Kashmir Insurgency
Indian State Ignored Prodromal Symptoms
By Yoginder Kandhari
MUCH before the armed Islamic fundamentalists
took on the might of Indian security forces in
Kashmir, in the winter of 1989; broad hints of
impending catastrophe were lurking ominously in
the Valley's firmament. While analyzing reasons
leading to the outbreak of insurgency in
Kashmir; experts have often been myopic to
restrict the scope of their study to trends and
events emerging from 1987 onwards. Most analysts
hold the line that large scale rigging during
elections in 1987 was the main reason for the
Valley to plunge into an era of darkness and
destruction. Not many have tried to unwind
intricacies of a continuous process of
subversion, which has been in place in the
Valley, right since the time J&K state acceded
to India.
Background: Contrary to common
belief that insurgency was a spontaneous
consequence of rigged elections of 1987, one
needs to understand that an insurgency of the
magnitude which India has been contending in the
Valley could not have been launched in a matter
of just a couple of years. It, surely, needs
more than a decade to conceive, propagate, plan
and execute an armed struggle of the scale as
has been unleashed in the Valley. To do justice
to the subject, it is essential to trace history
of Kashmir back to pre-partition days when
Sheikh Abdullah's Muslim Conference took on the
last of Dogra rulers. This confrontation was an
unambiguous reassertion of Muslim identity. That
the Sheikh opted for accession to India than to
Pakistan was as much a matter of political
expediency as a first firm step of a greater
design of gradual secession of the State from
Indian Union on his own terms. Thus, the seed of
secessionism was sown right at the dawn of
India's independence. It would be naive to
de-link events thereafter from those responsible
for eruption of current insurgency in the
Valley. The two time-periods are extremes of the
same continuum. In the interim period process of
Islamisation of the polity and, more
importantly, the bureaucracy continued
unhindered. During this period subversive
mechanisms got institutionalized and, in hind
sight, it can safely be inferred to have been an
important link in their scheme of things.
Return of the Sheikh:
Sheikh Abdullah's return to the helm of the
State in 1975 was held out to be his political
rehabilitation. It, in fact, turned into an
opportunity for him to culminate the process of
subversion he had initiated in his first tenure.
This is borne out by a number of events which
unfolded immediately after his second
coronation. Few commentators have highlighted
the fact that Sheikh was too lenient in his
disposition towards Jammat-e-Islami
during his second innings, particularly after
1979-80. It was not as if he admired the
Islamist organization but it suited his larger
game-plan. It may be pertinent to mention here
that hectic parleys were held by some
international Muslim players to broker an
agreement between Jamaat and the Sheikh.
In 1980, Rabita, an international Muslim
fundamentalist organization with its
headquarters in Saudi Arabia, intervened in
Kashmir to arrive at an agreement wherein Sheikh
was allowed to retain hegemony in Kashmir
politics provided he shunned his hostility
towards Jamaat and gave it a free hand in
pursuit of its larger designs. This explains why
anti-Zia-ul-Haq sentiment, which had swept the
Valley immediately after Z.A. Bhutto's hanging,
dramatically changed into pro- Zia euphoria.
It is surprising why visits by Saudi Arabia's
intelligence chief and Madina University's
Rector to the Valley, during 1980, did not raise
hackles in New Delhi's intelligence circles.
Obviously, these emissaries from the Muslim
world were on a serious mission to give
direction to pan-Islamic game-plan of wresting
'Muslim' Kashmir from India. During this period,
Saudi King's sister is also believed to have
stayed in Rajbag, Srinagar, as guest of a
leading Kashmiri businessman, for a year to
ensure that new found rapprochement between the
Sheikh and the Jamaat was not derailed by Indian
intelligence agencies. Saudi dinars are
believed to have flooded the Valley during early
eighties to finance a fundamentalist
dispensation which was to rear its head in its
ugliest form a decade later. During the same
period, neither the visit of Amanullah Khan to
Pahalgam and Srinagar nor those of Mr. Nelson
Rockfeller, followed by Charlton Heston, famous
actor doubling up as roving ambassador of Ronald
Reagon, were mere coincidences. Amanullah Khan
provided the Pakistani content to the nefarious
negotiations, while Rockfeller and Heston
completed the American arm of the pincer
intended to dismember India. Thus, Sheikh's
return to seat of power in J&K ushered in an era
of overt subversion and sabotage of Indian
interests in the Valley.
Janta Party Government:
Janta Government's role needs to be put under
scanner for callous omissions in its Kashmir
policy. Janta Party leaders, keen to settle
political scores, dismantled India's
intelligence network in Pakistan built over
decades through meticulous planning and
political vision by the redoubtable Pandit Ram
Nath Kao. This was convenient both to Pakistan
and to Sheikh's larger game plan. It remains a
mystery as to what prompted Janta Government to
discontinue practice of regular feedbacks from
the Kashmir Divisional Commissioner directly to
the centre, thus leaving field open for anti
India conspiracies. Ram Nath Kao, founder of
RAW, was denigrated by Janta regime, thus
demoralizing the cadres of this premier
intelligence agency. Consequently RAW's grip on
Kashmir affair weakened much to the comfort of
subversive forces in the Valley.
