RAGE IN YOUTH

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After many days of undeclared curfews, hartals and severe restrictions on the movement of people, it was a day of freedom on 27th July, 2010. I as usual had to go for a bit of shopping as well as to observe the mood of people and overhear their conversations which revolved round the issue of Aazadi. I was in a bus back to home with a small child of 3-4 years old as my companion besides me on the seat with a new toy gun in his hand, as is my nature I socialized with the child and enquired what for he had got the gun? I was surprised and awe stuck when he confided to me that he will kill the military man with the same. I was born in late 1980’s when the armed insurgency initiated and grew up in the gun culture and these things were no surprise for my generation who now are in the prime of their youth, but those who are born after 2005 when the militancy had reclined I couldn’t make it out for them. As soon as I pondered deeper I could make it out that the sentiment of violence, enemy, resistance and resentment had been transferred to the new generation of toddlers, infants and children who grew up with mobiles, internet and electronic gadgets in their hands and cartoon shows and movies but the daily atrocities, the conversations of elders and the hated figure of an alien soldier present at every nook and corner of each alley plus the over politicized environment, has led to the promiscuous political puberty of the new generation.

Youth are an asset of every Nation and the future rests with them. In Kashmir too they are no exception except the fact that youth have always been the driving force of political resistance. A whole generation of youth became cannon fodder to the armed insurgency against India and now my generation too is treading on the same path with the exchange of guns by stones but they are getting the same in return i.e Bullets of Police and Army.

From Land Row Agitation of 2008, youth are dictating terms of the movement and the formation of the indigenous resistance groups of “Stone Pelters” is a new development to the same who are disgusted by the separatist leadership as they have failed to deliver in the last 23 years despite the fact that much blood has flown down the Jhelum River. They even on certain occasions have defied the separatist leadership and announced their separate programme of Hartals. These mysterious masked Stone Pelters who even address Press Conferences are decried as Pakistani Paid Agents indulging in Agitational Terrorism by the Centre and State and even some ‘separatists’ and ‘Maulanas’ from time to time have described their acts of Stone Pelting as Un-Islamic, but despite all these obstacles, ridicules and detestations all proved in vain.

These acts of Stone Pelting similar to Palestinian resistance are proving to be the worst Nightmare for the State which is coming down heavily on these Stone Pelters and in wake of these more than two thousand youth have been arrested, rounded up or illegally detained by the Police but still Stone Pelting is continuing unabated.

The Indian and Kashmiri Policy Makers are naïve and ignorant of the grassroot level situation in the valley and trying to suppress the unrest with a heavy hand and till now have miserably failed in the same. The daily atrocities and innocent killings have driven the youth to the wall where they wish to put an end to the vicious circle of atrocities and death. Stone Pelting is assumed to be a method to achieve the same. This generation which has seen so much blood, violence and killings that it has made them to overcome the fear of Death and they see eye to eye to it daily during their skirmish and tussle with Police and Military.

If the State, Police and Army puts an end on the atrocities and innocent killings the acts and incidents of Stone Pelting too will end as they are reactionary and resentful, but instead of reining the security forces who are supposed to protect the lives of common men, State is giving them a free hand to kill with impunity which is fuelling more resistance and resentment.

Instead of remedying the root cause, the State has gone berserk in arresting the youth and till now thousands are languishing in Police Stations, Jails and some booked under the notorious Public Safety Act(PSA), while in custody they are tortured verbally, mentally and physically and even some serious allegations of Sodomy have been made against the Police personnel. In some cases the youth who are arrested mostly in nocturnal raids, are made to pay heavy sum of money for their release which their families have to arrange any how.

What the youth will go in custody will leave indelible permanent marks on their personalities and may even drive some of them to violence. I remember the meeting with Parents and brother of the first suicide bomber of the Valley Afaq Ahmad Shah who told me that the Police and notorious Special Task Force(STF) torture, harassment and intimidation turned a meek, timid and shy boy of 17 into a suicide bomber. So how many Afaqs wants the State to manufacture?? The horrendous ordeal which the youth recount to their compatriots when they are out even turns them into an enemy of Police and State, hence the State is itself responsible for creation of a breed of die-hard violent dissidents.

I am a witness to this change in many of my friends and acquaintances who till the other day were talking about galz, gadgets and gizmos but today take keen interest in politics and even actively participate in resistance and protests. The heavy State atrocities perpetuated on people have made them look the other way, where they find themselves too vulnerable to be killed any time, but they want to give a chase and tuff time to the State and Security agencies before becoming innocent cannon fodder.

Hence it rests with the State to put a pace to innocent killings and use of brute force on unarmed protestors and end the policy of Bullet for Stone, in order to understand the heartbeat of youth and put them on the path of progress, prosperity and success instead of disparity, destruction and death.

Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander is Writer-Activist and presently student of Masters Program of Political Science at Kashmir University and can be reached at sikandarmushtaq@gmail.com