Kashmir's former militants may reconsider the gun

As a former militant fighting for Kashmir's independence, Shahid-ul Islam knows how hard it is to convince his colleagues to give up the gun.

Last winter, after Mr. Islam gave a public speech extolling the virtues of "peaceful dialogue," two young assassins appeared at his home. Islam noticed one of them cocking a pistol underneath his traditional Kashmiri cloak. Bullets flew, but Islam managed to escape by throwing a pot of burning charcoal at them.

"I said peace, and I was shot at," says Islam, former supreme commander of Hizbullah – a Kashmiri militant group known for its violent attacks on Indian security forces, which have been stationed in Kashmir since 1947. Islam, who renounced violence after his arrest in 1997, now belongs to a separatist party that holds peaceful rallies.

Upcoming elections this fall – for all state offices, including chief minister – could be a turning point for the 25,000 former militants like Islam as well as 4,000 active militants in Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Elections are a particularly sensitive issue for many Kashmiris, since it was the 1987 state elections – widely considered to have been rigged by the central government in Delhi in favor of a few pro-India parties – that set off Kashmir's 13-year insurgency.

More than a decade of militancy has passed, with little to show for it except the deaths of some 40,000 Kashmiris, most of them by Indian troops and police in their bid to quell the rebellion. Nevertheless, few militants can stomach the notion of pursuing their political goals by running for state office under the Indian Constitution. The result is a state of neither war nor peace, where former hardliners are looking for any facesaving way to convince their militant brethren to drop their guns for good.

Today, India and Pakistan have stepped back from the brink of war, overall anti-Indian militant attacks have diminished since May, and infiltration from Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir, has been reduced. In addition, most opinion polls show that Kashmiris have lost all patience with the gun.

But neither India nor Pakistan shows any desire to alter its old positions, let alone move strike forces away from the cease-fire line that runs through the heart of the state. India, in fact, has only hardened its resolve, after a number of brutal terrorist attacks, including a May attack on a bus in southern Kashmir that killed more than 30 wives and children of Indian soldiers.

And while overall death counts are down, the militants have shifted to a systematic campaign to kill or threaten low-level activists and prominent political leaders who are participating in the elections. It's a far cry from peace, and Kashmiris fear it could be just the beginning of another decade of war.

Page: 1 | 2