Washington D.C. - The Amarnath shrine controversy over allocation of forest land to a Hindu shrine, in May 2008, (which mischievous move was initiated by a ‘Machiavellian’ departing Governor, retired General Sinha) in the Muslim-majority Indian ‘colony’of Jammu & Kashmir, has angered and fragmented that unhappy land – a friendly neighbor of Sikh Punjab.
The Amarnath row, which has now grown into an economic blockade of the Sirinagar Valley by Hundutva elements in Jammu (and mass protests by the Valley’s Muslim inhabitants in retaliation) has suddenly triggered a far grimmer crisis that threatens to plunge the Kashmir valley into the armed anti-India insurgency of the early nineties again.
Thanks to the orchestrated protest campaign of fanning the flames of communal hatred, launched in Jammu, by the right wing BJP (a Neo-Nazi party) whose thugs are enforcing an economic blockade (on all road transport to, and from, Sirinagar, on the vital, and only, Jammu-Sirinagar highway) has resulted in a situation where even Sirinagar hospitals are running out of medicines and causing anger and economic hardship as export of Kashmir Valley’s perishable fruits, and other exports, are also blocked. Many Sikh truck drivers heading towards the Sirinagar valley have been roughed up, and their trucks damaged, in Jammu as well as in Punjab by Hindutva thugs. This week’s events have spiralled swiftly out of hand and left the central government besieged on more fronts than it had anticipated. A prominent leader of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, and respected People’s League leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, was among five persons shot dead in police firing, near Uri, on Monday August 11 during the ‘March to Muzzaffarabad’ rally. The murder of Aziz has stunned and inflamed the Kashmiri people of the Sirinagar Valley who were already in uproar over the alleged economic blockade imposed by BJP protesters in Jammu.
The dramatic escalation in the Valley has indeed radically transformed the nature of the crisis — a provincial problem has overnight reincarnated into an emergency with international ramifications. Indefinite Valley-wide curfew has been clamped and reinforced security forces are on optimum alert in anticipation of trouble, but angry Kashmiris are known to make short work of such restrictions. As a result there was an angry mass of Kashmiris, estimated to be around 250, 000 strong, which was bent on marching across (link) the Line of Control into Pakistan-held Kashmir with the aim of opening the traditional trade route to Muzzaffarabad. Within the Sirinagar Valley itself, Sheikh Abdul Aziz’s killing has provoked fresh and violent reaction. More killings have followed, on Tuesday August 12, carried out by the occupation Army and Police on Sheikh Abdul Aziz’s widely-attended funeral yesterday.
Incidentally, this now infamous Amarnath cave is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, and is located in Indian occupied Muslim-majority Kashmir. The cave is situated at an altitude of 3,888 meters (12,760 ft) about 141 km (88 miles) from Sirinagar, the capital of Kashmir and about 27 miles from Pahalgam. The Central Reserve Police Force, Indian Army and Indian Paramilitary Forces maintain a strong presence in the region due to concerns of security and hence, prior permission is needed from the Government of India before making a pilgrimage. The Amaranth Cave was discovered by a Muslim shepherd of Batakot, Buta Malik, when he lost his flock and found that it had strayed into the sacred spot some 150 years ago. Even today his family (descendants) receives some part of the alms offered by Hindu pilgrims. Inside the main Amarnath cave lies an ice stalagmite resembling the Shiva Lingam (the phallic symbol – male penis - used in the worship of Hindu god Siva) which waxes during May to August and gradually wanes thereafter.
This lingam is said to grow and shrink with the phases of the moon, reaching its height during the summer festival. According to Hindu mythology, this is the cave where Shiva explained the secret of life and eternity to his divine consort Parvati. There are two other ice formations representing Parvati and Shiva’s son, Ganesha. (To see a picture of the ‘Siva Lingam’ please click at the following link. According to another report, datelined Jummu, in the Chandigarh-based newspaper, Tribune, dated August 1, 2008, headlined, “Shiva-lingum emerges in Nai Basti.” This new Shiv-lingum has become a place of Hindu worship in the past week. A large number of people thronged the area in Jammu to witness what the report termed, ‘as a ‘miracle’ of Lord Shiva, and pay respects to the new Shiva-lingam which has emerged on the roadside from nowhere. There was heavy rush and it seemed as if the whole city had converged on the area. Defying heavy downpour, people could be seen waiting in long queues to have a glimpse of the Shiva-lingam. Police personnel were also deployed to control the crowd. People offered money and within no time, a huge amount of money was piled in front of the structure. A majority of people associated the formation of the Shiva-lingam with the ongoing agitation in Jammu over the revocation of the forestland transfer. They said the Shiva-lingam was a blessing from Lord Shiva to the people of Jammu for supporting the cause”.
