Points to Ponder

The incidents of last few weeks have been worrying and saddening for Kashmir. Though violence is not alien to the vale, having gone through more than two decades of turmoil, the incidents of the last few weeks have significance of their own. Firstly, there was the killing of four innocent protesters, who were protesting the desecration of the Holy Qur’an, in Gool, Ramban, at the hands of Govt forces. As if this was not tragic enough, news came in of sectarian tensions between Shias and Sunnis in the central district of Budgam. What apparently led to this mayhem between the two communities is a minor scuffle between two truck drivers – a Shia and a Sunni.  That a street brawl should have taken such an ugly and violent turn tells us about the vulnerability and fragile ground realities of Kashmir. Both these tragic incidents happened in quick succession, in this holy month of Ramzan. 

After the first altercation between the drivers, it took a few days for the tensions to escalate, so much so that curfew had to be clamped in many parts of Budgam District. 

That there are fault lines between Sunnis and Shias worldwide is a known fact. But despite that, the Sunni majority and Shia minority in Kashmir have by and large lived peacefully and amicably. Between the unlikely ignition and its final escalation into full blown sectarian flare up, rumour mills kept working round the clock. That is a strong indictment of the administrative machinery, which didn’t take the early warning signs to pre-empt these incidents and allowed it to go out of hand. The civilian and police officials were conspicuous by their absence, which further allowed the miscreants to arouse raw emotions and add fuel to fire. The civil administration was in deep slumber and woke up only when the clashes spilled over into many parts of Budgam district.

To douse the flames and bring the situation under control, curfew was imposed in the affected areas. But the miscreants still managed to have a field day in many areas despite. The role of police and the high handed manner in which they dealt with the situation has come in for severe criticism. Police allegedly barged into many houses and roughed up people. A 58 year old lady, Fatima Begum, was hit on her head with a gun butt. After battling for her life at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, she finally lost her battle on Saturday.

The situation in Budgam is under control as of now, but only after profound damage to human lives, property and sentiment. Despite the apparent calmness of the situation, there are many questions which all the stakeholders, government, civil society, political and religious leadership, including the separatists need to answer and take concrete steps that in future no such shameful incidents take place. The govt. had enough warning signals, but despite that it reacted late to the situation and allowed it to go out of hand. The politicians have made the usual statements appealing for communal harmony. But even here, statements by some leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani seem to involve the usual rhetoric of blaming the agencies for this sectarian tension. It is difficult to prove the veracity of such claims, but statements of this nature generally do not help in building longterm solutions to such serious problems. This is an escapist attitude and is hardly helpful in making a way forward. The civil society needs to do a serious introspection of what went wrong. How could such a minor altercation be allowed to escalate into such volatile situation, when members of the civil society could have easily tried to calm down the tempers and brought the situation under control. Elders from both communities could have used their own influence to not allow the situation to get so ugly. It is situations like these when every sensible person needs to pitch in with his sincere efforts to calm the nerves.

It would be in place to mention that given the overall fragile situation in Kashmir and the sufferings that people have gone through, such tragic incidents are the last thing that Kashmir needs. People have suffered too much and they surely deserve better. The prophets of doom and armchair analysts in the Indian media have already drawn bleak scenarios based on this one unfortunate incident. They have tried to give it a typical LeT angle, as if this was not happening in Budgam, but somewhere in Pakistan.

In the last year, after fire mysteriously consumed the shrine of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani (R.A), there was another incident reported from a small village Gund Hasibhat where unknown men torched a sacred relic of Shia Muslims. In such a volatile situation, it is also imperative upon the religious leadership and the ulema and clergy to use their good offices to warn people against falling prey to such mindset. The Imams of both the communities can use their Friday sermons to impress upon the people to build more bridges between the two sects. Kashmir doesn’t have to look too far to see the perils of sectarian violence. Pakistan has almost been consumed by this monster and Kashmiris should take lessons from that. Kashmiris would do well to understand that these sectarian flames need to be doused completely. Both the communities need to open channels of communication so that the incidents of the last week are not repeated. 

The role of the police in handling the situation has instilled fear among the locals, who feel a sense of siege. The police highhandedness in this entire episode needs to be investigated and the erring policemen need to be punished accordingly.

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