Asem Mohiuddin
In an open lush green playground spreading over a few hundred kanals, Hayaan Mir, a 7-year-old boy is practicing cricket along with his father. This boy is an aspiring professional cricketer from one of the biggest villages – Palhallan in North Kashmir.
While dozen other children of his age, in the same ground are enjoying Cosco ball cricket, he is facing two young fast bowlers almost of his father’s age. The same ground till a few years ago was witnessing frequent visits of security forces, hounding youth, and chasing them away. Many of them would land in lockups.
Palhallan was one of the most volatile villages in Baramulla of North Kashmir and its youth would often halt the traffic movement alongside the Srinagar-Baramulla highway and fight pitched battles with security forces. In 2010, when the entire Kashmir erupted over the Machil fake encounter of three civilians, Palhallan village was under siege for over 45 days following the massive violent clashes between government forces and local youth.
The 45 days siege until 2010 was the longest in any part of Kashmir besides hundreds of youth detained to curb the situation. Since then it continued its violent protests till 2016 when Burhan Wani, a poster boy of militancy in South Kashmir got killed and Kashmir protested for over four months. The Palhallan village, probably the only area that overstretched protests and fought pitched battles on the highway, was not only disrupting the routine life in North Kashmir but also posed a severe headache for security agencies trying to bring normalcy.
The situation had compelled the government to install an army camp and few police posts in the village to curb the protests. The security forces had to often resort to certain coercive measures to keep the violent youth under check. However, the sentiment of violence, popular thus far, underwent a transformation. Palhallan, changing for better is a mystery that needs to be unraveled.
Five years down the line post-2016, the village that comprises nearly 38000 human souls is relatively peaceful with almost no protests. The youth are conscious about what they wish to make out of themselves, brimming with a lot of positive sense and bracing for higher challenges to secure their career. Ambitions run high into the young blood and they seem to be believing that they can actualise their dreams.
Mir Hayaan’s father is a school teacher with extremely humble resources. Since the time Hayaan was 2 years old, he began to train his son for professional cricketing. “I noticed some amount of talent in him and I picked him up for the professional cricketing. I dream to make his career in cricketing only,” says Mir Parveez. Hayaan, guided by his father is practicing every day in the ground and is being supported by all his neighbors.
“He has a talent and we need to support him. He will one day bring laurels to this village,” his neighbor Mushtaq says. Hayaan is one among so many young boys aiming high in their life.
Another young boy Ishfaq Ahmad is a postgraduate and is looking ahead to crack the UPSC exams. He is mature enough to remember the transition in his village. He has grown to believe that aims and objectives in life can only be achieved through education.
“What Palhallan has gone through in the last ten years is something that I can’t forget. The most important part of my understanding is that we need to channelize our energy and emotions positively to develop our community, protect our youth, and help each other to prosper.”
“We see the good things in life but we confront tough times too. Does it mean an end to life,” he questions. Ishfaq is concerned for the rising number of youth getting into drugs. He fears that Kashmir may lose the current generation to the drugs as it lost the two previous ones since the 1990s to the gun culture. “These burning social issues need our attention to save our youth.”
Ilhaq is his neighbour and a promising journalist. A Mass Communication pass out is toiling hard to get the daily issues of his village highlighted. “38000 souls have one defunct dispensary as the only medical facility available. The village is deprived of its basic needs. We need to hold our governing system accountable,” he says.
With 6 Panchayat Halqas, in 2004, the then chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed designated Palhallan as a model village. Unfortunately, the dilapidated roads, defunct drainage system, poor medical facilities give you an opposite look.
The security agencies attribute the restive situation to the village’s poor political representation followed by poor governance.
“Despite being the largest village in the district with strong connectivity to Srinagar and district headquarter Baramulla it had no political representation. The attitude of local administration was equally insensitive and led to the alienation of its people,” says, one senior army officer serving in the area, wishing not to be named.
According to an officer, the alienation of common people was channelized by the separatist’s elements active in the area since the village wields a deep influence of Jamat Islamia.
Pertinently, until 1990’s, Jamat Islami used Palhallan as its base in North Kashmir and would preach its ideology across the places.
Before Syed Salah ud Din, a chief of United Jihad Council crossed over to Muzaffarabad to launch an armed struggle and his close aide and former spokesman of UJC, Mohammad Ahsan Dar were stationed in the area to carry out its organizational activities. This had created the hardcore cadre of Jamat Islamia in the village and even after the organization faced action from the government, the ideology was successfully transferred to the new generation.
The situation became worse when it took the violent form in recent times. With the slightest provocation, hundreds of youth would throng to the highway and contest the security forces.
Off the total population, 40 per cent comprises youths with over 700 graduates. “It was a very tricky situation. We never wanted to confront youth directly and tried to find ways for channelizing their anger positively. The stick and carrot policy was adopted,” says another senior security officer. “The security installations were built to look after the activities of youth. In the second attempt, the profiling was done and accordingly the initiatives of engagement were launched.”
While the officer says they had not lowered the guard against militancy and their sympathizers, but a large chunk of the population needed genuine attention from the government and administration.
A conjoint effort was made by all the security and government agencies to address the grievances of people. A small fitness club was installed in the village by the army for the youth. Alongside the highway, a playground was developed; roads were macadamized jointly along with an active participation of people.
While all this was being initiated, it was realized that the bigger concern of the local youth was harassment at the hands of the security agencies. This, coupled with the denial of job opportunities by private as well public sector due to the name that Palhallan had earned for itself, was making the situation more grim.
To deal with the situation, an official said that the authorities along with the security agencies managed to rope in the Jammu Kashmir Entrepreneurship
Development Institute to the village to hold many workshops besides some technical courses were introduced for both male and female students.
“This raised their chances of employability besides grooming them well to fit in the market. Additionally, the police was directed not to harass the youth anymore and provide them all possible support to build their careers. “
Though, the overall environment improved considerably, complains about the residual effect at functional level remain. Ease of getting a passport, no objection certificates or other documents, is still far from what is desirable. Freak incidents of denial or even ill-treatment or harassment still exist on the ground.
“We don’t want to be harassed. Since there is a change in the situation there shall be no harassment at all at any level,” says Fazil, a youth who recently finished his graduation. The demand is genuine, why should the mindset about Palhallan not change when Palhallan itself has changed.
One of the senior-most administrative officers in the district told The Legitimate that Palhallan needs attention and sustained effort to make the youth believe that the security forces as well as civil administration are positively inclined towards them.
“In an erstwhile Jamaat Islami bastion, certain initiatives coupled with the developmental dozes are needed to win the trust of local youth. While there is a need to deal with the situation at security level but we need also to build the positive perception among youth,” he says, adding “yet caution cannot become a reason for a negative response. “Let them be part of good governance as they can turn into change makers.”
Interestingly, young educated youth in the village formed a small group several years back and planted hundreds of trees as a “green and clean Palhallan initiative”. Not only that, the group which in no time swelled into size cleaned the area, government establishments, roads, schools, and other public facilities. The environment-friendly initiative won laurels for the participating youth and inspired hundreds of others in other parts of Kashmir.
“But it failed to catch the attention of those leading Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or someone from Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to acknowledge their good deeds though any negative news from the area travel like wildfire in the country,” he adds.
Presently, there is no active local militant in the area. The security agencies, however, believe that Jamaat is still wielding significant influence in the area with village serving as a transit route for militants. But there is no denying the fact that the village is moving forward and hundreds of youth in the village have set big dreams in life. “There is a scope to work in the area for youth emancipation. We have not yet achieved a final polished product.”