The BBC’s Chris Morris stationed in Delhi has reported that, “the Indian government was slow to realize how volatile the situation had become - and opposition parties were quick to try to use the situation to their own advantage. The result is that Kashmir has reached a very dangerous point - more divided along communal lines than it has been for years. Sheikh Abdul Aziz was among thousands of protesters who marched towards the Line of Control (LoC) dividing the region. Dozens of others were hurt. They were supporting a move by fruit growers in the mainly Muslim Kashmir valley to take produce across the LoC to Muzzafarabad in Pakistan-held Kashmir. Tensions are rising and threaten peace hopes after years of relative calm. Thousands of fruit growers and other protesters began their march on Monday from Sopore, 50km (30 miles) north of Srinagar, the summer capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Sheikh Abdul Aziz was a prominent leader of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, which opposes Indian rule. He and four others were killed when local police opened fire on the demonstrators, reports said. An indefinite curfew has now been imposed in Srinagar. The demonstrators were attempting to march to the de facto border with Pakistani-controlled Kashmir to protest at a blockade by Hindus in the Jammu region of a key highway that links the Kashmir Valley with the rest of India. Hindus have protested for weeks since plans were scrapped to give land to a Hindu trust to build facilities for pilgrims near an important shrine in the region. With the highway blocked for days in Jammu, the Muslim fruit growers have complained that their produce is rotting. Senior separatist leaders have been placed under house arrest. The Indian Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, has appealed to the fruit growers to call off their protests. He has offered to buy all their fruit and also to pay compensation to those whose fruit has perished. The row started when the state government said it would grant 99 acres (40 hectares) of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board. Muslims launched violent protests, saying the allocation of land was aimed at altering the demographic balance in the area. But following days of protests, the government rescinded the order, prompting Hindu groups to mount violent protests of their own. About 20 people - Muslims and Hindus - have been killed and hundreds wounded in clashes with police since the unrest began. (Read the BBC report headlined, ‘Police fire on Kashmir protesters'.
Another Sirinagar-datelined BBC report, dated 11 August, 2008, says that, “the row over whether to allocate land to a Hindu shrine in Muslim-majority Indian-administered Kashmir is unprecedented and has the potential to cause the state to fragment along communal lines. At the end of June, the Kashmir valley was suddenly rocked by what turned into nine days of the biggest Muslim street protests seen in the region for years. The conflagration was a setback for the Indian government which had made much of several years of relative calm in the Kashmir region. Insurgent attacks appeared to be declining as did military exchanges with Pakistan across the Line of Control (LoC) which separates the parts of Kashmir the two countries control. Kashmiri leaders have also, on many occasions, voiced their concern over what they say is the steady decline of the Muslim population in the Jammu region. They have blamed this on people from neighboring states settling down in the region.
In 1982, while Sheikh Abdullah governed the state, his National Conference party brought out a red book titled ‘Conspiracy to reduce the majority community in Jammu and Kashmir into a minority’. Hindu groups, like the Neo-Nazi BJP have always demanded abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution which gives special status to Kashmir.”
Unlike the majority of Kashmiris, and their alert leaders who hit the street, to confront the occupiers of their land, when their rights are threatened or trampled, the Sikh majority in the Sikh Homeland of Punjab, and it’s current leadership of Badal & Son (in alliance with the Neo-Nazi BJP in the State assembly) is in deep slumber. The Sikhs will wake up one day, in the near future, and realize that Sikhs are no longer the majority in their Homeland of Punjab because of the unrestricted inflow of ‘Hindu Biharis’ who have been flooding the Punjab, for the past decade, and getting their names on the electoral rolls.
The right wing BJP, which is allied to the Badal Akali Dal in the Punjab, as a junior partner in the state coalition government, has a Neo-Nazi fascist communal agenda which tolerates no minority – Sikh, Christian or Muslim – and uses minority baiting/bashing, a la Gujerat, to win elections and gain popularity. The orchestrated blockade of the Kashmir Valley, by the BJP protesters in Jammu also has another political undertone as state elections are scheduled to be held later in 2008.
