“We all know these forests like our house,” stated Baseer Khan, who owns a store in the principle market of Bufliaz city in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district. “We have been by no means afraid, however now, that has modified.”
On December 21, close to a type of forests Khan spoke about, two autos of the Indian Military have been attacked by militants. 4 troopers have been killed and two troopers injured as they have been on their solution to Thanamandi in Rajouri district.
What adopted has led to a way of dread in Khan and different residents of this area.
The morning after the assault, round 9 villagers from Topa Peer village in Bufliaz – some six kilometers from the positioning of the assault – have been picked up by Military personnel, accompanied by police officers in plain garments, stated villagers.
The identical day, the Military additionally picked up 5 extra civilians from Panghai village in Rajouri, some 15 km from the positioning of assault in the direction of Thanamandi.
By night, three of the 9 civilians picked up from Topa Peer village have been useless.
In a matter of some hours, a collection of horrifying movies emerged on the web. One of many movies confirmed males in camouflage trousers beating civilians with rods after which pouring chilli powder on their bruised buttocks.
Villagers and kin of the three victims instructed Scroll that the boys being overwhelmed up within the video have been amongst these picked up from Topa Peer village on December 22.
The deaths have led to deep outrage throughout the Kashmir Valley, with a number of political events questioning Delhi’s claims of normalcy within the Union territory. “How is that this ‘Naya Kashmir’ the place neither Armymen nor frequent persons are protected?” stated former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
With web providers snapped within the area, and a heavy safety presence walling off the Topa Peer village from journalists, the world is besieged by concern. “As of late, I shut the store by 5 pm and go away. Earlier, we stayed as late as we wished,” stated Khan.
For the Gujjar and Bakarwal tribal communities of Pir Panjal, who’ve a historical past of resisting armed militancy within the area, the all-pervasive concern is compounded by a way of betrayal.
‘Now we have all the time supported the Military’
Gujjars and Bakarwals represent the third largest ethnic group of Jammu and Kashmir – based on the 2011 census, they represent 11.9 % of the erstwhile state’s inhabitants. Whereas these largely nomadic communities reside in pockets in nearly each district of Kashmir Valley, a majority reside in Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu’s Pir Panjal area.
Nearly all of the 14 civilians, picked up after the militant assault from Topa Peer and Panghai villages, together with the three males who allegedly died in Military custody, have been Gujjars.
Whereas predominantly Muslim, the Gujjar-Bakarwals are distinct of their identification, tradition and language from the Muslims of Kashmir Valley.
What additionally units them aside is their attitudes to the Indian state and armed militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.
Although armed separatists gained a foothold within the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Pir Panjal within the mid-Nineties, the tribal group was on the forefront of the Military’s efforts to counter militancy within the area.
Within the early 2000s, the Gujjar-Bakarwal residents mobilised in opposition to rising militant affect within the area by means of bands of village defence volunteers.
In 2003, for instance, the Military’s success in flushing out militants from the area was enabled by assist and essential intelligence from the Gujjar-Bakarwal residents.
Since 2005, the Pir Panjal area, regardless of being a significant infiltration route, has remained largely peaceable. However, within the final two years, a number of high-precision militant assaults within the area have led to a excessive variety of casualties of Military personnel.
“Now we have all the time supported the Military and even fought alongside the Military in opposition to militants,” stated a outstanding Gujjar activist, who didn’t want to be recognized.
However the Topa Peer custodial killings have created a fault line between the Military and the group, he argued. “The Military has betrayed us.”
Within the week following the custodial killings, that sentiment has turn out to be sharper within the area.
“If I start counting the sacrifices I’ve made for India, I’ll break down inconsolably,” says a 58-year-old from Pir Panjal’s Poonch district.
“It was Gujjars with whose assist the militancy was nearly worn out from the area,” recalled the 58-year-old farmer, who has been a part of many anti-militancy operations together with the safety forces within the area within the early 2000s.
The group paid a worth for standing as much as militancy. “I misplaced a number of relations in militant assaults. I personally was attacked just a few occasions however my God wished me to reside,” he recalled.
His struggle, he stated, was triggered by the highhandedness of the militants in his village. “The militants had no care or concern for the native sensitivities. As soon as the villagers resisted them, the militants unleashed oppression on frequent and unusual individuals,” he stated.
The 58-year-old stated he was repulsed by the custodial killings of the three Topa Peer civilians.
“This too is oppression,” he stated. “What occurred to our kids is unacceptable. Is that this how they’ll deal with the identical individuals who helped them struggle militants?”
For the Indian Military, confronted with a spurt of militant assaults within the Pir Panjal area, this isn’t excellent news, identified retired Lieutenant Basic D S Hooda, a former Basic Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian military’s Northern Command.
With rising proof of militants concerned in latest assaults being well-trained and of overseas origin, Hooda stated the position of the native inhabitants turns into extra essential for the Military. “If we’re coping with a small variety of overseas terrorists, then it’s solely the native inhabitants that may enable you to in gathering intelligence and finding them.”
A sample of assaults
The custodial killings have added to the rising nervousness of Jammu and Kashmir’s tribal inhabitants.
For the reason that Bharatiya Janata Occasion got here to energy in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, Muslim nomadic communities have more and more felt underneath assault.
It started with the violent eviction drives of Gujjars from Hindu-dominated Jammu over allegations of getting encroached on state land. In early 2016, a Gujjar youth was shot useless throughout an anti-encroachment drive in Samba district. The tribal group additionally discovered themselves within the crosshairs of vigilante teams for alleged cattle smuggling.
