No let-up in Indian firing across LoC

ISLAMABAD: There is no let-up in firing across the Line of Control (LoC) when authorities claimed that on Sunday nine people, including two minor girls, were injured in heavy shelling by Indian troops in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Nakyal sector.

“Indian troops started heavy mortar shelling at about 7:00am, targeting civilian populations in almost all villages along the Line of Control (LoC),” media reports quoted Nakyal Assistant Commissioner Waleed Anwar as saying.

In India itself, Sunday saw pressure building up against Modi’s hardline Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by civil society and former Indian premier Manmohan Singh who held the right-wing Narendra Modi-led government responsible for the worsening situation in India-held Kashmir (IHK).

Indian civil society groups in their latest report noted that the Kashmiri youth’s inspiration is not coming from Pakistan or its intelligence agencies but from local militant youth icons like late Burhan Wani and now, Zakir Musa.

Indian media commenting on a noticeable increase in violence in IHK since BJP came into power, quoted Singh as telling the Indian National Congress plenary session in New Delhi on Sunday, that, “India must recognise the “problems in Jammu and Kashmir” and ensure that these problems are “tackled and sorted”.

“They have installed a government where the two wings of the administration are working against each other,” Singh said, pointing to the impossible task of governance in IHK by the coalition partners Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and allies, which Singh said “had a huge ideological gap”, and the ideological differences between both parties, saw the “two wings of administration” were working against each other.

The same reports said that the former Indian PM claimed that the reason behind the situation in Kashmir which he said was “deteriorating day in and day out” was the alliance between the BJP and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which was formed after the 2014 Indian general elections.

The PDP, as opposed to its ruling ally, emphasises holding dialogue with separatists to reach a solution to the growing unrest in the region. The BJP, however, advocates use of force to suppress negative sentiment against the Indian government.

“Our borders are not secure,” Singh said. “Cross-border terrorism, internal terrorism, internal insurgency; they are today issues which are a source of great worry to all our citizens as the Modi government has not found a way to tackle this problem.”

Adding to the fears expressed by Manmohan Singh, the Concerned Citizens Group (CCG), after several visits to Jammu and Kashmir in their latest report stresses that this inspiration is not coming from Pakistan or its intelligence agencies but from local militant youth icons like the late Burhan Wani and now, Zakir Musa.

Unlike in the past there is no moderating influence of parents, other family elders or religious leaders on them.

The younger generation of Kashmiris does not have the context of normal situation as they have not seen normalcy in their lives.

Those who have seen militancy in the late 1980s and in the 1990s seem more worried today. Almost every youngster in the age group of 13 to 24 seems to be inspired by militant thought even if most of them are not picking up arms as yet.

As the state government is increasingly being seen as an extension of the regime in Delhi, a situation may come when the only link of the state to the rest of India would be through the security forces.

The IHK district administration says that it has submitted plans to the state government for building 3,500 bunkers in the villages adjoining the LoC in the Uri sector.

The CCG further adds that in terms of ‘collateral damage’, the Indian state even compensates for a chicken which if killed by cross LoC firing and sees the owner receive Indian Rs80.

The compensation for animals killed is fixed based on the type of animal e.g. Milch Buffaloes are compensated at Rs30,000 each, the other – non-milch, at Rs25,000 each, goat at Rs3,000 each, sheep at Rs4,000 to Rs6,000.

In case of death due to cross-border shelling, the locals get compensation of Rs5 lakh each from the Central and the state governments and Rs1 lakh from the Red Cross.

The family of the diseased has the choice of not accepting monetary compensation and opting instead for a government job for the next of kin of the dead under the state government’s Special Rehabilitation Order (SRO). For those who are wounded, the maximum compensation is Rs75,000 per person with the minimum being Rs5,000.