India: Kashmir Catches Fire

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The pattern is being duplicated across the Vale of Kashmir, India's beautiful high mountain valley that is home to 4.6 million people, the vast majority of them Muslims. Passionate young men who want an independent Kashmir or union with neighboring Pakistan call for a general strike and demonstrations. The police in turn impose a curfew. Protesters start throwing stones, and frightened police respond with rifles. Last week 16 unarmed civilians died that way, while militants killed three policemen.

The Kashmiris' grievance against the Indian government stems from New Delhi's failure to abide by U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for a plebiscite on the future of Jammu and Kashmir state. That issue has always smoldered, but local politicians say it was the widespread vote rigging for candidates favored by Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party (I) in the 1987 elections that created a generation of committed young radicals ready to die for the secessionist cause. With the encouragement of V.P. Singh, the new Prime Minister, the state government recently attempted a display of good faith by ^ releasing 47 suspected militants and by promising talks with the rebels. But for many Kashmiris, the time for demonstrations of good faith is long past.