Shiban Khaibri
Uncanny as it looks at the face of it, why should there be heaps of criticism, allegations and objections by many to any action, the armed forces have to take in extreme and compelling circumstances while remaining quite silent on the root cause of that action. Kashmir, not to mince words, has unfortunately been pushed into a quagmire of a vicious circle of cause and effect to the detriment of Kashmiris by Pakistan, opportunist politicians, fanatics and other trouble shooters. Vernacular press there could have played its expected fearless and impartial duty but one feels aghast seeing their role. Political problems created notwithstanding, who is harming whom should be the immediate question? Who is going to be benefitted by how Kashmir is progressively made to suffer from a unique cachexia ? Should stones be pelted on the 5th most powerful and most disciplined army of the world which has won accolades by its superb conduct and professionalism wherever it had to function beyond the country in response to the calls by the world body or otherwise? They are deployed as UN peace keeping force and until 2016, it was the third largest contingent from an individual country and during decades of their deployment, there has been not a solitary case of any incident of indiscipline or undue use of force resorted to by them.
It is unfortunate that just a firm advice to those misguided youth by the army chief Gen Rawat that those who threw stones and prevented the forces from taking part in operations of insurgency would be treated as over ground workers and supporters of the terrorists and could face strong action – was twisted , misinterpreted and quoted out of context only to embolden such addict stone pelting radicalized elements. Even many disgruntled politicians and those vanquished in elections criticized to the extent of raising “strong” objections to his statement. What should then be done to such elements to bring them round, they speak in rounds leading to nowhere. Some self stamped peace nicks and dialogue gang members speak about the “deficit of outreach” to these addicts. By the way , what is meant by this “outreach”. What political philosophy and exchange of “ideas” could be undertaken with a roughened and paid for such nasty job as to aim at and throw stones even on army men, is beyond comprehension. It is, in plain words, another ugly face of the intentions behind building up of Maha Gath Bandhan against one individual, Modi. Parroting that since PDP formed Government with the BJP , the situation turned so much bad is on the one hand habitually treating a political party as politically untouchable and two, rueing for the loss of power. Otherwise, how is it that immediately after being declared elected in bye elections from Srinagar Parliamentary seat, Farooq should demand Governor’s rule.
Are our braves destined to be insulted and demeaned by our own politicians is a question which stirs them in their faces. Should Digvijay Singh equate our army with “Jihadi militants” saying on the one hand “militants” kill Kashmiris and on the other, military is killing them.” Should mainstream politicians keep silent? Whom Digvijay asks , “If you want Kashmir to be with us………..UPA maintained peace in Jammu and Kashmir”. The other day, Chidambaram says,”you have almost lost Kashmir”. Is Congress High Command so much varied and undone seeing the outflow and departure of its workers and leaders, one after the other, to other Parties that keeping leaders like Digvijay Singh has become a necessity for it while readying itself to pay its price? If Digvijay does not apologize unconditionally then we cannot help in doubting the credentials of Congress using other inputs like as another senior leader Mr. Gulam Nabi was sharing the dais with Farooq Abdullah after he termed addict stone throwers as “Nationalists” and compartmentalized them , “All stone pelters are not bad”.
The opportunist politicians must come clean in saying whether our army should be made political target ?At least those should have broken their stoic silence who dare not step out of their rooms without the security cover to them of these very braves? Should Farooq Abdullah who cannot move a step without their security cover dare call their harmers, the addict stone pelting gang as “Nationalists” who according to him were fighting for “Aazadi of their Wattan”. Which aazadi , Mr. Farooq , please tell the people as to what is that which they do not have under India ? Which Aazadi they are denied – religious, economic, political, cultural, to dissent and express, to move freely , trade, study and settle in any part of India? See in Goa, Maharashtra, Bangalore, and even as far as in Thiruvananthapuram, how Kashmiris are doing their trade and business and how many are settled there happily .
Agreed that no civilized country would agree to the idea nor would the security forces do it to keep a human shield in its defence to rescue more humans, but a strange epidemic of stoning and vying with one another in throwing more has engulfed Kashmir. The shocking video of our security forces (CRPF) being heckled, booed, kicked, punched and shoved in Budgam while returning from election duty by well attired young people wearing costly sports shoes, jeans and pullovers must have boiled every Indian’s blood especially when these personnel were only pocketing insults and slaps and not retaliating . Think if even one of them could have lost his cool and used his automatic weapon under do or die, the result would have been disastrous. When an addict stone thrower was put as a human shield as a deterrent by a unit of the army , huge hullabaloo, cries, playing victimhood and asking for all round condemnation were seen being indulged in by our opportunist politicians. May it be asked as to why this selective criticism, these objections and these cries?
It is learnt that the Government in its wisdom and as demanded by the circumstances, has decided to stand by the officer who took the decision to use one of the stone pelt(ers) as a human shield to protect the lives of more than thirty two innocents trapped by the addict masked stone throwers with threatening to lynch them . The probe of April 9 itself found that under the extreme compelling circumstances the officer concerned rightly took the daring and wise step to save Jammu and Kashmir officials and security personnel on election duty and to rescue them to safety. He had realized that he had to lead his rescue team and pass through the route where addicts with stones had assembled in numbers and taken positions even on surrounding roof tops . There were nearly 32 personnel trapped which included 12 State Government employees, 10 Jawans of ITBP, 11 local police personnel and a driver. The army high brass must have felt that the incident was unavoidable as the unit was surrounded by hundreds of “protestors” hell bent upon violence. If, on the contrary, they would have taken action against the officer, a plummeting level of morale of those who risk their lives in facing volleys and rains of stones on duty would have taken place and a general feeling of being let down with unimaginable ramifications would have crept into their psyche which no country can afford.
The administration deputes security forces to control unruly and hostile mobs to use minimum force but never expect them to face stones to be grievously injured and fatally wounded. Equally they are not expected to be immobilized to take part in operations, snatch their weapons, ambush them to harm to the extent of inflicting death and expect them always to stand as ducks and doves to be hit where the paid agents and saboteurs choose. All this hostility and dancing to the tunes of a rogue country by these young people cannot be justified by any logic.
The affected countries are desperate to fight out the scourge of Jihadi terror and proxy war. Naganhar in Afghanistan is just 300 kms far from Jammu and Kashmir and American army dropped a 10,000 kg. bomb known as MOAB, in simpler parlance, as mother of all bombs with an aim to destroy the infrastructure of terrorists . It created havoc and 90 to 100 terrorists got killed. The global approach to fight terrorism is fast changing. None raised a finger on America and no one will raise any when the worst victim of terror, India could go in for a decisive battle and could destroy terror installations around our borders and render “talk, dialogue, outreach, stake holders”, etc brigade irrelevant, as also masked stone throwers holding occasionally enemy flags cut to their size whereby they could love being schooled and sent to working places whatever the case be. Let Aazadi mongers stop daydreaming , instead strive to see how many live and survive rather than how many more are unfortunately killed to achieve their elusive and unattainable goal.
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