(Express Photo by Praveen Jain.)The designation of Masood Azhar by the United Nations Security Council’s ISIL ( Da’esh) and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee will help lower the temperature in the Valley, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has said.
“In Kashmir, he is the aqa (master) of terrorists, so there is bound to be a lot of demoralisation among them — ki jab Masood Azhar nahin bach sakta, toh tum kahan bach saktey ho (if Masood Azhar can’t be saved, how can you be),” Malik told The Sunday Express.
Malik said the UN listing of Azhar as a global terrorist would have a positive impact in curbing militancy in the Valley as Pakistan has already started taking action against Azhar by placing a freeze on his assets and restraining his movements. “There will be a lot of other restrictions, his operations will not be as before. He used to visit camps and recruit people, all that will come to an end,” he said.
Even before the listing, there had been been a drop in recruitment into militancy in the Valley, the Governor said. “There has been no new recruitment in the last five months. We have all the numbers — they tell their own story. There have been no Facebook posts of militants posing with guns. There are no reports of missing youth (any longer). Earlier a glamour was created about guns, that gun means power. Now that aura is fading slowly.”
He said this is because young people, alienated though they may be, have realised the futility of this path. “Because within six months of joining, they are getting killed. From their point of view, there are no outcomes. Earlier, villages used to compete to send food to terrorists. Now no one is sending food, let alone providing shelter to the terrorists. They (terrorists) are staying away — in orchards, in jungles. And information about their whereabouts is coming to police mainly from the villagers themselves. This has made all the difference,” Malik said.
Malik became Governor of J&K in August 2018, replacing N N Vohra, when the state was already under Governor’s rule. In December 2018, weeks after the Assembly was dissolved, the state came under President’s rule. There was an expectation among political parties that Assembly elections would be held in the state along with the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, but that was belied.
Malik said it was up to the Election Commission to decide when the Assembly elections would be held.
About the low turnout in Kashmir, he said voting percentages in the Valley had never been high. “Parties that are known as ‘mainstream’ in their utterances, by mistake, are talking less like mainstream and more like the other side, the separatists. But it is their duty to spread faith among their followers in democracy. These leaders should make efforts to build faith that vote is a weapon of democracy. They are failing in this. The election is a lesson that everyone has to work together to remove alienation among people. It can’t be done by just us alone,” Malik said.
Malik dismissed the suggestion that the closure of National Highway 44 between Jammu and Srinagar for civilian traffic twice a week had increased this alienation. “The highway ban has not led to any alienation. There was some resentment for a few days but we have slowly started withdrawing it, and now people understand that it was not an anti-people measure.”
