The Indian formula that works...or has it?

If the protest is peaceful you don't have a reason to kill and hurt the people, so make sure you instigate violence from the people and then kill them.

This is the formula that has been working for the Indian Occupying Armed forces. After killing around 30 civilians in the occupied territory of Kashmir in a week's time, the Indian armed forces could help but feel frustrated by not being able to cause any more causalities.

Seeing the Indian armed forces going on a killing spree, the Kashmiri people decided to make their "March for Freedom", as peaceful as it could be. One had started to witness a new dawn in Kashmir, with the people resorting to employ the Gandhian principles of peaceful protests against the aggressor's occupation. Even the people who had resorted to the use of arms against the India's 60 years of occupation of the sovereign land of Kashmir, said they would shun the violent path and support the non-violent means of protesting against the occupation.

India had other designs, it has continued to camouflage the freedom marches, which have had participation of half to a million people in Kashmir, as a communal issue, which it definitely is not. Having failed to stop the people from demanding what is rightfully their's, the Indian armed forces are back at it again. They have imposed indefinite curfew in the Kashmir valley, which has already been subjected to an economic blockade by India. How this manifests at the grass root level is very significant; these measures mean that people don't have access to essentials, including but not limited to food and medicines. The local news channels have been banned, reporters aren't allowed to cover the footage of the Indian armed forces going on a rampage, which many times in the past has exposed the Indian policy in Kashmir.

Clear signs of normalcy: The city centre converted into a fortress by Indian armed forces

Photo: Habib Naqash/ Greater Kashmir

While India continues to press that the situation is normal in Kashmir and the top politicians, like Mr. Arun Jaitley of the Bratiya Janata Party (BJP) so shamelessly saying on international media that there was no economic blockade of the valley...the ground situation is dying to differ. Kashmiri's continue to be labelled as violent, yes I admit violent, for being most hospitable to the people of other communities (providing them with food and water, when the valley was being subjected to economic sanctions), while India is being most democratic and secular: for preventing people from voicing their opinions and concerns, for attacking Kashmiri citizens and truckers on the highways (many have been attacked by communal mobs and 1 killed in petrol bomb attack), and there is no media coverage of these events.

Today as Kashmir prepared for another peaceful march to the city centre (Lal Chowk), the Kashmiri leaders were arrested (reasons cited: for their own safety), and since morning the Indian armed forces (now not just limited to the Reserve police forces but including the regular army also) have managed to kill 4 civilians and injure 50 others - they still claim these measures are for peace. The Indian army personnel have been regular visitors to Kashmiri houses in the recent days, threatening the civilians of dire consequences if they participate in any protest march. The tactics are not just limited to threats, but involve violence against the civilians - beating up young boys and thrashing people without provocation (indeed terror is the main weapon for occupation but as the past 20 years have witnessed, India has failed on this front). India has deployed even more armed forces on the streets of Srinagar (the capital of Kashmir) and other districts, as if the previous tally of 1 Indian armed personnel for every 13 civilians in Kashmir, wasn't enough to gag the voice of the Kashmir Revolution.