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Roots of youth radicalisation in Kashmir

By Mohammad Sayeed Malik. Dated: 7/1/2016 11:35:35 PM

Govt's crude tactics criminalising a whole new generation

At least 120 families whose near and dear ones were snatched and consumed by state violence unleashed last summer would, naturally, be inclined to believe in Ram Jethmalani's characterisation of our existing regime and disbelieve Omar Abdullah's concern for a humane juvenile justice system. It is not really a material point as to whether Syed Ali Shah Geelani's call for hartal over the issue is heeded or not. The sad fact is that the agony of the traumatised families remains unaddressed, one year later. Added to that is the frustration of a larger number of families hit by rampant detention of so-called 'stone pelters'. Dreams turned into nightmare tend to foster a frightful syndrome like of which is gripping Omar's nearest generation.
On the one hand, we have our young chief minister assuring us about his conviction that the state's archaic juvenile justice act was too obnoxious to exist and, on the other, the police force under his direct command continues to belie any such impression by using the very same weapon without restraint to terrorise and criminalise a whole generation. Starkness of the contrast comes through the government's calculated failure to prosecute anyone of the guilty policemen responsible for wanton criminal killing of over 100 teenagers last summer even as a much larger number of impressionable teenagers languish in prisons side by side with hardened criminals.
Public Safety Act has become the favoured weapon for indiscriminate detention of young boys including minors who are whisked away from their families and lodged in notorious jails outside the Valley. This cruelty is the only truth about prevailing state of juvenile justice, notwithstanding Omar's public posturing.
Whether it is literally prudent to endorse Jethmalani's 'Nazi regime' description or not but virtually it comes nearest to accurate description of the reality. Despite the fact that none of the 'stone pelters' detained has so far been found guilty of anything the police is justifying the witch-hunt on the fictitious plea that the detained teenagers are a threat to peace.
It is conveniently forgotten that apart from crudeness of such tactics this type of political policing aggravates public anger. It reveals a fatal misreading of the nature and character of the problem. Periodic mass protests resulting from immediate acts of injustice and administrative excess do not need identifiable figures to propel them which the police could imprison to render the protestors directionless. Events of 2008 (over Amarnath land row) and 2010 (over fake encounter and wanton killing) should have been enough to drive home the point that a mass movement does not need to rely on charismatic figureheads for strength. The Hurriyat elements of both varieties were quicker in learning the lesson. Every time an attempt was made to paradrop leadership from the top it was rebuffed resoundingly. The movements in 2008 and 2010 generated their own dynamics and progressed on their very own momentum.
The government should have realised that just as curbs on separatist leaders turned out to be a futile preventive action, large scale victimisation of 'stone pelters' is a grossly misconceived action. Solution lies in addressing the core of the problem, not in short-circuiting normal process of justice.
There might still have been some credibility in government's crude tactics (to prevent re-occurrence of trouble) if at least a few out of the large number of 'stone pelters' languishing in jails under detention had been put on trial and convicted for their alleged crime. It is equally unacceptable that not a single case out of over 120 cases involving death in police firing has been investigated and prosecuted and none of the 'stone pelters' has been put up before a court of law to face prosecution. Short-circuiting rule of law is a crude tactic which emboldens the men in uniform to exploit a permissive situation. No surprise, that the state police chief has become the most prominent face of the regime and is a familiar figure on the tv screen. Of late, his claims tend to be more and more self-righteous. These are disturbing signs of a depleted political authority.
Crude tactics are meant to intimidate and coerce its victims which in the long run results in brutalisation. It is quite possible that already a whole new generation of criminalised youth has been produced. Many of those detained are being coerced along with their traumatised families to furnish servile undertakings. Their anonymity and childhood innocence is being destroyed with pictures and fingerprints taken and school records like birth certificates trashed to justify under-age detention. These tactics carry a crushing stigma for young minds. Detained young boys are not criminals but still that is how they are being dealt with and made to feel.
It was in March that Omar Abdullah first hinted at throwing out the despicable juvenile justice law of the state that allows 16-year young boys to be treated as hardened criminals and put under preventive detention. Everybody liked to believe in his commitment. Three months later he has repeated the same theme. In between, his police force showed utter disregard towards the sanctity of his public assurance.
The presumption that the chief minister was, at least in spirit, convinced about the ugliness of the existing juvenile act has thus been belied. That much is clear in police resistance to any move seeking release of child detenues. If the chief minister had really meant what he had said a simple ordinance could have been promulgated to honour the commitment without wasting time unduly. Juvenile justice act is not AFSPA that requires central government's nod.
Amnesty International and other non-governmental organisations have had to intervene and secure the release of under-age boys. Only a few were able to benefit from such intervention so far; a much larger number has not been as lucky.
Vindictiveness is too apparent in most of these cases. Police could have certainly done better than going to the traumatic extreme of subjecting under-age boys to medical examination to determine their 'real' age. Valid school certificates were dishonoured. Faizan Rafique of Anantnag, Tawseef Hussain Butt and Basharat Yakub Baig of Shopian and Sheikh Akram of Rainawari are some of the names that figured prominently in cases of disputed age. These under-age detenue were held in notorious Kotbalwal and Kathua jails where hardened criminals and anti-social elements rule the roost.
It is not easy to describe the pain and anguish of the grieving/ aggrieved families. Tufail Mattoo's father, unlike most others, has shown commendable courage by stepping out to fight for justice. His dignified stand deserves full praise. Others have been grieving in agony with no hope of justice. Lingering emotional pain of the loss of 120 innocent lives and the agony of teenagers getting criminalised is a huge collective social trauma for a relatively small place like the Valley of Kashmir.