Bandipora Fake Encounter: Innocence Murdered

 The cold blooded murder of a young man in a Bandipore hamlet is perhaps a metaphor for the Kashmiri condition. The young man in contention, Hilal Ahmed Dar, at the pinnacle of his life, was apparently a devout and a pious Muslim who was seduced by an army informant by the siren song of jihad and then murdered in cold blood in cahoots with the army. A classic counter insurgency tactic to inveigle and bamboozle, trap and then eliminate militant cadre, the murder of Hilal is copybook. However, what makes it macabre, devious and sinister is that Hilal was not a militant but a wannabe one. And the seeds of militancy had been planted in Hilal’s mind by the informant in exchange of monies. Why and what for was this gory and devious deed committed? Only impartial investigations will reveal the motive and the intention of the perpetrators of the crime. One can at this point in time merely speculate: a few medals on the shoulders and perhaps a promotion plus pecuniary reward on part of the perpetrators may have motivated the crime.

Can this be dismissed as an aberration, a one off gory event? No. It cannot. Numerous incidents like these have time and again reared their ugly head in Kashmir since the eruption of militancy. At the same time, in the interest of fairness, a pattern cannot be inferred from this incident. One premise of militants-again corresponding to classic copy book insurgent tactics- was to provoke the Indian security forces into lashing against civilians and catalyze massive disaffection against the Indian state. The Indian security forces, by and large, barring some egregious instances of police and army brutality and civilian killings have not randomly and wantonly killed civilians. This , however, does not exonerate the crimes and criminals like the one in contention. Human life is sacrosanct. No one has the right to snuff human life and kill.

The killing and the murder raises broader issues and questions that the powers that be in India should dwell on. What accounts for the brazen killing? What gives the armed forces license to kill? If a case is made that Hilal was a wannabe be militant and the circumstances leading to his killing are mere detail, what accounts for Hilal’s flirtation and dalliance with jihad? What motivated him? If a young , impressionable man was motivated by the Kashmir conflict and the siren songs of Jihad, are there numerous others like him waiting in the offing for the right moment and opportunity? Have the hearts and minds of Kashmiris then been really won? What lessons should the Indian political class draw from this?

The answer to the first set of questions is axiomatic: the crime was committed because of the infamous Armed Forces Special Powers Act(AFSPA). This act -provides cover for any atrocity committed by the Armed forces. The AFSPA gives a security personnel or officer innumerable powers-to kill and destroy with impunity. It was obviously under the cover of AFSPA that the conspiracy to inveigle, trap and kill Hilal was hatched. And if the powers that be in the Indian power structure are serious about winning the peace in Kashmir, removing AFSPA is the first step.

There are broader and wider lessons to be learned from the saga. The first is that insurgencies can be contained by the coercive power(s) of the state but containment  does not necessarily mean the end of the conflict. Prudent and long lasting conflict resolution entails and means taking the bull by the horns and addressing the clichéd root causes of the conflict. The Indian state could be held guilty of focusing on containment and conflict management and not addressing the real causes of the conflict. This manifests itself in the fact that the consciousness of young men like Hilal is animated by the conflict in Kashmir and their desire to take to arms and rather innocently force the issue by the force of arms and jihad. There must be countless Hilal’s in the offing in Kashmir. Can they or should they be eliminated and what inference should the Indian political class draw from this?

Eliminating merely reduces the body count. The impulse and idea behind that motivates wannabe Hilal’s is merely exacerbated. So what can and should be done? The answers are clear cut: the Indian political class should get over the politics of paranoia and address and remove the conflict in Kashmir for good. This means reaching out to Kashmiris and instituting both a bottoms up and top down political process in Kashmir. Specifically, this means granting either greater autonomy or self rule to Kashmiris and at the same time, the focus should be on improving the life chances of Kashmiris Or, in other words, human security.

Dilly dallying, obstructionism, the politics of paranoia and narrowly defined national and security interests should give way to an imaginative approach. Sincerity should inform this approach and then vigorous action taken to change the dynamic and paradigms in Kashmir. Till this new approach is conceived and then implemented, the Indian political class should expect the imagination of more Hilal’s to be fired by the conflict in Kashmir and jihad against India. Kashmiris have long suffered and are under the shadow of political uncertainty. It is about time that this be given short shrift. Let Hilal’s death not go in vain.