Immediate Tasks in Kashmir

Hopes of peace in Jammu and Kashmir raised by the rather startling announcement of a unilateral cease-fire by the Hizbul Mujahideen in Srinagar on July 24 have been doused, for the time being at any rate, by the revocation of the cease-fire on August 8 by the Hizbul’s chief, Syed Salahudin, speaking at a press conference in Islamabad. Yet the remarkable aspect of the whole episode is not that it proved infructuous, but that it occurred at all. Hizbul Mujahideen is generally acknowledged to be the largest of the armed militant organisations engaging the Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. It is also an organisation of Kashmiris, unlike the many outfits comprising zealots from Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Islamic countries come to fight the ‘jihad’ in Kashmir. Hizbul’s cease-fire evoked a prompt enough response from the government of India with the Indian army announcing on July 28 that it had suspended offensive action against all militant groups. This was followed by the first formal dialogue between representatives of Hizbul and the government represented by the union home secretary in Srinagar on August 3. The next meeting was scheduled for two days later, but did not take place because the Hizbul representatives could not return to Srinagar in time. Then came the withdrawal of the cease-fire by Hizbul. All the same, it is evident that the events of the last week of July and the first week of August were the outcome of considerable preparatory work and contacts by both sides. So whatever the reasons for the retraction by Hizbul, this cannot be, must not be, the end of the story.

The two grounds advanced by Hizbul – the alleged insistence by the government of India that the talks had to be within the framework of the Indian Constitution and its refusal to involve Pakistan in the talks – are both vital issues which will have to be confronted long before a solution to the problem of Kashmir can be sighted. Fortunately, however, at this preliminary stage of the process it is unnecessary, and unwise, to jeopardise the chances of progress towards that ultimate goal on account of either consideration. It would be surprising indeed if this fact had not been acknowledged by both sides in their preliminary contacts leading to Hizbul’s cease-fire announcement. The prime minister has now publicly clarified that while the government had of necessity to confine itself within the bounds of the Constitution, if in the course of the talks issues falling outside came up the government would not refuse to discuss them. There is evidence that Hizbul too does not regard its two objections as immutable.