In a span of just four days, two terror incidents took place in south Kashmir’s shopian district that resulted in the loss of four precious lives and shattering the dreams the families of the victims. These killings have again been a source of pain for the community that has been living a miserable life for last three decades. A Handful of political leaders, a bunch of religious clerics have, no doubt, condemned these killings but there is an overall silence on this issue which speaks volumes about how, as a society, we have failed those pundits who stayed back in Kashmir in the nineties and lived with us through thick and thin during all these years.
Civil society hasn’t bothered even to issue a statement condemning these in-human acts of terror. If as a society we remain silent upon the killings of a minute minority and upon the bloodshed of non-local laborers who had nothing to do with the ongoing chaos and turmoil. Choudhrigund Shopian’s local pandit Puran Kishan Bhat was busy with the harvesting of apple when terrorists came and killed him in cold blood. Just two days after this dastardly act, another attack was carried out in Herman area of the same district wherein two non-local laborers were killed when they were asleep after a hectic day at work.
Though police acted swiftly and arrested the two local hybrid terrorists who had carried the attack in Herman, The question remains why civil society isn’t showing any concern on such heinous acts and why can’t we as a society help in creating an environment wherein everybody can live a peaceful life.
Political parties like NC, PDP and others are playing on both sides of the crease on this issue. A former chief minister says that “until justice is delivered, such kinds of killings will happen”. The said leader is in way trying to legitimize the killings. PDP leaders are hell-bent upon demeaning everything that the government has been able to achieve during the last few years. The party and its leadership is now playing the Hurriyat in Jammu and Kashmir, while enjoying all the facilities by the UT administration.
Religious clerics are the ones who, by default, have a strong connection with the people and in this way they could be more effective in creating a peaceful society but in case of recent target killings, the role of clergy has been very discouraging. None of our prominent clerics has voiced a strong concern with regard to these innocent killings. There should have been protests by our clergy on roads so that we could send a strong message to the perpetrators of these heinous acts, which till now has happened.
Though security forces have done a commendable job by arresting the two hybrid terrorists involved in the Herman killings but we as a society have failed in creating a sense of security among our minority pundits and this, if not stopped will have consequences which our future generation will blame us for.
