The Long Insurgency

While the Congress Party was searching for ways to remove Farooq Abdullah and to discipline him, some dissatisfied citizens waved Pakistani flags and shouted slogans against the Indian cricket team during a match (1983) with the West Indian team in Srinagar. At the time that Operation Blue Star furnished arguments for militancy in Punjab, the Kashmir separatists labeled Farooq Abdullah as “Indian agent”. The latter argued with New Delhi, however, that to toe the Congress line could make Kashmir another Punjab. Farooq was dismissed, nevertheless, and his rival Shah was sworn in as the new Chief Minster only to be ousted in favour of an imposed Governor’s rule. Farooq Abdullah would come back as the leader of the National Conferecne-Congress coalition government. This short experience should have illustrated that such interference from the federal capital promoted the cause of the militants, facilitated their publicity, and helped them to set up new formations. It is no surprise that the opposition groups favouring the Islamisation of the Valley and  secession joined hands to forge ahead in support of the Muslim United Front, which painted both Farooq and his party as treacherous. The National Conference and Congress still won in the 1987 assembly elections, but there were charges of rigging at some polls.

The Valley Aflame

Peace and order in the state had radically deteriorated by mid-1988. There were bomb blasts in Srinagar (1 August)[4] While green flags were hoisted in downtown Srinagar on 14 August marking the anniversary  of Pakistan’s independence, the same people chose to jack up black flags the next day, the occasion of India’s National Day.[5] The demonstrators shouting anti-Indian slogans the day after clashed with the police causing the death of one person and injury to about one hundred more, and attempted to set the Rishi Pir Temple on fire. Four persons were killed during the riots on 18 August, and four more within a week. When a bomb exploded (31 August) in a bus killing one person, terrorism claimed this loss as the first casualty since the beginning of the new wave of violence in 1988. Eijaz Ahmad Dar, the first militant to lose his life in police action on 18 September, became a martyr. The day he died became another occasion for renewed protests. His loss meant more for the insurgents than the serious injuries suffered by eleven persons with the explosion in a van about a month later. By the  beginning of 1989, the militants became brash and brazen enough to attack police stations in the state capital.

Shuddering at the prospect that violence would grow worse, many official felt unfit to restrain the menace and welcomed the initially small contingent of the National Security Guard (NSG) commandos, stationed in Srinagar, to train J&K police officers in anti-terrorist tactics. This measure falling far short of meeting the growing peril, General K.V. Krishna Rao, the former Chief of the Army Staff and the Governor of Manipur and Nagaland, was appointed to replace Jagmohan as the new governor. Subsquent events amply revealed that what was needed to confront terrorism competently went beyond a change of governors. Such appointees, who exhibited little realistic vision to balance conflicting demands, were publicly criticized by high-ranking federal officials and quickly replaced by others.

This inconclusive official response to complex circumstances consequentially encouraged the militants in Kashmir. Under their coaching and intimidation, more and more people placed hopes on the path of violence to achieve certain aims. Acts of terrorism were better planned, daringly executed and created stronger roots. Terrorists successfully ambushed (13 July 1989) a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bus killing two and wounding fourteen. While the so-called Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) claimed responsibility for this bloodshed, a fundamentalist terrorist organization called the Hizbullah Islamia Jamhoria warned the “traitors” of further violence if found collaborating with the “enemy”, that is, the government and its security forces. The Islamic extremists set in motion a fundamentalist campaign especially targeting women. An explosion (20 July)[6] in a ladies toilet in a cinema was followed by acid-throwing (29 July) on the faces of two young girls who had not worn veils. Pakistan Independence Day was observed (1989) with even more spirit and zeal than the year before. While green flags fluttered freely on the occasion all over Srinagar, some passionate groups burned the Indian colours trying to attach to their action an imposed air of solemnly. The police unable to carry out its conventional functions of check and control, the assertive activists engineered a series of bomb blasts that injured about sixty persons in one day. Feeling estranged and vulnerable, some members among the decision-making authorities found refuge in the thought that this was, after all, a “tolerable level of violence”. Then, two Kashmiri secessionists hijacked a state transport bus and blew it up near Tangmarg (17 August).[7] About 50 persons were injured in a series of incidents (18-21 August).[8] One of the leaders of the ruling National Conferecne (Muhammad Yusuf Halwai) was assassinated in daylight in the centre of the town, and the residence of the State Congress President (Shafi Muhammad Qureshi) was damaged by explosions. Even the effigies of Sheikh Abdullah were burnt for his association with India and attachment to the idea of secularism.

