J & K divide

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J & K divide

The divide between the Islamist separatists of Kashmir Valley and the Hindutva Group of Jammu over the ill conceived move by the then Governor of the State Lt. Gen (rtd) S K Sinha to allot 100 acres of land to Amarnath Shrine Board led to mass protest lasting for 64 days and death of more than 30 persons and an unbridgeable gulf between these two regions as if these two regions belong two hostile States. After prolong parleys a settlement with the Amarnath Sangharsh Sammittee has been arrived at which allows the Amarnath Shrine Board to utlise the disputed land for temporary use during Amarnath Yatra without any claim to proprietary or title rights over the land. The Amarnath Sangharsh Sammittee has withdrawn their agitation. While National Conference of Farooq Abdullah has welcomed the proposal, Mehbooba Mufti of Peoples Democratic Party has opposed the proposal as unilateral. While Jammu is celebrating this settlement as their victory, Islamist separatists in Kashmir valley have reinforced their violent protest resulting in imposition of curfew in nine districts. Their demonstration is now not confined to the Amarnath land but bigger issue of Azadi which the moderate elements in Kashmir did not have the boldness to resist.The All Party Hurriyat Conference spearheading the agitations in Kashmir valley roused public feelings with Pakistani flags and anti India slogan. Their leaders even threatened to open cross border trade across the LOC to thwart the attempts of the Hindutva elements in Jammu enforcing an economic blockade. To assuage the feelings of the separatists, the Government of India is pressing Pakistan to complete necessary logistical support to open cross border trade agreed to in the Foreign Secretaries conference held in July .It is expected that limited trade would start from October. The Prime Minister has also appointed a working group to study Centre-State relations which could not finalise its report so far. However there was no agreement among the parties about the nature of autonomy they would prefer. There was divergence of views from complete independence to self rule without the supervisory power of the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India. Taking advantage of the failure of the State and the Central government to effectively counteract the separatists’ demonstrations, Pakistan’s ISI could provide logistical support and arrange to send terrorists across the border to fuel trouble. Unless the situation is controlled the elections in October would be difficult to be held allowing the secessionists another plus point. source: assam tribune editorial 03.09.08