FRAGRANCE OF IDEAS
The horrendous act of terrorism in Pahalgam-Kashmir on 22 April, 2025 shocked not only the entire nation but also the whole world. It was a brutal act that brought the entire humanity to shame because it involved not only the killings of human beings but also a peculiar methodology of brutality before the killings. Though it is not for the first time that such ethnic or religious cleansing has taken place in Kashmir, the last four decades are full of such heinous crimes against humanity therein.
The biggest and the primary victim of this terror ideology and machine is the community of Kashmiri Pandits -the indigenous people of Kashmir, who have been living in exile for the last more than 35 years in their own country. They have a long history of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was “constrained to admit that acts akin to genocide were committed against the Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir…”; it was declared so by the Commission’s Court in its decision in 1999 on a complaint-case filed by this author.
Pahalgam will go down in history for betrayal, untrustworthiness and naked brutality on innocent people who were viciously trapped, caught, investigated about their religion, tortured and killed before their own kith and kin. The killers of humanity made sure that the so-called Kashmiriyat, Insaniyat, Jamhooriat bla, bla, bla were actually a big “haivaniyat”.
The argument of some apologists all along that ‘terrorism had no religion’ was torn into bits and pieces. The Hindu tourists in Kashmir were killed only because they were Hindus and their kiths and kins were spared to tell the world the ghastly story of religious cleansing in the valley. They were also ‘instructed’ by the terrorists supported and sponsored by Pakistan, who committed crimes against humanity, to tell their story to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi as to why and how their own were brutally killed by them.
It was the reenactment of 7th October 2023 Hamas attack on a festival in Gaza-Israel, killing and kidnapping people who belonged to religions other than Islam. The ideological commitment and expertise to kill in such a fashion required intense doctrination, religious education and military training and for all these things, Madrassas, Pakistan Army and the social support played a key role to destroy Kashmir all along, and unfortunately for a long time. It is almost impossible now to turn the clock back without a complete overhaul of the situation keeping in view the local support to the acts of terrorism in the valley.
We have seen unconventional reactions coming from the people of the valley immediately after the unfortunate happenings which raises certain doubts about the veracity of these so-called protests. In context of the developments, a lot has been said and written and it remains unabated.
The immediate protests; candle marches-bandh-slogan shouting against acts of genocide in Pahalgam throughout the Kashmir valley after the tragedy seemed all orchestrated, planned in-advance, abrupt and organised. Everything was just ready to be executed but only after the gory massacre of Hindus. The protesters (the so-called mourners) couldn’t hide their smiling and laughing faces during the so-called protests and the media and particularly social media, exposed them thoroughly and profusely.
This author is reminded of 19-20 January night of 1990 when people came on streets ‘abruptly’ and raised slogans against the Pandit community asking them to leave Kashmir without their womenfolk or get converted or get killed, the infamous war-cry “Raliv-Galiv-Chaliv” is still in our ears. Everybody kept mum at that point of time and allowed things to happen in that way. The result is before us.
What was done to the Kashmiri Pandits in the valley should have been enough to learn the lessons, but the nation failed to learn those. The perception that terrorism could be defeated with tourism was unscientific and defied logic. Nowhere in the world it has happened and Kashmir could have been no exception.
The government has taken cognizance of the grave situation in Jammu and Kashmir and it has also taken some important steps as a consequence of the tragic incident. More steps are expected to be taken in the coming days. The whole nation stands outraged and people have reacted and responded accordingly. Our nation and its government are due for certain decisions and actions for which we all need to have a clear vision about our past, present and future.
It is time to change gears. There is no need to buy the biggest joke of the world that ‘terrorism has no religion’, it has. This is Islamic-Terrorism, unless we recognise it like that, our fight against it can’t yield the desired results. The Muslim community needs to know it more than anybody else. They need to know how their religion is projected by their own people to destroy their moral ground as a part of the civilized world.
There is a need to go for an all-out operation against it; the whole nation will support the government in this regard. The mood and resolve of the nation is somewhat different this time. But terrorism will continue in one or the other fashion because for Pakistan it is a perpetual low-cost game that is being fought on someone else’s ground. They aren’t going to stop it.
We need to be determined to fight it to the finish but while fighting this huge battle, we need not be led by any sort of confusion about it. Any sort of delusional thinking or a confused perception or a wavering mind-set about it will damage the whole process of combating the menace. It is Islamic-Terrorism that we have been fighting in one form or the other for the last hundreds of years. Only the formats have changed.
This time the nation has been hit in a different way and that is why our soul is bleeding. We don’t need to be swept away by the deceptive strategy, overtures and statements of our enemies within and outside the country. This whole low-intensity war by Pakistan and its support base in India and particularly in Kashmir is aimed at completing the unfinished task of the division of 1947. It will change faces to make us believe that it doesn’t exist the way we believe it exists. That is their part of the grand strategy that we need to know. Narratives and that too the right and correct Narratives have a great role and value in modern affairs. There is a permanent need to call a spade a spade.
The meetings at the highest level in the government hint at some important action against the state of Pakistan. Keeping in view the support within the country as well as from outside the country, the government is surely thinking of a drastic action at various levels. Virtually the whole world has come in support of India and has unequivocally condemned the terror in Pahalgam.
The decisions in regard to the Indus Water Treaty, downsizing diplomatic staff at the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi, stoppage of cross-border trade with Pakistan, cancellation of visa and curtailment of further grant of visa to Pakistan nationals and banning some media channels and other media outlets of Pakistan in India are some of the very important steps that India has already taken.
The statement of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the defence forces of the nation would be having functional freedom to act against Pakistan as and when necessary coupled with the defence preparedness at other levels are surely reassuring. But equally important to attend to for the government is the domestic sector.
The support base of Islamic terror from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala and Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh needs appropriate treatment, urgent and absolute. Vigil on the border and the LoC requires review and improvement. The breeding grounds for extremism and especially religious extremism and fundamentalism should be permanently destroyed.
The government in the interest of the security and safety of the nation and particularly the Jammu and Kashmir UT ought to explain the interpretation of its declaration in the parliament and in the Supreme Court of India that the statehood would be given back to the J&K ‘at an appropriate time’ and ‘as soon as possible’. It should make it clear to the masses in general that the statehood would be given back to the UT of Jammu and Kashmir when terrorism is completely finished in the UT.
The government must put the onus of completely destroying terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir also on the shoulders of the citizens, political class, religious bodies, NGOs, intellectuals and the civil society of Jammu and Kashmir. Such declaration in the context of statehood by the government will have its positive impact on the ground and the society in general will be accountable to itself, historically and politically speaking.
The direction of the Supreme Court of India to conduct elections for the assembly in the UT of J&K within a specified time was simply a balancing act while delivering the judgement on Article 370. This is particularly so when the main complainants in the case never asked for it and publicly disassociated themselves from such a demand. Whether the elections to the assembly have done anything good for the nation-state is for the Apex Court to ponder over, but the government is also supposed to provide its frank opinion to the Supreme Court in this connection.
The abrogation of Article 370 etc has done its job and done it well. This process needs to be taken to the logical conclusion, slowly and steadily. The government and the national political class need to take this process ahead keeping in view the long term goals of the nation and the security aspects of the entire issue.
Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the country as other states are. The way the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir are free to move, live, work and enjoy their life in any other state of India, so should the citizens of other states also be able to do in Jammu and Kashmir. The government ought to provide the necessary environment for this with both the short-term as well as the long-term targets. It is time to act on all fronts without wasting time to bring the required sanity in the socio-political environs of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
(The author is a senior BJP & KP leader, human rights defender, author & columnist and can be reached at: [email protected])
