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OPINION

Another carnage in Kashmir
K. N. PANDITA

Another carnage has taken place in which 32 Hindus were brutally gunned down by the Islamic terrorists in Doda district of the State this week.

Some separatist leaders and organizations have remained content with just labeling the carnage as terrorism. They have not gone beyond that two syllable word.

Some political commentators indulge in hair-splitting exercise to provide the reason and if possible indirect rationale for the carnage. They call it terrorist reaction to the recent elections in the state, which they wanted people to boycott.

More clever and dubious commentators have brought in the argument of the Muridke (Pakistan) – based Al Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s statement that India is trying to seek a ban on Al-Dawa and LeT. As such the repercussions from its armed wing operating in Kashmir has been displayed in the Doda carnage.

In our country we have a large number of sympathizers of the militants and terrorists whose human rights they vow to protect or on whose wounds they vow to place ointment. We can understand their embarrassment resulting from the carnage under discussion.

It is the game plan of many political analysts to divert the attention of the general public from the core issue and bring in peripheral reasons and rationale to play down the intensity of acts that are only short of genocide.

Take the statement of Ali Shah Geelani on the subject. He calls it terrorism but avoids identifying the killers as a product of a system that is rooted in a neighbouring country’s diseased social construct whose leadership has often said in no ambiguous words that it is hell bent on unlashing a war of civilizations.

The fact of the matter is that the Islamic extremists are regularly and systematically indoctrinated in the philosophy of Islamic doctrinal supremacy, hatred for other faiths and the denial of right to life for other religious identities. This is the programme of Al-Dawa wal Ershad organization with its powerful base in Pakistan. Neither Pakistan’s military regime nor its prompters of anti-Al Qaeda campaign consider it necessary to uproot the menace.

Those who consider it an act of terrorism or just condemn it as inhuman should have the moral courage to call upon the military regime in Pakistan to come down with a heavy hand against the organizers of Al Dawa and its philosophy. But the do not do so.. Here lies the malaise.

One can fabricate stories to create space for the brutalities of the terrorists against the innocent people. But the harsh and unfortunate reality is that these people are indoctrinated to take up arms against the non-Muslims and serve the cause of the proposed Islamic Caliphate. That is the long and short of this story.

The hypocrisy of the Indian government manifests itself in the un-phased reaction of Indian political leadership and top bureaucratic echelons. “We condemn the act”, is the refrain after each carnage in Kashmir. This is the language of cowards and perhaps they can do nothing more than that.

The Prime Minister is meeting with the Hurriyatis in a day. Will the PM talk about the carnages? Is he prepared to spoil his “goodwill” mission with “moderate” Hurryatis who have never either regretted the acts of carnage in the past nor have they demanded the Pakistan President to come down heavily on Al- Dawa and other militant organizations. The talks go on and so do the carnages of the Hindus in remote and inaccessible areas?

Another cleverer analyst said that because of difficult topographical condition of Doda it is becoming difficult to maintain vigil against terrorists. This is the diseased logic. How come a country feels some of its territories are inaccessible? It is the constitutional duty of the government to provide security and safety of life and property to every Indian citizen whether he lives on plains or in mountains. If terrorists can scale the forbidding heights, why not our police and soldiers? What stops Indian government from pounding these reaches to force the infiltrators to move down to localities that are easily accessible?.

To be too crude and blunt, one can say that there is a nexus of sorts between the political leadership of Kashmir, security force structures and the terrorist gangs. According to some the Kashmir valley political leadership is fully aware of the movements of the terrorists in those hilly areas but it would avoid taking any action against them. If the political leadership expresses its ignorance about the movement and logistics of terrorists, why was the previous government so much euphoric for “humanistic touch”?

The author is the former Director of Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University, India.


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