BEIJING, Aug 3 (APP): The scars of last summer remain in Soura, an enclave that became a symbol of Kashmir’s resistance to India’s central government a year ago on Wednesday.
Coils of concertina wire, remnants of makeshift road blocks, lie close to the broken tar of roads dug up to keep the security forces of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of this area of 15,000 people in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, China Global Television Network (CGTN) reported on Monday.
A year after stripping Kashmir of its autonomy, Modi’s government has prevented widespread protests and violence, with a heavy hand on people who for weeks had barricaded themselves in and staged protests, hurling stones at federal troops armed with pellet guns and tear gas.
But local politicians warn that anger is rife with young men still picking up arms – and stones.
This Himalayan region has been at the heart of tensions between Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan for decades, the cause of two of the three wars between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Both countries claim the region in full, but each rules only in part.
On August 5, 2019, Modi split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally controlled territories and took away its special privileges.
New Delhi flooded troops into the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, where freedom fighters have fought since the 1990s. India detained thousands, imposed harsh movement restrictions and forced a communications blackout.
Many of those measures have since been eased, but the internet remains throttled and a subsequent COVID-19 lockdown – India has the world’s third-highest number of coronavirus infections, and rising fast – has forced millions of Kaashmiris to stay in their homes for 12 months.
“The government said that they did it for the good of Jammu and Kashmir. What good things have happened since then? They have destroyed our economy,” said Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami, a former lawmaker. “Where is the development?”
The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries pegged the economic loses in the region at US$5.3 billion and about half a million jobs lost since August last year.
Modi’s government says it has undertaken reforms but that the pandemic, hitting Kashmir hard like the rest of India, got in the way.
Reforms include legal changes to help non-Kashmiris who can now apply for government jobs and secure seats in colleges for their children, 10,000 new government jobs, extending federal schemes to the territory and bolstering the village-level administrative system.
Still, officials expressed concern that there is little sign of a let-up in disaffected youth joining the armed revolt.
This year around 60 new recruits have joined the freedom movement groups through July, compared with 80 for the same period last year, according to a government estimate.
Youth unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir is 70 percent, and the constant fighting inflicts a steep mental health toll. According to Médecins Sans Frontières, about 1.8 million adults, or 45 percent of the population, have experienced mental distress, and 70 percent have witnessed a violent death.
With few opportunities, freedom fighting can be an attractive option for some young adults.
Education has been increasingly less accessible since the abrogation of Article 370.
For seven months after Kashmir went into military seige last year, nearly all private and government schools were closed down, leaving 1.5 million students in limbo.
Those schools began reopening in early March, only to be shut down once again three weeks later because of the coronavirus lockdown.
“The challenge would be how do we tamp down the recruitment,” the government official said.
Two of Fatima Wani’s three sons have found little work as laborers in the past 12 months, making it difficult to make ends meet.
But the 62-year-old housewife’s worry is with her eldest son, picked up for allegedly taking part in a protest and booked under the Public Safety Act, which allows for detention for up to two years without charge.
About 150 people arrested last year are still detained, two-thirds of them charged under the law, according to government data.
Wani said her family had to sell a cow to pay for their travel to the northern town of Agra to meet her son in prison. “He is innocent,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I want justice.”
Police chief Kumar said arrests had been made of stone-throwers and associates of militants trying to stir up violence in the streets, some of whom had been booked under the security act.
In Soura, the indignation remains. A young man, who gave his name as Sahil and claimed he had been detained three times by police for clashing with troops, said he wasn’t going to back down.
“We are being suppressed, and I will fight against that suppression in whatever way I can,” he said. “I will continue stone pelting.”
