SrinagarEvery Friday an eerie silence engulfs the streets surrounding Srinagars historic Grand Mosque. Residents hide themselves behind closed doors with windows firmly locked and shops outside shut.
The occasional tapping of a lathi by a CRPF man walking down the road can be the only sound heard. Often, the silence is short-lived. The areas around Masjid erupt after the noon prayers as young Kashmiri boys run into government forces.
Over the past years Kashmir has made a transition from an armed movement to a largely unarmed street rebellion. 2008, 2010 and 2016 witnessed some of the most deadliest days of civil unrest. Common Kashmiris decided to take matters into their own hands, quite literally. Large groups of people stepped out onto streets, stones in hand. The fierce unarmed movement was met by an even more fierce State response. The State also discarded their bullets, (but carried their guns nevertheless) and armed themselves with pellet guns, PAVA shells and tear gas bombs.
In 2016 alone, the J&K Crime Branch recorded 2690 stone pelting incidents across Kashmir Valley. The police claim that pellet guns are non-lethal weapons but doctors believe that they can impair a person for life. Citys SHMS Hospital recorded 1043 cases of pellet victims since 2016 unrest. Out of these, 16 people have been blinded for life while the rest have been partially or temporarily blinded. Police however insist only six people have been blinded in both eyes since the unrest began last year. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), banned the unrestricted use of pellets against animals. Nevertheless, pellet guns are still widely used on humans in Jammu and Kashmir.
A young stone pelter, who refused to give away his real name and instead preferred to be referred to as Burhan said, Every time I go for stone-pelting, it feels like I am on a suicide mission.
What triggers young boys to start stone pelting?
My uncle was participating in a peaceful protest when he was shot at the back of his head. Till today, he lies half-paralysed at home. Back then, I had never attended a protest. I used to help out in camps organised for pellet victims. I used to see how the CRPF and Police used to break into ambulance vans and beat up patients. All of this, was enough for me to start. I began stone pelting in 2008 during the Ragdo protests. Protesters coined a new slogan Ragdo, Ragdo Bharat Ragdo during the uprising. I was in 12th standard then, said Burhan.
Another boy, who preferred to go by the name Sabzar, said, I started in 2013 when Afzal Guru was hanged. He was an innocent man and did not deserve death. I couldnt hold myself back when I watched the news.
Its widely believed here that one single incident seems enough to ignite a belligerence lying dormant within every stone pelter.
Danish, who lives in downtown Srinagar, said, June 11th, 2010 was the day when I began. 17 year old Tufail Matto had been killed by a tear gas canister hurled at him. That was it, I wasnt going to stay home and watch this barbarity anymore. By now, Danish has come to be known as the Burhan Wani of downtown Srinagar and he can no longer go out onto the streets. Last year, Danish was blinded in one eye and partially blinded in the other. When the pellets hit me, I wasnt even pelting stones. It was evening, curfew had just been lifted and the CRPF and Police had retreated from the area. I was just sitting by the side of the road. Suddenly, a few police vans came and everyone around me started running. I also ran but I was at the back of the crowd, very close to the security forces. When I looked back to see how close they were, they fired at me.
Protesters in Kashmir are often detained under the draconian Public Safety Act. The Act, applicable only in Jammu and Kashmir, permits the State authorities to detain persons without any charge or judicial review for as long as two years without visitation from family members. Danish, has three FIRs registered against him and was detained for few months for each case.
Police pick up protesters either during the protest or later from their homes. Many local boys collaborate with the Police as informants, some voluntarily some after succumbing to torture. You never know who is genuine and who is an informant anymore, said Sabzar.
I never protested in my own area. There were too many Indian agents (informants) there. Me and four of my friends used to cover our faces and pelt stones in areas where no one would recognize us. said Burhan.
How do the police build these networks of informants?
Most times whenever the police catch a stone pelter, they torture him until the he is completely wrecked. Then, the police threaten to not let him go until he agrees to work for them. Sometimes, he is asked to observe the protests and note down names, other times, he is instructed to participate in them and video record the others. said Burhan.
Danish, recalls a personal account of being offered money in police custody. I was beaten to pulp and then told to work for them. When I refused, they tortured me even more. Finally they let me go after a month.
According to Burhan, the State is not interested in peace. They want to keep this war going. Every security personnel stationed at protest prone areas gets monetary incentive. Every time he is even slightly injured, the State gives him compensation for treatment. That is a lot of money. Then there are the informants who make good business out of all this. So it isnt like any of them want us to stop protesting, he said.
News about protesters also being paid by various agents have been making news, often in national media. All the three boys interviewed by Kashmir Observer denied being offered any money. Although, while attempting to get in touch with a fourth stone pelter, the boy enquired how much we were willing to pay him for the interview.
So, what motivates these young boys to repeatedly put their lives on the line during every single protest?
To this, one word resonates loud and clear: Zulm (Oppression)
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When asked how one would define Zulm, Burhan says Show me any other state in India where seven lakh security personnel are stationed to monitor people.
The concept of a work-in-progress Azadi (Freedom) struggle has turned stone-pelting into a symbolic act of resistance accessible to the common man.
