scarred & broken: Only a determined attempt at course-correction will help.

NEW DELHI is busy in its revelry under the “masterstroke” of demonetisation in the country, with an illusion-filled claim that all acts of terrorism in Kashmir have come to an end with the “surgical strike” on black money and counterfeit currency. Pakistan has been rendered penniless for sponsoring terrorism on this side of the border as its fake currency notes have no takers. It is wishful thinking that Kashmir has returned to days of peaceful paradise.The bitter fact is that Kashmir is slipping out of India, psychologically. There is a drastic change in the mindset of the people who have seen the worst kind of atrocities being inflicted from both sides over the past four-and-a-half months. What has hurt them most  —more than the killings — is the blinding of young stone-throwers, some of them innocents caught in the shower of pellets, sitting in their homes, while watching the protests as curious onlookers. They do not go into the cause — the violent protests with stones and petrol bombs, but talk of the security forces excesses. They don’t make any distinction between the local police, paramilitary force personnel or the Army. All these are clubbed together as the “Indian forces” or the 

“government forces”.

Physically, more terrain has been occupied by the anti-India elements. There are more local militants and the ground swell for insurgency is overflowing. People empathise with the militants. Countless masses who attend the funerals of slain militants are volunteers — certainly not coerced men and women. By any stretch of imagination, it is a very serious situation, the repercussions of which would be felt in the next couple of years, unless there is a determined attempt at course-correction by the government.What is being pointed out is that normalcy has fnally returned to the Valley. Schools open at weekends, examinations are on, public transport has started plying, more and more shops have started opening during daytime, and separatists have been forced to moderate their protest calendar. This welcome return to the unmistakable signs of normal day-to-day life needs to be analysed with clear glasses.One part of it is that the people who had lent their support to the shutdowns and protests have developed a fatigue factor. Even normal life had become a dream for them. Daily clashes, torching of government property, particularly schools, and the stones that dented vehicles and injured travellers, deserted streets, and 24×7 gloom had caused depression to set in among the people. And they wanted to come out of this depression. What did they do? Knock the doors of separatists because the rulers told them that their efforts would yield no results unless separatists gave a green light.The second part was a spree of arrests and raising the number of security personnel, mostly Army troops, to quell the disturbances. Stone-throwers had retreated more than six weeks ago to escape the arrests. Some of them had shifted outside the Valley, others were scared of violent clashes after having seen the consequences. The element of the use of force and heavy presence of soldiers cannot be overlooked. Today, there are more footprints of soldiers and paramilitary forces in the Valley  than ever before.Kashmiris want to live a normal life. They have natural instincts like any other race to generate economic activity and pursue fruitful careers, and live without any fear of midnight knock or stones shattering their houses and vehicles or boulders and timber log keeping them as besieged people. They wanted freedom from this suffocating atmosphere, which visited them this year following the killing of Burhan Wani, a militant leader, in July. Burhan Wani was a product of radicalism. He preached radicalism. He had called for the setting up of Caliphate in Kashmir in which the “revolution” was to be carried out by killing policemen and snatching their weapons. His social media face got the boost than his actual height and robust physique. That social media image was imprinted among young Kashmiris who trusted him with his face on Facebook profile or the words on Twitter. But now things have moved far beyond, where even if Burhan Wani was to take new birth, he would find himself overtaken by the events and radicalism among youth. He would look like a follower rather than the leader of the radical ideology.And let it be put straight and clear that the Indian surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have shown that those were no game-changer really. Pakistan has not stopped terror activity nor was it in need to retaliate with surgical strikes. That would not have been a useful proposition for it. And so it is continuing with infiltration and terrorists are attacking police stations and police camps.On November 25, the Indian Army lost a soldier in an encounter at Bandipore in north Kashmir and two policemen were killed in an ambush at Kulgam in south Kashmir. Pakistan has activated its sleeper cells. There are plenty of them in and outside the system. This is the real danger. Violence along the Line of Control can be responded with heavy gunfire and mortar shelling, as the Indian Army did on November 23 to “unleash heavy retribution” for Pakistan’s cowardly act (of mutilating the body of one of the three soldiers killed in the Macchil sector in Kupwara district in north-west Kashmir) on Tuesday.The Indian assault left three Pakistani soldiers dead and also nine travellers. And Pakistan was quick to move the United Nations. The UN, which is the most disliked institution by India as far as its intervention in Kashmir is concerned, was ready with sermons that the “Kashmir issue be resolved by India and Pakistan as per the peoples’ wishes”. These kind of international statements on Kashmir strengthen those who believe that they can pin down India on Kashmir. They are losing faith in dialogue with New Delhi. This is a dangerous situation. The opening of markets and public transport ferrying commuters are not the signs of hearts having been conquered. Much more needs to be done.