Kashmir unrest: CM Mufti deserves praise for ordering restraint even if it upset hardliners

After its volcanic eruption last Saturday, when a police station was taken over and several policemen abducted, anger among Kashmiri youth is showing signs of gradually decreasing. Tempers remain high, but the trend is towards less attacks and demonstrations.

The obvious lack of preparation on Saturday, the day after militant commander Burhan Wani was killed, was a horrifying disaster. But such has been the rapid improvement since Sunday that, on Tuesday morning, one witnessed large numbers of migrant labour on the streets of Srinagar, waiting in hope that a contractor would give them work. Several provision stores, vegetable and fruit vendors and the occasional local bakeries too were open.

The restraint that the forces have shown in many places seems to be paying off. It should be highly appreciated. Many of those killed were shot when security forces reacted to direct attacks on their camps. What is more significant is that, in some instances, the police did not fire even when police stations were directly attacked.

To be sure, some attacks have continued and public anger still lingers at some places. Occasionally, grenades have been lobbed from within a demonstrating crowd. This combination of militancy and stone-pelting is new. Yet, the various security forces have shown amazing restraint. The J&K police deserves particular credit. Their performance in places such as Srinagar and Shopian has been amazingly effective.

Perhaps it was necessary to give youth anger a vent. Such demonstrations are often about underlying factors more than about the immediately visible cause.

The police and the CRPF have borne the brunt of public attacks over the past five days. By comparison, the Army has remained in the background. After all, as a very senior army officer on the ground pointed out, the Army is the last resort. The Army would prefer that the situation does not reach the stage of last resort.

An Army convoy was blocked and pelted with stones on the highway not far from where Burhan was killed, but the Army men in the convoy only fired in the air. The restraint worked and several hours later, the convoy was able to move on safely without having provoked more trouble across the Valley by firing into the crowd.

Backing the policy of restraint, another very senior Army officer expressed unhappiness that some of the CRPF units being rushed into the Valley on an emergency basis did not seem to have a sense of the place, or to be adequately briefed. They were the ones who opened fire relatively easily, he said.

Trigger-happy responses would risk a return to the summer of 2010, when stones were repeatedly met with bullets, until the situation spiralled into uncontrolled mayhem and angry stone-pelting spread right across the Valley. A few days into that round of agitation, even mothers joined their sons on the streets with stones and bricks. Each day’s toll in firing caused fresh anger, and more stones.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti deserves praise for ordering the current restraint, even at the risk of upsetting hardliners within the BJP, her coalition partner, and in the central government. She made an effective — dignified but heartfelt — appeal for calm over television on Tuesday evening.

She has shown wisdom to impose relatively light restrictions on people — Mufti deserves high praise. A light lid often works better than a pressure cooker.

Local residents report that people were able to go towards and move within Tral for prayers and other observances on the chahrum (fourth day after the burial) of militant commander Burhan Wani on Tuesday, and also on Wednesday, which was Martyrs’ Day in Kashmir. Most observers had expected very tight curfew, but it remained relatively light.

Omar obstructs more than Hurriyat

The various Hurriyat leaders seem to be restrained too. There had been much talk of leading massive processions to the martyrs’ memorial in the heart of the city. All that happened was that separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was easily arrested when he emerged from his residence rather late in the morning. Mirwaiz Omar remained under house arrest.

In fact, opposition leader Omar Abdullah was a bigger problem. Some of his tweets last weekend and again on Wednesday taunted his successor. Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s conversation with him on Monday seemed to have had a salutary effect — briefly. A very senior Army officer named at least one National Conference leader who had apparently been stirring ground-level trouble but had stopped on Tuesday.

However, Omar returned to a tweet-offensive again on Wednesday. His public suggestion that Mufti was repeating the mistakes he had made when he was in the chair was way off the mark. The truth is that, he had flailed in a policy vacuum, allowed excessive firing, and ordered extremely repressive curfew in 2010.

The result was that agitations spiralled through that summer until very senior officers feared that things had gone over the brink. Even the then Home Secretary, GK Pillai, had protested over the strictness of curfew during a visit to Srinagar. Omar responded by complaining the Centre was interfering.

This time, the home minister and others at the Centre have played a constructive role to intervene directly with potential troublemakers. Things have improved since National Security Advisor Ajit Doval returned to India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a tough line at the meeting he chaired when he returned on Tuesday morning. Pressure was then increased on Mufti. She did well to respond with a televised statement that evening but also continuing with the light ‘restrictions’ policy through Wednesday.

Sporadic violence continued, but the trend was towards relative calm. Friday will be another test, but so far the administration and the police have done a creditable job.