The situation in the valley is fast deteriorating and reaching alarming proportions, notwithstanding the cosmetic treatment being given to it here and there. You need not  scratch the surface to reach the rot. Instead it is fast coming to surface with all its ugliness causing annoyance and abhorrence to everybody with a human heart. Human rights violations are continuing unabated with vested interest in the situation flourishing and the alienation of people reaching alarming levels. Innocent youth continue to be killed sometimes for the sake of promotions and medals, as in the case of fake Machil encounter and some times for being a part of protesting mobs, and many times for just being around a place of protest, rally or where a demonstration would be going on. The recent heart-rending killings of Inayat Khan of Dalgate,16 years, Wamiq Farooq 13 years, Zahid Farooq of Nishat, Zubair Ahmad age 17 years of Sopore, where fresh in the saddening memories of the people, the authorities added yet another heart breaking incident of Tufail Matoo's killing to the list of innocents losing their precious lives. Tufail was a class 12Lh student the only son of his unfortunate parents, was killed for none of his faults. What was his guilt? He was not with a gun to kill anybody even then he lost his precious life leaving his parents with a wound that will never heal and giving pain and agony to all others with a human heart. In the same way other young boys continue to be killed, the recent example of two youth of Sopore being shot dead by the Army is only once again illustrative and not exhaustive.

After all why do our people fall to the bullets or teargas shells and teargas canisters being fired every now and then by the CRPF, Police and other paramilitary forces. All these killings would be matter of shame to a civilized society and a responsible administration but here in this part of the world we have ceased to be human beings, the administration has become a big bunch of incompetent people who neither fear the Almighty God nor the laws of the land, that is why on the slightest provocation or on mere expression of resentment or a demonstration thereof, the forces here resort to indiscriminate use of force, force completely disproportionate to what the situation would demand.

In the civilized societies or countries governed by what may be called rule of law opening fire, bursting teargas shells and canisters, using batons and beating people like animals (incidentally beating even an animal is an offence in many civilized countries provided the animal also belongs to the civilized countries) is unknown not to speak of being illegal only, but here even madness has lost method, otherwise they say even madness has a method. Ordinarily even while dealing with a grave law and order situation the forces have to follow a definite standard of operation, for instance they cannot open fire on unarmed mobs because even in worst situations while dealing with unarmed mobs the forces have to use all methods to disperse the mob without causing bodily injuries and when situation becomes worst and there arises a need to open fire the forces have first to fire in air and if this fails then they have to fire towards the lower limbs of the bodies so that the vital parts of the bodies are spared but here the forces invariably hit the vital parts of the body like abdominal, chest and head.
Unfortunately hitting the vital parts of the bodies resulting in instant deaths has become a rule here rather than exception. The softer and legal means of dealing with the mobs has become a thing of past here in this part of world. The use of excessive force absolutely disproportionate to what the situation would demand is the order of the day. Does all this speak volumes about the lack of training of the police and other forces and total lack of leadership on spot from the senior police and CRPF officers or is this being done deliberately. Normally the constabulary in such situations must act under the orders of Gazetted police officers or a magistrate but every time the situation assumes alarming proportions in terms of innocent killings the Gazetted officers of police and CRPF continue to be conspicuous by their absence. This is all the more agonizing and annoying when we have a large Army of officers of the rank of SPs, DSPs, and DIGs (Incidentally the mettle of which the stars and other badges are made has become costlier because you see large numbers of men in police and CRPF adorning this metallic stuff in the shape of stars and other badges with zero performance), all these officers keep enjoying and sipping tea in various control rooms and other places while their untrained constabulary keeps battling the mobs. This speaks volumes about the very low standards of leadership in CRPF and police.

This takes me to another most important and equally disturbing aspect which is the absence of political inputs and initiatives in dealing with situations that often occur in our state, with no political inputs into the situation and the political initiatives conspicuous by their' absence the Aam Admi has been left at the mercy of the brute force.   Has the political leadership become so inefficient as to become subservient to the leadership of the forces and the bureaucracy?
(Manzoor Ahmad Ganai is Advocate, J&K High Court)

Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST