http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2015/images/apdp.jpgIn a way, the truth about the Indian Establishment is revealed in Kashmir -- cruel, destructive and malicious; the lie of Indian democracy is evident in Kashmir. Take the "terrible" terror-for-terror counterinsurgency tactics that have been practiced with a vengeance in Kashmir since 1994. . . . With the decline of the JKLF, another organisation, whose social-political roots were indigenous, came to lead the insurgency -- the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). Its social and political base came from the Jammu Kashmir Jamaat-e-Islami, which was an important constituent of the MUF that was the victim of the rigging of the 1987 elections. The HM held on, and together, much better than the JKLF in the face of the brutal counterinsurgency (even today, there are 600,000+ Indian troops, including the paramilitaries and the J&K armed police, in Kashmir). But when defectors from the insurgents were adopted by the Indian state -- they came to be known as "Ikhwanis" -- to join the counterinsurgency in large numbers, former militants who knew much more about the militants and their families and sympathisers, and assumed a crucial role, including that of local intelligence, in targeting the latter, the Jamaat had to move away from supporting the HM. By the beginning of the new millennium, the Indian security forces and the Ikhwanis forced the HM to retreat. As a WikiLeaks cable of 4 June 2007 puts it: "Ikhwan has a reputation in the Valley for committing brutal human rights abuses -- including extra-judicial killings of suspected terrorists [insurgents], and their family members, as well as torturing, killing, raping, and extorting Kashmiri civilians suspected of harboring or facilitating terrorists [insurgents]." . . . Where then does one go from here? If the Indian Establishment has any respect for democracy and international humanitarian law, the Occupation of Kashmir must end and the perpetrators of the crimes committed, including those who led the institutions responsible for those offences, must be punished. But with India's defence minister endorsing "terrorists-to-eliminate-terrorists" counterinsurgency tactics, the home minister backing him, and the chief minister of J&K choosing to remain silent at this crucial moment -- the Indian Army is under the defence ministry, the paramilitaries involved report to the union home ministry, and the J&K armed police takes orders from the state government -- Kashmir is likely to be more of the hell of internal colonialism than what it already is. Already, following the Defence Minister's kaante statement, and emboldened by such official backing, Rashid Billa, an Ikhwan commander and the main culprit in the 5 October 1996 killing of seven members of three families in Sadrakoot Bala in Bandipora district of Kashmir, has, according to the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, stepped up his intimidation, including life threats, of the petitioners in the case against him in the J&K High Court. Also, it is significant that all sections of the Kashmir national liberation movement, including the United Jihad Council, have condemned the 25 May attack on the office of BSNL, a state-owned telecom company, in Sopore town in Kashmir in which one civilian was killed and two were injured. They have also denounced "Lashkar-e-Islam", the terrorist outfit claiming to have carried out the attack. Such terrorist groups must be seen in the context of the proliferation of terrorist groups that have been set up to counter and discredit the Kashmir national liberation movement. Indeed, in the light of incidents like the above, Indian Defence Minister Parrikar's ominous kaante statement is pregnant with sinister indications.

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