Protests in J&K Against Kathua Rape Only the Tip of the Iceberg

Kashmir conflict will never be resolved if the State tries to stifle it instead of addressing the ground issues.

Protest in Srinagar against the rape and murder of 8-year-old girl in Kathua.

(Photo: AP)

The Jammu and Kashmir government’s response to student protests in the aftermath of the Kathua rape and murder of temporarily shutting down educational institutions is worrying and distressing. J&K students have come in conflict with the police during these protests, and from central to south to north Kashmir, campuses have been converted into virtual battlefields. The pitched battles in streets between forces and students have resulted in injuries to hundreds of students across the Valley.

A few of them have lost their eyesight due to pellet guns. The state’s response has only devolved the situation. More importantly, it has disrupted the entire educational session of 2018.

Every now and then, the government issues a diktat to close down educational institutions. This has obviously put these students’ careers at stake due to the disruption in their studies.

J&K Govt Wants to Silence Voice of Youth

Today, I would like to hash out different dimensions of the same issue in the context of the prevailing situation. Many have been asking, ‘Why are students leaving their classrooms to pelt stones and indulge in hooliganism and violence despite authorities doing the needful to ensure justice is delivered?’

Now, before discussing the different dimensions of these incidents, let’s first agree upon a fact – protesting peacefully is a fundamental right and the state has no right to infringe upon it.

There are broadly two aspects to this particular problem in J&K:

• First, the students are allegedly causing a law-and-order problem while participating in ‘peaceful protests’.
• Second, the police and the state are deliberately pushing students to the wall by not allowing them to assemble and protest peacefully, thereby leading to clashes.

The state doesn’t want students to come out, protest and express outrage. Both these dimensions need to be understood in their proper context. In the case of Kashmir, the second aspect seems to be the predominant and preponderant approach of the state in dealing with student uprisings. This is a reality that cannot be denied.

Belligerence of State Authorities Responsible for Student Outrage

While the whole world is up in arms against the gruesome rape and murder of the 8-year-old- girl in Kathua, the state seems to be taking an unreasonable and imprudent approach in dealing with the peaceful protests. The state doesn't want students to raise their voice against injustice, tyranny and participate in the democratic setup. Students' power and their dominating the scene will challenge the state narrative and dump it, once and for all. Student activism has been viewed as a threat to the state.

As far as the first aspect of the problem is concerned, sometimes, the mere presence of police near the emotionally charged crowd provokes the protesters, because the police have failed to build a healthy perception of themselves before Kashmir’s locals.

A few days ago, in a viral video, a police man was seen hurling obscenities at women students in Anantnag. “I was walking when they threw stones at me and fired a tear gas shell in my direction,” the girl says in the video. “When I confronted him, he asked me to sleep with him.”

The girl said that the police were “provoking” the students to pelt stones.

Kashmir Conflict Needs a Solution, NOT Containment

In order to ensure that educational institutions are functional, the state should allow the students to protest without confronting them. The state should stop using force as a means to quell peaceful protest gatherings.

The ban on student unions should be lifted. Leaders of unions will keep the students organised. Furthermore, the Kathua rape and murder was only the spark that forced students to take to the streets.

The larger narrative behind the protests revolves around the reaction to human rights abuses committed by the state forces, especially during the last few months. Dozens of civilians have been killed and hundreds injured near encounter sites. All these events revolve around the harbored sentiment and political aspirations and unfinished Kashmir dispute, all of which need to be addressed at the earliest.

Those at the helm of political affairs must understand that trying to contain the conflict will only prolong it, not resolve it.

(The author is a student of law at the Department of Legal Studies, Central University of Kashmir. He blogs at AbrarReyaz.wordpress.com and can be reached at [e-mail]. Views expressed are personal. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

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