J&K in Jeopardy
A terrain termed nothing short of a Paradise by the all-conquering Babur or Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur, the first of his name and the first king of the Mughal India (as the most meticulous of the GOT fans might suggest), has now turned into a land inhabited by people consumed by fear and terror, thanks to the relentless battles fought, every now and then, amongst two nations that are ready to put anything at stake but pride to include an area that would barely increase the dimensions of their respective provinces. This has inculcated a strong feeling of hatred and disdain not only amongst the white-collared bureaucrats but the local junta as well for the opposite nations. And all the while this turmoil ought to be irrelevant as far as the beloved game of cricket is concerned, it seems the tension is reflected amongst the two sets of fans as well and the discontent in the junta of the losing nation is well-apparent.
The laying down of the conflict dates all the way back to our independence and the resulting partition in 1947 when the two nations just could not settle to compromise over the ever-so controversial Kashmir for once and all. The blatant stubbornness for seizing the then largest princely state of Colonial India was succeeded by immediate wars which have continued till now, and while saying of recent conflicts one just cannot ignore the unrest and resentment caused amongst the Kashmiri Muslims and the emergence of some separatist groups or the “Ultras”. One of such groups, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, which was particularly pronounced very recently, emerged in the September of 1989. This militant group has in fact been designated as a terrorist organisation by India, the United Nations and the United States of America. As a matter of fact, there have been a lot of separatist groups springing up in the past two or three decades, demanding reclusion from either India or Pakistan, however the aforementioned one has been the gist of the primetime story of every news-channel in the past couple of weeks. On July the 8th, Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the 21 year old poster-boy and Commander of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, was taken down under a well-profiled operation by the effective conjunction of the Indian Army and the J&K Police. The guy had been much revered by the radical idealistic population of the Kashmir Valley because of being viciously victorious in luring the Muslim youth of the region towards the group through videos on social media.
After he was shot, his funeral was presided over for mourning by a whopping 200,000 people even from most remote areas of Kashmir, the biggest ever gathering in the eventful history of the state. The aftermath of the death amplified the extent of the tension in an area always under scrutiny for all wrong reasons. The violently erupting protests were wide-spread. Police stations were attacked by mobs, the weapons were plundered and fired upon the security forces themselves. Not surprisingly, considering the situation, a BJP office was attacked upon in Kulgam. By July 16th, 46 people were reported dead, 117 lost their eye-sights and the toll of those who were injured rounded up to 3600. The state had literally come to a stand-still during the period due to the suspended communication and internet services and the blocked roadways between Jammu and Srinagar. Apparently this catastrophe was another evidence of the people of Kashmir getting buried under the avalanche caused by the inadequacies of two nations refusing to hurt their egos.
The point is that a situation deemed deadly stares in the face of our subcontinent with the constancy in the terrorist activities we find ourselves indulged in. The Kashmir turmoil is an outcome of the constant obnoxiousness caused by certain masses within the nations, be it the audacity of Kanhaiya Kumar and his mates to shamelessly blabber against their motherland and generate violent protests within JNU, be it the resentful lectures given by Zakir Naik promoting and inculcating a feeling of Jihad within masses, or be it the Pakistan government still being silent and dishonest regarding budding terrorism within their own country and concealing and nurturing certified terrorists like Hafiz Sayeed and many other terrorists and organisations altogether who plan and profile attacks on neighbouring nations. Although it would seem diplomatic to many, but is instead as palpable as anything, that the conflict, if not resolved completely, can be diminished to a certain extent only by means of involving sincere political dialogue, compromises, negotiations and concurrence between the two nations. If not so, the on-going disagreements might have serious repercussions as is evident from the violent history of the two nations.