The Proliferation of small arms in J&K

By Ashima Kaul

"We are also capable of manufacturing small weapons" and "we have re-established our training camps inside India controlled J and K", are some state-ments that Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) supreme commander Syed Salahudin has recently given in an interview to Outlook (June 13,2005). In the wake of what small arms and light weapons have doneto the people, property and development in Kashmir, the claim deserves attention.

Trained and experts in making and fabricating IEDs, HM cadres code named as Bombar Khan have executed some of the deadliest attacks in the last fifteen years of insurgency in Kashmir. To recall five years ago during the Amarnath Yatra HM aimed a security vehicle on the Phalgam road. A box filled with grenades with nails fitted on its sides was attached with a string. The terrorists had only to pull the string from across the road where they sat to unplug a pin when the security vehicle passed. The explosion and nails, which scattered all around resulted in grave damage and causalities. And in complete violation of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, last year a bus belonging to Border Security Forces carrying personnel and their families was blown by IED on the Srinagar- Jammu highway resulting in 35 causalities.

"The human cost of the proliferation of small arms is enormous. It destroys cultures and lives, it exacerbate and intensifies conflicts. It kills and injures!" says Binalakshmi Nepram, a member of Control Arms Foundation of India. And in Kashmir where it was often said in the past that 'red skies was an indication that some human life has been killed', circulation of countless small arms and light weapons is an issue which the civil society has not even dared to speak about.

Guns and grenades, in fact entered Kashmir far back in late fifties and early sixties. During Chief Minister G.M.Sadiq's reign a grenade was thrown at a public meeting held by him "However there was no large scale proliferation those years", says Javed Makhdoomi, Inspector General J and K Police, Kashmir Zone. According to him till the late seventies a group would survive and continue their activities with small number of arms. Large scale of pushing of arms happened later in the late eighties and in the ninety "we all know what happened!" Not only the numbers of weapons have proliferated incredibly but also the groups.

"It's a living hell! Where is the space for us Kashmiris amidst these guns, to breathe, to trust, least of all to express. Yet we have learnt to use these guns to survive, take revenge, to fight and protect our ideologies, our identity, our honor, our possessions, ourselves", says a desolate retired schoolteacher in Kupwara. "

"However, almost all of us have become victims of it. Those who have stayed on and those who have fled ", he adds with bitterness.

But when 'boys' in the mid nineties had masqueraded openly in lanes and by lanes of Downtown areas in Srinagar, Idgah complex and village squares, with their guns slung on their shoulders or firing in the air, crowds had jeered at them. When those 'boys' got married, girls took guns as gifts or dowry. There was unabashed heroism attached to being a militant and guns were the symbol of power and honor. Songs were written and sung for them. Sadly, as most of these girls admit in private, 'little did the young brides realize that the guns, which they were carrying as gifts, will become their burden and songs of heroism, which the women so passionately sang, would be sung as marsiayas'.

Guns have also destroyed the composite culture of Kashmir. Their continuing presence refuses to heal relationships between two communities of Pandits and Muslims. In 1986 Dhanow and Whanpo villages in Kulgam were burnt down because of some injustice the Muslims perceived against fellow Muslims in the Arab world, idols often became target of wrath and anger and the infamous cricket matches between India and Pakistan, always had tensions between the two communities.

But these differences or tensions never snapped ties or relationships. The minority never felt intimidated enough to leave their homeland. But guns in 1989 made that one big difference.

Clearly, access to lethal weapons such as assault rifles can transform what would otherwise have been a minor and containable incident into a full-scale massacre. Sangramapura when 8 Kashmiri Pundits were killed on March 20th, 1997, Wandhama when 25 Kashmir Pundits were killed on Jan-25-26 again in 1997, killings of 27 Hindus in Prankote in 1998 and the same year massacre of 25 Hindus in Champnari, followed on June 30th the killing of 15 laborers. Chatisinghpora when 35 Sikhs were killed on March 20th in 1999 and recently in 2003 the Nadimarg massacre are traumatizing events for both communities.

Today, less of tanks, there is almost every kind of sophisticated weapon circulating in the valley. There are reports of weapons being buried in syntax tanks in the mountains of Kashmir. Massive influx of sophisticated weaponry from across the border and in possession of terrorist groups includes AK rifles, pistols, revolvers and guns like Snipper, Pika, RPG, INSAS, SLR, LMG, UMG, SMG, MMG besides grenades, detonators and IEDs. "Its impossible to give an exact number of weapons circulating", says Col V.K.Batra, PRO Army. "Most of it is dumped and buried and those who knew about it have either died or crossed over", he adds. However according to an estimate by IDSA and security agencies Hizbul Mujahidin possesses around 2000 small arms including 1550 AK series rifles 55 LMG/UMG/SMG, 162 machine guns and light weapons around 1000 small rocket launchers, besides 2000 hand grenades, 500 mines, assorted ammunition and explosives, snipper rifles and 5.45 Krinkov SMGs.

Similarly Lashkar-e-Toiba seems to have around 3,100 weapons including AK series, Pika guns, 60 mm mortar, 3,000 Chinese hand grenades, 100 rocket projectile grenade launchers (RPGL), Chinese pistols and huge quantity of RDX. Jaish –e-Mohammad, the third big outfit operational has around 1,800 weapons including 300 light machine guns (LMGs), 200 Heavy Machine Guns (HMGs), 900 assault rifles, mortars, IEDs and rocket grenades.

