The tremendous hype raised about the visit of the All Parties Team to Kashmir had given an impression that the Central Government will come out with some decisive confidence building measures to address the worsening ground situation. Even though the eight point package announced after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security was termed an eye wash by Geelani, people were still hopeful and were looking forward to the decisions expected from the Unified Command regarding de-militarization. The main problem at present had been the excessive and disproportionate use of force and the daily harassment of common people. Firstly, it appears that the maintenance of law and order which is constitutionally a state subject has been handed over by the state government to the central security establishment lock, stock, and barrel. It must be the only state in the country where law and order problems are sorted out by a Unified Command of Security Forces and Security Agencies. The Unified Command had come into being for countering the wide spread insurgency of nineties. By their own reckoning these agencies have umpteen times declared that the insurgency has been totally wiped out. According to figures dished out by various establishments of both the defence and home ministries there are hardly five to six hundred militants in the state. The security set up throughout the civilian areas which was earlier handled by the Border Security Force and was subsequently handed over to Central Reserve Police Force after the liquidation of the bulk of insurgents, is now totally out of place. It is rather the main irritant and motivator for stone pelting and other related violence.

Almost everyone has been repeatedly claiming that Kashmir needs a political solution and there is no military solution to the Kashmir problem. However, on the ground it is the military and security establishment which has the upper hand. Most of the politicians except the Chief Minister are conspicuously absent! They seem to have totally evaporated. It is not only our misfortune that the political set up has taken a back seat but it is a perennial irritant which will keep the unrest going on endlessly. It has given rise to a vicious cycle of violence which keeps on finding a new lease of life after every lull due to vested interests in these establishments. The measures announced by the Unified Command after great deliberations are just cosmetic in nature. Removal of sixteen bunkers! A single locality in Srinagar may have more than sixteen bunkers. The city has been turned into a fortress with a bunker in every nook and corner. The state home secretary during a press briefing about the decisions of Unified Command refused to give the exact number of bunkers in the city! During the peak of militancy the bunkers were set up in such a way that these appeared to protect various localities from any external intervention. These were placed strategically in such a way that anyone going into or coming out of a locality had to pass in front of these. It gave an impression of a war zone. However, the war is now over but the bunkers continue to be there with some of these having machine guns peeping out! These days the bunkers look totally out of place and these give an impression of a new war being declared on the civilian population inhabiting these areas!

It was also announced that 50 stone pelters would be released and handed over to their parents for guaranteeing good behaviour in future. One fails to understand what the Unified Command has got to do with unarmed stone pelters? Normally, protests by unarmed civilians are supposed to be handled by the local police. However, here everything is viewed through security glasses and carries a tag of insurgency. These unarmed protests were termed by some generals of the army as agitational terrorism! Again the number of arrested youth is debatable. Even the government authorities have given different figures. Some say 31 youth are arrested while others talk of releasing 50 of these! The unofficial figures reported in various newspapers claim the number to be in hundreds all over the valley. A sizeable number has been detained under the Public Safety Act.

The most important part of the whole exercise has been left out for the time being. It relates to revoking of the draconian legislation, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. A committee is supposed to review the places from which it can be partially withdrawn by declaring these as no longer disturbed areas by the state home department. The places which had been reportedly under consideration are some of the towns where the army is not involved in any operations. Such an exercise will be meaningless. The relief is to be given in the areas where the army is undertaking extensive operations. In those areas the relief can come only by making the forces accountable for their actions. Normally, the armed forces should not be against making their actions accountable while dealing with the civilian population who are the citizens they are primarily supposed to protect! No doubt they need legal protection during a declared or undeclared war but when according to their own estimates the war like situation is over, why should they insist on retaining extra- legal powers unless they want to keep the civilians under their thumb? It appears that the authorities in Delhi are not serious about restoring normalcy in Kashmir. As usual they are buying time and hoping for the Kashmiris to get tired and fatigued. Unfortunately, they are grossly out of tune with the ground reality. There has been a major change now. They are dealing with the children of conflict who do not seem to be amenable to any argument or guidance from the traditional leadership. They seem to have the one point programme of “Go India, Go Back” splashed all over Kashmir! They should not also take the present lull as reconciliation. The Kashmiris are great survivors and know when to stop for strategic reasons. The history of various uprisings gives an ample proof of this behaviour. The only way forward to cool the situation is to take certain decisive steps to bring relief to the masses in general. These would involve removing all the bunkers from civilian areas, totally withdrawing paramilitary from both towns and villages, and revoking the legislation giving special powers to the armed forces. There has to be a visible relaxation in the situation which cannot come by cosmetic measures. The present package shows either the authorities are so naïve that they consider Kashmiris as the dumb driven cattle who can be taken for a ride or they have only united to further humiliate Kashmiris in a unified manner!