It may be recalled that in early April this year, RSS leader Chandrakant Sharma was killed in a daring terror attack and the killers made good their escape comfortably. So far, no headway has been made in apprehending the killers. Prior to this incident, in November 2018, two Parihar brothers were killed in cold blood right around their shop. The elder brother Anil Parihar was BJP state secretary. Again, on Sept 13, terrorists struck the house of Nassir Sheikh , the PDP District President of Kishtwar, held all the inmates hostage , tied them with ropes and locked them in a room . The Bollywood type (real) drama was enacted by not only huddling the inmates into a room but their mobile phones too were snatched. The PSO about which the militants made enquiries and learnt that he had left was later arranged to be called to the house which was under ‘siege’ by the outlaws only to seize his service rifle and magazine. The militants, like cowards again made Bollywood style escape reportedly in the car of the inmates and till now, they continue to remain out of the strong net of the Police.
Should the Administration and the Police not take it as a challenge to sternly deal with the militants who want to raise their ugly heads again in Kishtwar and neutralise those wielding weapons with intent to terrorise and even kill ? Should the new modus operandi that of snatching weapons or replenishing the depleting or exhausting ‘inventory’ of weapons with the militants not be taken as a challenge to fight them to the finish? Are all such acts right from last year, the third including the latest one under reference, not revealing that the writ of Pakistani sponsored terrorism and her agents in Kishtwar were gaining a foothold? How come despite the militants responsible to indulge in this incident being most wanted militants and whose posters even had been pasted in the town, remained at large and not have not been caught so far?
Kishtwar had been freed from the looming but menacing shadows of militancy and it appears that both the Police as well as the administration preferred complacency instead of being more vigilant and sensitized. The situation seems to have reached such a pass that militants’ concentrating on Kishtwar for revival of militancy appears to be their design and strategy. This all was laced with many connotations . Firstly, they want to send the message that not only the valley of Kashmir, but important regions of Jammu too were disturbed and “fighting for the same elusive cause” or in other words, the tentacles of Pakistani terrorism was spreading its hold beyond Kashmir division which has got to be defeated. Secondly, they want to collect weapons seized from within the town or nearby for attacking not only security personnel but for indulging in killings and terrorising people to stoke communal misunderstanding and tension. Thirdly, it is unlikely that they had no over ground support system which provides to them shelter, logistic support and also fuelling their extremist radical ideology and they need to be identified and caught. Last but not the least, scaring religious minorities and attempting progressively for their migration to comparative ‘safer areas’ appears to be on their agenda.
Showing open hostility and intolerance to people with variant political affiliations and lineages to the extent of using violent methods like killing them in cold blood and in the latest case, to hold hostage the inmates and snatch the weapon of the PSO, exhibited in clear cut terms that the militants were carrying out the dictates from across the border which deserves ruthless treatment from the security forces . The efforts of the administration and the security forces should be to firmly contain and halt militant resurgence in Kishtwar in such a way that the incident under reference should prove to be the last one. We, however, do not underestimate the grit, the will power and the determination of the security forces in launching a massive search to nab the militants post striking at the PDP leader’s house but would definitely comment upon the levels of the intelligence inputs and efforts of the combined task force to pre-empt such incidents based on pointed and definite information.
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