Joginder Singh
There is an old saying, every man for himself and God for us all. This is equally true for terrorism and terrorist attacks all over the world, including India, Turkey, the US, France, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan and even for the recent terrorist attack in Nice, France, where a terrorist, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, drove his lorry through crowds of people who were celebrating national day. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack.
An IS-run media outlet said that the man who drove his truck into a crowd in the French coastal city of Nice was a “soldier” of the group. Aamaq news agency cited a security source saying that the attacker “carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of coalition countries, fighting the IS.” The trucker was a French-Tunisian citizen. According to the Soufan Group which closely tracks jihadi organisations, Tunisia accounts for the highest number of foreign fighters – 6,000 – in Iraq and Syria. About another 6,000 fighters have gone to war-torn countries from Europe.
In Belgium, on 22nd March, twin bombings at Brussels airport and a subway station killed 30 people and injured at least 230. This, apart from a dozen of attacks in the US and the UK where a number of citizens have been killed by terrorists. India has since long been talking about Pakistan’s role in terrorism. However, the Western nations simply shrugged their shoulders and left it at that. Now, they are realising the danger of keeping their doors open in the name of liberalism to the terrorists and many countries have been sponsoring them.
As far as our country is concerned, it will be suffice to say that trouble in Jammu & Kashmir is inspired by our neighbour, Pakistan. It does not realise that it is doing great disservice to the Muslims by killing their own people.I am saying this based on personal knowledge. After the killing of Indira Gandhi, more than 3,000 Sikhs were massacred in Delhi and other places. While many had nothing to do with the crime, they were killed and looked upon as terrorists. A Sikh friend of mine, who was holding a top position in the Government of India, went to see one of his relative who was a Hindu. His daughters, who were less than 10-year-old, innocently asked him whether he had come to kill them. And my friend was shocked. Despite his being over courteous, none of them came near him.
It is a sad truth that for the actions of a few misguided people, the entire community suffers, as the Sikhs did. It is now for the Muslim community’s political and religious leaders to guide and make it sure that no wrong impression goes in the minds of others about Kashmiris and other Indian Muslims.
To foment trouble, Pakistan has declared a militant, who was recently killed in an encounter, as a martyr. He is really a murderer, and not a martyr, if his contribution to killings of Indians, which includes Kashmiri Muslims, as well as the Indian Army and the paramilitary and the police, (mostly Muslims) is taken to account. Most terrorists forget the fact that those who live by gun, die by gun. It does not happen only in case for terrorists, but also in murder cases. Some circumstances will expose it, just as it happened in the case of a mother killing her grown-up daughter in Mumbai. The killed terrorist may be ac martyr in the eyes of Pakistan, but for a common man, both in India and Pakistan, he was nothing more than a militant.
Such people bring an evil name to the community as that of the terrorists. At the same time, Sikhs have been extremely liberal. Just to remind that the foundation of the Holy Golden Temple, in Amritsar, was laid by a Muslim holy man, Mian Mir. Terrorism in Punjab in the 1980’s was controlled by the Sikh police and the paramilitary forces. A report says that Pakistan was humiliated on the world stage after it attempted to crank up international pressure on India on the Kashmir issue. A range of lawmakers, analysts, and diplomats called Pakistan a terrorist entity, and said that it should be denied foreign aid, and proposed that its leaders, including its military generals, be sanctioned and stopped from traveling to the US for consistently cheating the world community on terrorism. A congressional hearing in Washington and the United Nations General Assembly were the forums for Pakistan’s public shaming after its representatives tried to rake up the Kashmir situation in the wake of the violence in the Indian State.
It was a well-planned strategy by Pakistan and its supporters in Kashmir to throw out the non-Muslims from the valley in the 1990’s. Instead of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Government stopping the out flux, from Kashmir of non-Muslims, the then Government of India and the Jammu & Kashmir Government turned Nelson’s eyes. In the name of mollifying the situation, even legal action, which should have been taken, was ignored. The result is the present situation in Kashmir. It is another name if appeasement that the then Government is willing to talk to anybody. Despite a number of visits by the then Prime Minister, nobody came to discuss the Kashmir situation. All thanks to the incitement of Pakistan.
It is not that every Indian Muslim is a fanatic. I had the privilege of working with Muslims, as the District Police Chief in Bidar district of Karnataka. I found them to not only be loyal towards their country, but they were more than keen to deal with the anti-Indian elements and I happily trusted my life in their hands and would do so now. One of my best bosses was Abid Hussain, when I was Director at the Commerce Ministry. Of course, there will always be people in every country and religion, who think differently and negatively. Gullible people, instead of doing their own work, do other’s biddings.
But it is for us to guard ourselves and our interests, instead of swallowing of hook, line and stinker. As one swallow does not make a summer, a few fanatic Muslim terrorists cannot make the Indian Muslims as a lot, terrorists. In fact, the ideal course will be to follow Punjab example. I am sure that you would find Muslims finishing such elements, provided the Government goes hole hog, and give a free-hand to them in Kashmir. If necessary, the property and life of such people in forefront of the battle against such elements should be protected by the Government. Not only the Kashmiri Muslims, if given encouragement not only finish terrorism, but also their supporters, both inside and outside India.