In 1979, again under Janta dispensation, Sheikh
Tajam-ul- Islam formed Jamaat-e-Tulba. It is no
secret that this outfit played a critical role
in building a firm infrastructure for Islamist
uprising, witnessed a decade later in Kashmir.
Thus, it is not difficult to figure out why
Pakistan's highest civilian award, 'Nishan-e-Pakistan’,
was conferred on Morarji Desai.
Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan:
Erstwhile Soviet Union's intervention in
Afghanistan, in 1979 shortened the run up of
Islamist forces to unleash insurgency in
Kashmir. Indira Gandhi, to her credit, had
cautioned the then Soviet leadership of the
consequences of such misadventure. But destiny
willed it otherwise and Pakistan reemerged as a
frontline state in American scheme of things.
Afghan pipeline inundated Pakistan with arms and
funds. It was a God sent opportunity for
Pakistan to put its diabolical Kashmir policy in
place and who else could script it better than
Zia-ul-Haq, a master strategist. If Soviet Union
had not involved itself in Afghanistan
militarily, it can safely be assumed that armed
uprising in Kashmir, though inevitable, would
have been delayed at least by a decade.
Militancy in Punjab: In keeping
with his shrewd tactical acumen, Zia-ul-Haq did
not want to reveal his Kashmir cards until the
ground was fertile enough in the Valley for
launch of a successful insurgency. Rise and sway
of fundamentalist forces was increasing and Zia
chose to wait for the opportune moment. As a
deception he chose to destabilize Punjab. His
game-plan succeeded as Indian government got
embroiled in Punjab while ISI dumped arms and
ammunition in vale of Kashmir with impunity.
"Punjab was just a diversion while Kashmir
remains the main objective of Pakistan" was a
prophetic observation made by Late Girilal Jain,
a noted journalist, as early as in 1984.
Islamisation of Administration &
Obliterating Hindu Linkages in Kashmir:
The process of Islamisation of all instruments
of the state continued unabated. In a carefully
calculated policy Hindus were denied employment
and promotions in state administration thus
purging the system of Indian ‘moles’. It is no
secret that Allahwale, a fundamentalist
outfit, spread its reach to corridors of power
in Kashmir with its ideology seeping deep into
the roots of state administration. Establishing
a mosque within the secretariat premises, in
Srinagar, was its first manifestation. Jamaat
and Allahwale ideology permeated into the
police force as well, weaving an extensive grid
of subversive cells in this important arm of
state administration. This network later worked
hand in glove with terrorists thus frustrating
efforts of security forces to decimate their
influence in initial stages of militancy. Even
cultural subversion continued unhindered under
the Sheikh regime. Citing administrative
reasons, old historical names of 682 villages in
Kashmir were changed to Islamic ones. This was
done to please the new found ally,
Jammat-e-Islami, which was hell bent upon
severing all Hindu linkages of Kashmir to India.
In mid-eighties, hardcore fundamentalist cadres
were brazenly absorbed in state administration
to facilitate subversion. During G. M. Shah's
tenure two armed police battalions were raised
mainly from people owing allegiance to
Jamaat-e-Islami. Besides, the premature
removal of M. M. Khajuria, DG State Police, some
believe at the behest of pro-Jamaat
elements in administration, hastened subversion
of the police setup. Why Jagmohan, the then
Governor of the state, remained a mute spectator
to unabashed Islamisation and subversion of the
state setup remains a moot point till date. All
the more baffling was his decision to recall
Peer Ghulam Hassan Shah, who as DG state police
was the architect of Islamizing the police force
in 1984, as his advisor when the former was
brought back, in 1990, as Governor of the
troubled State.
Battle Indications Neglected:
Credible information was available with
intelligence agencies that an armed uprising in
the Valley was in the offing. Way back in 1983,
intelligence operatives in Kupwara had alerted
their bosses about a batch of twenty youth
having crossed over to Pakistan for arms
training. Similarly in 1984, a journalist
reported crossing over of a group of Kashmiri
students from Poonch to Pakistan. This
journalist was almost fired from his job by the
national news agency, for which he worked, for
filing this report. When a local journalist, of
a vernacular daily, filed a story about
subversive activities going on in the Valley in
1983, a leading English daily dubbed the
journalist as 'terrorist in media'. Why the
intelligence mandarins and those in corridors of
power in New Delhi chose to turn a blind eye to
these battle indications defies logic.
Conclusion: Indian state
failed to read the writing on the wall. The
tragedy with all our institutional apparatuses,
whether state or otherwise, is that these refuse
to believe what they see and wallow in a make
believe world of their own. That basically is
the reason why preparations for the insurgency
in the Valley did not invite state action. This
strategic lethargy has been exploited to the
hilt by our enemy, both without and within, and
unfortunately such an approach continues even
today. That is why policies formulated by GoI to
contain terrorism end up strengthening
subversion itself. Cost of this neglect of
prodromal symptoms of insurgency by the Indian
state is being paid by the frontline victims and
Indian security personnel.
Source:
Kashmir
Sentinel
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