Kashmir activists don’t see guns as the answer

SRINAGAR, India | When pro-independence demonstrations erupted in Kashmir over the summer, Danish Shervani said he hesitated to take part until he saw women and children shouting in the streets.

His initiation was painful. A band of riot police trapped him away from the crowds and beat him with bamboo shafts, breaking several bones and shattering a kneecap.

So Mr. Shervani, 25, a mass communications student, fought back the best way he knew: He uploaded footage of the incident, shot by a friend with a hand-held video camera, on the Internet site YouTube. Dozens of similar videos are posted online.

“We don’t use sticks or guns,” he said. “We are educated and know other, peaceful ways of advancing our struggle.”

His response is emblematic of a new generation of Kashmiri student activists whose desire for an independent state burns as hot as ever but who don’t see militancy as the solution.

These separatist leaders are the engine of protests that have shaken India-administered Kashmir in recent months - the biggest since a 1989 revolt degenerated into years of bitter conflict.

“Now 20 years have passed and this movement has transferred to another generation,” said Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and a former militant leader. “They are more angry, but they are committed to nonviolence.”

The dispute dates to the partition of Britain-ruled India in 1947. The local prince, a Hindu, chose to accede to India even though Kashmir was mostly Muslim. Fighting led to a U.N. cease-fire, but a plebiscite demanded by the United Nations in 1948 has never taken place. India controls more than half the territory.

Since then, Kashmir has been the trigger for a India-Pakistan war in 1965 and a short conflict in 1999. It has also inspired jihadist movements in Pakistan that have links to al Qaeda.

The latest protests were ignited by an Indian government decision to grant public land to build shelters for Hindu pilgrims who travel to the Muslim-majority state to visit a holy shrine. Separatists said it was a calculated attempt to change the state’s religious balance and used the controversy to rekindle tensions. But Kashmiri youth stole the show.

They turned out by the tens of thousands, waving green flags and chanting “Azadi” (freedom) and “Kashmir’s market is in Rawalpindi [in Pakistan]” after Hindu counterprotesters shut down the only road connecting the Kashmir Valley to the rest of India. Separatist leaders closed ranks behind them.

“The youth are leading the way,” said Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who heads one of the two factions of the umbrella All Party Hurriyat Conference party. “They are showing very much enthusiasm to achieve their basic right to self-determination.”

Demonstrations intensified until Indian forces moved to stop them, killing at least 45 people and injuring more than 1,000 others.

Mahmooda Bhat said her son, Javed, 23, a taxi driver, was standing outside their downtown Srinagar home watching the protests with his 6-year-old nephew in his arms when a bullet killed him. Eyewitnesses in the area corroborated her account with further details.

Indian security officials maintain that the protesters became hostile, necessitating a heavy-handed response to restore law and order.

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