How Doda District Bore The Brunt of Turmoil

Srinagar- District Doda in Chenab Valley of the state, which enjoys relative peace these days, has gone through the worst phase of its history over the past nearly three decades of turmoil.

Over 1024 militants and 258 army and paramilitary personnel have been killed in a total of 521 encounters in the erstwhile Doda district since militancy began in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has said in reply to an RTI application.

Of the slain militants, 764 were local and 260 foreigners.

Among the forces personnel, 120 belonged to the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), 80 to the Border Security Force (BSF), and 58 to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). RTI is silent on the casualties suffered by the state police, including its counter-insurgency wing the Special Operations Group (SOG) and civilians.

The reply, a copy of which lies with the Kashmir Observer, says that militants had damaged five armour-plated vehicles, and carried out 30 attacks on various forces camps over the period.

The reply further says that a compensation of Rs 50, 88,053 had been paid in the 47 cases of damage to houses and other structures during encounters up to July 2017.

“The district has suffered equally in the conflict, or may I say more,” Javid Ahmed Makhdoomi, a senior police officer who was posted in the district, says.

He had been posted as SSP Doda in 1993, shortly after unidentified gunmen killed 15 bus passengers in the Kishtwar town. The incident had evoked widespread condemnation.

At the time of his posting, the district was spread over 11,695 square kilometres. After a major government decision in 2006 announcing new administrative units, the district was divided and presently covers about 4,500 square kilometres.

“The topography made fighting militancy in the district a very tough job,” he says. “The mountainous terrain, with steep slopes covered by thick forests, villages scattered at altitudes of up to 14,000 feet, and ravines and gorges, all provided a safe haven for militants.”

“When one hill was cordoned off, militants would cross over to neighbouring hills,” he says. “They knew the terrain very well, and inflicted significant causalities on the forces.”

The Pir Pantsal and Mohore areas were favourite spots for militants to sneak in, he says.

According to Makhdoomi, militancy in Doda did not coincide with the Kashmir uprising but began a little later, and with a difference.

“The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Al Jehad, and the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami dominated the scene until other outfits such as the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba joined the fray,” he says.

Makhdoomi, who spent four years in Doda, says the district had witnessed a total collapse of administration.

“It appeared to be something like a liberated area, with no connection either to Jammu or to Kashmir,” he says.

1966 ELECTIONS

The almost back-to-back parliamentary and assembly elections held in the state after a gap of nine years of central rule in 1996 were a major challenge for the government forces in the district.

“It was almost impossible because there were no roads and no means of communication. But we managed to hold elections,” Makhdoomi, who was transferred soon after the polls, says.

An army officer posted in the area during the time said the militancy graph was rising in the Chenab Valley, and therefore, the Army set up an elite counter-insurgency unit, namely Delta Force, in 1994.

The Delta Force was a key unit of the Rashtriya Rifles created in 1990.

“The RR played a key role in holding the elections peacefully,” he said, wishing anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

CREATION OF VDCs

To counter the militant threat, the government had constituted a ‘private militia’ called Village Defence Committees (VDCs).

In a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) petition he filed in the J&K High Court to seek the absolute disbanding of the VDCs, noted human rights activist Khurram Parvez had said that appointing, arming, and the lack of training, of the VDCs, SPOs and the Ikhwan were in violation of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution.

As per a statement by the former Chief Minister of the state, Omar Abdullah, in the Legislative Assembly, in April 2013, 26,567 persons were working with the VDCs to fight militancy.

Giving details, the Chief Minister had said the highest number of VDC volunteers, 5818, was working in the Rajouri district, followed by Reasi with 5730 volunteers, and Doda with 4822 volunteers. The lowest number, 37 volunteers, was engaged in Leh, he had said.

According to (a) petition, the Doda district, where the demographic distribution (Hindu and Muslim) is 30:70, 5874 (90.08 percent) of a total of 6521 VDC members are Hindus. Further, out of the 6521 VDC members, 1729 are paid as VDC members/SPOs, and of these, only 126 (7.28 percent) are Muslims. The rest of the paid VDC members /SPOs (92.72 percent) are Hindus.

On December 4, 2012, the Doda police had said that 6549 VDC members, including 1731 VDC SPOs, had been appointed in the district.

According to sources, the proposal, under which VDC members were subsequently armed with (–303 and 7.62 mm bolt action rifles), had been mooted to the central government by the then Home Commissioner in J&K, Dr. Sudhir S. Bloeria, and strongly advocated by the then IGP, Jammu, SS Wazir.

Quoting sources privy to the development, Fayaz Pampori, a journalist working in Doda since 1990’s says Wazir told the centre, saying that it would be wise to arm villagers to protect themselves because it was not possible for the police to have pickets in every area.

This led to a large number of people, particularly from the Hindu community, being armed by the government in the Doda district, a move Makhdoomi says he had opposed.

“I sent my views, opposing the creation of the VDCs, in writing,” he says. “It (the VDCs) was very dangerous because Hindus were taking weapons eagerly, whereas the Muslims were not.  The Hindus from that area belong to fighting stock, whereas the Muslims do not.”

“Keeping in mind the history of communal tension in Doda, I had said that while we might be able to control militancy someday, there would be a lot of casualties, particularly among the Muslim community, if communal clashes broke out,” Makhdoomi says

“Obviously, armed men would dominate the whole area. It is easy to see now the way the VDCs are taking advantage of the weapons issued to them,” he says, maintaining that the sentiments of the Muslim community were anti-India.

According to Pampori, a “reign of terror” was unleashed in Doda after the VDCs were set up.

“They started getting involved in different crimes, even when there was no presence of militants. They started terrorising the Muslims,” he says.

There were allegations that the government was ignoring the Muslim community while creating the VDCs.

“A top police officer showed me a confidential letter he had written to the government saying that they had made a huge mistake by arming a particular local community,” he says.

In the letter, the officer had written to the Home Department that in case of communal tension in any part of India, the impact would be dangerous in Doda because of the arming of a particular community, Pampori says

“The police officer had suggested disarming of VDCs or balancing the region by arming Muslims equally. “If a group consists of 10 members, 5 should be from the Muslim and as many from the Hindu community,” he said,

Reports say that the extreme right-wing party ruling India has now set-up a separate VDC cell, which is demanding their regularisation and converting them into a separate force

PRESENT SITUATION

According to Pampori, no militancy related incidents had occurred in the area since the killing of two policemen-turned-militants on October 15, 2015, in an encounter with government forces.

The 2014 assembly elections were fought on communal lines and it had widened the gap between the two communities.

“At present, though people are not fighting each other, communal harmony is under strain,” he says. “Anything can happen anytime.”

“There is still a sense belonging with Kashmir among the people,” he says. “And many times the district observes shutdowns against the killings in Kashmir.

According to Raqib Hameed Naik, a Doda-born journalist based in Delhi, militancy has been wiped out in the district.

“The district was declared militancy-free in 2010, but lately there have been a few attempts to revive it. One SPO was killed when a police post was attacked in Gandoh in May this year. The police had blamed militants for the attack, and made some arrests,” Naik says.

He says that communal disharmony in his native district was of more concern than militancy.

“The Lok Sabha and assembly elections were fought and won by polarising the votes, the 2013 Kishtwar riots being a good example of how things can go wrong,” he says.

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