Shopian incident and investigation: What do they reveal?
By Prof. A. C. Bose

Sometimes toward the end of May two young Kashmiri women, first, disappeared, and then were found dead in a stream flowing close by the town of Shopian. First, Shopian and then the entire valley exploded in anger as the world went round that they had been raped and murdered before their bodies were dumped in the stream. Never before had any alleged murder triggered so intense and wide-spread waves of indignation, protests and violence as that wept across the valley in the months following the discovery of these two dead bodies. A reluctant administration was literally forced to order an enquiry and to exhume their bodies after two months. The enquiries concluded that some people in the police had deliberately fudged evidences and had twisted findings to protect its personnel. Some dismissals and suspensions followed, and the volatile valley felt vindicated. Then the case was handed over to the CBI, who has recently categorically opined that the two ladies had just died of drowning: they had been neither raped nor murdered. As expected, the valley has once again exploded in anger over the clean chit that the CBI has given to the police. Not just the common Kashmiri even the Delhi-based Independent Women initiative for justice too—the investigating team didn’t have been a single Muslim—has categorically condemned the CBI for their alleged effort at saving the image of the state police and the skin of some its officials.

None can with certainty assert wherein the truth lies. None of the agencies involved can boast of an exemplary record in their pursuit of justice with impartially. Neither the state administration nor the CBI evokes the unstilted trust of the common man any wherein India. In Kashmir virtually every one, from the baron to the beggar, is now united in condemning the CBI, and through it the Government of India. As one trying to be impartial and objective I would refuse to plump for either the earlier inquiries or for this one by the CBI. Pressures of various sorts, public, personal and official, are usually at work whenever such emotive issues are involved, and justice may ultimately prove elusive. One can never be sure in the present situation whether the guilty will be ultimately let off or some innocent officials are punished, apparently, because of intense public pressure. One thing, however, is certain, the investigations might not have yielded justice, but these have once more revealed the intensity of the anger and haltered with which virtually every one in the valley views virtually every thing associated with India or the puppet governments propped up by it. Apparently, the issue involves alleged is carriage of justice over the death of two women in mysterious circumstances. But, for Kashmiris the alleged murders involve something much more. It means another deliberate attack on the rights and dignity of their community, which they are determined to avenge, at least through mass demonstrations and violence. This underlines the hostility the Kashmiris nourish toward every thin Indian. And, it is this anti-Indian feeling that prompts the Kashmiris to readily believe that India must be at the root of every mishap, especially if it appears to involve honour or image of the Kashmiris or of their religion, Islam. It was this feeling that put the valley on the boil for a month went the sacred hair went missing from its sanctuary in Hazaratbal mosque on December 28, 1963. Ten years later, some one discovered in a school library at Anantnag that a sixty-four year old copy of Authur Mee’s Book of knowledge contained a portrait of the Holy Prophet. Within a few days the whole of Kashmir turned into an arena of anti-Indian agitation and violence. Certained, no one would coolly conclude that it was the Govt. of India that had subverted the mullahs and the tight security of Hazaratbal mosque to steal the Moi-e-Muqaddas (sacred hair) only to recover it after a month’s agitation, or had bribed Arthus mee, sixty four years ago, to print the Holy Prophet’s portrait in his book only to hurt the feelings of the faithful. Yet, virtually every Kashmiri, young and old, held India responsible for what had happened or had been found. In fact, their suppressed anger and haltered for every thing Indian is so intense that any unpleasant incident or disclosure immediately opens the sluice gate of their emotion against their chased enemy. This anti-Indian feeling, both very wide-spread and deep, is some thing to reckon with, and must not be pushed under the carpet any longer. The two unfortunate women of Shopian might or might or might not have been raped and murdered. But, the investigations into these allegations and the popular response to their findings should by now convince even the incorrigible optimists that the Kashmiris are not happy with the dispensation they are living in.

Unfortunately, many so-called Kashmir-watchers and most national newspapers even now speak of a distinct improvement in the situation in the valley. However, the question is what the indicators of their imagined improvement are. True, fewer attacks on security personnel are taking place, and fewer people are getting killed. This is mainly due to the reduced support an encouragement from across the LoC. Besides, there is an undeniable element of fatigue and pessimism after twenty years of bloodshed. But, none of these suggest that the Kashmiris are now accepting the status quo, in increasing numbers. The optimists point at the mass participation of the Kashmiris in last year’s assembly election. Well, like voters any where else, they did vote to place in power people they like and to keep other out. Over the years they have seen that the MLAs do enjoy considerable authority and resources, and they want to have their local demands met and grievances redressed through the MLAs and minister they know and trust. After all, they too have their demands and expectations relating to schools, hospitals, roads etc. in their locality, and their chosen MLAs can help them. So, their rather heavy turn out at the assembly pools should not be misread as an endorsement of Kashmir’s present relationship with India. That is why voters’ turn out at the Lok Sabha Pool, a few months later, was expectedly poor. After sixty years of frustration and false assurances they have few expectations few New Delhi. If even now the people who matter wake up to the reality, and help shape our policies and attitude towards Kashmir, accordingly, then the violence that is rocking the valley for the last seven months has not gone in vain. The legal and administrative aspects of this sad incident and the investigations are not exceptional, in any way. What, however, is significant and should be seriously taken note of is the mass emotion these generated.