Meer Irfan
The Neighbors of Mohammed Shafi Lone, a resident of the Manihal area in the Shopian district of South Kashmir sitting by the apple orchards by the roadside are seen discussing the present situation of the Kashmir valley. Boys in small groups of three to five are fearful of the new land laws and the post-abrogation changes in Kashmir. Dejected, as visible in their eyes, the boys march away towards the home of Junaid Shafi Lone (23), who was killed in an encounter in Anantnag on Wednesday. “they have denied the rights of their dead to the families in Kashmir, what could be worse? The silence is not going to last long,” Adil Ahmed, a resident of Manihal area, who claims to have participated in dozens of funerals says.
A three-year period of a bloodied civilian uprising in the aftermath of the killing of Burhan Wani in July 2016, was followed by a massive crackdown wherein thousands of people were detained in these years and hundreds were killed, The three-year period of endless protests, encounters, civilian killings, and mass funerals evoked widespread condemnation and celebration, depending on which side of the reality people were on.
This period of a massive surge in violence was followed by a period of uncertainty starting with the Pulwama suicide attack and its aftermath when tanks/ heavy armory was seen publicly plying on the Kashmir streets and driven into the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Dotted with Army Camps, South Kashmir that became a hot-bed of pro-resistance activities in the aftermath of July 2016, reported several incidents of violence at the hands of Government Forces post the abrogation of the special status of Jammu Kashmir.
The Associated Press in September 2019 reported, “Residents of over a dozen villages in Kashmir said that the soldiers inflicted beatings and electric shocks, forced them to eat dirt, drink filthy water, poisoned their food supplies, killed their livestock, and threatened to take away or marry their female relatives. Thousands of young men have been arrested.”
A Tidal Change
On 08 May 2018, hundreds of people from Manihal shouting slogans marched to an apple orchard to the funeral of Mohammed Iqbal Bhat, who had sustained a bullet injury in the abdomen and succumbed to injuries later. Hundreds of women and men marched to funerals, some hanging on tree branches, some finding space on rooftops, children on the back of their fathers. Many were marching in tractors, two-wheelers, and trying to make way into a ground jam-packed with thousands of mourners.
A tidal wave of protest that engulfed the valley began to peak in 2016 July as a hartal paralyzed life across the Himalayan region. Srinagar- the summer capital of Kashmir that otherwise must have been bustling with tourists was engulfed with a graveyard-like silence. The hartal was only the latest manifestation of a continuing agitation. Demonstrations and Forces’ firings claimed some 100 lives in the year, By Early 2019, the cycle of protests, killings started displaying signs of slowing down, with the size of protests and funerals that had become a part of the political storyline of Kashmir going down in numbers.
Today, the mood is different, silence and a sense of loss have gripped the entire area after the family of Junaid Shafi received a call to identify their son and were told they will have to bury their son many miles away from home. On Wednesday, early in the morning, a search operation was conducted by 03 RR, CRPF along with Jammu Kashmir Police in Shalgul-Sirhama forests in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag District after getting inputs of the presence of militants in the area.
According to the officials, militants were given chance to surrender, however they fired on the Joint Search Party indiscriminately which later turned into an encounter.
In the encounter, two militants were killed who were identified as Zahid Ahmad Rather and Adil Bhat. One among the militants was identified as Junaid Shafi by his family. Junaid Shafi was a resident of the Manihal area in the Batpora of Shopian District.
On 07 December 2020, Junaid, a B.tech graduate from Chandigarh left home early morning, promising them to return back at the earliest, however, three days later, his gun brandishing photograph appeared over social media. “He left home saying he had to meet a friend and will return after meeting him, after that he did not come back, ” one of the family members told The Kashmiriyat.
“His car was parking at some Nallah in the area which his father saw, which made his father suspicious, After that, the family filed a missing report in the police station. On the third day, his photo was circulated on social media where it was said he has joined militant ranks,” the family member said.
On Wednesday, he was killed in an encounter in Anantnag District. On Thursday, he was buried in Baramulla after the family was called in for a silent burial, miles away from home.
After the outbreak of covid-19, militant bodies have been buried far away from their homes citing covid Protocols, as a reason. Various activists and human rights organizations have asked India to allow the last rites to be performed by the Families. Farooq Abdullah, the former Chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir recently said, “The families must be handed over the dead bodies of their children to allow them to perform the last rites under a proper religious code.”
Speaking in a press conference Kashmir Police Chief Vijay Kumar recently reiterated that militants’ bodies would not be handed over to their families. “Handing over the body of a militant or militant associate is always fraught with the risk of massive protests. People become emotional. They come to their funerals in the thousands,” Kumar said.
The Growing Alienation
The denial to return the dead bodies to their kin in Kashmir may not be showing visible signs, but to Shahid and many like him this is intensifying the anger among people of the Kashmir valley and the anger will soon explode into something very massive. “Silence is always dangerous than noise, they should allow the funerals of young men who die at the Hands of Government Forces, this is not silencing people, this is generating a strong undercurrent which will explode anytime.”
Adil says that the denial of burial rights and funerals is furthering the case of atrocities which has formed the ideology of an entire generation of Kashmiris.
Being hit with pellets his fingers and arms in 2017 during a stone-throwing protest near an encounter site in Shopian, Adil stated that the lack of political avenues to youth may result in serious repercussions.
buy lipitor generic buy lipitor generic
Over six years, Prime Narendra Modi Government has shown no initiative to take forward an opportunity to mend the fraught relationship with the people of the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, other than looking at Kashmir through a spectrum of “law and order.”
The neglect to admit the problems in Kashmir since 2014 stands in contravention with the efforts made by the Former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1999 and 2003 by the then Prime Minister to take Kashmir seriously and cautiously reach out to the valley’s people. The Modi Government has confined the issue of Kashmir to the problem of extremism and a mere law and order situation instigated by people backed by Pakistan.
The endless road to peace in Kashmir is marked by never-ending protests which have been followed by a deep silence post-August 2019, when the Indian Government abrogated the special status of Jammu Kashmir, the period marked by lockdowns was followed by another period of lockdown post a pandemic gripped the world furthering the silence in Kashmir and since then the administration has denied mass funerals to the Militants, but throughout this period there has been an unending demand of the bodies of slain Militants being handed over to their legal heirs.
Various families in the past too have decried the new policy of not handing over the bodies of the slain to their families. Demanding the bodies of their slain Militant kin, the families feel that such brutal policies have created widespread alienation and anger among the Kashmiri Population. Abdul Majeed Koka, father of Burhan Koka killed in April 2020 told The Kashmiriyat that Burhan was buried far away from his home against the wishes of his family. “We at least deserve the last rights to our children.”
Episodic killings of local party workers and civilians have generated fear among Kashmiris, Meanwhile, the absence of a political representation, Lack of dialogue with different stakeholders have led to widespread alienation in the Valley.
The memories of several generations of Kashmiris over the years have been defined by the bloodshed, agony, and pain of the atrocities and the ongoing conflict. There are not many families in the valley who have not been affected directly or indirectly by the decade’s long conflict.
Additional Reporting by Qazi Shibli