Khalid Jehangir
The growing unrest in Kashmir and youth being radicalized has once again brought the ugly face of Pakistan to fore. The neighbouring country after losing the proxy war, which it launched in 1990 by promoting terrorism in Kashmir, is finding it hard to digest the defeat. Pakistan seems to have forgotten that it lost three conventional wars and the terrorists sent by Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir were neutralized like vegetables and they proved ineffective as our alert jawans foiled all the plans of our enemies.
After getting a befitting reply now Pakistan for the past few years has been trying to radicalize Kashmiri youth and is encouraging them to pick up guns and throw stones. The radicalization has turned youth into canon-fodder as they don’t realize that stones are no match to guns.
Recently security agencies claimed that there are 300 terrorists active in Kashmir and operations are on to eliminate them. These terrorists carrying handful of guns need to be reminded that India has got seven lakhs guns to deal with them. These militants are these days busy terrorizing the family members of the local policemen by barging into their houses.
Whenever any of the local terrorist is killed, his funeral provides a chance to elements behind radicalization and separatists to glorify their deaths and misguide the youth who are present in these funerals.
Besides glorifying these funerals these elements, who get paid by their masters sitting in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), are instigating people to assemble near the encounter sites and resort to stone pelting so as to provide a chance to terrorists to escape. Security forces have been exercising restraint but they have paid a very heavy price for exercising restraint. During the past few months more than 25 soldiers have been martyred in Kashmir in different attacks and encounters with the terrorists.
These casualties could have been avoided had not the people and supporters of the terrorists disrupted the search operations. The new trend about people hitting the streets whenever forces launch search operations to corner the terrorists is proving detrimental for the security forces.
Army top brass and other security agencies have taken a strong note of the casualties and the damage caused by the terrorists following which Army Chief, Bipin Rawat, issued an advisory asking people to stay away from encounter sites. He made it clear that if the sympathizers of terrorists are not reined in, it can have far reaching consequences and lead to a disaster. His message was clear that people helping terrorists escape would be treated as anti-nationals.
Soon after Army Chief’s statement the Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) Dr S P Vaid made it clear that “bullet knows no address” and people should not go near the encounter sites. It was a clear warning just a few days before the by-polls for the Srinagar parliamentary were scheduled to be held. On the polling day when the miscreants tried to attack the polling booths, the security forces decided to act and teach them a lesson. No doubt eight persons were killed on that day but the fact of the matter is that they were killed for instigating violence and for attacking the polling stations. People who are trying to burn Kashmir and are advocating the cause of Pakistan need to be taught a lesson. Patience and restraint are no answer.
Separatists, who are running their shops in Kashmir by selling the blood of Kashmiris, too need to be handled with an iron fist as they are also responsible for prevailing uncertainty in Kashmir. In 1990s they misled youth by making them believe that gun is the only solution and they turned Kashmir into graveyard. Now they are making the youth believe that Kashmir would get Azadi by pelting stones. The separatists are selling dreams to appease their bosses and seem to be hell bent upon turning Kashmir into yet another Syria. The security forces have been empowered to deal with the situation in their own way and within a short period Kashmir would be normal again.
(The author is BJP spokesman in Jammu and Kashmir and Fellow at International Peace Studies.
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