository of fedora at

kashmiri keymap

It is dedicated to all those who love the language and most importantly my mom(Razia Yehya), dad (Mohammad Yehya), my wife Shamima, brothers (Manzoor, Shafaat and Firoz), and ishrat didi.

-Nayeem

never in history....

Last week history was made in Kashmir. The genesis of this change in history is the death of two young kashmiri men. This was no ordinary death. They were shot dead in cold blood by army. This was concluded in the investigations of the state government as well as the army itself. Killings like these have been happening in Kashmir for the past 20 years, the latest one after these two being the shooting of a young carpenter in another part of the state. What makes the death of these two young men different is the resistance that the villagers showed up against it. Their peaceful yet resilient fight was against the army camp amidst their village, members of which were responsible for the death of those two innocent men. Their demand: shift the army camp.
They were united and steadfast in their demand. Peaceful, yet so powerful that their struggle yielded results that were never seen before in Kashmir. The army camp was shifted from that village. It was the victory of innocence and peaceful resilience.

for gods sake.. were not hindus or sikhs!

I happened to listen to a few media reports on the recent violence in Pakistan's North-West. Often they interview civilians fleeing military offensives. Once too often one hears some flavor of the following comment from the poor hapless fleeing souls: "its not like were hindus or sikhs.. why the hell is our own government bombing our villages?". Is this messed up or is this messed up?

Democracy is about inheritance

When you speak about democracy in Kashmir, it is more about who your father is than who you are. Take a look at the recently concluded state elections in Kashmir. Who became the chief minister (head of the state)? Omar Abdullah. Son of two time chief minister, Farooq Abdullah and the grandson of the founder of his party, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. This is the ruling party National Conference. It is not hard to imagine that the next leader of that party would be Omar's son.

Now let us talk about the main opposition, Peoples Democratic party (PDP), the main leader is Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Guess who is the next in command... his daughter Mehbooba Mufti. Who would be after that...someone from the family. Is this really democracy?

The real democracy is still a pipe dream for the people of kashmir. May be that is the reason for the mess we are in. whatever the elections are worth I think people should be voting for the person to head the state and not the party.