A year after the massacre of 25 tourists and a local pony handler in Pahalgam, Kashmir, the government of India might believe it has achieved its objective of “raising the cost-benefit calculation” of future foreign-backed terrorism. A thoughtful Indian will be less than convinced. It is nonsense that only regime supporters will buy.

Three terrorists—Faisal Jatt/Suleiman Shah, Haseeb Tahir (Jibran), and Haseeb Afghani—were killed in an “encounter” on July 28 in the Dachigam forest outside Srinagar, according to the 1,597-page chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), whose length is presumably intended to convey that it is the final word on the matter. One would have preferred taking the terrorists alive, so that they could be interrogated and a fuller narrative drawn.  

The regime, however, does not want to dilute its own black-and-white narrative with uncomfortable shades of grey, such as what drove the men to terrorism; how they went undetected till the massacre; who supplied them with weapons and training; the atmosphere at their homes, schools and social circles. Such detail might open the Pandora’s Box of genuine Kashmiri political grievance. 

That would mean a political approach was required in the Valley, particularly since August 2019, when Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave Kashmir the fig-leaf of autonomy, was shed. However, India’s anti-Muslim regime and its supporters want to keep Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority State in India (till its demotion to ‘union territory’) under the jackboot. It requires complete acquiescence to the majoritarian agenda, and no complaints.  

After all, dissent is not the Hindu nationalist way (no wonder the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS were complicit in colonial rule). So, if Kashmiris feel there are no doors open for their grievances, or that their formerly paradisiacal valley has been turned into an open-air prison—like Gaza till Israel went all in with genocide—well, tough luck.  

Bumping off the accused—no one was even taken to hospital—left us not knowing the mastermind of the massacre. Like the assassination of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, in October 1984; though her assassins were immediately gunned down, no one ever understood knew who killed her; after all, gunmen Satwant Singh and Beant Singh were not masterminds of a plot to kill the PM. There has been speculation that a London-based Khalistani was the funder and mastermind, but without an investigation, starting with an interrogation of the actual gunmen, India will never know for sure. 

The NIA chargesheet lists four other accused, including two local Pahalgam residents who “harbored” the three terrorists, claiming they were Pakistani nationals affiliated to the Lashkar-e-Toiba; a post-execution claim meaning little. The key accused is the alleged Pakistani handler, Sajjid Jatt, who is in Pakistan, and has not been captured, killed, or extradited.  

We must take the government’s word for all of this. The NIA justifies its charges with “scientific intelligence” (including signal intelligence). It may satisfy the regime’s supporters, who lack curiosity so long as summary justice is seen to be given. For others, there are unanswered questions. Were the three gunned down in Dachigam even the actual shooters? Were they even gunned down in Dachigam? 

Global scepticism

Beyond domestic sceptics, there is the international community. It will not believe anything with zero legal basis. One might argue that India, no longer a “soft state”, need not bother about convincing Westerners who are anyway inimical to Indian interests. Only a domestic audience matters. 

Such an attitude is what led to Pakistan winning the narrative war during the 100-hour Operation Sindoor last May, when India bombed several LeT/terrorism facilities inside Pakistani Punjab—unprecedentedly going beyond Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It was a demonstration of muscle to a domestic audience without a bother for an international audience, which does not take Indian government’s narrative at face value, particularly after 11 years of India’s majoritarian rule under a strongman who takes pride in the targeting of common, poor Muslims in various parts of the country.  

Indians may revel in fantasy films like Dhurandhar, in which history is rewritten to make one man look macho; but the world would rather see facts. As we notice in the ongoing Iran war, even the American youth don’t believe the old Israeli propaganda, being pushed since the 1979 overthrow of Shah Reza Pahlavi, that Iran was “two weeks away” from developing a nuclear bomb. 

No wonder the only country that openly stood with India during Operation Sindoor was Israel, a genocidal state that is now an international pariah. Its regime, like ours, is openly anti-Muslim, which is why India’s leadership went to Tel Aviv, two days before the Iran war, to pledge his support. During Operation Sindoor, the world preferred to quietly stand on the sidelines as Pakistanis and Indians made competing claims about who lost how many airplanes (no one bragged about who took how many lives). Many countries made no secret about whose narrative they believed. 

A year later, Pakistan has emerged a trusted peace negotiator, a far cry from the Indian narrative of it being the global hub of terrorism (Osama was caught there but conducted 9/11 from Afghanistan). 

A year after Pahalgam, have we learned any lessons? Doubtful, which is unsurprising given that we know little about the events leading to the massacre and given that no one in power was held accountable; at least the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, should have been replaced. But perhaps he is too valuable for New Delhi, who relies on him to be its eyes and ears in Srinagar, particularly with an Opposition party in power. 

Newspaper reports claim that the government has switched to “intelligence-driven” operations which is curious given that Kashmir has been handled by the Intelligence Bureau since 1948. Reports claim that overhauled intelligence networks operate across geographies, which sounds like word salad. All that this columnist can say is that with the drop in tourism, the growing economic uncertainty, and New Delhi’s iron grip, pressure building is building on the ground in the Valley. This summer, something will give. 

Aditya Sinha is a writer living on the outskirts of Delhi.

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