Kashmir sees sharp decline in stone-pelting cases

Incidents of stone-pelting have reduced drastically in unrest-hit Kashmir ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes across the country.

While police handouts on the situation in the Valley stated that no incidents of stone-pelting were reported from anywhere in the past few days, officials said a major reason behind the sudden decline in violence was that the “money channels” of inciting violence have been sealed.

“There were inputs that separatists and their Pakistani-handlers were pumping in money to keep the pot boiling and most of such transactions would take place in big currency notes as the stone-pelter would charge at least Rs 500 per day. But now as the circulation of these notes has been banned, the business of stone- pelting is almost over,” a senior police official told DH.

The reduction in incidents of stone-pelting is understood to have vindicated the stand of the central government that Pakistan is pumping in money into Kashmir through various hawala channels.
“But the ban on big currency notes has closed all such shops of selling violence in Kashmir,” he said. Interestingly, the general public in Kashmir is thinking on similar lines.

The relative calm in the Valley has become a topic of discussion on social networking sites. “First Friday during this four-month period when no tear gas shells were heard around here. Someone is running low on real cash,” wrote a prominent business from Kashmir on his Facebook wall.

In the past, several complaints had cropped up that separatists were paying stone- pelters and other anti-national elements.

 In one such video released by electronic media, a stone-pelting youth captured by security forces was seen confessing that he would regularly get money from Hurriyat leaders for resorting to stone-pelting.

Security analysts believe that Kashmir will remain largely calm in the coming days as miscreants will run short of money to keep their network operational.

“There could be still some residual money with them, once that is over, this paid stone-pelting will be over,” said an official, who has been  tracking developments in Kashmir for over the past two decades.
DH News Service