After a lull of about decade and a half, one more incident of suicide attack was witnessed on 14th February 2019 on National Highway near Letapora, Awantipora when a bus carrying a component of Central Reserve Police coming from Jammu was attacked by the suicide bomber killing more than forty jawans of the Force. It was apparently a lone wolf attack carried out by a militant affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammadi militant outfit operating in Kashmir. Needless to mention there are two differences between the earlier suicide attacks and the present one : firstly, that in the earlier cases, the bombers were mainly foreign militants whereas in the present case it was a local Kashmiri boy hailing from nearby Kakapora, Pulwama area who rammed his car, which was loaded with high power explosive material, into the ill-fated bus; and secondly, that the earlier attacks took few lives whereas present one claimed forty odd lives (and still counting) and turning the bus carrying the jawans into ashes.
Immediately after the incident was reported by the electronic media of the country, the affected families obviously started wailing and the politicians, obviously with the forthcoming parliamentary elections in view, started floating inflammatory and provocative statements which resulted into yet another cycle of terror launched against the Kashmiri Muslims living in various parts of the country. They, once again, became the target of harassment, assault and abuse of the lumpens in many cities of the country. Even the vehicles belonging to Kashmiri Muslims were burnt in broad day-light in the full public view in one of these cities by anti-national goons. Not being in tune with the tenets of Islam, majority of Kashmiri Muslims disapproved the gruesome killings, barring a section that though cited the reasons behind such ghastly incidents, yet did not approve this incident. I am confident that the majority of these Kashmiri victims too might have condemned this gory suicide bombing in the heart of their hearts, yet not withstanding this, they too had to face the wrath and the fury of these unscrupulous elements. I fear some of them resorting to extreme measures as a consequence of such maltreatment.
India, being a pluralistic society with diverse ethnic, cultural, religious, regional and linguistic heritage, has provided fertile land for inception and propagation of a variety of faiths since time immemorial. The essence of Indian nationalism, therefore, lies in the peaceful coexistence of all shades of people belonging to different faiths. This is the main reason for India to have opted for secular statecraft. Unfortunately, with the advent of British rule in India, and the ‘Divide and Rule’ policy adopted by them to perpetuate their colonial rule in the country, bred hatred among various communities living in India. The two major communities, i.e, Hindus and Muslims, fell victim to this abominable policy of the opportunistic British. The wedge between the two parties led to the outbreak of communal riots from time to time in the country. The worst type of communal carnage was witnessed even on the eve of independence. The communal divide fuelled the partition of India and ultimately creation of state of Pakistan. This divide continued even after the independence of India.
Rather than identifying the fault lines and the remedial measures, thereof, in the present case of suicide bombing, the government, as usual, lambasted the ISI to smartly get out of the embarrassing situation. True, ISI is paid by its people to indulge in such activities, but who pays us to divide ourselves in the name of religion? We have been providing fodder to the ISI by dividing India, among other things, on the basis of religion. Be it the demolition of Babri Masjid, communal carnage in the aftermath of serial bomb blasts in Mumbai, vandalism of church properties, the communal holocaust in Gujarat after the Godhra incident, the lynching of Muslims and others in the name of ‘Cow’, beating Muslim youth in the name of ‘Love Jehad’, forcible conversion of people in the name of ‘Ghar Wapsi’ etc. perfectly fit in the game plan of the ISI. The introduction of ‘Triple talaq’ and the Citizen bills in the Parliament by the government itself in the name of Hindutva, the frequent attacks on Kashmiri students studying/working in different parts of the country or else now terrorising the innocent Kashmiri Muslims across the board in various cities of the country in the name of nationalism is an addition in the cause list of the ISI. Alas! We Indians have unwittingly fallen into the trap of this ISI game plan. We provide them inflammable substance to ignite it, the flames whereof is not only seen in Pakistan but are visible in other Muslim countries as well. It is, therefore, the bounden duty of the government to take immediate steps to arrest the present trend of attacking the Kashmiri Muslims across the country besides reining in the communal and pro-terror elements to serve the ends of real nationalism. The politicians must understand that their provocative statement in such situations may have short-term gains for them to tweak the forthcoming elections in their favour but it may prove to be a suicidal attack of different nature on the integrity of the country in the long run.
(The author is former IGP Kashmir)
aminshahig@yahoo.co.in