The Kashmiri separatist leaders’ recent visit to Pakistan and
POK provokes
both hope and disappointment
BY ANURADHA BHASIN JAMWAL
What looks good is not always as great. So when a
group of Kashmiri separatist leaders took the leap
across the Kamaan Post, now rechristened ‘Aman Setu’ or Peace Bridge at the Line
of Control on the road from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad, all in all, in spite of
the hype created, the event was not as encouraging for peace as touted to be.
The Kashmiri leaders’ two-week tour of Pakistan and Pakistan-administered
Kashmir has been a mixed bag of both hope and disappointment.
The good things first. For the first time the separatist leaders
were given free access to the land across the border, a long-standing demand.
The journey turned out to be one in a series of symbolic gestures between New
Delhi and Islamabad to facilitate interaction between the divided people of
Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC). It imbues optimism
that the separatists will be engaged in a dialogue soon. The not-so-good things:
the composition of the team on board the mission across the LoC may be merely
one aspect of the whole, but the lack of cohesiveness among those who visited
was what makes the entire visit a dampener. Besides, the question of who
represents the people of Jammu and Kashmir is far from resolved.
The greatest bane of separatist politics in Kashmir, their
division and gradual disintegration from one umbrella organisation of the All
Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) into different groups and singular
organisations, followed them across the LoC. The mood that would shadow the
entire journey was set on the very first day, when Yasin Malik, chairman of the
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), and a motley group of the Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq-led faction of the Hurriyat sat in two different buses to cross the LoC.
Similarly, the statements that followed during their fortnight-long visit
clearly lacked any cohesion.
What was significant was the Hurriyat’s resemblance in tone to
what Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been saying of late. The Mirwaiz
chose to stick to the discourse of autonomous regions and division on
geographical lines within Jammu and Kashmir on both sides. His step down from
the Hurriyat’s official position on UN resolutions was also in keeping with
Musharraf’s latest mantra, of thinking outside the box. Their itinerary
was restricted to official functions and officially sponsored visits, in an
unflattering comparison to Malik, who chose to meet several groups outside the
official influence and was openly critical of Pakistan’s policy and the bid by
the leadership of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to romanticise militancy. The day
they landed in Muzaffarabad, the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir declared a
public holiday. The restraint on any adventurism beyond official patronage, in
terms of both rhetoric and the choice of people they met, was intended.
The picture of disunity within the separatist camp was balanced
by one event alone that sparked a tinge of optimism – The warring factions of
the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front led by Yasin Malik on this side and Amanullah
Khan on the Pakistani side finally sinking their differences and deciding to
merge into one group. The move has been received very well on the Pakistani side
of Kashmir and may eventually help to strengthen an organisation which not only
spearheaded the armed struggle but was the first to discard the option of guns
and talk about a non-violent resolution to the Kashmir dispute with its decision
of unilateral ceasefire in 1995. As for the party’s ideology and the consistency
it maintains in its stand, JKLF’s appeal continues to be broad-based in most
parts of Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the dividing line.
Unfortunately, this semblance of cohesion failed to inspire any
unity within the separatist camp. The JKLF and the Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat
represented two different streams. Back home in the valley, the Syed Ali Shah
Geelani-led faction of Hurriyat, which voted against embarking on the journey to
Muzaffarabad and beyond, was talking on yet another plank. Its reservations on
the visit added yet another dimension of confusion to the cacophony of voices
emanating on Kashmir.
The Pakistan government’s response was, however, more
encouraging. Even though the Hurriyat appeared to be its dream project,
mirroring the official voice, Pakistani government functionaries were equally
cordial to Yasin Malik. The JKLF’s signature campaign exhibition, organised by
Pakistani human rights activists Asma Jehangir and Afsarab Khattak, was also
attended by several ministers in the Pakistan government, including Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz. The inaugural function may have stirred several
controversies. First, the organisers, whose presence may have been embarrassing
for the Prime Minister, had to perform the disappearing act so as to allow
Shaukat Aziz to share the platform with Yasin. Secondly, the JKLF chairman
stirred up a hornet’s nest, inadvertently dragging Pakistan’s Information
Minister Sheikh Rashid into a controversy that eventually turned out to be much
ado about nothing.
Overall, the Kashmiri leaders’ visit has not turned out to be a
bad thing. Anyone who thought the visit would perform miracles was obviously
living in a world of make-believe. The visit needs to be seen in the proper
context. It was a part of the confidence-building measures that India and
Pakistan have recently started in Kashmir and a follow-up of the inaugural run
of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service on April 7 this year. It would be naïve
to think that the visit by separatist leaders would bring to a halt every
instance of violence in Kashmir or come up with a quick-fix solution to the
Kashmir dispute. The June 2 – June 15 visit had a limited mandate.
It needs to be seen as a positive goodwill gesture and will go
down in history as one. Clearly, there were only two things that this goodwill
gesture was expected to perform. One, to pave the way for future interactions
between the political leadership and common masses on both sides of Kashmir.
Barring the Sheikh Rashid controversy, this almost seems a mission accomplished,
with a batch of Kashmiri leaders from the Pakistani side expected to board the
bus soon and chief minister Mufti Mohd. Sayeed, his daughter Mehbooba and
Congress leader and Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who also heads the
coordination committee on the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, also
expected to visit the other side. Unfortunately, any hopes of seeing some kind
of cohesive unity among the separatists, which this journey was expected to
achieve, have been belied. As a bonus, however, one sees a greater flexibility
in Pakistan’s stated position and its ability to be equally hospitable to all
streams of the separatist camps, despite the criticism.
If this is what the Kashmiri leaders’ visit has achieved, though
the Pakistani intelligentsia and media must of course take part of the credit,
then it is a healthy sign. One can only hope that India now responds in a
similar manner so that the tone and tenor for peace is set and the way paved for
a dialogue with the inclusion of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and the
groundwork laid for a purposeful ceasefire. Free movement, travel and trade
across the LoC has been a much-cherished demand by people on both sides of the
dividing line. The fact that separatist leaders boarded the bus has further
strengthened the first confidence-building measure – the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad
road reopening. This instils more confidence but true gains can only be
accomplished by consistent efforts from both New Delhi and Islamabad. The
minimal enthusiasm about recent events cannot negate the strong voices on both
sides that champion the opening of other routes on the LoC, the Jammu-Sialkot
route, the Chhamb route and the Mirpur-Nowshera route, to facilitate interaction
between divided families.
At the same time, there can be no peace jargon without the
introduction of other confidence-building measures that will be seen as greater
populist actions to stem the alienation of the people. Some of these include the
withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and other draconian laws, the
release of political prisoners and innocent youth from jails, cracking down
heavily on human rights violations on both sides and ultimately to ensure the
cessation of all hostilities, not only on the borders but also in the interiors.
The iron is hot enough. New Delhi only needs to strike with a package of
measures that can ensure peace and free dialogue.
(Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal is executive editor, Kashmir Times