In an article titled 'The Jammu and Kashmir Situation- The Context and the Response' published online by ANI on August 8, 2010, this author had written
" Two years ago the common people of Kashmir were hailed as patriots and praised for their courage in braving militant bullets and threats to make the Assembly elections a success and to put a feather in the cap of Indian democracy. There was unanimity of opinion that after years of violence, ordinary people wanted peace, normalcy and healing. They wanted to share the India dream.
"In less than two years, that dream lies shattered- there is neither peace, nor normalcy what to talk about healing."
If there was one incident responsible for this tragedy, it was the Machil encounter.
It was that fateful day of April 30, 2010, when the army claimed having killed three "Pakistani infiltrators" in the Machil Sector in Kupwara District.
However, it was subsequently established that the encounter had been staged, and that the three alleged militants identified as Shahzad Ahmad Khan, Riyaz Ahmad Lone and Muhammad Shafi Lone, were in fact civilians of Baramullah District, who had been lured to the army camp with promises of jobs as "porters" for the army, and then shot in cold blood, in order to claim a cash award.
The fake encounter provided Pakistan the opportunity to instruct its proxies to start and intensify protests and demonstrations. On cue, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference was quick to call for a strike, citing human rights abuses by security forces.
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In the protests on June 11, a teargas shell killed Tufail Ahmad Mattoo, a young boy, who was playing cricket. This further inflamed the protestors, and thereafter, a vicious circle was created - the killing of a boy was followed by protest demonstrations and clashes with the security forces in which other protestors were killed, which led to more protests in which several youth lost their lives.
From June till October 2010, the Kashmir Valley was rent asunder by a series of escalating violent protests and stone pelting incidents. The protestors followed the usual pattern of shouting pro-independence slogans, defying curfew, attacking security forces with stones and burning vehicles and property.
In September, the anti-India protests morphed with the demonstrations against the public burning of the Koran in the United States, commemorating the September 11 attacks there. In the violence, several Christian schools and churches were burnt and again several protestors were killed and security force personnel injured.
Official figures reveal around 110 people lost their lives and 537 civilians were injured during stone-pelting incidents from May to September 2010. Around 1,274 CRPF men and 2,747 police personnel were injured during the same period across the valley.
After much legal wrangling between the civil and military authorities, court martial proceedings were begun by the army in January 2014 and completed in September. In its judgement, the court martial convicted five army personnel, including the then Commanding Officer, Colonel D.K. Pathania, and Captain Upendera, and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
The others held guilty were Havaldar Devinder, Lance Naik Lakhmi and Lance Naik Arun Kumar. Another accused, a subedar, was let off by the court martial.
The families of the deceased have been clearly vindicated. They had claimed that the army had lured the three to a border area, promising them jobs and money before killing them later near the Line of Control and claiming that they were terrorists.
The verdict has been widely hailed. The beleaguered Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, tweeted, "This is a watershed moment. No one in Kashmir ever believed that justice would be done in such cases. Faith in institutions disappeared." "I hope that we never see such #Machil fake encounter type of incidents ever again and let this serve as a warning to those tempted to try."
Even the normally hostile Amnesty International in a statement said the decision was a "welcome measure" and "turning point".
The trial and verdict bodes well for peace in the valley. It would be premature to call it a game changer, since the verdict has to be confirmed and the accused will have the opportunity to appeal.
But, it certainly could herald greater accountability of the security forces personnel. It could also help improve greatly the perception of the army in the eyes of the civilian population as an organization that has a self-correcting mechanism and the capacity and willingness to punish its members for violating human rights.
To build on the goodwill generated by this verdict and the sterling work done by the army during the recent floods, and to carry the momentum forward, the army now needs to step on the gas and expeditiously investigate and try other similar cases. The impact of such acceleration would be a game changer.
With elections to the state assembly due in a few days, the verdict should serve as a much-needed balm to the hapless people of Jammu and Kashmir, that Indian democracy and the judicial system works. This is the kind of healing that the people need.
Machil 2010 engulfed the Valley in mass protests and violence. Let Machil 2014 be therapeutic and the harbinger of peace.
The views expressed in the above article are that of Mr. Salim Haq.