Author: Ashwani Talwar
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 8, 2001
It was always a fragile ceasefire.
The militants never accepted it and the security forces were increasingly
interpreting it the way it suited them. The gunning down of six Sikhs right
in the state capital has not made things any better.
The latest incident was yet another
provocation meant to make the government lose its nerve and call off the
peace initiative. But even earlier there were signs that the forces were
losing patience; pulling at the trigger a bit to soon. And in the process
drawing flak over what many people in the Valley saw as cold-blooded murders.
Particularly during the last fortnight of January.
The "violations" contributed to
the sense of indifference over the second extension of the unilateral ceasefire
around Republic Day when this reporter visited the Valley. "For the last
10-12 days, the ceasefire is only on paper," Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik
complained.
In Dudipora near Handwara in north
Kashmir, the villagers could be forgiven for not being excited over the
extension. A day before Republic Day, Rashtriya Rifles troops arrived at
the village and conducted a search -- something which is not supposed to
happen during the unilateral ceasefire.
Worse followed. At tonga-wallah
Nazir Ahmed Mir's house, the soldiers asked him and his brother to lift
their phirans. Nazir's brother protested against an expletive used by a
soldier. At this, the villagers' version goes, a soldier shot at him. As
he collapsed, the second soldier opened fire.
"He asked for water and then he
died," a villager recalled.
A day after the Republic Day, the
Handwara market looked surreal. The tricolour flew from every third shop
-- the army 'encourages' the locals to do so every year -- but the shutters
were down. The traders flying the Indian flag were protesting "Indian atrocities."
In Srinagar, a senior officer said
the army was probing the Dudipora killing. But he also maintained the ceasefire
rules were not violated: the operation was not a "search", but an "area
domination" exercise. Soldiers were fired at. Nazir died in a crossfire.
The special task force of the Jammu
and Kashmir police -- blamed for many ``custodial killings'' in the last
fortnight of January -- too maintains it was following the government's
undertaking of "non-initiation of combat operations."
Like the army, the police said,
it conducted raids only when there was hard, precise intelligence about
the militants' whereabouts. The police and para-military forces justify
the raids as normal policing work, meant to keep violence to a ``manageable
level.''
``If we don't get the militants,
they will get us,'' a top police officer said.
There is much cynicism in the Valley
over security forces' claims, particularly as the ceasefire frays with
time. But despite the violations, most people admit that large-scale cordon-and-search
operations, in which people from an entire cluster of houses were ordered
out, are no longer common place.
Buses drive past checkpoints where
earlier all passengers were ordered out, asked to walk a distance and then
reboard. For a Sowgam villager a trip to Kupwara town, 16 kilometres away,
is easier. `` It used to take one-and-a-half hours, now it takes 45 minutes,''
he said.
But the militants too are moving
easier in the villages, consolidating themselves. In the Sowgam man's opinion,
there would be a sharp rise in militancy once the ceasefire is over.
At a checkpoint on the main road,
a soldier seemed to agree. As a couple of trucks passed by without being
stopped, he said, ``they could be carrying anything.''
