Crowd after crowd rush to be part of last journey of Bashir Lashkari laid to rest amid pro-freedom slogans - Azadi, Azadi (freedom freedom).

 

Though there is no agreement among academia over the definition of term terrorist. The history is witness the fact that one’s terrorists had been others freedom fighter.

In the modern context the terrorists been identified as those who want to impose their will, ideology, political or social agenda over a society where people are unarmed and having no means to resist. More-over we cannot call al-Qaeda, Taliban, Jamat ut dawa, LeT, Al-Nusra Front, Al-Shibab, Bokoharam and many more of this type as freedom fighters. Depriving people of their basic rights by using violence and terror is terrorism.  This is an open secret that these groups don’t believe people’s right to freedom or person’s basic rights. They present themselves as the representative of a divine force which is unable to do its’ job yet divine but want them to impose its will against the wishes of the people. Certainly this thinking which translating into action is a terror.

They had been translating their thinking into action. We had seen Taliban in Afghanistan. The people of that country been denied of their basic rights including their right to self-determination. There was reign of terror on the streets of Afghanistan by the militants who were even controlled from foreign soil.  Cutting innocent people's throats, hanging dead bodies with electric poles and trees blowing-up people, properties, cultural, religious and business venues with bombs was nothing but a terror tool to create fear in public mind. Same we had observed in Swat of Pakistan, Iraq and Syria under ISIS and Nusra Front and many more. This picture of politics and militancy is clearly part of terrorism. I don’t think someone can call them freedom fighters.

Those societies where peple had been denied of their basic rights and right to self-determination by state authority or terrorist groups are totally in different situation. They don’t have an option except to resist politically but where people would face violence in response by state security forces, dictatorship or any regime which runs its affairs by using reign of terror or absence of rule of law, an armed opposition is inevitable. The freedom fighters have to resist only combatant force be that of a state or private. They have to conduct their activities under the rules of war. The rules apply to state forces, also apply to armed opposition.  The armed opposition groups cannot carry-out activities where it endanger lives of civilian and non-combatant people. This also apply to state forces. Killing, mistreating, torturing or humiliating each other’s captives and prisoners is also a war crime. They might get-away with it during war time but during peace time the culprits might face justice. There is an example of Bangladesh. After its liberation war parties had compromised over the question of justice for victims just for political expediency. The present government had realized it and put the cases before courts because it is victim right to seek justice even after 1000 of years.   

The ongoing resistance in Jammu Kashmir is not new. There had been popular demand for right to self-determination. There is a provisional treaty of accession between Jammu Kashmir and Indian Union leading into UN and many UN resolutions recognizing peoples’ right to self-determination. The ICJ a body having consultancy over legal matters with UN, even concluding in its report published in 1995 that the people of the state of Jammu Kashmir have yet to exercise their right to self-determination.  The fact that groups advocating their fascist tendencies by using terror as a tool,  are capable to exploit such situation but the responsibility lie on the shoulders of the state forces. The state cannot use force to deny people’s political and democratic rights.   

Therefore people in Jammu Kashmir see militancy as part of their liberation war, and every dead in this path is their hero same as Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose for Indian or George Washington for Americans.  This is the reason that each dead whom Indian forces call terrorist but people of Jammu Kashmir don’t buy their description of event and instead, crowed after crowed rush to show their solidarity with cause, be present on the last journey of their liberation hero and be part of historical struggle regardless of the name tag the individual carry of one outfit or another.