Gun-snatching incident of Saturday in Jammu has once again raised the questions on the whole gamut of security system. The incident cannot be taken as a stray one in which some youth committed a prank on the Special Police Officer (SPO) and snatched the AK-47 after sprinkling chili powder in his eyes. The incident also important especially when the Legislative Council and Lok Sabha elections are scheduled in the State. Though the Jammu province has not been touched by election tempo it is the Kashmir Valley where the whole democratic exercise would be conducted. Under such circumstances terrorists and their supporters would get over active and keep security agencies busy. Jammu incident has a set pattern. A Moulvi from New Delhi stays in Kashmir for three-days and nobody knows who he is and what he was doing. He comes to Jammu and three bike-borne youth snatch the rifle from the Moulvi’s SPO and two are apprehended on the spot and one escapes with the gun on the bike from a place which at any given time of the day has a good quantity of traffic and pedestrians crisscrossing the area. All this look likes a crime story on TV one everyday sees. Police as usual is confident of nabbing the main culprit whose picture they managed to get. Over the time 67 weapons, including AK-47, INSAS, Carbine, SLR, .303 rifles, have been looted and snatched from police personnel in 12 such incidents in Jammu and Kashmir. Though the strategy is not new it surely makes terrorists plan to make new recruits prove their loyalty and commitment towards gun culture and also to create public perception about demoralisation in the police forces. This philosophy is evident from the videos circulated by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Zakir Rashid Bhat, who was close to slain terrorist Burhan Wani. Zakir was in public when he said, anyone who wants to join us, he should snatch a weapon and join us. We welcome them all whole-heartedly. It looks terrorists and their symapthisers want that ‘Summer of Unrest’ which had kept the Kashmir Valley boiling for over six months in 2016 should now spread to Jammu also as the election tempo picks up in Kashmir Valley.