Dr Adfer Shah, a Kashmir analyst, sociologist and associate editor at Eurasia Reviews, believes that stone pelting cannot be understood without looking at its context. Though I have no problem with the word stone pelter, it however has two simultaneous meanings: for the locals, stone pelting is an emotional response to the powerful violence imposed by the other. To an outsider, a stone pelter is an angry indoctrinated youth who knows no logic. However, ground reality is different, it needs a contextual understanding. Such acts can never be understood by exporting to an alien context.
Political analyst, Gowhar Geelani, believes the term stone pelter is very demeaning, since it reduces a human being to everything but human. It gives the State and its propagandist media a handle to justify the unbridled violence against the youth, he said.
The vernacular term for stone pelting is Kanni Jung. Kanni Jung literally translates to stone (Kaen) war (Jung). In the translation of this vernacular term to English, is there a cultural essence that fails to be reproduced?
Dr Adfer Shah believes that the English translation of the vernacular word is not appropriate. When we use the word stone pelting, it is depicting an action, whereas, the word Kanni Jung represents reaction. The word Jung implies two parties engaging in a mutual conflict. The word pelt lays emphasis only on the party against whom the stones are being aimed at. By not including that party in the term, it offers the party a position of being a victim, a silent, passive status which it is highly undeserving off.
Heeba Din, a research student at the University of Kashmir believes that the English terminology has long been used to over-simplify or dilute narratives that emerge from conflict zones.
Analyst Geelani adds that the English term stone pelter dehumanizes the individual. The term stone pelter strips an individual off his name, face and emotion he said.
Kanni Jung also has a deep rooted cultural, historical context to it. Research scholar at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Gowhar Fazili, suggests that traditionally the term was not always used against the State. Kashmiris used to pelt stones in inter-community clashes (Shias and Sunnis, Sher and Bakra), over failure to deliver essential services (power, water supply, sanitation, inconveniently datasheet for exams), over pricing of goods or in response to political provocations elsewhere in the globe, like Palestine and so on. According to him, the word stone pelter succeeds to rob the struggle of a historical context and changes what a Kanni Jung could represent.The term stone pelter simply refers to an individual who is breaking the law. Moreover, pelting objects at the police is not a phenomenon restricted to Kashmir. It is part of resistance that involves street battles with the police across many contexts he said.
While stone pelting becomes synonymous with resistance, does the identity of a young Kashmiri boy who pelts stones become synonymous with being only a stone pelter? Well if I am not oversimplifying. In a conflict zone, arent there only two major identities: the oppressor and the oppressed? So when you equate stone pelting as an act of resistance, the identities are already established, arent they? asks Heeba Din.
In Kashmir, stone pelting happens almost every Friday, after namaz (prayers). Other times, stone pelting erupts as a spontaneous reaction when locals feel overly intimidated by security forces. What does it mean when a protest activity becomes a routine? Does it become a habit for the ones pelting and the ones being aimed at? Does it lead to a desensitization and reduction of value of the resistance mechanism? Or does it imply a dangerous trend?
The routine reflects the dangerous trend of increasing frustration and dissent among the people. It also reflects the sad notion of living your daily lives in a conflict zone. For many people, the act may seem as petty, inconsistent and motivated by Pakistan but that would mean blurring the layers of a multi-narrative conflict. It is a way to remain blind to the complexity of conflict. Routine also means confronting daily life, a daily conflict. This is dangerous. said Heeba Din
Dr. Adfer Shah believes that such routine, violent protests simply reflect lingering social and political chaos, left unattended by the State.
While the State claims that Kashmiris are now engaging in a violent protest, Kashmiris themselves believe their violence cannot be compared to the violence inflicted upon them by the State for far too long. When you compare bullets and stones, obviously the bullet kills and stones wound. On the yardstick of lethality, I think the comparison is an overblown narrative created by Indian media. Standing up and picking up a roadside stone or brick and is an attempt to break a structure. So, stone pelting is considered violent by some factions because it creates dissonance. It breaks the hegemonic silence of normalcy that the state is trying to enforce said Heeba Din. She also adds that the stone is the common mans arsenal. You cant expect the young men and women to pick guns; for the simple fact of the unavailability or access said Heeba Din.
Dr. Adfer Shah believes that violence is a highly subjective term. Stones are far less violent than the armed modes of oppression. That being said, violence is still violence. Rather than measuring it comparatively, the State should try and understand why and where its coming from
Gowhar Fazili believes that whether stone pelting is violent or not, it certainly involves lesser chances of killing than firing of bullets. The readiness of the police to shoot at civilian protesters despite the kind of
violence or non-violence they engage in dates back to the princely regime and in a way continues as a tradition. Peaceful civilian protest as a mode of agitation has not evolved in Kashmir. It has to do with the nature of the state that has prevailed in Kashmir as well as the kind of public that has emerged as a result of it, he said.
On 28th April 2017, the Indian Army Chief, Bipin Rawat said, “In fact, I wish these people, instead of throwing stones at us, were firing weapons at us. Then I would have been happy. Then I could do what I (want to do).