Locals fear further violence as police admit Isis-inspired fighters are active in the region

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir is on edge after clashes between militants and security forces, and the collapse of the local government over disagreements that include how to tackle the resurgent fighting in the state.

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A month-long unilateral ceasefire declared by the Indian government for Ramadan expired a week ago. Recent events, including the first official acknowledgement that Islamic State-inspired fighters may be operating in Kashmir, have raised fears of another violent summer ahead for the troubled region.

In the latest incident on Friday, security forces fought a nearly seven-hour gun battle with militants in the southern district of Anantnag. Four rebels, a police officer and a civilian were killed in the shooting, police said. It is the third clash between Indian authorities and militants since the end of Ramadan, during which security forces had suspended their operations as part of a new push to initiate dialogue with separatists, whose goals include independence or merger with Pakistan.

Police chief Shesh Paul Vaid identified the slain fighters as members of a local unit that claims to be affiliated with Isis. This is the first time the police have acknowledged the presence of Isis-inspired or affiliated fighters in Kashmir.

The Isis-affiliated “news service” Amaq issued a statement on Friday claiming the fighters were members of its group, but analysts have raised doubts about what contact, if any, the terrorist group has with the militant group, which calls itself Islamic State Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK).

The restarting of security operations after Ramadan and the decision of authorities to acknowledge the existence of ISJK come during a period of political instability in Kashmir after the collapse of the state government this week.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which is part of the national government, announced on Tuesday that it was pulling out of a governing coalition with the local Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic party, known by the initials PDP.

Quick guide Kashmir Show Hide Who controls Kashmir? The region in the foothills of the Himalayas has been under dispute since India and Pakistan came into being in 1947. Both claim it in full, but each controls a section of the territory, separated by one of the world's most heavily militarised borders: the ‘line of control’ based on a ceasefire border established after a 1947-48 war. China controls another part in the east.

India and Pakistan have gone to war a further two times over Kashmir, most recently in 1999. Artillery, mortar and small arms fire are still frequently exchanged. How did the dispute start? After the partition of colonial India in 1947, small, semi-autonomous ‘princely states’ across the subcontinent were being folded into India or Pakistan. The ruler of Kashmir dithered over which to join until tribal fighters entered from Pakistan intent on taking the region for Islamabad. Kashmir asked Delhi for assistance, signing a treaty of accession in exchange for the intervention of Indian troops, who fought the Pakistanis to the modern-day line of control. In 1948, the UN security council called for a referendum in Kashmir to determine which country the region would join or whether it would become an independent state. The referendum has never been held. In its 1950 constitution, India granted Kashmir a large measure of independence. But since then it has eroded some of that autonomy and repeatedly intervened to rig elections and dismiss and jail democratically elected leaders. What was Kashmir’s special status? Kashmir’s special status, given in exchange for joining the Indian union, had been in place since 14 May 1954. Under article 370, the state was given a separate constitution, a flag, and autonomy over all matters except for foreign affairs and defence.

An additional provision, article 35a, prevented people from outside the state buying land in the territory. Many Kashmiris believed this was crucial to protecting the demography of the Muslim-majority state and its way of life. The ruling Bharatiya Janata party repeatedly promised to scrap such rules, a long-term demand of its Hindu nationalist support base. But analysts warned doing so would almost certainly ignite unrest. On Wednesday 31 October 2019, the government formally revoked Kashmir’s special status. The government argued that the provision had only ever intended to be temporary and that scrapping it would boost investment in Kashmir. Critics, however, said the move would escalate tensions with Pakistan – which quickly called India’s actions illegal – and fuel resentment in Kashmir, where there is an insurgency against Indian rule. What do the militants want? There has been an armed insurgency against Indian rule over its section of Kashmir for the past three decades. Indian soldiers and Pakistan-backed guerrillas fought a war rife with accusations of torture, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killing.

Until 2004, the militancy was made up largely of Pakistani and Afghan fighters. Since then, especially after protests were quashed with extreme force in 2016, locals have made up a growing share of the anti-India fighters. For Indians, control of Kashmir – part of the country’s only Muslim-majority state – has been proof of its commitment to religious pluralism. For Pakistan, a state founded as a homeland for south Asian Muslims, it is the last occupied home of its co-religionists.



Michael Safi and Rebecca Ratcliffe

Ram Madhav, the BJP official who brokered the alliance in 2015, said it was no longer tenable “keeping in mind the largest interest of India’s integrity and to bring the deteriorating situation in the state under control”.

The intensity of fighting in Kashmir has steadily grown in the past three years with the emergence of a new generation of anti-India militants.

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The BJP has traditionally favoured taking a hard line against Kashmiri separatism, a stance that put pressure on its alliance with the PDP, which is considered more sympathetic to the cause.

How to tackle the militancy was thought to be a deep fault line in the relationship. “We have always said muscular [security] policy will not work in Jammu and Kashmir,” the PDP leader, Mehbooba Mufti, said on Tuesday after the collapse of the government. “We cannot treat Jammu and Kashmir as an enemy territory.”

Additional checkpoints have sprung up in restive parts of Kashmir since the collapse of the government. Control of the state has temporarily passed to its governor, NN Vohra, until a new government can be formed.

Vaid said he expected security operations would “intensify” in coming days and that the job of police would become “much easier” under Vohra’s rule.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Women watch the body of Dawood Salafi, a suspected militant, during his funeral in Srinagar. Photograph: Danish Ismail/Reuters

Kashmir, a former princely state (semi-sovereign territory) under the Raj, has been divided since 1947 between sections controlled by Pakistan, India and China. Pakistan and India both claim the entire region as their own.

A United Nations resolution issued in 1948 demands that India allow Kashmiris a plebiscite to decide whether they remain part of the Indian union or become independent, but no such vote has ever been organised by Delhi.

An armed rebellion broke out in 1989 against Indian rule and has raged at varying levels of intensity in the years since. The fighting is thought to have killed at least 40,000 people in the past three decades, according to Indian government estimates.