A news item read that a senior CRPF official asserted that the law and order situation in the state of Jammu & Kashmir has improved substantially and is expecting further improvement once National Investigation Agency (NIA) carries more manhunt for miscreants and the cohorts who fund them to aggravate the violence. He said the NIA action will help curb terror funding.
The Kashmir Valley witnessed massive protests and unabated violence over the death of Hizbul Mujahideen’s poster boy, Burhan Muzaffar Wani last year. Since July 8, 2016, this vicious cycle of violence is continuing till today. It engulfed many young and valuable lives, ruined peace from the Kashmir valley, left lanes and by lanes gloomy. Young Kashmiris couldn’t find any pent up of the anger which was simmering inside them since the onset of the armed conflict. It was the anger which erupted in 1989 but lurked deeper in some corner of the Kashmiris identity. It remained dormant but didn’t die, it existed in deeper corners of hearts and minds but it couldn’t vanish into thin air as was expected after offering Kashmir youth some jobs and concessions in education sector.
Burhan’s death didn’t lead to imprudent clashes which the Indian media claims, rather Burhan’s death proved a catalyst for the Kashmiris to given went to their long persistent anger. Decades of humiliation and identity crisis paved the way for an ordinary Kashmiri to take to streets but this time with stones and a voice which the world has never listened to before. Stone pelting became a new resistance tool for unarmed Kashmiris. Kashmir was lucky this time; it found some place in the world media.
Owing to this never – ending clashes and news flashes on international media about the renewed Kashmiri intifada, Indian authorities tried to come up with a comprehensive counter strategy where it blamed a separatists groups for fanning the trouble in the border region. It was to cage them in a way that they find no escape and the peace returns. NIA came to the forefront. For the first time, NIA carried out raids, searched the homes and offices of the separatists, claiming that they (separatists) fund the street protests, stone pelters or anyone who challenge the regime of country in region.
While conducting raids NIA claimed to have ceased money worth 2.5 crores in cash, electronic gadgets, controversial documents and everything that can confine Kashmiris into Tihar for a lifetime. But the question is how foolish of the separatist who kept a cash of 2.5 crores or even one lac after demonization took place in the country.
Further, NIA claims to have discovered a detailed ‘protest calendar’ authorized by SAS Geelani, which according to NIA indicates a role played by the separatists in escalating violence across the Valley. It is known to everyone in the Valley that protest calendars are given by Geelani and the practice is going on since 2008 Amarnath land row. The claim by the NIA is hollow. Its inference doesn’t support the conclusion. And what a folly of the separatists who kept the LeT letter heads quite open for NIA. Anyone with an average sanity can question these claims. Moreover, NIA arrested Devender Singh Behal, a lawyer by profession and a close aide of Geelani. Behal is accused of being in constant touch with Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and might have passed on some important information to the Pakistan, thus by putting national security at risk. The big question is does Behal has access to information which is of utmost importance for the national security? And if separatists are so dangerous what was NIA doing since 1990’s and why it didn’t act then why now? The answer to these questions would only come once the probe e is over and the charge sheet against them is produced in the court. By that time the fingers of commoner are crossed.
