The series of latest civilian killings by the terrorist in Kashmir valley has spread a deep fear among the minorities seeking their proper security while political parties ask Kashmiri Pandits and other Hindus and Sikhs not to leave the valley that would repeat the 1990’s exodus.
After the scrapping of Article 370, the minorities in Kashmir i.e. Hindus and Sikhs are back in their hellhole of the late 1980s. There’s a new strain of terrorists stalking them, killing them with a bullet to their head. Women are not spared.
It’s nauseating. No halt in violence can be easily conclude that a new strain of terrorism is emerging in the valley. The exodus of Kashmiri Hindus in 1989-90 was hastened by bone-chilling calls from the mosque, to get out or face the consequences. Now, it’s the silent bullet to the back of the head; no warning, no ultimatum. Far more scary, far more bone-chilling.
Every Hindu in Kashmir now knows he is in the crosshairs. The CCTV footage of one killing is particularly shocking. The perpetrator is seen silently step up behind the ‘Hindu’ and shoot him dead from less than a foot away. Can anybody make sense out of such martyrdom? The victim died on his feet!
Too much reliance on the bureaucracy in seeing everything is no political prudence on the part of the Modi government. The lull of Kashmir after the scrapping of the article 370 and downsizing the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into Union Territory was wrongly taken in an immature and improper way. New Delhi’s strategy to fill the political vacuum at the lower level through the Panchyati Raj Institution was good but failed to take the message firmly at the grass root level in a cohesive manner.
There seems to be a series of very important policy decisions that have been taken in haste that hits the wounded psyche of the local population and their sense of insecurity. This simmering discontent among the people both at Kashmir and Jammu was not addressed by the centre or BJP.
Instead of carrying on the activities meant for bring change in the situation in valley, there is a trend adopted by the ministers and political activists especially the one sitting in PMO, who often make irresponsible statements that provoke the local sentiments. So much so, even the higher functionaries including the police and security top brass never get tired by boasting that they have broken the back of terrorists in Kashmir and there is complete peace. Saying that not many in Kashmir, except for some political element, bothered about the scrapping of Article 370 and that not a single bullet was fired on these drastic political steps, is nothing but a deliberate provocation to the separatists’ element to assert their presence. And for this the terrorists have the common citizen as their easy target to respond to the establishment.
The latest incidents should serve as a point of introspection to find out the mistakes and change in the strategy.
