The Wall Street Journal - 21.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Wednesday, August 21, 2019 |A

WORLD NEWS

night to avoid security check-

points, said he had tried all his

life to avoid bringing his son

to the ophthalmology ward. He

moved his family from the cen-

ter of town to a quieter area a

few years back to keep Mr.

Baba away from trouble.

“But no one can escape this

in Kashmir,” his father said.

“They provoke us, push us into

a corner.”

Mr. Baba’s friends said they

would retaliate against Mr.

Modi’s move. First they spoke

of street protests and clashes

but grew more agitated as

they recounted episodes of

abuse by security officials

over the years, including

nightly raids, routine deten-

tions and curfews. One of the

men said he would volunteer

for suicide attacks against In-

dian forces.

“We’ll throw them out or

become martyrs,” said Mo-

hammad Ashraf, 30, who runs

a small bakery. “How many

will they kill—1,000, 5,000,

10,000?”

Their heroes, the friends

said, were young militant lead-

ers who had risen to promi-

nence in recent years in Kash-

mir. The most popular among

them was Burhan Wani, a 22-

year-old whose videos circu-

lated on WhatsApp and Face-

book and garnered a large

following. Security forces shot

him dead in 2016, leading to

months of unrest. More than

6,000 people were injured by

pellets in a six-month period

in 2016 and 2017, according to

government data.

Mr. Wani’s funeral was at-

tended by tens of thousands of

people, who see him as an

iconic freedom fighter, and

many predicted he would “re-

cruit from the grave.”

Mr. Nabi, who said he threw

his first rock at age 5, still has

pellets in his body from the

deadly clashes that broke out

after Mr. Wani’s killing. That

was common in his neighbor-

hood, he said, where boys

learned anti-India slogans be-

fore nursery rhymes. He said

when children played games,

they pretended to be militants

were ready to follow the path

of popular militant command-

ers who had been killed by se-

curity forces in recent years.

Locals said rising discontent

at New Delhi’s policy shift

could ignite a new phase of

protests, fierce crackdowns

and militant radicalization.

That could create opportu-

nities for Pakistan-based jiha-

dist groups to increase re-

cruitment and attract greater

attention from Islamic State

and al Qaeda, analysts said.

Mr. Modi has said his action

is just the kind of bold step

needed to make a fresh start

toward ending separatism and

militancy. He is planning a de-

velopment drive that he said

would uplift Kashmir’s youth

and replace a corrupt local elite

with a new model of gover-

nance.

For nearly two weeks, Mr.

Modi has relied on a massive

deployment of security forces

flooding streets across Kash-

mir to prevent clashes between

protesters and law enforce-

ment. The government has

turned off the internet and mo-

bile-phone connectivity. Land-

lines, which were also discon-

nected for more than 10 days,

are slowly being restored.

“This is how they want to

run Kashmir, by suppressing

Kashmiris,” said Ubaid Baba,

21, who lives a few hours’

drive from the capital. “We

cannot accept this.”

Mr. Baba and his friends

traveled to Kashmir’s largest

city, Srinagar, last week for eye

surgeries. Their eyeballs were

lacerated by lead pellets, or

birdshot, fired from pump-ac-

tion guns—weapons usually

used by Indian security offi-

cials in Kashmir against crowds

of hostile, rock-hurling youth.

The day after Mr. Modi’s

government unveiled its deci-

sion to scrap Kashmir’s consti-

tutional privilege, security

forces clamped down on all

SRINAGAR, India—Aquib
Nabi remembers the first time
he hurled rocks at security of-
ficials as if it were a rite of
passage. He was 5 years old
and had joined a group of
young men in what is a com-
mon form of resistance to In-
dia’s military presence in the
part of the disputed Kashmir
region that New Delhi controls.
“We have never seen any-
thing except conflict,” said Mr.
Nabi, who is now 21 years old.
“All our lives, it has been us
versus them.”
Indian Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi’s surprise decision
in early August to end Kash-
mir’s decades-old partial auton-
omy and bring the territory un-
der his government’s direct
control has set him against
large numbers of young, alien-
ated Kashmiris who see New
Delhi as an occupying force.
Many of them say they will
mount protests; others say they
aren’t afraid to take up arms.
Muslim-majority Kashmir
has long been at the center of
a territorial dispute between
India and Pakistan, which have
fought three wars over it. Pak-
istan backed an insurgency in
the 1990s and harbors anti-In-
dia terror groups. Harsh In-
dian counterinsurgency cam-
paigns in Kashmir and decades
of conflict have sowed deep
local disaffection and, in re-
cent years, birthed a new crop
of local militants who have
captured the imagination of
young Kashmiris.
In interviews, many Kash-
miri men in their 20s ex-
pressed hate and resentment
toward Mr. Modi and said they

BYNIHARIKAMANDHANA

Young Kashmiris

Nursed on Strife

Pledge to Resist

Residents say rage at

New Delhi’s new line

could fuel protests

and radicalization

and soldiers. In their versions,

the militants always won.

“Now, the violence will only

get worse,” he said.

Under the new arrange-

ment, Mr. Modi’s government

will directly control Kashmir’s

law and order. Since Aug. 5,

Kashmiri political leaders of

all stripes have been detained

in their homes or guesthouses,

including former chief minis-

ters with a history of cooper-

ating with India’s central gov-

ernments. Kashmiris said their

political standing has been de-

stroyed.

Shah Faesal, a Kashmiri

politician who served for

many years in India’s civil ser-

vice, said last week New

Delhi’s decision had killed

Kashmir’s political main-

stream, consisting of centrists

who like him sought a solution

through dialogue. “You can ei-

ther be a stooge or a separat-

ist now,” he said.

Mr. Faesal, who was in New

Delhi for a few days after the

clampdown began, is now in

Kashmir under detention.

A street in the city of Srinagar on Sunday is left strewn with the rocks Kashmiri protesters had thrown at Indian security forces.

YAWAR NAZIR/GETTY IMAGES

movement in Mr. Baba’s town.

That afternoon, he said, one

security official harassed a 6-

year-old girl from his neigh-

borhood, holding her by the

neck and asking why she had

left her house.

Mr. Baba and his friends

reached for rocks. Security of-

ficials responded by firing vol-

leys of pellets that caught Mr.

Baba in one eye, reducing eye-

sight in it to nearly nothing,

he said. Two of his friends

were also hit by pellets. Last-

ing injuries in past cycles of

unrest in Kashmir, including

blindings of young children,

have stoked public anger.

Mr. Baba’s father, who drove

with him to the hospital by

‘We’ll throw them

out or become

martyrs,’ said a man

who runs a bakery.

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