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NEW DELHI: As Indian and Pakistani troops continue to fire indiscriminately at each other in breach of a 2003 ceasefire agreement, domestic mishandling of the Kashmir militancy by New Delhi has added fuel to the raging fire, India’s Concerned Citizens’ Group (CCG) said in a statement on Thursday.
“The unusual escalation resulted in a high death toll – the casualties in January 2018 alone equalled the figure for the entire 2017,” the Group, led by former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha, said after a visit to areas along the divide line.
“And 2017 itself was an exceptional year for ceasefire violations, as they represented a six-fold increase compared to 2015,” it said.
The group believed that the situation in Jammu, fast deteriorating into a communal divide, also needed to be looked at. The rape and brutal murder of an 8-year-old Muslim Bakkarwal girl, Asifa, was being used to fan communal passions by local politicians, the group said.
“Within the Kashmir Valley, despite the success of the security forces in eliminating top militant leaders, the recruitment to the militant ranks was on the rise with even highly educated youngsters choosing to pick up the gun.”
The Group noted that militancy in the Valley appeared to be changing qualitatively with fidayeen attacks taking place. “Suicide attacks were unknown in the Kashmir Valley earlier.”
In fact, the Group said, the militancy in the Valley also seemed to have developed an autonomous raison d’etre in the absence of any political dialogue.
The Group sought to understand the changes that had taken place in the Valley since its last visit and understand whether there were any moderating influences that could prevent youngsters from taking up the gun.
The CCG members were also told that about 50 unexploded shells were still lying in and around peoples’ homes – the Bomb Disposal Squad of the J&K police had not had time to defuse them and remove them safely since January this year.
The exchange of fire has been particularly severe in 2017-18.
Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2018
