Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 15: The Concerned Citizens Group (CCG) of former External Affairs and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today described as “pointless’’ the heating of the borders with Pakistan including both Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) saying that will neither curb terrorism nor address the issue of growing militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.
In their fourth report released to the media by Group Coordinator Sushobha Barve, the CCG, which extensively toured several areas along International Border and LoC in Jammu and Kashmir including RS Pura, Nowshera, Uri etc at the height of cross-border shelling and firing, observed that cross-border firing is a sheer waste of resources and unnecessarily endangers the lives of people living adjacent to the border.
“While we have no idea of the collateral civilian damage on the other side, the scenes of devastation and the stories of lives and livelihoods destroyed on the Indian side are heart-rending. No citizen of India should have to live in perpetual fear and in a traumatic environment as these people do,’’ the CCG report, a copy of which was released to the Excelsior, said.
It said nobody is winning in Kashmir because of intensified cross-border shelling and called for resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan.
“Both India and Pakistan need to restart the dialogue between them. It is surprising that while soldiers and civilians are dying, the two Governments are secretly in touch with their respective National Security Advisors meeting in a third country. The Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two countries were also in regular telephonic contact. This is despite the conflict on the LoC and the declaration by India that terror and talks do not go together. Since talks are going on in surreptitious as well as an open manner, it is better that the dialogue is formalized, structured and taken to a political level to make it accountable. The future of India-Pakistan relations must not be made hostage to the political fortunes of any individual or political party,’’ the CCG report, signed by all four members including Yashwant Sinha, Air Vice Marshal (Retired) Kapil Kak, Bharat Bhushan, journalist and Sushobha Barve, Executive Secretary of Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation said.
Asserting that the most immediate objective of the two sides should be to stop the shelling on the LoC and the IB, the CCG report said that was not a difficult objective and this had been achieved during the first tenure of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government.
“The cease-fire proclamation of 26 November 2003 should be resuscitated to make the LoC a line of peace, which is what it was meant to be,’’ the report said, adding “it was not sufficient for the DGMOs of the two sides to talk on the phone. They must meet and India should not refuse a meeting considering that the last time they met was in 2013. In fact, it might help if these meetings are held frequently so that both sides learn to act with greater restraint’’.
The CCG members appealed to the Governments of India and Pakistan to come together and take the political initiative for reviving the ceasefire as a first step toward peace saying this alone would demonstrate their wisdom, prevent loss of lives of both soldiers and civilians and create the conditions for a dialogue for resolving all bilateral issues amicably.
“The unusual escalation resulted in a high death toll – the casualties in January 2018 alone equaled the figure for the entire 2017. And 2017 itself was an exceptional year for cease-fire violations, as they represented a six-fold increase compared to 2015,’’ the CCG report observed.
It said the huge collateral damage to civilians living on both sides of the border was therefore also not unsurprising.
“On the Indian side alone more than 40,000 civilians had to be evacuated, make-shift camps set up to house them at a safe distance, economic activities disrupted and schools closed in the areas adjoining the IB/LoC. Besides the loss of human lives, houses were destroyed and damaged, cattle killed and injured and local water and electricity infrastructure disrupted’’.
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 Gujjar girl, Asifa, was being used to fan communal passions by local politicians, it alleged.
“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. Militancy in the Valley also seemed to be changing qualitatively with fidayeen attacks taking place. Suicide attacks were unknown in the Kashmir Valley earlier.
“People have been making a connection between the heating up of the LoC and terrorist attacks in the state by terrorist proxies of the Pakistan Army. The argument goes that by using terrorist proxies, the Pakistan Army distances itself from terrorist attacks and pays no price for its subterfuge. The ‘robust’ response of the Indian Army this time around, it is said, is meant to punish the other side by specifically targeting Pakistani Army posts,’’ the CCG report observed.
It said the militancy in the Valley, however, also seems to have developed an autonomous raison d’être in the absence of any political dialogue. The Group wanted 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 hopes of the Kashmiris in Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed to have been dashed. They had thought that he would carry forward the initiatives of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, now they felt that he has brought nothing but despair and disappointment in Kashmir,’’ the CCG claimed.
As for the Modi Government’s Kashmir policy is concerned, the Group observed, there is a feeling that since it is unable to control terrorism, it wants its constituency to feel that India is effectively replying to Pakistan which is projected as the root cause of all problems in Kashmir. “Under these circumstances the locals have internalized the fact that while violence in Kashmir will wax and wane, politically nothing will happen to address their concerns’’.
“As the State Government is increasingly being seen as an extension of the regime in Delhi, a situation may come when the only link of the State to the rest of India would be through the security forces,’’ the Group observed.
The report said the CCG was shocked to see the devastation caused by the increased frequency and intensity of cross-border shelling.
“While the resilience of the border villagers who are collateral victims of the increased tension between the two countries is remarkable, it was shocking to find that no long term strategies were being devised to alleviate their suffering. Even the short term measures seemed ad hoc and patch-work at best.
“The inhabitants of the border villages deserve to live in peace and security like their compatriots elsewhere in the country. However, they seem to have become itinerant migrants in their own country – evacuating their homes periodically to live in make-shift camps with their livelihoods disturbed by the deaths of their family members, losing limbs and getting wounded, their homes and hearths destroyed by the shelling, their cattle killed and maimed, and their children’s education disrupted’’, the CCG members said.
