BLUNT BUTCHER
JAMMU: It is paradoxical. The BJP-partnered Jammu and Kashmir Government makes no secret of assuring terrorists to facilitate their return from Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, where they had gone in early nineties for arms training and waging war against India, to come back and lead a normal life. This assurance was held out by a minister in the government to two young people and their families who met him, ironically the day thousands of Kashmir Pandit families in Jammu and elsewhere in the country were worried over welfare of their kin in the wake of one of the buses carrying them to Kheer Bhawani coming under heavy stone pelting late night at Wunpoh in Kulgam district.
What is common between the two events and incidents-welcoming so-called reformed terrorists and attacking innocent Kashmir Pandits, whose identity has now got muzzled as migrants? In 1990, Jihadis went amid much fanfare to seek training in Pakistan for liberating Kashmir form India. In the process, already trained Jihadis back in the Valley killed and forced out the whole lot of miniscule minority, which continues to languish outside the Valley in the plains of the country and even abroad. Their return has become a flashpoint for terrorists, separatists and some of the so-called mainstream politicians, whose singular objective is to keep Kashmir free from infidels. Stone pelting on a pilgrim bus, therefore, can be a subtle response to the attempts being made for return of Kashmiri Pandits. The incident, however, raises several questions, one being why the government withheld this information, leaving thousands of Kashmir Pandits spend sleepless night, as the news had already gone viral on social media? Why media chose to ignore this important development and why the self-styled tech-savvy Kashmir centric leaders did not find it worth tweeting? In the recent past, stone pelting on some truckers in Udhampur, in the wake of beef controversy, made headlines across the country and evoked response from the civil society activists, pseudo secularists and the Kashmir society at large. On the contrary, stone pelting on KP bus did not find any mention anywhere until Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti broke confirmed the incident herself in Kheer Bhawani itself.
The Chief Minister downplayed the attack as a stray-incident without realising that natives, now unfortunately migrants, had come for the first time since last year to spend a day or so at their most revered place of worship. This ought to have been taken in the same spirit. They were not returning under any organised plan of getting rehabilitated. Mehbooba Mufti described the attackers as miscreants, ignoring that highly glamourised terrorists have made their opposition known to attempts of bringing back the Pandits. It is a fashion with terrorists, separatists and mainstream politicians to sing ‘Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits’ but actually they are ones who are creating all sort of obstacles in their return. Had it not been so, the condemnation of the incident would not have come only from the Chief Minister, others would have followed the suit. Instead, Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq poured their venom against proposed resettlement of KPs back in the Valley. The latter had the cheeks to say that the proposed Pandit colony was an Israel Policy, aimed at making Kashmiris homeless in their own ‘nation’ like the way Palestinians were made. Even after 26 years, the Mirwaiz is yet to understand that if anybody has been made homeless in their nation, they are Kashmiri Pandits. The perpetrators of their miseries are enjoying better of both the worlds. It is gutless policy of the Centre, irrespective who rules the roost, to have let these dubious champions of Kashmirs go scot-free, notwithstanding amassing of huge wealth at the life and honour of poor Kashmiris. Had the Economic Enforcement Directorate of Income Tax Department been mobilized, the beneficiaries of terrorism (terrorists, secessionists and ‘mainstreamists’) would have got since exposed among their own people. Who knows, such an action would have turned as a game-changer as far as situation is Kashmir is concerned.
The stone-pelting on Kashmiri Pandits and withholding information about the incident for over 20 hours speaks of ‘sinister design’ of some elements in the administration and overall callousness of the government, as censorship generally leads to chaos and confusion. This is what happened with thousands of families in Jammu, who kept wondering about the welfare of their kin. Will the Chief Minister take cognizance of lapse on account of the law and order machinery in failing to take worried people in confidence by letting them know what actually happened Saturday night. The BJP has a reason to maintain silence even after 48 hours of the incident, as this is directly linked with survival of their government. They can’t displease the masters.
