There has been a lot of criticism about the things happening in the Valley particularly after the attack on Amarnath pilgrims on the July 10th night when terrorists killed seven of them, though they had the intention to kill more. A Gujarati Muslim driver Salim Shaikh frustrated that attempt and he was the hero of the day. Saving lives is one of the prime teachings of Islam, where the spilling of blood of innocents is deplored as a crime against humanity. The contrast was there between the attackers and the driver, both belonging to the same religion.
Kashmir has done its duty and shown its contempt for the killers. The murders were condemned in one voice, showing that the Valley is having zero tolerance for the attack on the faith of others. The original Kashmir has leaped up to its feet from the ruins that it has suffered over the past decades .
It is for the probe agencies to bring out the truth about the attack. They must make a sincere effort because the past track record in such matters is far from being satisfactory. They have been leap-frogging from one crisis to the other with a casual approach. They have blunted their investigating skills because any trace of the perpetrators of the crime involves a lot of strategic thinking and knowledge of ways to deal with crimes, and a lot of not to visible action on the ground. The history of such investigations in the past is not so encouraging.
It was not the first time that any violent incident that has shamed Kashmir took place. And, there is no guarantee that it was the last. Making predictions in a conflict situation is the job of fools. In Kashmir, there have been many spells when peace looked adopting a permanent track but then everything blew up in a matter of few hours. Any particular individual or institution cannot control the narrative in Kashmir. The history is replete with that, and a growing sense that investigations are flawed and never reach any logical conclusion is a reality. Some times, it is because of inertia and on other occasions, it is a deliberate turning a blind eye from the real time investigations. That happens in the conflict situations, where sincere and serious investigations become casualty of multiplicity of compulsion and pressures. Kashmir is no exception, and it cannot be one.
Today or tomorrow Kashmir will have to move on beyond what is happening there for its own sake . New dimensions of conflict have bared themselves in this atmosphere of mutual suspicion and contradictions that the situation has placed before the masses. They are unsure as to what is in store for them. The leadership is in disarray and the new voices of rebellion against the hitherto acknowledged leadership have started making themselves heard. They are trying to change the nature of the conflict in the manner they wish to. Combined with this is the ever-haunting crisscrossing in the minds of the people; they are unsure of the choice of the direction they should be making. They see little or no hope from the existing leadership and the new leadership that is dotting the landscape is pushing them to widen the killing field in the Valley. This is time to ponder. The intellectuals and civil society should rise to the occasion because the annihilation of culture, traditions and human lives never make any community or society vibrant. It should be clear to us.