J&K: Why Geelani's tribute to Colonel Rai's killers is not unusual

Often reportage about gunfight between security forces and militants in Kashmir ends with reporters writing about how many were killed and wounded. However, there is another side of the story as well. Whenever a militant gets killed in such an encounter, often it is seen that local residents rush to police station to get the body. At times, they storm the police station if the body is not given or the process is delayed. Then they take the body and thousands participate in the last rites of the militant.

And routinely, the Hurriyat leaders and others rush to the house of the slain militant to express solidarity.

Over the years senior Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Geelani and other separatist leaders, while paying tributes to the slain militants, have also called for resolution of the Kashmir issue and appealed to the United Nations and Western countries to play their role to resolve Kashmir issue.

Now, it is first time that the issue of paying tributes to the militants by the Hurriyat has been raised, though mainstream political parties have done so.

Previously, MLA Ghulam Hassan Mir visited the grave of a militant to pray the tributes. Mir incidentally was described as a "'God"' by former army chief general VK Singh and his credentials of being a staunch Indian are not doubted by anyone.

Independent MLA Engineer Rashid also participated in the funeral processions of militants killed in his area.

It is widely reported in Jammu and Kashmir that when the People's Democratic Party got 16 MLAs in the Assembly in 2002, the PDP leadership stated that militants should now give up their guns as their representatives would take up their cause in the Assembly.

The National Conference leadership including Omar Abdullah repeatedly accuses the PDP of indulging in killings of Hizbul Mujahideen militants after luring them to talks. The NC calls the PDP “killers of the militants”.

On January 21, Abdullah on the anniversary of the Gawkadal massacre tweeted, “The architect of the #Gawkadal massacre negotiates his coronation & conveniently remains silent, choosing not to acknowledge this dark day”.

Omar Abdullah was referring to the People’s Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was Union home minister when paramilitary CRPF gunned down 52 civilians and injured hundreds in Gawkadal area of Srinagar on January 21, 1990. His party took the same stance on January 27 when the Valley observed the anniversary of Kupwara massacre in which 27 civilians were killed allegedly by Army in 1994 while accusing the PDP of remaining silent over such killings.

Such is the mainstream discourse in Kashmir.

Geelani in his tribute to the militants killed in Tral on Tuesday in which an army colonel and the head constable, Jammu and Kashmir Police, were also killed, has said, “The violent path adopted by Kashmiri youth is not any act of hobby nor is it the result of unemployment. They are the students of different colleges and universities who are fully aware about the historical perspective and the tragedy of Kashmir”.

Referring to the 2008 and 2010 protests in Kashmir in which nearly 200 protesters, mostly youngsters, were killed allegedly by police and paramilitary forces, Geelani said, “These children have witnessed the people’s revolutions of in which millions of people came out on the roads and demanded their right to self-determination and reminded India about his forgotten promises”.

Now hear Omar Abdullah in 2010. Abdullah, in his speech in the state Assembly after six month-long protests that led to killings of 112 youth in 2010, called Kashmir as an “outstanding issue”. Perhaps Abdullah has been the only chief minister of J&K who called Kashmir an “outstanding issue” that too in the Assembly and urged New Delhi to initiate dialogue with Islamabad and Srinagar to address it.

“At the international forums, in Agra, Lahore, Delhi, we have always referred Kashmir as an outstanding issue and it needs to be resolved. New Delhi should initiate the dialogue process with both Islamabad, and Jammu and Kashmir. The Union home minister has rightly stated that Jammu and Kashmir has entered into accession under unique circumstances and its solution has to be unique,” Omar had said.

With Omar Abdullah seeking a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to probe human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989 including exodus of Kashmiri Pandits and the PDP making talks with Pakistan and separatists main conditions for an alliance with the BJP, it also reflects difference in narratives in Kashmir and New Delhi.

In November last year, the PDP repeatedly denied that former senior superintendent of police, Ashiq Husain Bukhari, is a PDP member after some newspapers reported that he had joined the PDP. Bukhari claimed to have killed 200 militants during his tenure. In New Delhi, he would be considered a hero but in Kashmir he would not get any space in the political circles.

This reflects the difference of narratives in New Delhi and Kashmir. It also shows the widening gulf between the two.