Kashmir in Headlines 2017

The main trigger for the violence in 2017 in Kashmir is the ‘Burhan aftermath’ – a series of violent protests in the Valley after the killing of Burhan Wani, militant commander of the Kashmir-based terrorist organization Hizbul Mujahideen by Indian security forces on 8 July 2016.

The year 2017 has therefore been christened as ‘The Year of Kashmir’ by terrorist organization Jamaat–ud-Dawa (JuD), earlier Lashkar-e-Taiba and now called Tehreek Azadi Jammu and Kashmir (TAJK). The declaration is a clear indication of the surge of militancy in Kashmir in the days to come…..

January 2017:
Kashmiri locals in the valley led by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference observed Republic day January 26th as ‘Black day’.

February 2017
In February 2017, the CRPF introduced deflectors as a modification for its pellet guns after mounting pressure from human rights organizations. Amnesty International India called for a ban last year.

March 2017
3 civilians were killed and at least 20 others, including the army personnel and police, were injured during an operation in Chadoora. Stone pelters in an interview stated they are paid for protesting. They refused to disclose the identity of the financiers.

April 2017:
A by-election for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat was held on 9th April. Violence broke out leading to 8 civilian deaths and over 170 injuries. The voter turnout was recorded to be 7%, which is lowest ever in the past three decades. National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah won the seat defeating his PDP rival.
A report by Indian Intelligence Bureau said that ISI supplied Rs 800 crore to Kashmiri separatist leaders to fuel unrest in the Valley and to pay off stone pelters and petrol bomb throwers.
A military officer Major Leetul Gogoi accused of using a man atop an army jeep as a human shield to stop protesters throwing stones at his convoy in the Kashmir valley won a commendation from the army chief amidst a barrage of protests of human rights activists.

May 2017
The Armed Forces Tribunal has suspended the life imprisonment of five army personnel who were convicted by a General Court Martial for staging the killing of three Kashmiri civilians at Macchil in 2010, and later branding them as foreign militants allegedly for medals and cash rewards.
Clashes were triggered in the Kashmir valley after the killing of Sabzar Ahamd Bhat of the Hizbul Mujahideen, an aide of Burhan Wani.

June 2017:
June 2017 saw the mob lynching and mutilation of on-duty Indian officer DSP Ayub Pandith on the holy night of Shab-e-Qadr; the day Muslims believe that their sins would be forgiven.
Raids were conducted on separatists in June; money worth 2.5 crore and letterheads of LeT were found.
Firecrackers were burst by Kashmiri locals as the Pakistan team beat India in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 cricket final in England.
The US declared Salahuddin a “global terrorist” before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first meeting with President Donald Trump on 26th June in Washington.

July 2017:
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking probe on separatist leader Yasin Malik and others for offences and murder of Kashmiri Pandits during militancy in the Valley in 1989-90 stating that after 27 years it would be difficult to gather evidence.

India has witnessed the third highest number i.e. 927 of terror attacks in 2016 as per data compiled by the US State Department after Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistan was fourth.

Seven Kashmiri separatists, including the son-in-law of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were sent to 10 days National Information Agency (NIA) custody by a New Delhi court.

Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah was also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with money laundering and terror financing.

Barter trade across the LoC has become a source of funding militancy. J&K police seized over 25 kg of heroine in the border town of Uri coming from Pakistan.

Security forces have now turned to capsicum gel-based teargas shells to quell mobs instead of pellet guns which injured many people

Panun Kashmir, an organization of Kashmiri Pandits appealed to RSS for abrogation of Article 370 offering special privileges of J&K which has become a permanent feature since October 2015 as ruled by J&K court.

A bus carrying a group of Amarnath pilgrims, of which seven were killed and 19 injured in a deadly terrorist attack.

The Army celebrated the 18th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas.

J& K became the last state to implement the Goods and Services Tax GST on July 5th.

One of the biggest stories emanating from Kashmir in 2017 was the cancellation of by-poll to the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat — vacated by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in April last year — in view of widespread violence during polling for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat by-election which left nine persons dead and scores others injured.

