HARI OM
The J&K administration openly sided with the rioters who terrorised a section of the people which has been living there in harmony with the rest of the population for years. The police stood mute and the Army was called in late
On August 9, radical Islamists struck in a big way in Kishtwar district of Jammu province and bloodied and convulsed its delicate socio-religious and political scene. It was a well-planned attack on the Hindus and not altogether expected. It all started at Chowgan Ground at around 9.30am after Eid prayers when the minority community objected to the raising of anti-India and anti-minority provocative slogans.
The protagonists of the State's merger with Pakistan in their thousands, armed with sophisticated weapons, indulged in arson, looting and violence on an unprecedented scale. They used 12 bore guns, petrol bottles, lathis and all other available material to set on fire shops, hotels, buses, petrol tankers, trucks, cars and commercial establishments till 7.40pm, when the Army formally moved in and curfew was strictly imposed for five hours after it was announced.
It was a free-for-all situation for almost 10 hours, as the local civil and police administration, instead of intervening to salvage the situation, allowed things to deteriorate so that the anti-India and communal forces could conduct their operation and cause fear among the members of the minority community with utmost ease. This is what the sequence of events has clearly indicated.
The worst aspect of the whole situation was that the administration openly sided with the communal and regressive forces. They didn't allow the majority-community dominated District Hospital doctors to admit the fatally injured Hindus. On the one hand, the police made no attempt whatsoever to save the minorities from the extremists, and, on the other, allowed anti-social elements to move from one market to another to vandalise the properties of minorities and attack them. That their targets were Hindus could be seen from the fact that they did not burn a petrol tanker because they anticipated damage to the adjacent houses belonging to the majority community in the region.
The indifferent attitude of the police administration forced minorities living in the majority community-dominated areas to flee from their houses and take shelter in some safer areas, as rampaging mobs roamed freely, carrying weapons and lathis in their hands. Even shops close to the officer of the Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar, and police station were burned down and damaged in front of police, which watched the scene as a mute spectator. The police was reportedly directed "not to open fire to avoid casualties". It was only after 8pm that things could be brought under some control, and it happened only after the Army took charge of the situation.
The situation as it prevails today in Kishtwar district is worse than what it was in Kashmir in early 1990s, when the Kashmiri Hindus and thousands of Sikhs left their age-old habitat and migrated to Jammu and elsewhere in the country to escape the wrath of radical Islamists. They quit the valley to escape physical liquidation and save the honour and dignity of their daughters and sisters, leaving behind everything and becoming refugees in their own motherland. Most of them continue to languish in various refugee camps even after 24 years of their forced exodus. They would have gone back to their original homes, had the administration nipped the evil in the bud, reined in extremist and regressive forces and eliminated the scourge of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, or had they accepted the extremists' offer to join the anti-India crusade.
But it was not to be. For, there were elements in the establishment in Jammu & Kashmir and New Delhi who considered the minorities as an obstacle in the way of secessionists and, hence, they did not do anything which could induce the internally-displaced people to return to Kashmir. And as for the minorities, they despised and abhorred the radical Islamists' offer, as they were, and continue to be, religiously committed to India. They have linked their destiny with India - for better, for worse.
It bears recalling that the Kashmiri separatists, backed to the hilt by their masters from across the border, had also then tried their best to extend their tentacles beyond the Kashmir valley, especially the adjoining areas like Kishtwar, where the proportion of Hindus and Muslims is 45:55. Between 1990 and 1994, the radical Islamists caused bomb blasts in the sensitive areas of the erstwhile Doda district of which Kishtwar was a part, and eliminated more than 200 Hindus, including women and children.
In between, some Hindu families did migrate to safer areas, but returned to their homes and hearth by the beginning of 1995. All this could happen because the BJP succeeded in convincing then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and then Union Home Affairs Minister SB Chavan of the need to set up Village Defence Committees and arm its members (all Hindus) with weapons. Indeed, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, plus Jammu & Kashmir Governor KV Krishna Rao, and the Opposition BJP worked in tandem to stem the rot and restore people's confidence in the system.
The situation in Kishtwar and adjoining areas where the Hindus and the Muslims are almost evenly balanced, remained under control till June 2008, when the people of Jammu province started a massive movement aimed at forcing the authorities in the State and at the Centre to return the illegally snatched Baltal land in Kashmir to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for creating additional facilities for the Amarnath pilgrims. The separatists in Kashmir, like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, and so-called mainstream Kashmiri leaders like Mr Omar Abdullah, did all that they could to arouse communal passions in Kashmir and the adjoining Muslim-majority areas of Jammu province, including Kishtwar.
The statements of Kashmiri leaders like Mr Abdullah, that "We will not give an inch of land to the Shrine Board, as the land belongs to us", did vitiate the atmosphere to an extent. Nobody, not even the Congress, found anything wrong with that atrocious statement. In fact, the Congress even at the Centre extended full support to Mr Abdullah over the remark - just as it continues to do so now over the Kishtwar incident.
Ever since January 5, 2009, when he took over as Chief Minister, things have been deteriorating in Kashmir and especially in certain areas of Jammu province where the Muslims are quite numerous. The reason is that he and his associates have been raising the issue of J&K's accession to India and asking New Delhi to start negotiation with Pakistan so that the so-called issue of Kashmir is settled politically. Just look at his March 25 statement on the floor of the Legislative Assembly and see for yourself the kind of role he has been playing, overlooking the fact that he holds a constitutional position and is required to defend the Indian Constitution and territorial integrity of the country.
The Kishtwar incident has to be viewed in the context of the activities being indulged in by the National Conference-Congress coalition Government in the State. Time is running out, and running out very fast. There are cogent reasons to believe that unless some overt moves are made, the best opportunity for any action would be lost for ever.
The Government of India must rein in the NC-Congress coalition Government, which is the mother of all ills afflicting the sensitive and strategic Jammu & Kashmir.
Courtesy: The Pioneer
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