IT’S more than a month that people in Kashmir are up against very turbulent time. The savagery witnessed on the streets of the valley leading to the death of innocent youths, triggering a mass uprising is now more than a month long. The anger is not only still palpable, it has become more pronounced as the police and other forces continue to add fuel to the fires by resorting to incessant harassment, large scale arrests of youth, framing them in false cases, and using disproportionate force. The complaints that youth are being randomly picked up and then let go only after their parents are made to cough up hefty amounts have been pouring in from across the valley; complaints explicitly say that the unscrupulous elements in police feel the present situation as a god-send opportunity for them to make killing.  The declared and undeclared curfew restrictions which are now used more frequently even on a slightest excuse has been making life hell for the people. Unmindful of the ill effects such unprecedented restrictions have on public utility services, the government have only made the life of the subjects miserable. To add insult to the injury, instead of bringing the personnel responsible for the heinous crimes to book, the wanton killings are being justified by the powers that be by laying the blame for the unrest on others. Well they may be thinking of serving some national interest by such postures. But this is no way a nation can be served. The Union and the State governments being in denial mode failed even to regret the killings till the situation became intractable. Instead of apologizing to the people for the brutal killings and initiating action against the killers, that could have diffused the situation to a large extent in the beginning of the current phase of turmoil in Kashmir, the authorities chose to defend the killings. All these days we have found the rulers trying everything at their command to craft excuses for all the mess they have plunged the Kashmir in. And the ‘popular’ government appears simply insensitive to the deteriorating situation in which the poor and daily wage earners are trapped. Given the situation it has become more than necessary for the community to rise to the occasion and save the souls of the families threatened with starvation, and facing ailments, who have no sources of income and require immediate medical treatment at prohibitive costs. We need to empathize with the families and individuals in dire conditions and help alleviate their suffering. We need to have compassion for each other to survive the situation that has now risen. It is our collective responsibility to help not only the poor but even some apparently well to do families who are faced with crises heaped on them by the obtaining situation. If the reports are to be believed there are families who for reasons of self-respect have been silently bearing the brunt of it all. Who knows how many families are facing tough times but cannot express it before the fellow community members. During past two decades of turmoil we have had similar situations confronting us but then we had welfare committees working in each locality that took care of poor and needy. These institutions started vanishing post 2001 with the beginning of comparative calm. The impact of the current situation is bound to huge and unless we do something out of ordinary we may not be in a position to prevent its long term ill effects. We need to do some soul searching to help our brethren during these hard times. We need to have credible welfare committees, and bodies comprising trusted citizens across the Valley which could take care of the needy families and individuals,
 lest any individual or family suffers for want of food or medical attention.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST