News Archives 2011
The year 2010 will go down in Kashmir history as the year of the stone pelters. Thousands of youngsters took to the streets in the state to show their anger against the security forces and the atmosphere of fear and suppression. Twenty years of heavy handed security presence in the towns and villages of the Valley has led to a feeling of immense fristration and oppression that found a volcanic outlet during the year. Several political leaders in Kashmir Valley tried to take advantage of this spontaneous upsurge while many in New Delhi claimed it was all the result of the instigation of Pakistani agents. Though subsequent events showed that the stone pelting was encouraged and guided by certain political elements, there can be no doubt that the young Kashmiri who has grown up in an atmosphere of fear and loathing desperately want to live a free life. The state government has managed to sense the true furstration of the young but is unable to do much because of suspicious New Delhi and the continued operation of militants in the state. However, there is no doubt the deaths of over a hundred youth in the 2010 summer of unrest will lead to greater autonomy and thinning out of security force personnel. In the meantime, New Delhi launched a political initiative by setting up a team of Kashmir interlocutors to find the "broad contours" of a settlement of the Kashmir problem. The new year will tell whether it will be the peacemakers or the stone pelters who will prevail.
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