 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. There are a lot of developments that are taking place in Jammu and Kashmir. An eight-year-old girl was raped that was followed by a series of protests. Indo-Pak border is again heated up. To discuss the issue, we are joined by Gautam Navallaka, an eminent human rights activist who has been following the issue of Kashmir since more than two decades. So, let's start from this reap incident that took place. Government, instead of taking actions and ensuring that a proper judicial process is followed, protesters were booked under NSA. What do you have to say about that? The interesting thing is after the girl's dead body was discovered and there were torture marks on her body, one would have expected the police to undertake an investigation and track down the perpetrators of this heinous crime instead of which they delayed taking any action and it's only when people began to protest that they woke up to it. By the time they woke up to it, their attention was more towards thwarting the protesters rather than investigating the crime that has taken place. And this is what we experienced. I mean the NewsClick story about this makes it very clear what has happened. Hiranagar has also been a center of other kind of protests in the past where the Hindutva elements have been emboldened by this formation of the coalition government and especially in Jammu, parts of Jammu region, they have been on a rampage and the police has been more or less soft peddling crimes committed by them and activities that they have been undertaking, you know, threatening people, local population, especially targeting the Gujarat and Bakarwals. So this, the girl herself comes from Brariyangan in South Kashmir. A family originally is from there and like all nomadic tribes in Jammu and Kashmir, they travel during the winter months, they move to the south towards Kathua and this is what girls' family were doing. I mean when they camped near Hiranagar. Hiranagar also happens to be one of the centers where a lot of conflicts have taken place last year and they have been reported also where the targets have been the Gujarat Bakarwals. One fears that this rape and killing was not just a one-off incident that it may be part of a larger design unfortunately. So can you throw some more light on this design that you are talking about? Why this series of attack on these two specific committees that you are talking about? Well, one is of course because they want them to be ousted from land which is certainly become more lucrative, that is part of the thing. See a lot of Gujarat Bakarwals were shifted here from the border areas and they were provided alternative, you know, location near Hiranagar. Hiranagar also turned has become the center where the land is now being targeted for setting up the new All India Institute of Medical Sciences that government of India has promised to Jamun Kashmir. So land related issues have been at least at the core of this conflict that has been there and where the Hindutva groups emboldened by it are trying to set the terms which would be advantages to them and would dishonor it and disenfranchise the Gujarat Bakarwals. Let's come back to the issue of assembly and a lot of commotions have been taking place there where issues have been raised. When it also comes to the relationship between Indo Park dialogue that has to be initiated there is also no progress on that front even after NSE is met outside the country of these two different countries. Interlocutor has been also appointed but there also seems to be no development on that front if I am right. So I mean what's actually happening when it comes to this legislative part of Jamun Kashmir? Let's take a look at the border flare up around the line of control as well as in the international border. Now since the BJP government came to power this border has become very volatile and it's part of the policy which they claim is meant to serve a lesson for Pakistan and make it exorbitant for them to engage in so-called anti-India activities and therefore the shelling, the so-called strikes inside that have taken place so-called surgical strikes that have taken place etc. are part of that supposed to be that build up to send a message that things are going to be very different and a new normal has been created. Unfortunately if this was to serve as a deterrent it has failed miserably. There has been no end in sight. The ceasefire violations continue from both the sides, shelling continues and civilians in particular are the worst affected on both sides of the border and these are ordinary people, villagers who live till they land so their livelihood is affected and they have been forced to migrate and they have become displaced. Schools have been closed to children and losing precious time education is being denied to them. This continues and there is a lot of concern cutting across all the parties barring BJP are united on this issue that this volatile nature of the border is turning Jammu and Kashmir into a hotbed and they fear that it may result in another war so-called limited war or a long drawn out war between India and Pakistan and as the Kashmiris on either side of the border will suffer. Civilians who suffer primarily so assembly has taken this issue up even the state government is on record of requesting the government of India to heed the warning and to do something about it to bring the level of violations down to undertake some kind of a diplomatic negotiations. Mainly for the fact that you know the two national security advisers meet somewhere outside the subcontinent to hold their talks one doesn't know what is happening with them. I mean it could be turned into a routine fashion where they want to send a message to the world that yes they are trying to do something about it and therefore the national security advisers meet but on ground we seem to see no change, no perceptible change. But what's happening also with the appointment of interlocutor is there any development on that front has a dialogue process been initiated? Nobody expected I mean it was very clear when the government of India itself after appointing the so-called interlocutor subverted this appointment by making it very clear that there is nothing that they have nothing to offer and Prime Minister Modi is on record of ridiculing even this talk about autonomy comparing it to that even talking about autonomy becomes anti-national. So there is nothing much that one can expect. Interestingly Dineshwar Sharma has requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to pull up some of the TV channels who have created an unbroken record of whipping up hysteria hatred of Kashmiris and particularly Kashmiri Muslims. I mean that main task seems to be to run down the Kashmiri Muslims one way or another and to create some kind of hysteria and hatred towards Kashmiri Muslims. And it is Dineshwar Sharma who's requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to please pull up these TV channels and remind them that this is actually becoming counterproductive. Now the interesting thing is the Ministry of Home Affairs on the other hand says that we believe that this is their freedom of expression and speech and we can't interfere with it but the same Ministry of Home Affairs is also on record officially on record of asking the state government and the central government to deny advertisements to Kashmiri media especially the valley media in the argument that they engage in anti-India propaganda. So where is their commitment to freedom of speech and expression? I mean why is it that they only are mindful about the freedom of speech and expression of the most hysterical and hostile media that this country has experienced in recent time. But they completely ignore and they clamp down on freedom of expression and speech of the local media. That's a good point actually you're making if you look at any of the news channels. There's a continuous propaganda which is going on and the media houses are talking about weapons how important are weapons for India, what is our armed forces strength and all that. It's like they're sort of trying to create a situation like a war like situation they're trying to create. Let's come back to the last point that I want to make and see everybody knows that a dialogue is needed and dialogue from both the sides is needed. But there's a bigger political question here. What happens to this coalition, the BJP-PDP coalition because they're on a tough war when it comes to this situation. What's the way ahead for them? Well they'll trudge along. They have no hope. They have such high stakes in perpetuation of their own self-rule and the power and pelfish they enjoy. I don't see them doing anything different than what they have done. But I like to bring to your notice something else also simultaneously. One of the most alarming thing that people in India have not responded to adequately and taken seriously is the kind of pronouncements Indians army chief has been repeatedly making about Kashmir which is astounding. Now the point I'm trying to make is that when you have as an army chief a person who exhibits such appalling sense of understanding and complete indifference to historical facts then we are in a terrible situation actually of our own making and this all-out operation is going to end up becoming an all-out operation to actually undermine whatever little opportunity there is for the Indian government to seek a political resolution of the conflict. Let's hope Gautam that the political class in the country reach to that conclusion that we are talking about and they have a resolution for this entire issue. We'll be keeping a close watch on this issue and we'll be coming back to you on such issues further. Thanks a lot for giving us your time. Thank you for watching NewsClick. Keep following our website and our Facebook page.