Volume 1, No. 3, May 2000

On the night of March 20, 36 Sikhs were brutally murdered in Anantanag’s Chattisinghpora village, in the Kashmir valley. It was on the very night before Clinton’s official visit. Who the killers were may never be ascertained, but one thing is certain, that they were afraid that this act of theirs will find no justification, so they had to conceal their identity. The very act underlines the evilness of the design of the perpetrators. While an independent investigation could reveal the truth, we must remember here that it is a usual practice of the Indian state to raise vigilante groups like Black Cats (Punjab), Green Tigers etc (Andhra), SULFA (Assam) and the Ikhwanul Musilmeen and a horde of such outfits in Kashmir to carry out reactionary acts and carnages to create a wedge between various sections of the population, or enhance reactionary designs through acts which attract only condemnation and hatred and are undefendable on any account. The state carries out these activities through RAW and other intelligence agencies to escape the notice of the people and to sabotage and disgrace the just struggles of the oppressed.

The white rulers were a master of this art in pre-1947 India and their inheritors have gone much further and acquired greater skills in dividing the people on communal, casteist, etc., lines. While hirelings and traitors are used for occasional acts, the state forces continue the suppression and terror campaign routinely. On the day when 36 Sikhs were gunned down, the CRPF hounds went berserk in Patten, burning down 21 houses and 17 shops after their police station was attacked by guerillas. The CRPF, Rashtriya Rifles and SOG bandits usually resort to killing innocent people and burning residential and commercial quarters whenever they sustain losses in real encounters with the freedom fighters.

But, before we look for possible motives behind this dastardly action, let us trace the events following the massacre.

After immediately putting the blame on "foreign terrorists" and whipping up a hysterical campaign against them, the state swiftly came into action and claimed a major breakthrough in identifying the killers as the Pakistani-backed Lasker-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. By-passing the J&K state administration, the Union Home secretary, Kamal Pandey, hurriedly called a press conference in Delhi on March 24, to announce that an accomplice of the killers, one Mohd. Yaqoob Wagey, a 24-year old youth, was arrested and had "confessed" to his involvement in the carnage. He claimed to have led the "foreign terrorists" to the village. Surprisingly, the very next day the security forces in a sensational announcement said that they had killed five of these "foreign terrorists" in an encounter in the Panchal Than area, after a massive ten hour battle. So the Indian rulers, had proved beyond doubt to their imperialist master, Clinton, that "terrorists" come from across the border to foment trouble, in an otherwise peaceful Kashmir. Appropriately Clinton made the right "human rights" noises to send the Indian rulers into ecstasy. Besides, a country-wide campaign was whipped up, utilising this incident (and the `clinching evidence’) against the Kashmiri movement and Pakistan. Happy with the fact that the ‘dead cannot speak’, the rulers were puffed up in their arrogance, thumping their chests about the so-called brutality of the ‘foreign terrorists’.

But the ghosts of those killed came back to haunt the perpetrators of this crime. The unbelievable happened — the dead spoke. This was no reincarnation conjured up by some Kashmiri pundits or RSS pujaris, but the relatives of the dead and the entire valley exploded in disbelief. An explosion of Himalayan proportions shook the valley, bringing the truth forward and proving the government’s lie.

Soon after the so-called encounter, one Abu Mahas, one of the prominent militants who was claimed killed in the encounter, went to the people a day later and asked "why did you bury me, when I am alive." This was the spark that triggered the demonstrations. Besides, on March 23 some locals went missing after being arrested by the security forces. They were two persons with the same name, Jumma Khan, from Brariangan village; Mohammad Yousuf Mallik and Bashir Ahmad Bhat from Halan and Zahoor Ahmad Dalal from Moominabad. The locals believed that the five so-called terrorists were none other than these five villagers.

On March 29 tension gripped entire Anantnag, when thousands and thousands took to the streets demanding that the charred bodies of the five, be exhumed and DNA tests conducted. Though Anantnag town and its suburbs were witnessing massive protest demonstrations daily, there was no response from the government. Instead, in order to allow the falsehood to continue, on April 2, the police opened fire on demonstrators in nearby Barakpora killing seven persons and injuring dozens. To cover up the original lie numerous lies had to be told. The police went so far as to deny having fired on the processionists, saying this too was an act of some "terrorists". Indefinite curfew was clamped on the area and shoot-at-sight orders given.

But militant demonstrations continued. On April 3, 2,500 protestors, broke the curfew orders, raised anti-government/anti-security slogans and demanded the handing over the bodies of the firing victims. Demonstrations now began to engulf entire Kashmir, and the All Party Hurriyet Conference (APHC) called a strike against the police firing that brought the valley to a standstill. Curfew was clamped on many towns. So panic stricken were the security forces, that they shot dead an insane person in Srinagar, when he walked onto the streets.

