BLUNT BUTCHER / ANCHOR
Kashmiri stone-pelters have been caught red-handed on camera while attacking young school children near Shopian to express their ‘anger’ over killing of terrorist Sameer Tiger by security forces. The live ‘Intifaada’ is worrisome for separatists, as they are deprived of eulogising this act as Jihad; for mainstream politicians for defining them as ‘misguided youth’ and Indian Tukde Tukde Gang for terming them as oppressed civilians. But for the video footage, all of them put together feel helpless in shifting the blame to ‘Indian agencies’ for this act of cowardice.
The Intifaada activists, a soft version of terrorists, have left a student with serious injuries. This is the spot news.
The aftermath of this incident is like sprinkling salt to injuries. Syeed Ali Shah Geelani is dismayed over targeting students by ‘some unscrupulous elements’. “Our strength lies in discipline”, he said soon after the incident perhaps sending a message that it would have been alright if policemen or soldiers had been subjected to stone-pelting instead.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq feels disturbed and “fails to understand why a school bus carrying children was targeted?”
Interestingly, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has said that perpetrators of this senseless and cowardly act will be brought to justice. What if they turn out as ‘first-time stone pelters’. In January this year only, she had announced amnesty for all first time stone pelting offenders since 2008-numbering estimated 5,500 pelters.
Omar Abdullah was perhaps the first politician to condemn the act, rightly observing, “”How does pelting stones on school children or tourist buses help advance the agenda of these stone-pelters? These attacks deserve our unequivocal condemnation and this tweet is mine. “School children attacked, tourists attacked, MLA’s home petrol bombed. Sadly Kashmir is just a steady series of bad news most of the time these days.” But what has he to say for granting general amnesty to more than 1,200 youth booked for stone throwing on 29th August 2011.
Ironically, the attack on school children did not evoke any response from pseudo secularists, candle marchers or Jhollawallas, because the BJP was not perhaps in the picture frame.
Those describing Kashmiri stone pelters as misguided youth forget that Intifaada or stone pelting is a low cost substitute for gun totting terrorism, which neither invites global criticism nor requires training and logistics. The raw material for Intifaada is radicalised youth. The major investment, however, for both terrorism and Intifaada remains indoctrination to make young people Jihadis. This is forthcoming from the neighbouring country in immense measure. Intifaada, is an Arabic term, meaning uprising or resistance or rebellion. The term, inspired by Palestine’s struggle against Israel, is often used for popular resistance to oppression. Therefore, the stone-pelters in the Valley have gained respectability of fighting for the Kashmir cause by pelting stones, as Mujahideens were doing by showering bullets. Hardcore hawk Geelani is on record having supported stone-pelting by describing it a sort of protest, which, according to him, is even being carried out in Europe. This was not only encouragement to street urchins but provocation too. Geelani also sermonises that subjecting security forces to stone pelting is reflection of the anger among Kashmiri youth against India. And, today when the demon of terror has started eating up the vitals of their own, they feel unnerved.
The attack on Shopian children should serve as eye opener for those who are used to criticise the security forces for using maximum force against ‘innocent youth’. They are, in fact, encouraging more people to fall in the trap of taking to stone pelting. Instead of cautioning them against the consequences of Intifaada, they are providing them license (by describing innocent) to carry forward their misadventure. They are not only provoking and inciting them against the security forces but by calling them innocent or misguided, they are pushing them to death trap. Today’s stone pelter graduates as tomorrow’s terrorist, whose life is measured from four years to seven years. As of now they have been assigned to play the role of second line defence for terrorists, who get trapped in encounters. It is common in Kashmir for stone pelters to surface wherever terrorists get trapped and once any of them gets killed, hue and cry is raised by describing them as civilians. Unfortunately this is being done by those in power as well. Will Kashmiris read between the lines adopted by Paki strategists and Indian pseudo secularists? Both want them to die.
