The latest changed strategy of terror outfits adopting a low-risk high dividend policy of targeted killing of Hindus and non-Kashmiri migrant workers has put enormous pressure on the Administration and security establishment to undo the bad impact of what the terrorists have done in the recent months.
Targeted incidents of killing in Kashmir were aimed at creating a fresh scare among Kashmiri Pandits intending to return home after three decades and to discourage the ordinary migrant workers comprising Hindus as well as Muslims from working in Kashmir valley.
This spurt in sectarian killings have exposed the tall claims of the government that the militancy had been ‘nearly wiped out' from the Union Territory and that the sense of security among different sections of population had been considerably strengthened as a result of which the development works were gaining momentum.
There is no denying that in the last couple of years the security forces has gained an upper hand in eliminating the terrorists that has pushed them hard to find out a counter to ease the pressure by resorting to new strategy. The shallowness of the government agencies also contributed to the provocation and sharp reaction. Top officials from the Administration and security establishment have been leaving no occasion of shouting from the pulpit projecting their successes and achievements in Kashmir in total contradiction of the perspective of Kashmiris.
These signs of disquiet across the three regions of the erstwhile J&K state indicate the diminishing returns of the NDA government's drastic action on August 5, 2019.
With the overstretched delay in normalising the ground conditions in the Union Territory, more would be the danger of its consequences on the security front as much as the political front.
Too long a delay in starting the political process and possible engagement prior to it of political forces in J&K especially in Kashmir valley over the consistent rhetoric is bound to boomerang,
This part of the scenario needs to be viewed in the context of the volatile political vacuum on the ground coupled with its undesirable projections like crushing militancy outright, has paved the way for terror groups to resurface with a bang and by resorting to inhuman acts of killing the innocents as sitting ducks.
If anything, the recent incidents and their immediate fallout on the ground have exposed the ominous vulnerability of the post-August 2019 political vacuum on the ground that would have acted as a cushion between the writ of government and the element averse to peace.
That the selective killings in the Valley betrayed its evil intention is no more in doubt:
The immediate net result is that the fear psychosis behind the drastic politico-Constitutional denudation of the once composite state of Jammu and Kashmir is getting aggravated ominously.
On the one hand, the sectarian killings by hit-and-run groups have revived and sharpened communal fears among the victims and, on the other, the
It got reinforced with a brazenly communal attack in Chadoora, Kulgam, Pulwama and elsewhere which was repeated more brazenly only a day or two later with stunning impact on the public morale.
Kashmiri Pandit families living in guarded colonies with their employed members started rushing back to Jammu. Migrant workers from other states chose to not panic until militants struck at a couple of places in Kashmir targeting Muslim workers as well.
These hit-and-run killings by groups of two to three mainly pistol carrying groups is not a familiar phenomenon. Militants in Kashmir are usually known to be armed with larger weapons like AK-47.
If, as some security experts say, the killers throw the pistol away after committing the crime, their detection becomes that much more difficult for the security forces.
Though such sudden changes in the security scenario in Kashmir is not a new phenomenon, to overcome this new situation and restore the morale of the affected minorities of Kashmir is a Herculean task and needs a sharp acumen. Rope in the people by making them understand that such a situation has an overall bad impact over the people here.
