Words not enough to condemn J&K police officer’s killing. Strong action must follow
The lynching of a senior police officer by a mob outside a mosque in Srinagar on Friday is the manifestation of communal hatred spread by separatists and their sympathisers in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. The miscreants confronted the officer with dangerous intentions for no reason except that his name read as ‘MD Pandith', and so they took him to be a Kashmiri Pandit — he was Mohammad Ayub Pandith. While there has been widespread condemnation from mainstream politicians in the State to the senseless killing, the separatists have been, not surprisingly, unambiguous, because they are the cause of the violence that has gripped the State, particularly Kashmir valley, ever since Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was gunned down by security forces months ago. Now, it's not just security personnel but also members of the Jammu & Kashmir Police that are being targeted. Weeks ago, a police officer was pushed into a river and drowned; there have been other incidents as well. Separatists and their followers have begun to target not just ‘outsiders' but also their own, in terms of belonging both to the State and to religion. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's warning that, if the situation continues to spiral in this dangerous fashion, it will be difficult to restrain the police force, should be heeded. The State police has been exercising enormous patience, primarily because it is reluctant to train its guns at one of its own. But, if the brainwashed people do not understand this sentiment, there is no point in promoting restraint. The J&K Police must be given a free hand — like the Army has been — to handle anti-social and anti-national elements. The morale of the State police must be at a low and needs to be uplifted. It is good that the Chief Minister made her presence felt when she arrived to pay tributes to the slain officer; now she must ask her police force to deal with situations with an iron hand, regardless of politics.
Mohammad Ayub Pandith's lynching demonstrates that not much has changed since the terrible months of end-1989 and early 1990s, when Kashmiri Pandits were targets of the separatists, militants and other like-minded elements. Pandits were humiliated, brutalised and killed even as the State and the Central administrations stood by and watched impotently. Thousands of Kashmiri Pandit families had to flee their homes and hearths in the valley and settle elsewhere. It was nothing short of sectarian genocide and cleansing — and the only purpose was to free the valley of non-Muslims. This allegation has been vociferously contested by the separatists in the last two decades and more, and they have been professing their affection for the Pandits and requesting them to return. But in recent weeks, the falsity has been exposed, with reports that there is an ongoing project in Kashmir valley to turn the place into a sort of caliphate — where non-Muslims are, naturally, unwelcome. It's sickening to repeatedly hear the invocation of the Sufi and liberal traditions which Kashmir has been known for. Those who do so may well be talking of some ancient era. The reality today is harshly different. We need to understand and accept it, and only then can solutions be had.