Saturday witnessed yet another senseless killing of an innocent Kashmiri pandit and again the whole of the Kashmiri society is in shock. This time the killing happened just some meters away from an army installation when gunmen entered the Choudhrigund area of shopian and shot at a Kashmiri pandit from point-blank range. This is perhaps the sixth or seventh killing of such nature this year and nobody knows when it is going to start.
Kashmiri Pandits must be equally in shock as the cycle of killing that started some years ago doesn’t stop despite police and army acting very tough against anti-national elements and those who have been fomenting trouble in Jammu and Kashmir. In the same shopian district, some two months ago a Kashmiri pandit fell to the bullets when he was working with his brother in their apple orchard and was fired upon, leaving one of them dead and another injured.
The only mistake these people have made is that they stayed back in the nineties when all other pundits left the valley for safety and security. These people have been living their life very peacefully and sharing all the joys and odds with their Muslim neighbors. We as a society have many questions to ask ourselves every time such a killing happens in Kashmir because these people let go of all their relatives and near dears but decided to stay back with us, their neighbors. We owe them a commitment and the commitment is that we as a society have to rise up to the occasion and ask the perpetrators of these heinous killings that we cannot tolerate this anymore.
History will not forgive us if we do not show our resentment and take some concrete steps in safeguarding the lives of a minute minority, whom somebody is trying to decimate. We have to be very vocal in condemning the killings of these innocent pundits and try every bit for protecting them. Let’s act or we will get a bad name in history.
