Between two guns

In any conflict zone, it is the common person who pays the greatest price and becomes a casualty in one way or another. Since 1989, ordinary Kashmiris have often found themselves suspended between two guns – one wielded by the state; the other by non-state actors. During election processes – which remain deeply contentious in Kashmir – people find themselves in a Catch-22 scenario, forced to choose between casting a vote for 'better governance' or boycotting the process in order to 'honour the sacrifices' made in the struggle for self-determination. Recent elections were no exception. For Kashmiris, not only was it a battle between the ballot and the boycott, it was also a battle between forgetfulness and memory: violence, aggression, rhetoric, and deceitful politics have been used to lure potential voters, or alternately, coerce them to stay away from the process in the name of resistance.

In the state of Jammu & Kashmir, six parliamentary constituencies held polls in the recently concluded Indian General Elections. Unfortunately, Kashmir lost many civilians and lower-rung political activists to the region's vicious cycle of violence. On 30 April, at the end of polling in the sensitive constituency of Srinagar-Budgam-Ganderbal, a young mason, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, lost his life as a result of the Central Reserve Police Force opening fire on a group of youths in the Nawakadal area of Srinagar. The State Human Rights Commission termed it an "extra-judicial killing". Twenty-eight-year-old government school teacher, Zia-ul-Haq, meanwhile, also lost his life through no fault of his own. During the election, state government employees were mobilised to work as polling officers. Deployed on poll duty in south Kashmir's Shopian district, the vehicle Haq was travelling in was attacked by suspected militants. If Haq had refused to fulfill his state-sanctioned duty, he may have lost his job. He acquiesced to save his job, though instead lost his life.