Collateral Damage

The 1990s was the time of violence, confusion and quick thinking in Kashmir. An extract

Mahendra Sabharwal

A few years later, in 1992, our daily security review meeting in the secretariat with General Zaki, the security adviser to the governor, was interrupted by news about a large crowd of 7,000 people carrying the four dead bodies of militant commanders killed by the BSF in an exchange of fire the previous night in Batmaloo. The procession was shouting religious and separatist slogans. It was determined that the bodies would be presented to the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on Gupkar Road, passing through the main business area about two kilometres away through the main Maulana Azad Road. General Zaki ordered me to deal with the issue. We had no problems letting the procession reach the burial ground but felt the public march to the UN office by such a large and emotional crowd could create problems and had to be stopped. This was an open defiance of the law, even as BBC correspondents were calling the encounter a human rights violation. We were also curious since the BSF had told us they had only killed three militants the night before.

The procession soon swelled to 10,000 people, but disturbingly, it was accompanied by armed militants carrying automatic weapons, forcing civilians to join the procession. The slogan shouting crowd carrying dead bodies soon attracted press attention. After consulting with my colleagues, the police chief of the Kashmir Range Hafiz Akhtar and Srinagar district police chief K. Rajendra, we immediately passed a message to the