Pain has become part of life with over 10 million people of the state. People in Kashmir province and hilly districts of Jammu have been worst affected; there has been hardly a day during the past few years when they have not suffered a tragedy and lived through most agonized moments. To the long list of mourning another black day was added on the past Sunday. In the South Kashmir, which has been bleeding continuously for almost three years more than a score of the families were coerced to live in agony for the rest of their lives after they lost their dear ones. In the desolate Laroo area of Southern Kulgam, seven non-combatant citizens and three combatants were killed. Another thirty residents, who had gathered at the scene of an exchange of fire between army and militants were wounded. The eyewitness accounts suggested that the house in which militants were hold up went into flames before troops retreated and people rushed to douse the fire. Most of the deaths of the civilians happened when a bomb near the house went off. The police statement corroborating the reports stated that some ‘had apparently’ fiddled with some explosive device leading to an explosion.’ There has been widespread condemnation against the killing across the political dived. Those who expressed their grief and concern over the massacre also included the security grid. The death of civilians due to a blast of the explosive device near the house that caused most of the deaths has raised some questions. Of these the most important has been why police and security forces left the site before it was thoroughly sanitized, and if the explosive device was a land mine? For quite some time globally there has been a vigorous campaign against the use of landmines and Anti-Personal mines. So far 164 countries have been signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty. Internationally, planting of bombs in the civilian areas is not accepted. The governor administration should institute an independent inquiry to know facts behind the killings in Kulgam, and to prevent such mishaps in future it needs to take remedial measures.
Institute an inquiry