The wave of protest finally forced the Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah to order the exhumation of the bodies and also a judicial enquiry into the Barakpora police firing by a retired judge of the Supreme Court. While the DNA reports are still awaited, the villagers forcibly took away the bodies from the graves that were dug up on April 6. Most were charred beyond recognition. But the relatives confirmed the identity of three of the bodies, while two others were identified on the basis of their clothes found in the graves. Unable to control their anger the relatives shouted slogans against the army, and threatened to take the matter up at the international level.

Worst still, to prevent these facts from spreading, the government arrested representatives of the APHC at the Delhi airport to prevent them from taking part in the Annual Meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission at Geneva. Why is the government so afraid ?

The fact is that the truth of all the killings is beginning to come out. It is clear that the killing of the villagers was no local decision but emanated from the Home office, who desperately needed ‘clinching evidence’ on the Chattisinghpora massacre to distract from the increasing questions being asked not only by muslims, but also by the Sikhs. It is they, and particularly Advani and Vajpayee, who are the chief murderers of the 5 villagers and 7 processionists. Now the question also remains as to who killed the 36 Sikhs, with the disappearance of the ‘clinching evidence’? Till yet the government has refused to order any independent inquiry into this gruesome massacre!! After whipping up a hysteria, why have the government and even media suddenly fallen silent ?

But what is evident is that it was the government who sought to immediately make use of the massacre. Whoever may have committed the dastardly crime, it was the government who moved swiftly, making it appear like a premeditated plan. Not only, was the incident used to ‘convince’ visiting dignitary Clinton, of "cross-border terrorism", but also, more particularly, to play the game of ‘divide and rule’ by provoking Sikhs against muslims in general, and Kashmiris in particular. Having achieved some successes with the Kashmiri pundits, they now hoped to achieve the same with the Sikhs. In addition, it was yet another weapon to discredit the Kashmir liberation movement.

On the very next day of the massacre, the National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, declared that ‘evidence’ indicated the hands of the Laskar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen in the carnage. Vajpayee too immediately described the killings as part of "ethnic cleansing" by the muslim majority, and Advani repeated that it was part of a systematic campaign to evict hindus and Sikhs from the valley. Besides, throughout the country the BJP, together with some local Sikhs, took out campaigns against the massacre, targeting "cross-border terrorism", Kashmiri militants and Pakistan. Ofcourse, these demonstrations also had a subtle (sometimes crude) anti-moslem content. It is indeed creditable, that there were no Sikh-Muslim clashes inspite of this hysteria whipped up.

In Kashmir, the government had an even more sinister plan of trying to turn the Kashmiri Sikhs into cannon fodder in the on-going civil war. This started from the very village itself. To widen the divide, the army forcibly prevented the muslims of the village from paying their last respects to the dead at the local gurdwara. Then the government began to whip up a psychosis of the possibility of enmasse migration of the 50,000 Sikhs spread over the 116 villages of Kashmir. They made it appear that attacks on Sikhs were imminent all over the valley. And simultaneously to fueling a fear complex, it offered arms to the villagers and called upon them to form the notorious Village Defence Committees. The government could not stomach the fact that over the years there has been not a single muslim-Sikh clash, and, on the contrary, the Sikhs of Chattisinghpora actually fed the Kashmiri militants, who regularly visited their village.

But, the government’s schemes badly misfired. Not only the muslims, but particularly the Sikhs did not fall prey to the provocation. In fact both turned their wrath on the government itself, and they had a hard time extricating themselves from the mess.

The Sikhs in Kashmir refused arms and the call to form VDCs. They said, their security was the government’s responsibility. Not believing the government’s story about the massacre, the Kashmir Sikh Joint Action Committee (KSJAC) in fact demanded intervention of the Amnesty International and an inquiry by certain international agencies into the massacre. And in fact most of their anger was directed towards the state government in Kashmir.

At the very funeral itself, the Sikhs of Chattisinghpora, turned away the Housing Minister and the Works Minister. In Jammu a series of massive demonstrations by Sikhs resulted in stone throwing, rasta-rokos and the burning of the effigies of Farooq Abdullah. They demanded the killers be identified ignoring the government’s ‘clinching evidence’. So violent were the agitations that curfew was declared in Jammu. Yet the demonstrations continued. Now the Sikhs defied the curfew orders, and took to the streets carrying sticks, iron bars, swords and fought pitched battles with the police, shouting slogans of revenge.

From the very start, infact, a number of Sikh organisations launched scathing attacks on the government for putting the blame on muslim organisations so promptly. On March 22 itself, at a press conference, they demanded a judicial inquiry into the massacre, as they suspected the work of some "third agency" operated by the government, which they felt had "completely failed" to protect the lives of minorities throughout the country. Kuldeep Singh Wadala, president of the Democratic Akali Dal said "we very much suspect the hand of Indian agencies, directly or indirectly, in the carnage." Echoing a similar view, the general secretary of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), Prof. Jagmohan Singh, alleged "history itself establishes the fact". They claimed that it was, after all, the government that had got journalist Dhiren Gupta murdered when he attempted to expose the hands of RAW in the purchase of arms being used in such carnages in the country. Also, eminent members of prominent human rights organisations, like Justice Ajit Singh Bains, Baljeet Kaur and Inderjit Singh, wanted the massacre to be probed "independently by international media accompanying Clinton." Even establishment Sikhs like G.S.Tohra and former Akal Takht Jathedar, Ranjit Singh, claimed that the "killings were part of an Indian conspiracy to defame a neighbouring country" (Frontline, April 14, 2000).

