Either the situation after Burhan Wani’s killing was deliberately blown out of proportion or it was mishandled on the ground. Nevertheless, the mourners should not have been stopped from attending the militant’s funeral
Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was neither the first militant leader to be killed in Jamu & Kashmir nor will he be the last one. Thousands of militants, including senior commanders, have been killed in Jammu & Kashmir in the past 27 years, ever since the eruption of militancy in the State.
Wani was not the first militant commander for whom the Government had announced a reward of Rs10 lakh. Earlier too, many militant commanders had invited huge bounty on their heads but there was no hue and cry when they were killed.
There are many contradictory versions from security forces which raise questions about the prominence of this militant who has invited world attention. As per police sources, he was not involved in any major attack on the security forces. Also, there is no information on whether Wani had crossed the border for arms training, as it had been the case for other local militants. Wani was not even a long surviving militant.
As per police records, he joined the local militant ranks only in 2010, when he was just 15-years-old. The day he was killed in a brief encounter ie July 8, he was only 21-years-old. And as per police records, he spent only five years on their field, during which he spent most of the time playing cricket in the forests of Kashmir and posting his pics on social media. As per earlier claims, the police and the security forces always said that he was just a ‘paper tiger’.
Now the question is: Why did at least more than 40 people offer their lives and nearly 3,000 were injured, some of them critically, during their protests against the killing of this militantIJ There is another question which haunts many people: If Wani was not a dreaded militant and just a paper tiger, why did the Government declare a reward for his captureIJ There are many more related questions which need answers .
There can be two possibilities: Either the entire issue was deliberately blown out of proportion by the Forces or mishandled by the State administration and its officers on the ground. The reason is best known to the Government and its Forces as to why this ‘paper tiger’ had so many followers.
Earlier, there was a trend that whenever any militant was killed by the security forces, his dead body was handed over to the locals for last rites, and there was no restriction on the people while performing the last rites of the militant.
But in this case, the story was different. After killing Wani, the Government started halting people who were on their way to participate in Wani’s last rites. I am not sure whether the people attended the funeral voluntarily or were forced to do so.
let us assume that the people voluntarily participated in Wani’s last rites. Resultantly, they clashed with the security forces. What went wrong in hereIJ
Had the supporters not been stopped, there wouldn’t have been a clash or may be so many causalities. People would have returned to their homes by evening and the situation would have been normal by next day.
What was the big deal if lakhs of people wanted to participate Wani’s funeralIJ Was this funeral procession any political threat to anyoneIJ The answer is ‘no’.
It has been more than two weeks that Wani has been killed, but the valley is still on the boil. And it is not for Wani. Each day, the protest is against the killings and atrocities of the previous day.
And this practice has been going on for a long time. Thousands of people have been killed beside hundreds have been rendered blind due to the use of pellet gun fires.