As the street protests of 2016 had not fully died down even in the spring of 2017, the PDP-BJP coalition government was not keen on holding the by-elections so soon. However, Election Commission went ahead with the process of polls.

The results were disastrous on almost all fronts.

Such were the apprehensions of trouble around elections that authorities snapped Internet facilities a day before the polling on 9 April for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

By the time polling ended, eight persons were dead — with another succumbing few days later. Only seven per cent voters turned up to exercise their franchise.

National Conference patriarch Farooq Abdullah, who lost in 2014, made a comeback to the Lok Sabha, defeating PDP candidate Nazir Ahmad Khan by over 10,000 votes — a huge margin considering that only 88,951 votes were cast.

A day after the polling for Srinagar, Tassaduq Hussain Mufti, brother of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, asked the Election Commission to postpone the elections for Anantnag Lok Sabha seat till the situation in the valley improved.

Initially, the Election Commission pushed back the date for polling by a month but later cancelled the election altogether.

It was for the first time since 1991 that an election could not be conducted in Kashmir due to violence and apprehension of it spreading to entire valley.

While the 1991 Lok Sabha polls were not held in entire Jammu and Kashmir due to eruption of militancy, the Anantnag bypoll had to be cancelled due to threat to law and order by stone-pelting people.

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) stepped in to investigate the phenomenon of stone-pelting, especially as the youth were hampering the anti-militancy operations, after senior separatist leader Nayeem Khan admitted on camera that they were receiving funds to keep the Kashmir pot boiling.

Khan, several other separatist leaders and few businessmen were arrested by the NIA which found them allegedly involved in hawala trade, the proceeds of which were used for funding stone-pelting.

Several businessmen, especially those involved in cross-Line of Control trade between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were investigated by the NIA.

It was an aborted political take off for Tassaduq, the cinematographer turned politician, who was fielded by the PDP from the Anantnag seat. However, his involvement with government and politics continued as in May he was appointed the coordinator in the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell, a post he gave up in early December.

Tassaduq was nominated as an MLC by his party, which was approved by the state Governor. He was inducted into the Mehbooba cabinet on Thursday.

With the election dust settling down, few videos emerged on social networking sites depicting the security forces in poor light, which led to intense debate at national level on the tactics used by law enforcing agencies to deal with street protestors in Kashmir.

One of the videos showed a youth — who was going for a condolence gathering after casting his vote on 9 April — tied to the bonnet of a jeep by an army officer and paraded through over 20 villages as a human shield.

The incident prompted a former army general to say “Image of a ‘stone pelter’ tied in front of a jeep as a ‘human shield’, will forever haunt the Indian Army & the nation!”.

The other major issue that remained in the limelight was the legal challenge to Article 35-A of the Constitution, which allows Jammu and Kashmir to retain a 1920s law passed by the then Maharaja of the state.

The residency law bars people from outside Jammu and Kashmir acquiring any immovable property in the state.

As the Supreme Court is set to deliver a verdict on the validity of the law, the separatists threatened to launch a mass agitation in case the act was struck down by the apex court.

The separatists allege that repealing the law would lead to the Centre changing the demography of the Muslim-majority state by creating settlements on the pattern done by Israel in Palestine.

One of the biggest moves by the Centre with regard to Jammu and Kashmir was the appointment of former IB chief Dineshwar Sharma in October as its special representative for initiating a sustained dialogue with all stakeholders in the state.

While Sharma visited the state twice since his appointment, he has not been able to make any headway as far as bringing the separatists to the dialogue table is concerned.

On the social crime front, incidents of braid chopping created a fear psychosis in the valley as dozens of cases were reported from across the length and breadth of Kashmir.

Although similar incidents were reported from elsewhere in the country as early as first week of August, the first such incident was reported in Kashmir towards later September.

While police could not nab anyone involved in braid chopping incidents, it arrested several youth on the charges of inciting mobs on the pretext of protests against braid chopping.

However, these incidents came to an abrupt halt towards the end of October and seems to have quickly disappeared from public memory.

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