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| Govt.needs to put to rest fears over threats to Sikhs. | | | The state Government is yet to come out with a statement on whether the recent letters threatening sikhs in Kashmir to leave the valley were genuine or fake.Though repots says that these letters were the machinations of a small group of antinational elemenets still the Government needs to set at rest fears that have developed over the issue.Those who believe that the threats were not the handiwork of some misguided elements but the result of a calculated attempt by the extremists to force the Sikhs out of Kashmir refer to the none too old incident of a manhandling of a sikh youh in Tral.But majority of people in the Kashmir valley are of the opinion that during the last 20 years no attempt had been made to scare away sikhs from Kashmir.They explain that Sikhs have been living a comfortable life in the valley and never have been told to join either the separatist camp or quit the valley.Yes,the extremists and the militants had forced over 20,000 sikhs to
migrate to the plains in 1990 when over 3.50 lakh Pandits left the valley because of scare and on account of militant attacks on the community in which over 250 pandits were killed between 1988 and 1990.About 18,000 Sikhs had been registered with the Relief commissioner.And within next two to three years majority of the sikh migrants had returned to their houses in the valley.No doubt their return to Kashmir had been facilitated by a senior Akali leader,Simranjeet Singh Mann,who,travelled from Amritsar to Srinagar and discussed the issue with senior separatist leaders.In fact Mann had issued a veiled threat which did the trick.And since there there has been no prolem with the Sikhs living in Kashmir.yes,since 1990 they are apprehensive of the activities of militants and hardliners among the separatists.It is out of this fear that a majority of Kashmiri Sikh families have purchased plots or houses or flats in Jammu,its neighbouring areas besides in the
adjoining Punjab
state.This has been done to have another home so that in case of some emergency they had not to face problems of the gravity and magnitude Kashmiri Pandits had to face after their migration to the plains.The issue of threats to Sikhs in Kashmir had rocked the two houses of Parliament forcing Union Home Minister,P.C.Chidambaram,to declare that the Government will take all possible steps to safeguard the interests and lives of Sikhs.This was followed by Chief Minister,Omar Abdullah's assurance to a delegation of Sikhs that had called on him in Srinagar that the Government will initiate necessary measures for ensuring safety to the Sikhs and action will be taken against those who had issued letters of threat to the Sikhs..And the leader of the opposition,Mehbooba Mufti,seems to be correct when she said that an attempt was being made to malign the Kashmir society through unfouncd threats to Sikhs.Like Mehbooba others too in Kashmir are of the view that a
small section of anti-national and antisocial elements have been behind issuing threats to the minorities in order to either tarnish the image of those engaged in struggle for azadi or malign those who stand for preservation of traditional communal amity in the Kashmir valley. One does not rule out the possibility of some elements trying to destabilise the Omar Abdullah led Government in order to plunge the state in a major political crisis and uncertainty by kicking up communal conflict and strife. This strategy has been experiment ed successfully in 1986 and later in 1990.In 1986 groups of youth attacked temples and desecrated them in south Kashmir which led to a major communal conflict forcing the centre to intervene and place the st at e under the Governor's rule.This was done to destabilise the Government headed by G.M.Shah.In 1990 over 3.75 lakh Hindus,including Sikhs,were forced to flee Kashmir which also forced the centre to impose Governor's
rule though the issue of placing the state under the central rule because of upswing in militancy related violence and communal tension was still open.It is not yet clear whether the Governor's rule was imposed only after the then Chief Minister,Farooq Abdullah r esigned,in protest against appointment of Jagmohan as Governor or because he quit finding that it was no possible for his Government to tackle the activities of militants.Whatever may be the reason for it one thing is certain that communal tension is usually engineered to foment political crisis leading to fall of the Government.Even if Chidambar am and Omar Abdullah have assured Sikhs of Government protection it may not insulate the minority community against any mischief unless the members of majority community come to their rescure at all hours.But both the state and the centr al intelligence agencies need to probe the entire matter in order to ascertain whether the letters threatening Sikh
of dire consequences if they did not participate in the struggle or get converted into Islam were genuine or fale.If genuine these agencies need to identify people and organisation that were behind this act so that they could be punished. |
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