Binoo Joshi
JK News Today
Practically speaking , a new narrative has started in Kashmir in which the people have started seeing the life in a different manner and the best thing that has happened in the Valley is that there are zero or negligible incidents of stone pelting and much of the credit for this goes to the current administration of Governor Satya Pal Malik . Stone throwers had become a major source of tension in the areas, and in the clashes after the encounters between militants and security forces, the casualties would occur . That had set a vicious cycle in motion.
Stone pelting had become a way of life for some , and that would not only disrupt the life of the vast majority of the people but also amount to harassment of those who would stay indoors for fear of getting caught in the clashes or just the stone pelting patches on the streets. There were many such patches .
It had become a bigger curse because when the stone throwers would use their raw strength to target security forces, J&K police men or the vehicle of politicians or for that matter any one whom they deemed defying their writ , they would invite reaction . The people would stay silent even if their vehicles suffered damage or the occupants suffered injuries . There was no way out for them to escape the fury of the stone throwers and stones hurled by them. But when forces acted to bring order to the situation , this would lead to many more problems , the casualties of the stone throwers would further fuel the stone throwing protests , and no one bothered to count the injuries suffered by the paramilitary forces or police .
There was universal condemnation of the use of pellet guns by the security forces , as the weapon used would pockmark faces and often resulted in some youth going blind . There were others who suffered even when they were not part of the protests . One such case is that of Insha Manzoor ,a young girl who was blinded by the pellet guns while she was sitting in her home . This amounted to the gross human rights violations , and it was recorded in the reports documented by the human rights groups., and going by their argument and that of some of the political groups , stone throwing was a peaceful way of protesting . They took the argument further that there was no comparison between bullets and stones , as if the stones were less deadly .The fact that stones can also cause deaths was ignored.
The genesis of the problem needs to be studied in practical terms . The people would take a detour and avoid the road or street under the control of the stone throwing . Why? The answer is simple: no one wanted to suffer injuries or the fatalities in such situations . They would take recourse to the social media to vent their anger for a while , but there was no cure they could offer, because the diagnosis of the problem was based on flawed perceptions that any violent action was justified as a source of resistance . The guns were considered violent, stones were not. Stones were equated to the genuine means of protest on par with the protests in streets that are often staged to demand something or protest against some measures. With this kind of justification , the stone throwers felt encouraged to do it time and again, as that gave them an elated sense of being in control of things and dictating the matters.
Another dimension that appeared in an aggressive form that the stone throwing mobs would either interrupt the counter-militancy operations or would appear soon after the encounters were over . The security forces would open fire or use pellet guns , there were casualties too. The funeral processions of the militants killed in gun battles and that of the stone throwing protestors would induce anger among the watchers and the participants in the funerals. That became the basis of the revival of the recruitment of local youth into militancy . That was serious but no one was interested in knowing how it was happening , and who were behind them . There were political rivalries and some instructions from across the border as also the terror funding to recruit stone throwers aimed at creating a perennial law and order situation . This was anarchy , and that has now been brought to an end , and it looks once and for all.
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ( OHCHR) has made a big issue out of it , let it first study what was the situation and how the things happened. Now when Governor Malik and tough stand taken by the Union Home Ministry under the leadership of Home Minister Amit Shah has brought this gruesome phenomenon to an end, it owes an apology for distorting facts.