These figures are just tip of the ice berg for besides these three major groups there are, out of the 35 terrorist groups there are 7-8 other groups like Harkat-ul-Ansar, Al-Badr- Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Save Kashmir Movement which are operational in Jammu and Kashmir. Incidents of rifle snatching from security personnel especially police are common. There have been instances when police pickets have been attacked and arms –ammunition taken away by terrorists. Last year more than three branches of J-K bank in South Kashmir were looted .The money was apparently used for purchasing arms from the grey market. For all the fears about tanks, aircraft and nuclear weaponry, it is these simple pistols, rifles and machine guns that have transformed the Kashmir conflict into a more lethal one endangering Human Security, governance and Human Rights. A place where 'Kangdi', an indigenous earthen fire pot was the only lethal weapon to be used is

today laced with guns, grenades and RDX. Moreover the terrorists keep on improvising on the weapons to make them more deadly. Major victim of these arms have been civilians. According to police sources, since 1995 till April 2005 the number violent incidents have been 19,898 and grenades attack numbered 1824. If we account only civilian deaths, 5808 have been killed by militants and those who have died during cross firing or while trying to maintain law and order has been 606, each of these somebody's loved one.

In the case of Mariam Bano of Manoh village in district Doda in Jammu Division, a PIKA gun has left her scarred and traumatized for life. She was abducted by terrorists, kept in custody and repeatedly raped for 'being instrumental in motivating her brother Hamid to leave militancy and surrender his arms to security forces'. The militants wanted her to disclose and recover a PIKA gun, which was with her brother. They later on 4th July 2004, chopped her ears and nose. She was rescued by the army in a traumatized state. However in the case of M.A. Magrey of Renzipora village in district Pulwama in Kashmir Division his world shattered last year when his son on being tortured by the security forces for stealing a gun, ran away from home to join a militant group and tried to cross over to Pakistan for arms training was killed at the border in Poonch. His body was never recovered. Magrey's wife is undergoing counseling and is unable to put together her broken home. "My son died for nothing. A gun ruined our family. But I do not internalize his death as such; it will be difficult for me to survive. So I tell the world and myself that he became a martyr. This way at least I can console myself and survive" Endless testimonies and narratives such as these reveal potential capability of arms and how they have destroyed both lives and livelihoods in Kashmir.

In fact the lethality of small arms and how dangerous they can be is evidently clear from the Kaluchak Massacre on May 14th 2002 and the December 13, 2002 Parliament attack when armies of two nations-India and Pakistan came eye ball to eyeball almost on the verge of a nuclear war, crumbling co-operative security in South Asia. The presence of arms in fact poses a serious threat to the ongoing political peace process. A major violent incident can put a dent on it.

"At the local level, it is the nexus, outspread, crimalisation and misuse of arms for abductions, arson, extortions and intimidation is worrisome", says Makdhoomi. According to police figures since 1995 to April 2005 there have been 1028 cases of arson and 963 abductions. Besides killing of political and religious leaders grassroots workers, civil servants and members of the minority community goes unabated. Expressing concern Makhdoomi adds, "The simplicity of small arms has turned Kashmiri children into deadly killers. And that is our biggest concern". It is believed that young children as old as 13-14 years old are being exploited to throw grenades and learn to use arms. According to security agencies, mobile camps operational in remote jungles where youth is being trained in the use of grenades and handle AKs. Small Arms also initiate women into becoming couriers and messengers, making the circle of nexus and exploitation much bigger.

Statistics and data collected from army reveal that from 1990-2005 the number of AK rifles recovered by them from terrorist groups have been 17,737, UMG/LMG/PIKA have been 965, pistol/revolvers 5496,SNIPER Rifle 226, ammunition 35.50 lakhs, explosives 35,113 and mines 4969. Whereas the police claims to have recovered from 1995-April 2005 10399 AK Rifles, 4392 Pistol/revolvers, 2325 other weapons, 36184 grenades, 4102 IED/Mines and 19781.5 Kgs of RDX. Add to this the number of arms used by the military, paramilitary and police and the arms in circulation by terrorist groups, we have a fairly grim picture of the extent of militarisation of Kashmir. It is a sinister structural war going on putting sustainable peace in peril. . "Global arms trade is huge in the world. With governments also involved in arms transfers, which essentially is legal but often become illicit or enter into 'grey market 'transfers' once deals are diverted from its State legal sanctioned destinations during the export stage", says Nepram. "We want to tighten up regulations concerning legal transfers of weaponry.

But we are equally campaigning for governments and civil society to clamp down on the huge illegal trade in small arms involving the non-state actors", adds Neparam In Kashmir the civil society perhaps has yet to wake to the gruesome

reality of small arms in everyday life of a common Kashmiri. Recent grenade attack on Bisco Memorial school children however was an eye opener. "We cannot allow our children to live in this terror. There is a need for peace workers and civil society in Jammu and Kashmir to generate awareness among people to prevent proliferation of small arms", says a Kashmiri member of Control Arms Foundation of India. Hope the supreme commander of HM sitting in safe environs of Muzaffarabad listens to the appeal of Kashmiris who die a daily death on the roads and within their homes in blood soaked Kashmir.

(Cobrapost News Features)