Mohsin Mohi Ud Din
I remember the horror and anger and helplessness I felt when my aunt, Icia, was murdered by security forces in the early 1990s in Kashmir. It woke me up to the inequalities of justice and human rights and freedom between where I lived in America and where my family and friends live in my motherland, Kashmir. Two decades later, those inequalities of justice and accountability and human rights remain. The summer of 2010 saw the largest civil society protests in Kashmiri history. It all came from the unjust murder by Indian security forces of a 17-year-old Kashmiri student, Tufail Ahmad. Four months after his murder, security forces have now killed 100 more Kashmiris, most of them young, unarmed protesters. The renewed, non-violent, grass roots movement for justice and stability remains ever fragile.
In my recent conversations with Kashmiris under military curfew in Srinagar, one girl tells me, “There is nothing here. No school, no milk, no life. For three months we are made prisoners in our homes. We feel like we are mental patients locked in an institution.” The other day my cousin in Kashmir sent me an email saying, “Dear, almost fifth month of curfew in Kashmir valley and world is watching (quietly) keep quit. Peoples r ( are) facing lots of problem here like medicines food and etc. Please do pray for us.”
Whether you are Indian, Pakistani, Kashmiri; whether you are Hindu or Muslim or Sikh, or Kashmiri Pandit, the fact remains that all parties are in some way affected by the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits, for instance, have endured mass migration from their homes as a result of the 1989 armed militancy. Then there are the Kashmiris currently living in the valley of Indian administered Kashmir, who remain the most affected from the over 70,000 lives lost and over 8,000 Kashmiris who remain missing as a result of violent militancy and the widespread human rights violations by Indian security forces.
Because everyone is affected by what happens in Kashmir, everyone psychologically wants ownership of the Kashmir issue. But this is not the time for such commentary. Now, we must talk about the tragedies and threats unfolding today, right now in the valley of Indian administered Kashmir: the Kashmiri mothers grieving over their dead teenage sons, the students locked in their homes and who are losing their education; the Kashmiri father who gets beaten by police for violating curfew just for trying to buy milk to feed his hungry children.
The people being killed today (the youth of Kashmir) are not carrying guns. They are carrying rocks, signs, and coffins of the innocents murdered. I hope that Kashmiris engaged in non-violent protests realize that they are vital for a reinvigorated, significant social justice movement. Kashmiri activists, students, and artists and lawyers are Kashmir’s future. While the international community is slow to realize the significance of Kashmir, the Kashmiri diaspora must, and will, raise awareness about the grievances and needs and significance of the Kashmiri voice. That voice must come from the Kashmir valley via students, lawyers, and activists. Militants and political separatists groups should not marginalize the development of this voice.
Those few Kashmiri protesters and separatist groups who are trying to set fires on infrastructure and incite violence, must stop such actions as they exacerbate efforts of development of whatever little Kashmiri infrastructure exists and diplomatic and advocacy efforts towards enhancing visibility of Kashmiri voice and calls for justice and accountability.
Kashmiri activists in the valley and Kashmiri civil society must remain strong and not give into the temptations brought by Kashmir’s failed Abdullah-leadership and India’s brutal crackdowns. If the Kashmiri population will grow less and less confident in political- judicial approaches towards peace and stability, then dangerous actors outside the valley will seek to exploit Kashmiri’s injustice for self-interested political ends.
Militants in Pakistan wait in the darkness to exploit current frustrations and injustice affecting the Kashmiri people.
There are Indian security authorities hoping for increased violence and foreign militant infiltration because such developments would reward legitimacy for brutal and draconian Indian counterinsurgency tactics. The threats are real and constant.
There is but one truth that cannot be marginalized by the inaction of international community, or by self-interested authorities in India and Pakistan and failed Kashmiri leadership. That truth rests on the fact that in Kashmir, they march for human rights, not for terrorism. They march for justice and accountability, not extremism.
It is easier said than done. People are dying every day and are suffering under curfews. But, Kashmiri civil society must continue to uphold the non-violent movement for greater human rights, fair elections, and justice and accountability so that when the moment does come where international institutions and states finally pay attention, then Kashmiri civil society will be prepared to express its needs on a platform of peace, justice, credibility and legitimacy. I stand with those in Kashmir and I keep them in my prayers.
(Mohsin Mohi-ud-Din lives in US and is a monthly contributor to the Huffington Post, focusing his articles on human rights and Muslim-West relations)
