Stone pelting in Kashmir refers to stone throwing by Kashmiris on the Indian forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police deployed for crowd control in Jammu and Kashmir to support the extremists group or terrorists. In the local language, it is termed as "Kanni Jung", which means fighting with stones and the stone pelters are called as Sangbaaz or Pathraw Player. However, in the recent past the number of stone pelting has dropped significantly.
Background and history
In the past, stones were pelted by the Kashmiri Muslim youth on the police in the streets of Srinagar for expressing their anger during 1931 Kashmir agitation. After the rise of insurgency and separatist movement in Kashmir conflict, the stone pelting incidents became prominent in Kashmir from the 2008 Kashmir protests in which the separatist movement had taken a new dimension from gun-fighting with armed forces to the pelting of stones on them. After the year 2008, stone pelting incidents in the valley were reported on regular basis, the prominent among them were recorded in 2010 Kashmir Unrest and 2016-17 Kashmir Unrest, nevertheless minor skirmishes were also reported in those intermediate years.
The act of stoning (rajm) is mentioned in multiple Hadiths. However some factions within Islam disagree with the legality of rajm. In Pakistan, military dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq who implemented Sharia law reconstituted a court, which declared rajm as Islamic.
A Form of Resistance
Many separatist leaders say that stone pelting is a form of resistance used by Kashmiri people to challenge Indian administration.
MC Kash a Kashmiri Rapper writes in his song I Protest,
Commentary
According to scholar Waheeda Khan, most of the 'stone-pelters' are school and college going students. The stone-pelters, in turn get attacked by the armed personnel with pellets, rubber bullets, sling shots and tear gas shells. This leads to eye-injuries and several other kind of injuries to many people. Security forces also face injuries, and sometimes get beaten up during these events. Large number of these. According to political activist Mannan Bukhari, Kashmiris made stone, an easily accessible and defenseless weapon, their weapon of choice for protest. Incidents have been there where Kashmiri youth was hired during protests for stone pelting.
Kashmiri senior journalist Parvaiz Bukhari remarked:The summer of 2010 witnessed a convulsion in the world's most militarized zone, the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, an unprecedented and deadly civil unrest that is beginning to change a few things on the ground. [...] Little known and relatively anonymous resistance activists emerged, organizing an unarmed agitation more fierce than the armed rebellion against Indian rule two decades earlier. And apparently aware of the post 9/11 world, young Kashmiris, children of the conflict, made stones and rocks a weapon of choice against government armed forces, side-stepping the tag of a terrorist movement linked with Pakistan. The unrest represents a conscious transition to an unarmed mass movement, one that poses a moral challenge to New Delhi's military domination over the region.Journalist Malini Parthasarathy says that stone pelting is driven by the brutal killings of Kashmiri youth at the hands of Indian forces.
On 28 April 2017, talking about the stone pelters in Kashmir, the Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat has said, "In fact, I wish these people, instead of throwing stones at us, were firing weapons at us. Then I would have been happy. Then I could do what I (want to do)," referring to the 'dirty' nature of the proxy war and the need to protect electoral apparatus, and stating his perception post the human shield controversy
The Special Director General (J&K) Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) N K Tripathi stated that since the militancy related activities have declined in the region, "a new form of gunless terrorism in the shape of stone-pelting has emerged in Kashmir", "It is being funded by Pakistan and its agencies through Over Ground Workers (sympathisers of militants) and hawala channels" with an objective to disturb the peace in Kashmir and India. He added that "There are a large number of instances of unprovoked stone-pelting by hostile mobs on CRPF that has left 1500 jawans injured and close to 400 vehicles damaged in the last one-and-a-half year" (2009-10).