They added that these ‘migrants’ whether they are on the International Border or on the LoC have certain clear political views and equally clear messages for the two Governments. “They also have specific demands which need to be taken into account by those who take them for granted as routine victims of the hostility between India and Pakistan’’.
The CCG was also disconcerted to find that while the situation in the Kashmir Valley had deteriorated further, even the peace in Jammu had become fragile. It was concerned that Jammu was being communalized for narrow political gains by certain political groups and forces. In addition, the specific issues concerning the displaced community of Kashmiri Pandits as well as the refugees from West Pakistan who came to Jammu in 1947 were not being addressed adequately.
“Death can come to these villagers unannounced. Earlier, the villagers used to evacuate their homes at night and come back to tend to their farms and cattle in the morning. Now with day time firing from Pakistan, even that is not of much help. People can die while doing the most mundane things – during their morning ablutions, while praying, working in their fields or even just loitering in the streets. The cross-border firing has been so intense this January that many villagers complained that they could not even cremate their dead locally and had to take the bodies all the way to the Ranbir Singh Pura crematorium’’.
In Nowshera sector of Rajouri district on the LoC, the villagers have been evacuated to make-shift camps being run in Government schools at a safe distance. There are 6 such camps in Nowshera and an additional 44 camps have been kept ready in case the situation on the LoC deteriorated further.
“The villages adjoining Uri had been peaceful for the last 8 to 10 years. However, this year Uri has seen several cease-fire violations. Truth is the first casualty on the LoC when cease-fire violations take place. Each side blames the other for starting the shelling,’’ the Group said.
The primary demand of the villagers in the border is that India and Pakistan should resolve this issue through an immediate dialogue, the Group said.
“Time and time again the villagers told the group that “either resolve this through dialogue or through a decisive war which settles the issue once and for all (‘aar-paar ki ladai’).” This is not a call for war but a reflection of their desperation and helplessness where they become involuntary victims of the conflict between the two countries,’’ the Group said.
It, however, added that there were mature voices also among the residents of these border villages. Many believe that war is no option.
“Don’t give ‘munh tod jawab’ (jaw breaking reply) to Pakistan from here because then we, who live on the border, are the sufferers. Give a tough reply from Delhi or Mumbai,” one of them said.
Another said, “We think that the solution to this problem is cease-fire. India and Pakistan should come to an understanding on maintaining peace on the LoC as they had done earlier. That worked for a decade or more. But for that they have to sit across the table as in today’s day and age it is impossible for either side to capture and hold onto the territory of the other. Stop tough talk with mortar shelling, talk to each other.”
More importantly, there was perception among the local citizens that in the coming days the situation in Jammu was likely to become difficult to handle. The growing disappointment with the State Government and increasing communal divide could make the situation in Jammu quite provocative. The Kashmir valley has been on the boil off and on but the Jammu region becoming politically volatile is a new phenomenon, the CCG said.
“Not only is Jammu getting polarized communally, even the State Legislative Assembly has been polarized after the terrorist attack on the Sunjuwan Army camp. Increasingly the perception is that there is a ‘Hindu Jammu’ ruled by the BJP and then there is ‘Muslim Kashmir’ ruled by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) – i.e. there is a communal division of labour between the two political allies which govern the state. Many believe that the PDP-BJP Government thrives on communal divisions by promoting polarizing voices to represent the sentiment in Jammu and in the Valley. This divides and alienates people. This was described as ‘soft separatism’ by a public intellectual,’’ the Group said.
There was local resentment that the Central Government seemed focussed only on the Valley because of the separatism there and ignored Jammu.
“The growth in Jammu had become hostage to the concerns about the Valley,’’ they claimed.
There were complaints that projects that should have rightfully come to Jammu are implemented in the Valley because the militants there had picked up arms. Whatever be the truth about the causes of resentment in Jammu, what was clear was that the Central Government needed to pay attention and balance the demands of the people from all the regions of the State – Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh,’’ it said.
The Kashmiri Pandits would like to go back to the Valley but have no homes to go back as their homes are either sold or badly damaged.
“Although the Kashmiri leaders know these facts; they insist that Kashmiri Pandits must go back to their original homes. As a result their issue remains stalemated. Kashmiri Pandits who had gone back to the Valley after taking up Government jobs under Prime Minister’s Employment Scheme apparently were under pressure, not from the locals, but from their kin in Jammu to return. However, were there to be second migration of these Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, the crisis in the State may become even more intractable. It would seem that Kashmiri Pandit politics has become quite complicated and there was a need to understand how their issues could be resolved through amicable political methods.
“The representatives of the West Pakistan refugees argued that there was an urgent need to address their issues too. They are not ‘state subjects’ and are therefore denied certain rights that other inhabitants of the State enjoy. They cannot get employment with the State Government, they cannot buy or own property and their children cannot get Government scholarships. Although they have been given limited rights to access education and health facilities, they essentially remain lesser citizens of the State. Their problems seem so intractable within the framework of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status within the Indian Constitution that no Government has addressed them with any seriousness,’’ the CCG said.
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