New stone age in the Valley

Rifat Mohidin in Srinagar

STONES and rubble lying about an under-construction house, school, or the Kashmir University can, ironically, blindside you in a Valley deeply in flux. Here’s what you get day in and day out: On April 17, the banned Kashmir University Students Union (KUSU) called for a protest. Girls, too, came out in large numbers at Lal Chowk. Everybody in the crowd rained stones on security forces. All sorts of projectiles were used and logs and iron grills were put up to block the roads. After the clashes were over, Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) workers had a tough time clearing the road, one in many such instances in that week. The stones come and go.

The police and the civil administration clearly wash their hands of the stones, saying it is none of their responsibility to deny the protestors the ‘weapon of mass disturbance.’

“In SP College, SP Higher Secondary School and Women’s College Srinagar, rocks, bricks and wooden logs are scattered all around because of construction work,” says a police officer. “Removing the rubble means expenditure, which the college finds prohibitive,” says the officer from Srinagar who has been handling the student protests in the city’s commercial hub.

The region saw a construction boom over the last decade. It also left behind rubble of pebbles, rocks, stones and bricks. It is impossible for the government to clean up the entire mess as civic officials already find their hands full. “This (removing stones) has broken the back of our cleaners -- they clear up the roads in the morning and evening. The entire day is gone in this exercise alone,” says SMC Commissioner Dr Shafqat Khan.

“I have not seen such a large-scale stone throwing in my life,” says university professor based in Valley who did not want to be named. A protest picture of a teenage girl, holding a basketball in one hand and stone in another, earlier this year, is said to be a defining image of Kashmir’s new generation. “This is the reaction of the stones…metaphorically – the protestors just pick up anything... Removing the stones is one thing while addressing the root of the problem is another,” says the professor.

This is for the first time in over two decades in the Valley that women too have taken to violence. Many among young educated girls cite government’s lack of interest in realizing their aspirations. “I pick up a stone to protest, to show my resentment and anger towards the corrupt government,” says Shaista (21), sitting with her friends in the college lawns at Srinagar’s M.A Road. “I do not fear anymore. We have no future.”

Stone-throwing, post young militant Burhan Wani’s killing last year, and after, has become more widespread. Security forces have been using pellet guns, Pava shells and tear gas to scare away the youngsters in the streets, but without much success. 

“The government’s oppressive methods have let the situation to come to such a pass that even school students are increasingly getting restive. No one is trying to address why the educated youth are out in the streets,” says Kamran Ahmad, a 22-year-old undergraduate student from Government Degree College, Pulwama where protests triggered four weeks ago have now spread across the Valley.

The police believe that the youth are being instigated, and that society at large has a responsibility to restrain them. “There is a role of everyone in disciplining these young men. Principals, teachers and parents must counsel the children not to indulge in violence,” says Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid.

Most government officials treat stone-throwing as a problem limited to the youth. “These violent images are being glorified on social media. The positive side, where young people, mostly girls, are doing great things, is never shown. The youth need a political, social and economic engagement which we are trying to bring about,” says Waheed Ur Rehman Para, spokesperson for the dominant ruling partner, the People’s Democratic Party. “We don’t want to control the youth. They have the right to protest and they should feel the sense of freeness.”

The main opposition party, the National Conference, blames the ruling PDP-BJP for the rising anger leading to a surge in stone throwing incidents. “The root cause is mis-governance. They are trying to treat violence as a law-and-order problem, but it has to be dealt with politically,” says party’s senior member, Nasir Aslam Wani.