Essentially the most stunning act of violence in opposition to the group occurred in 2018 when an eight-year-old nomadic Bakarwal lady was kidnapped, gangraped and murdered in Jammu’s Kathua district. As ruling Bharatiya Janata Occasion leaders brazenly rallied in assist of the accused, there was an uproar throughout the nation.
On the time, the members of the tribal group had alleged that the violence dedicated in opposition to the lady was an try and dislodge them from a Hindu-dominated space.
Two years after that episode, three Gujjar youth from Rajouri have been killed in a pretend encounter by the Military in Amshipora village of Kashmir’s Shopian district. A police investigation discovered an Military captain and two civilians accountable for the homicide and abduction of the three males who had come to Shopian in quest of work. Earlier this yr, a courtroom martial discovered the accused Military captain responsible of six fees, together with homicide, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Nonetheless, in November, the Armed Forces Tribunal suspended the life imprisonment sentence and granted him bail.
“The anger of Gujjars in opposition to the Centre has been brewing for a few years now,” stated Choudhary Talib Hussain, youth president of Peoples Democratic Occasion’s Tribal wing. “From [the minor’s] gangrape to the Amshipora pretend encounter, there’s a sample behind the acts being executed in opposition to Gujjars. Now, the Topa Peer incident has taken the anger to its peak.”
Diluting reservation
The killings additionally come at a time when the tribal group is up in arms in opposition to the Centre’s resolution to dilute Scheduled Tribe reservation within the Union territory.
In 1991, the central authorities granted Scheduled Tribe standing to Gujjars and Bakarwals and two different communities. That assured them 10% reservation in authorities jobs and academic establishments.
However the ruling Bharatiya Janata Occasion-run central authorities is eager on altering this arithmetic.
In July, the Union authorities launched the Structure (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Modification) Invoice, 2023 within the Lok Sabha, which proposes to incorporate 4 different teams within the Scheduled Tribes record of Jammu and Kashmir. A type of teams is the Paharis.
A social and linguistic minority that lives within the mountainous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Paharis have been demanding Scheduled Tribe standing for a number of a long time.
However the Gujjars and Bakarwals are useless in opposition to their inclusion as they see it as an try and drawback a predominantly Muslim tribal group.
Paharis comprise individuals from totally different non secular communities, together with Hindus, Muslims and even Sikhs.
“Paharis are upper-caste, affluent and don’t fulfill the factors obligatory for being declared Scheduled Tribes,” stated Talib Hussain. “The BJP’s actual intention is to provide ST reservation to a Brahmin. How will a Gujjar or Bakarwal compete with a Brahmin?”
‘We wish justice’
To minimise the fallout of civilian killings in custody, the Military reportedly took a number of officers off-duty, together with a brigadier, underneath whose command the alleged custodial killing occurred.
Nonetheless, there isn’t a official phrase on how the civilians have been killed and the remainder injured.
The police have registered a primary info report in opposition to “unknown” people in Surankote police station and booked them underneath homicide fees. Whereas the FIR says the three useless civilians have been amongst few native youth “detained” by the Military for “questioning”, it makes no reference to what transpired in the course of the “questioning.”
The three males who died – Safeer Ahmed, 44, Mohammad Showkat, 26, and Shabir Ahmed, 28 – have been all associated to one another.
“The Military had taken them to their Mall Submit, some two kilometers from our village. That’s the place the place the three have been tortured to demise,” stated Mohammad Sidiq, the uncle of one of many victims.
Some villagers stated that one of many 9 civilians picked up by the Military on Friday morning knowledgeable them of the deaths. “Considered one of them was very outdated, in his 70s,” stated Sidiq. “They let him go, in all probability as a consequence of his outdated age. He knowledgeable the remainder of the villagers about what had transpired.”
A police official, who declined to be recognized, stated the autopsy of the deceased was performed contained in the Military camp in Bufliaz by civilian docs.
“All of the three had gory torture marks on the physique,” added Sidiq. “Had the web been working, I’d have despatched you the movies of their tortured our bodies.”
At Authorities Medical Faculty, Rajouri, the 5 males picked up from Panghai village have been put in a separate ward with round the clock police deployment. “There are orders from increased ups to not permit anybody from the media to satisfy the injured. We turned away their MLA too,” one of many police personnel instructed Scroll on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met the relations of the victims of Topa Peer custodial killings in Rajouri on Wednesday. He additionally visited the injured civilians in Authorities Medical Faculty, Rajouri.
In accordance with Hooda, the motion initiated by the Military in addition to Singh’s go to reveals that they’re conscious in regards to the doable fallout of alienating the group. “The Military has reacted in a clear method. It implies that it is aware of that it wants the native inhabitants on its aspect.”
However the state authorities, he stated, should additionally allay the group’s fears. “Whereas the Military must do what it has to do, the state administration additionally must assuage the Gujjar-Bakarwal sentiment as a result of there was some angst among the many group about reservation being prolonged to Paharis.”
For Mohammad Sidiq, the uncle of one of many victims, nonetheless, the federal government’s assurances introduced little consolation.
“The federal government has promised us cash, land and different issues however what do we now have to do with all that?” he requested. “Our properties have been ruined, our daughters have been widowed and fathers have been left with out assist. I requested [Rajnath Singh] to point out us the culprits who killed our kids and provides us justice.”
