September 07, 2016

Kashmir calls

Nearly two months after protests over the killing of Burhan Wani erupted in Indian-occupied Kashmir, the indefatigable Kashmiris are still rallying in the streets and bearing down the wrath of Indian security forces. And the occupying power is still indiscriminately using force, including rubber pellets, smoke shells and tear gas. The last two months have shown that breaking the spirit of the Kashmiris is impossible and they will never give up on their quest for freedom from Indian rule. Yet, India has shown distressingly little awareness about how untenable its brutal occupation is. It has responded to international criticism in a superficial manner, doing nothing to address the underlying issue. Pressed by its use of rubber pellet bullets which were affecting so many people, including children, that there weren’t enough doctors in Kashmir to treat them, India decided to swap the rubber bullets with chilli-based shells. Apparently, the chilli-based shells cannot be lethal but they can cause blindness. These are the ‘moral’ calculations that an occupying force will keep having to make until it loses all shreds of humanity. Pro-freedom leaders like Yaseen Malik have realised this and refused to meet with a government delegation so long as talks are held under the Indian constitution. The ‘special’ status of Kashmir under that constitution enables the occupation and there is no point in talks if the Kashmiris are not given the right of self-determination.

At the international level, India’s growing importance has saved it so far from as strong a condemnation as it deserves. Modi’s growing closeness to the US, most recently seen during John Kerry’s visit to India, is sparked by his country’s status as both an ‘economic powerhouse’ and an inviting market for Western goods. Even then, Narendra Modi feels the need to blame Pakistan at every forum. On the sidelines of the G-20 summit in China, Modi told Chinese President Xi Jinping that ‘response to terrorism must not be motivated by political consideration’. Modi was clearly trying to paint the protests in Kashmir as terrorism, trying to then pin that imagined terrorism on Pakistan and then trying to get China to distance itself from Pakistan. He followed this by complaining about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and thus making his intentions all too clear. India’s true fear is that it is being muscled out by China in the battle for regional supremacy and helping Pakistan out in the process. Creating the phantom of Pakistani terrorism in Kashmir is Modi’s only strategy for trying to disguise the brutality of Indian security forces. The message from Kashmiri leaders is clear: self-determination is the only solution. It is time that this solution was made real. Those who have remained silent on the Kashmir issue must join in the voices asking for the rights of the Kashmiri people to be recognised.

Kabul attacks

Yet another day of destructive violence in Kabul showed that the ability of the Taliban to launch attacks at will has not been diminished. First, there was a double suicide bombing near the Afghan Defence Ministry which killed at least 24 people, many of whom were senior security officials. Later on Monday night, three attackers stage a suicide bombing in front of the international aid group Pamlarena’s offices and then took hostages and barricaded themselves in their offices. The siege lasted well into Tuesday morning and after 11 hours the police were able to kill all three attackers, while 11 others were also killed. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the defence ministry bombing while no one has stepped forward to take credit for the Pamlarena attacks. These two targets, along with the attack on the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul last week, tell us a lot about the targets militants in Afghanistan are going after. Anyone who is seen as complicit in any way with the foreign occupying forces – and in the Taliban’s mind that seems to include students studying at universities paid for by the American and international aid groups – will be considered a legitimate target. The government, especially those departments related to security, is obviously being targeted by the Taliban too.

Previously, and usually, what has been curious about attacks like these is that responses of the Afghan government to such attacks implicate Pakistan. This ‘strategy’ of alienating Pakistan is ill-advised and does nothing to deter the attacks. The Taliban’s spring offensive was more successful than most believed was possible and they may soon be in a position to take over Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and retake the northern city of Kunduz. Ghani must know by now that he cannot militarily defeat the Taliban and so should have been working more closely with the Quadrilateral Coordination Group to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. But the path he seems to have chosen is to work on reconciliation with the help of the US and India only, a policy that is doomed for failure since neither country has ever had any way to act as a go-between between the Taliban and Afghan government. With devastating attacks in Afghanistan now so routine, the government should not shut itself off to any avenue for peace.