Why Sainik, Pandit Colonies Spark Concern in Kashmir?

The paranoia about a perceived hostile centre allegedly conspiring to dilute the Kashmir’s Muslim majority character is redrawing the discourse in the Valley like never before.

- Riyaz Wani

May was an exceptionally anxious month in the Valley. Not because of a spike in militancy-related violence, some of which even visited now largely sanitised Srinagar where the three cops were shot dead in broad day light, but because of the proposed colonies for Kashmiri Pandits and ex-servicemen and the contemplated new yatras. This played to an inherent fear in the Valley about an impending demographic change overseen by the BJP Government in New Delhi, perceived as ideologically antithetical to Muslims.

The consequent anxiety about identity found its expression in the civil society and the separatist-led protest. JKLF supremo Yasin Malik met the heads of the other separatist factions Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq besides Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, and the business groups to forge a joint strategy against New Delhi’s alleged design to alter the demography of Kashmir. Malik termed the proposed Pandit and Sainik colonies as “do or die” issue for Kashmir. The Valley has since observed a shutdown over the issue on separatist call.

The State Government, apprehending a large scale public groundswell, again acted fast to control activities of the separatist groups. Geelani and Mirwaiz have mostly been put under house arrest, with later even being barred from addressing Friday sermons at Srinagar’s Grand Mosque. Malik has been arrested time and again to keep him from leading the public protests. The State Government even invoked a 29-yearold pre-militancy case against him to send him to jail. Finally, on June 12, Government allowed a joint separatist seminar on the proposed colonies but again sans Malik, who had been arrested a day ahead. The separatists said they were “united” and “ready” to foil India’s plans to change the “Muslim-majority character of Kashmir.”