Kashmir unrest not about 'azadi' but religious extremism: Govt

Says separatists facing irrelevance; also rues the waning influence of Sufism

Top government sources on Thursday said the latest protests in Kashmir pose an unprecedented challenge, as they were no longer for azadi, or separatism, but were inspired by religious extremism.

Some of the seniormost government sources on Thursday gave their assessment of the situation in Kashmir. They said the recent unrest was qualitatively different from those in 2008 and 2010. According to them, the influence of Sufism has waned in the Kashmir Valley.  Wahabi Islam has religious extremists and they held sway during the past 70-odd days of unrest. They said the separatists were facing irrelevance, as the recent protests had thrown up younger leaders but also indicated the government was not averse to talking to them, including the Hurriyat Conference, but only once the cycle of violence ended and they showed an inclination towards dialogue.

The Union government, meanwhile, indicated it expected normalcy to return to the state in the run-up to Eid-ul-Azha on September 13. The sources said troublemakers would be dealt with severely, while civilians would be treated with compassion. It might even think about engaging with separatists if the situation were to improve, they said.  

However, they rejected any possibility of revoking the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act’s application in J&K. Terrorists, they said, do not respect geography and the government itself cannot come across as weak-kneed.

They indicated the government’s unwillingness for a dialogue with Pakistan, since it was “100 per cent” behind the current unrest. The sources said there was still time to decide whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be attending the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit at Islamabad in November. 

Delhi believes Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had been cordial and warm in relations with Modi, has been weakened after the Panama Papers exposé and increasing pressure from the all-powerful military. This, they said, had compelled him to spew venom against India, which had come as a surprise.

On Balochistan, the sources said it was deliberate policy to hit back at Pakistan over human rights issues. India, they made it clear, had no intention of spreading terrorism there and its policy was limited to highlighting the human rights problem in a region where Pakistan was using tanks and air raids against its own people.

In a related development, a senior in Jammu & Kashmir’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said Mehbooba Mufti, its head and the state’s chief minister, should consider resigning.
 

Muzaffar Hussain Baig, a former deputy chief minister of the state and now a Lok Sabha member, said Mehbooba should do so if she felt the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ between the PDP and its ruling partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party, was a “paper of fraud and not a paper of good faith”.