Jammu figures among five districts of the State which the official observers think have been cleaned of militancy. This may be true as far as over-ground militancy is concerned. But as far as underground cells of militancy are concerned, it appears that they are active and continue with their subversive designs at will. The major instance of their underground presence was felt when the elected panchs and sarpanchs were targeted, and warnings were issued to them to resign or face the consequences. As a result, a large number of panchs/sarpanchs demanded personal security. However when the Government felt it could not provide security to all the 33.500 elected members, it made clear that only more vulnerable cases would be brought under security umbrella. This is a strange situation. If the panchs and sarpanchs are elected by a majority of people in respective areas, they should be able to galvanize their voters into providing them security. They are closely connected to respective village people and their problems. Their voters and supporters can without much difficulty identify the miscreants in or around their areas and hand them over to the police. But this is not happening. The inference is that the underground militants have created powerful and effective network to carry forward their subversive activities.
Three wine shop were fired upon from a point blank range in Srinagar, killing one and injuring four. Two days later, a bomb blast at a wine shop in Narwal, Jammu also took place. The pattern and the purpose in all these blasts is the same. It is to send a message across the State that fundamentalism is not dead or defeated but survives with all vengeance. First of all, the question is when the firing happened in Srinagar, why were not Jammu police and security paraphernalia alerted forthwith and all precautions taken to deny the miscreants any chance of repeating it. Obviously, police and security authorities took an easy view of the firing in Srinagar. The Narwal blast is a direct result of the complacency shown by the police and security establishment. It was all the more important for the police authorities in Narwal area to understand that Narwal is the circuit of fruit and vegetable market very much frequented by the traders from the valley and from other parts of Jammu. It is common sense that underground militants would use this situation for executing their subversive activities. Security establishment ought to have mounted full vigil immediately after hearing about Srinagar blasts. Secondly as per reports the CCTV installed at the spot was non-functional and as such no footage is available which would have helped in identifying the culprit. It has made the job of investigating authorities rather difficult. Installation of CCTV at sensitive places has been considered a pre-requisite of introducing preventive measures. In numerous cases this device has proved of immense help. Why should it have been left dysfunctional and why was not it fixed when its dysfunction was discovered? Obviously, it is a lapse on the part of our security personnel and cannot be overlooked.
Now the secretariat has opened in winter capital. The epicentre of public activity and official business has shifted to Jammu city. A large number of people also migrate to Jammu from colder regions of both Kashmir and Jammu provinces. As such, the militants also want to keep in close touch with their network; over-ground conduits are essential component of that network. As such there are more possibilities of militant strikes in Jammu especially at crowded places, religious sites and main bazaars and squares. Police will have to be extraordinarily vigilant to forestall any attempt of miscreants to disrupt peace and tranquillity in the State. Owing to pressure maintained by the army and the security forces on their activities, the militants are desperately looking for opportunities of disrupting peace in the State. The local chapters of underground militants are under great pressure from their masters across the border to get activated and create a mischief here and there so that fear and uncertainty prevail. They have partly achieved their objective by issuing threats to the elected panchs and sarpanchs, and obstructing the Wular barrage project. Now they are attempting to create confusion in civil society. The right way of handling this situation is that on the one hand the police need to streamline security measures in full and on the other hand deal sternly and decisively against the culprits when proved guilty. As long as culprits go scot-free recurrence of subversion cannot be halted.
Follow our WhatsApp channel