Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR, Sept 19: The armed conflict, which has killed tens of thousands in Kashmir, started waning almost abruptly after India and Pakistan declared a ceasefire on the region’s borders in 2003 followed by a peace process the next year.
Information provided by ministry of Home affairs in reply to a query filed under Right to Information Act (RTI) by a prominent activist, Raman Sharma, reveals that 2001 and 2002 were among the bloodiest years of the 23-year-old insurgency with at least 3552 and 3168 deaths of civilians, militants and security forces, respectively.
Following the Kargil conflict in 1999, the two years (2001 and 2002) saw a surge in violence involving militants and security forces with 4522 and 4038 incidents having taken place, while the preceding three years had witnessed around 3000 incidents on an average.
But, after the ceasefire in 2003, when guns fell silent along the Line of Control, that divides Kashmir between the two south-Asian nuclear rivals, the number of militancy-related incidents and deaths saw a significant decline.
In 2004, the number of deaths of civilians, militants and security forces came down to 1964 from 2603 cases the previous year. The peace process had helped New Delhi to construct a fence along most of the 742 km rugged Line of Control, designed to curb militant incursions.
Witnessing a downwards trend since then, the number of incidents reached only 340 in 2011.
The RTI reply also reveals that there have been around 70,000 incidents of violence so far, which are roughly 8 incidents each day. This year, till the month of July, the information reveals, there have been only 133 incidents of violence.
Despite a significant decline in militant activities, India consistently accuses Pakistan of arming, training and sending militants to Kashmir valley, a charge Islamabad has always denied.
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The data also reveals that on an average 5 deaths – of civilians, security forces or militants – took place every day during the more than two decades of conflict. The total number of civilian deaths alone during these years is “13853”.
However, separatists and human rights organisations put the death toll at nearly hundred thousand.
The information gives no account of the people who have gone missing during the years of the armed conflict.
Rights groups say around 8,000 people have disappeared, and have accused authorities of “extra-judicial” killings in fake encounters.
Last month the state government rejected wide-scale DNA testing of bodies in thousands of unmarked graves despite pleas by the families of those who have disappeared during these years.
The official Human Rights Commission had confirmed last year that 38 burial sites in the north of the region contained 2,156 unidentified bodies.
They had also mentioned in a report that 574 other bodies found in the graves were identified as local residents, and raised a need for their DNA testing.
