Kashmir Summer (1975–89)

Abstract

The failure of ‘liberalization’ to neutralize the dissident voice further convinced the central leadership that despite deploying all persuasive measures by the governments, Bakhshi onwards, peace in Kashmir was only hanging on to its eyelids. This realization, together with pulls and pressures on the Sheikh, led to Indira–Abdullah Accord of 1975. With the coming of Abdullah to power, Kashmir witnessed almost a decade of ‘peace’. It seemed that, at least, the internal dimension of conflict is buried for all times to come. However, hopes belied. Around the same time a new voice was born out of the debris of buried Plebiscite Front culminating in armed resistance in 1989-90. The fifth chapter delineates the processes that resulted only in a short-lived peace.