Proposed Removal of Controversial Law Sparks Dispute in Kashmir

Moreover, Abdullah's attempts to “narrow the differences” through three days of talks with senior ministers of the central government and India's army chief V.K. Singh, that concluded on November 15, proved inconclusive.

Joining the fray, a senior opposition leader, L.K. Advani, criticized Abdullah, saying the army was being "demonized."

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"It is because of the army that Jammu and Kashmir is still a part of this country," said Advani at a rally in Jammu.

This spat comes at a time when the Kashmir Valley has enjoyed an unexpected summer of calm, a sharp contrast to the previous year when clashes between stone-pelting protesters and armed security forces claimed over 60 civilian lives. Scores of security bunkers that lined the streets of Srinagar have been removed; tourists have flocked to the valley; militant acts have declined sharply.

The tussle over the removal of the law, which pitches the security of the country against the aspirations of the people, comes as a grim reminder that, despite a return to what many have described as “normalcy,” the beleaguered state of Jammu and Kashmir remains a special case.

“There is constitutional democracy here, just like the rest of India,” said Khurram Parvez, program coordinator for the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.

“Then why is the army playing such a big role in making decisions that the civilian government should be making?”

For over two decades, India has maintained hundreds of thousands of armed forces in this border state where a violent insurgency, partially fueled by training and funds from Pakistan, raged for several years. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, introduced in 1990 to bolster the army's counter-insurgency efforts, gives security officers the powers to search and arrest without warrant, use as much force as they consider necessary, and even shoot to kill. Officers cannot be prosecuted for acts committed on duty without the permission of the Home Ministry, and such permission has almost never been granted.

The insurgency has largely fizzled out, but the state continues to be heavily militarized. And in this region defined by conflict and animosity, the army is perhaps the most hated institution. Civil rights groups and international organizations have long accused the armed forces of abducting young boys, torturing civilians and killing with impunity.

In August this year, over two thousand bodies were discovered in unmarked graves in Kashmir. While the army says the bodies belonged to militants, human rights groups claim many were civilians who “disappeared,” leaving behind a generation of “half- widows” uncertain about the fate of their husbands and parents still waiting for their sons to return.

Parveena Ahangar’s son, Javed, was 16 when he was taken away in a night raid on August 18, 1990. She hasn’t seen him since. A court inquiry found that security forces were responsible for his disappearance, she said, but the central government has not sanctioned their prosecution.