While, on the one hand, the Sikhs failed to get provoked, on the other, the Kashmiri muslims went out of their way to give confidence to the Sikhs in the valley. The APHC called an all-Kashmir bandh against the massacre, and a number of Sikh organisations appealed to the Sikhs not to leave Kashmir. Even the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen immediately denied any hand in the massacre.

So, at least for the time, the government’s attempts at creating a Sikh-Muslim blood bath has failed. It has also failed to rope in the Kashmiri Sikhs into the anti-Muslim pogroms. They wanted to lure Sikh youth to join the notorious SOG, to do the dirty work of the state, as its hired mercenary force. They wanted to convert the 116 Sikh villages into virtual permanent police camps, by organising village defence committees and supplying them with arms. The Sikhs in Kashmir have rejected the government’s move to cover all villages where Sikhs reside, under a security umbrella and have refused government arms and resisted the government’s efforts to drag them into the VDCs (Village Defence Committees) which, in fact, are organised as the state’s fifth column to spy on the activities of the freedom fighters.... and comprise armed squads of lumpen and pro-state elements. The massacre has, as yet, not been able to achieve its conspiratorial purpose of dividing Muslims and Sikhs. Though it may have raised some questions in the minds of the Sikhs, yet it has thrown up a challenge and an opportunity for the freedom fighters to devise means to secure the support of non-muslim communities, including the Kashmiri hindus, to win them over to the cause of national freedom.

On the question of the right to self-determination of the Kashmir people, there is little difference between all the parliamentary outfits. So, their stand on the massacre differed little. All blamed the "terrorists" without any shred of evidence being provided.

The parliamentary ‘left’ and Congress(I) took similar positions blaming the "terrorists" and wailing that the government failed to provide protection to ordinary citizens. Thus they merely sought to make political capital out of the massacre.

The polit bureau of the CPI(M) said that, "extremist groups re-enforced by armed militants across the border have been launching a series of attacks and this showed the failure of the government to protect the ordinary citizens" (March 22). How does this statement differ from that of the RSS which says the same thing drawing the conclusion of a "soft state" and calling for a more aggressive role. This statement of the CPM would imply exactly the same thing.

The Congress (I) has lambasted the governments for not being able to provide security to the citizens. Ofcourse, if we even leave the 1984 Congress’s massacre of Sikhs aside, it was the Congress that was in power at the Centre in 1989, when the military operations against the Kashmiris commenced.

Simultaneously, state terror is being stepped up, and all these parties are silent. When 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed over the past decade, thousands more arrested and tortured, women raped, children mutilated ... all these parties have been silent. They were also silent at the time of the anti-Sikh pogroms. Worse till, they have sought to carry the Indian masses with them, through massive propaganda, on "cross-border terrorism" and Kashmiri militancy; not to mention an anti-Pak hysteria. To some extent, they have been successful in diverting the attention of the people from their own problems, and from the disastrous impact of the government’s economic policies.

Yet the people of India will soon realise that the suppression of the Kashmiri people is nothing but an attack on their basic democratic rights and self-respect. They will realise that it is part and parcel of the overall anti-people policies of the Indian state, which also crushes the workers, peasants, middle-classes, dalits, women, tribals and other nationalities under its iron heel.

The liberation struggle in Kashmir encompasses an important aspect of uniting the whole nationality, despite religious pluralism, in a single unified movement, on the basis of mutual respect.... and everyone’s individual right to have a faith of one’s choice, thereby laying a strong basis for defeating the divisive communal politics of the Indian rulers. The acts like Chattisinghpora and that of killing the hindu labourers are only too badly needed by the Indian state, and it will be happy to provoke or abet such acts through its secret agents, or even directly through its armed forces which often conduct raids on villages in guerilla fatigue, wearing artificial beards and moustaches. The people can differentiate friends from enemies only through their acts, and through a higher level of political consciousness — both within Kashmir and within India. The Indian state banks upon the political backwardness of the people to hoodwink them, whereas those who fight against the reactionary state have the important task of educating the people for acquiring the ability to differentiate between just and unjust, wrong and right, pro-people and anti-people, etc. The fact that, on this occasion, both Muslim and Sikh communities have exhibited restraint and a sense of brotherhood inspite of the cowardly attempts of the killers and inspite of the vicious propaganda of the Indian rulers, is a great hope for the future, of both, Kashmir and India.

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