Terrorism threw the whole Valley into ferment. Starting with 14 September, Kashmiri Pandits became the next target. The Vice-President of the Baharatiya Janata Party (Tikka Lal Taploo) was killed for his belief that the accession of J&K to India was irrevocable. [9] Hand grenades injured eleven policemen and twenty other (18 September)[10] No Police officer, including the Deputy Commissioners of Srinagar and Ananatnag, could show enough courage to sign the detention warrant of Shabir Shah, the President of the People’s League, who was arrested (27 September). In Ahmed were killed. The judge (N.K Ganjoo) who had sentenced a JKLF leader (Muhammad Maqbool Bhatt) was shot dead (4 November). There were 51 explosions the same month. The terrorists having scared away the voters during the elections to the Lok Sabha (22 November),[11] the average votes cast were no more than five per cent. About a week later (1 December), not only the Station House Officer of Maisooma (Saifullah Lone) was murdered, but his body, which lay in the street for hours, was finally taken by the militants and thrown in front  of the police station. Practically no one had the courage to attend his funeral procession. The appointment of a Muslim Kashmiri (Mufi Muhammad Sayeed) as the Union Home Minster by V.P. Singh, who replaced Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minster, soon proved to be a turn for the worse.

In late (8 December) 1989, Pakistani-trained JKLF activists abducted the Home Minister’s daughter (Dr. Rubaiya Sayeed) and demanded the release of five militants (including Hamid Sheikh, one of the  kingpins of the separatist movement) who were among the first to take to terrorism in J&K.[12] The Chief Minster being in London, not only the Council of Ministers accepted the demands of the kidnappers but each mediator promised more to outbid his “competitor”. When Farooq Abdullah returned from his lengthy trip abroad, he disclosed that he was not prepared to capitulate to the terrorists. Contrary to the earlier agreement, however, the five militants were released first, and the Minster’s daughter freed later. Kashmiri crowds, including some police officers in uniform were jubilant on the streets not for the release of Rubaiya Sayeed but for the release of the militants.

The government proved incapble of controlling this state of affairs, and while the Chief Minster, who also held the Home portfolio, was in jammu, there were daily disturbances in Srinagar. The Union Bank was looted (20 December), two policemen were shot dead and seven other injured (24 December),[13] a bomb blast wounded seven persons (1 January 1990), two police officers were killed (9 January), [14] 13 more murdered, and over 100 injured (8 January). A police officer and an imam were killed and left hanging for display. The government, which for some time looked impatient to change the governor (General Rao), reappointed Jagmohan in his place, and Farooq Abdullah resigned. While the mobs took control of parts of the capital, the Kashmiri Pandits feared for their lives. The militants demanded the release of over a hundred suspects to the tune of broadcasts from the minarets that called for “death to Indian dogs!”

The new governor, whose second term of administration had opened in the worst possible circumstances, had no option but to ask the army to intervene. The army fire, not only killed some individuals and galvanized emotions, but it also led to rumours, spread by militants, that the police as well had erroneously suffered casualties. Although no such incident had taken place, an armed clash between policemen and the army could be staved off only after a few days of mediation. Some officers were removed from service, however, for their role in inciting their colleagues.

Increasing the level of their agitation, the terrorists adopted the “Punjab style” of assassinations while riding on motorcycles and shot at officers, other officials and Kashmiri Pandits. The armed activists were so much in control of the streets that even the governor could not attend the Republic Day Parade (26 January). When the director of the Srinagar TV and Radio Station (Lassa Kaul) was shot dead for refusing to adhere to the line of the terrorists, other functionaries declined to work until the station was moved to Jammu.

The hostility between Governor Jagmohan and Farooq Abdullah led to the dissolution 919 February) of the State Assembly, a move that could only block the political process even further. While selective murders continued, the police units, which proved to be inadequate in equipment and training to respond, were either passive bystanders or attackers of unarmed mobs, among whom even the National Conference supporters and Zakura caused the death of 17 Kashmiri civilians (1 March). Few acts other than police firing at unarmed citizens could kindle anti-government attitudes. The authority of the militants became so unquestionable that they could publicly hang one of their own (Mir Mustafa) for starting a dialogue with the government and get away with it.

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