Kashmir will never be at peace after the death of Shujaat Bukhari, a moderate and balanced voice who knew the ground reality and worked tirelessly for a peaceful and civil engagement of stakeholders, persuading everybody that the further they drifted away from dialogue, deluged and misled by images of excesses, the worse their future would be. Nor will it forget Aurangzeb, the Army jawan who was home to celebrate Eid and who had donned the uniform to reclaim the rule of law and eliminate the violence that has viciously preyed upon the state. Expectedly, the ceasefire will end with a strict punishment of the perpetrators and a restrictive agenda to soothe a rage that has inflamed everybody across the spectrum.
Expectedly Pakistan will start its propaganda machine, as it already has, implying that the killing was agenda-driven when the hawks it sponsors clearly did it to derail the first unilateral ceasefire in years. While the state government and the security forces held all provocations at bay during the past few days, younger Kashmiris — battle-weary and scarred by losses — were actually taking the first tentative steps to engage positively. They were responding to the compassionate gesture with the belief that perhaps they would have a say and be heard. The killing has vaporised all goodwill and intent. However, let’s remember Bukhari’s mission and hope that despite the worst kind of exported maladies, Kashmiris themselves stay determined to forge their own path. unintimidated. Or indoctrinated. Otherwise, it will be a descent into another chaos.