Kashmir society has been hardening. In the quarter century, between the last carefully organised militancy by Pakistan in the Valley, which shook the Indian state, and the present burst which originated last July, young Kashmiris have been sucked into ideological brainwashing and military training and some of them have even turned into psychological monsters peddling death. The proof was the lynching of police official Mohammed Ayub Pandith outside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar around midnight on Thursday. It is a sordid tale that will live as a reminder of the extent of mental and ideological training of terrorists. The killing was done expertly, crudely and openly on Shab-e-Qadr, one of Islam’s holiest nights during Ramzan.
Radicalised violence of the Al Qaeda and Islamic State variety is a far cry from Kashmir’s traditional, tolerant Islam. Violent distortions have not yet overwhelmed Kashmir’s culture. But after the humiliation heaped on Pandith’s person following his brutal murder by a few in front of a baying mob, it is hard to dismiss the fact that brutality of the worst kind has made deep inroads into Kashmiri society. In the name of their religion the criminal gang killed the police officer, who was on duty, by piercing his body with a rod and then tossing the corpse into a ditch. It is shocking that separatist leaders have maintained a studied silence, except for Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is also chairman of the Hurriyat Conference. Mirwaiz noted that state violence had brutalised Kashmiri society. This can only be partly right.
By far the bigger problem in the Valley has been penetration of extremist ideology exported from Pakistan. This is accompanied by the most cynical and systematic use of violence against fellow Kashmiri Muslims as part of a larger Pakistani design of incorporating Kashmir through a so-called popular uprising, carried out less and less in the name of Kashmiri nationalism and more and more in the name of Islam (through local outfits such as Hizbul Mujahideen). The Indian state has played right into the Pakistani gameplan by rejecting any meeting ground with the local population, by repudiating the prospect of any political discussion on their wide-ranging grievances concerning autonomy and economy, and seeking to bring them to heel through force. This uncaring attitude is unworthy of a democracy but the Narendra Modi government, the BJP and the proponents of the RSS ideology, give no evidence of having even the most rudimentary grasp of the fragile reality in Kashmir and its impact on the country as a whole.
