Young Muslims boys and girls are motivated by fundamentalists to throw stones at the Security Forces in Kashmir. There is a similar stone throwing also in the Gaza Strip. Stones are hurled by young boys at the Israeli security forces. In Kashmir, this is a recent phenomenon. Information is gleaned from intelligence sources that the young boys and girls are each paid Rs 500 by the militants who are funded from Pakistan.
In a recent case, a young Major of the Indian Army was confronted by a similar situation. A massive crowd of stone throwers surrounded the army convey. the army could not react as there is a ban on using guns against the students. Heavy stone throwing started when the Army Major Gogoi took a brave decision. His men caught a stone pelter and tied him to the bonnet of a jeep. With the man bound to the front of the jeep, the convey moved forward. It had the desired effect and the stone throwers fearful of hitting their man stopped the stone throwing and melted away.
The act of Major Gogoi
Human rights activists have condemned the act of Major Gogoi. But almost entire India has supported the courageous decision of the army major.
His act saved the lives of many persons including soldiers of his convey. The prime minister Narendra Modi is appreciative of the incident and the Chief of the Indian Army General Bipin Rawat has awarded him a commendation card for his brave act. There is no doubt that Major Gogoi thought of an out of box solution to a problem that has dogged the valley for the last few months.
The Pak army plan
Kashmir acceded to India as per the terms of accession signed by Maharajah Hari Singh in 1947. Pakistan did not recognise this and has fought 4 wars to try and capture the valley. In all the wars the Pakistan army has been decisively defeated and in 1971 over 100,000 Pak army soldiers surrendered and the independent state of Bangladesh was created.
The Pakistan army has not been able to live with this ignominy and a plan was hatched by sending terrorists into the valley and incite the locals.
The way forward
This also has failed as the Indian grip has not been loosened.The agent provocateurs have now started paying young boys and girls to hurl stones at the Indian army in the hope that the army will react with force and there would be bloodshed. This has not happened, but something had to be done about the stone throwing. Major Gogoi has shown the way and the stone throwers fearful of hitting their colleague just ran away. Maybe this is the way forward and the Israeli army could also adopt it in Gaza and the West Bank.