The Truth About Handwara Cannot be Obscured by a Jingoistic Media

The broadcast media has assumed a ‘patriotic’ silence over the killing of four civilians in Handwara.

There are three versions of the events which unfolded on Tuesday in Handwara and sparked a flame of resentment across Kashmir and some parts of the Chenab Valley.

Version one: Popular among the locals, this version says that an Army soldier molested a teenage girl in a public toilet near an Army camp, sparking protests. To disperse the protesters, the Army opened fire, killing two young boys and an elderly woman.

Version two: This is the Army’s version. It denies the charges, claiming that the girl, who is at the centre of the controversy, was not molested. In its defence, a confessional video of the girl, liberally circulated on social networking sites and WhatsApp since the incident took place, was officially released by the Army’s Srinagar based spokesperson on Wednesday, showing the blurred face of the girl blaming two local youth for inciting tensions.

Version three: This version has not yet been made public by the J&K Police, which has not finished investigations so far. The girl has not been cross-examined, so the police is not taking the video at face value. What if she was forced to make a confession in front of camera? Surely the victims of the police, any police, aren’t immune to such events. Although a case has been registered, it is an open FIR with no names.

Selective Outrage on National Media

Tragically enough, there is no outrage on primetime news. While the lathicharge of a few NIT students in Srinagar sparked nationwide outrage, the broadcast media has assumed a ‘patriotic’ silence over the killing of four civilians.

Even some leading national newspapers have skipped reporting the Handwara story. Has journalism in India become a self-serving institute meant for protecting ‘holy cows’ for its own interests and the supposed ‘national interest’ as truth becomes a casualty of jingoism?

Since the killings took place in Handwara, not one national TV channel has tried talking to the locals to find out what happened. Are there no witnesses to the Handwara carnage? Surely there must be a CCTV camera in the main market. What happened to the footage?

Strangely, only one version of the Handwara story is being whipped up in the national media and it defames the struggles of ordinary people against the harsh realities of life in Kashmir. Struggles which don’t work against the idea of India and certainly not towards ‘Bharat ki barbadi’, but towards how that idea translates on the ground in Kashmir – in the form of violence and an atmosphere of uncertainty.

Kashmir Remembers

There is one way to unearth the truth behind the Handwara killings: Allowing the truth to prevail without obfuscation or distortion by setting up an empowered inquiry committee involving locals, judiciary, state government and the Army to find out what happened on the afternoon of April 12.

Let the police record the statements of witnesses, especially the two boys who claim to have seen the Army man entering the toilet. Let them be provided protection till the case is decided. The Army can open itself to a credible probe if it wants to come clean. Kashmiris feel it has a lot of answering to do anyway.

In Kashmir, you can get killed for nothing and the perpetrator will likely go scot-free. A bullet will come from nowhere when, for example, you are tending to your vegetable garden, as was the case with Raja Begum, an elderly female victim of the Handwara carnage. You can also get shot while bringing home groceries like Nayeem Bhat, the budding cricketer who perished in Handwara.

Then your family will sweat it out, sometimes for decades, in police stations, government offices and damp courtrooms to get a simple case filed against the alleged perpetrators. Threats to acquiesce will come their way along with offers of blood money.

Some eventually accept the reality, but they remember. And those memories add to the suffering that is the root of the hatred felt in Kashmir for India.

But there will not be such an inquiry committee. The Army, the most disciplined force in the solar system, will take a leaf out of its holy AFSPA book and blame the protesters for provoking them to open fire. The police will act against the protesters. Many will face uncertain incarceration. And the death of an ordinary civilian will become a mere statistic, meant to illustrate the horrors of war in Kashmir. Nothing more, nothing less.

Will Modi Make Good on His Promises to Mehbooba Mufti?

The Army has opened its kill account under the new PDP-BJP government, which took over in J&K barely ten days ago. The photos of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti rallying in Lal Chowk, the heart of Srinagar, to demand justice for over 120 protesters killed during the 2010 summer unrest when Omar Abdullah was in power, are already doing the rounds on social media.

Will the new government make any difference, now that one of the allies, the BJP, is in power at the Centre?  Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliver on the promises made to Mehbooba?

Omar faced a similar challenge just when he assumed office as the chief minister in 2009. A disabled man was shot dead near an Army cantonment close to his Gupkar residence in Srinagar. After initial cries of justice, the poor CM couldn’t get the Army to even identify the soldier who killed the unfortunate man, let alone punish him.

Will Mehbooba act differently? Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar has promised a fair probe into the killings. The chief minister herself has said that an impartial probe will be carried out and the culprits will be given ‘exemplary punishment’.

History tells us that such promises are only used to provide cover for the alleged perpetrators and perpetuate the suffering in Kashmir.