Plug Loopholes in Security

Peace in Kashmir has to be maintained at all costs. Kashmir cannot afford to lose the semblance of peace that is important for the human dignity and overall development of Kashmir in particular and Jammu and Kashmir in general. Enemies of peace in Jammu and Kashmir have been desperately working to destabilise Kashmir so that a message is sent that conflict is on. This cannot be the agenda of the well-wishers of Kashmiris. After all, what will violence bring to the natives of Kashmir. It will drag Kashmir into the quagmire of economic loss and bad word of mouth leading to fear among the investors and tourists who enable multiplier effect in the overall economy of Kashmir. This will ultimately lead to the end of livelihood to the various service providers whose bread and butter thrives on various economic activities based on the influx of tourists and the business players. Over the years there has been a tremendous interest being generated among the people all across India and abroad to join hands with Kashmiris to bring business boom. This has generated confidence and nurtured conviction in the top players of Indian business to launch various projects from the valley. But those who want to derail the economic well-being of Kashmir and hence, Kashmiris are hell bent to spoil this new hope after decades of conflict. Targeted killings have been catalysed to engineer fear among the people. Especially the non-locals and non-Kashmiris so that a message is sent that they are not welcome. But it goes to the credit of these people that they have immense faith in the Kashmiris who value the services of these people. Common Kashmiris have indeed been courteous and that is why these workers from outside have felt at home in Kashmir. It is this relationship that is being wrecked by the patrons of terror controlled from Pakistan through their Over Ground Workers (OGW).After the assumption of the democratically elected new government there has been an effort to infuse a sense of violence. This can be gauged from the multiple attacks at various locations. Another act of this violence has appeared in which two non-local workers have been shot in the Magam area of Badgam district in Kashmir. The victims have been identified as Usman Malik and Sofiyan belonging to Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.. The victims were taken to hospital and are said to be stable. This incident of targeted terrorism has come to the fore after the 20th October attack near the Z-Morh Tunnel in Ganderbal district of Kashmir valley. In this spree of targeted killings another non local was injured in Tral area of Kashmir on 24th October. After these repeated attacks it is clear that those who execute these inhuman acts are targeting the non-locals irrespective of their religious faith. This must send alarm bells. These acts of barbarity need not only to be condemned but ended by doing a course correction at the policy level. There is a need for a comprehensive anti-terrorism strategy that pre-empts such inhuman acts and saves precious lives. A few days ago the Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha reviewed the security preparedness to end such acts with the top brass of administration and police. The onus lies on the security grid and the intelligence agencies to plug the loopholes that are helping terror modules to act with impunity. Otherwise, both the peace loving locals and the livelihood earning non-locals will be vulnerable and made targets for no fault of theirs.