After the political instability of 22 years in Jammu and Kashmir State following the dismissal of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah from Prime Ministership and his arrest on 9th August 1953, the Beigh-Parthasarthy Accord of 1975 popularly known as the Indira-Abdullah Accord had helped in initiating a new phase of peace and reconciliation in Jammu and Kashmir State. However, within a decade the Congress managed a defection within National Conference to topple the popular government in the state in mid-1980s.
The subsequent Rajive-Farooq rapprochement purely for electoral gains of their political parties was interpreted as the surrender of National Conference led by Dr Farooq Abdullah before New Delhi.The opposition parties formed an electoral alliance called the Muslim United Front (MUF) to carry forward the demand of restoration of Greater Autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir State, compromised for having access to political power by the National Conference supremo Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah way back in mid-1970s.The rigging of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections by National Conference-Congress alliance against Muslim United Front on 23rd March 1987 in 15 Assembly segments and the police repression of MUF candidates and their political workers resulted into a serious frustration among the defeated candidates and their young volunteers in Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front led by late Amanullah Khan as well as the Pakistani agencies channelized this frustration into an armed revolt against the lndian State in Kashmir. Four JKLF youths code named as HAJY Group started the armed struggle in Kashmir in May1988.The main goal behind the armed struggle of JKLF has been to liberate the territory of Jammu and Kashmir State from lndian control.
The armed struggle launched by JKLF for Aazadi of Kashmir from lndia became very popular in the Muslim dominated areas of Jammu and Kashmir State in general and in Kashmir valley in particular in the late 1980s and early 1990s.The pro-Pakistan and lslamic militant organizations like Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkatul Ansar, Lashkare Toiba, Jaishe Muhammad, Gazwatul Hind and several others started their armed struggle at different points of time during the current phase of militancy in lndian part of the state to liberate the territory from the military control of lndia.In the ensuing liberation movement of past three decades, thousands of armed militants and civilians were either killed or injured, maimed and blinded to weaken the resolve of the pro-Aazadi non-state fighting forces and overground activists in Jammu and Kashmir.The large scale death and destruction over the past three decades by the lndian forces and armed militants in certain cases has produced a fresh nationalist narrative of supporting complete Aazadi from lndia in Kashmir that has no formal link with the political history of Kashmir but reflects the the sense of maladjustment of Kashmiri Muslims with the lndian State.
The large scale human rights violations by the lndian forces in Kashmir, rise of Hindutva ideology in the rest of lndia, lslamic radicalization in Kashmir and the New Delhi’s discriminatory attitude towards Kashmir in governance has fully alienated the Kashmiries from the lndian national mainstream.The gulf between Kashmir and lndia has widened quite large and filling this massive gap is a big challenge for the Indian leadership and the pro-India political leaders of Kashmir.
Prof. G.M.Athar can be reached at ghathar@yahoo.co.in
