27 killed including children in just four days
Bullets, teargas shells, stones, fires, cries, shouts, liveless bodies,blood, blood and more of blood are some of the features that aptly describe once tranquilled valley, Kashmir, the Paradise on Earth. However, with the current crises giving no sign of end, the valley is fastly becoming 'Hell' on Earth.
It is to be noted that the people of Kashmir are on mass protests for more than a month now due to the killings of innocent people by the security forces. The killing of a 17-year-old-boy Tufail Matoo while he was on the way to home from his tuition classes on June 11 triggered the protest.
This time not only the infamous Separatists but also the civilians are on the roads demanding freedom from India and shouting anti-government slogans. It is due to the merciless killings of innocent people by the Armed Forces Special Powers' Act backed cops.To control the crises, the Government brought in 2000 troops in the state. However, in the name of restoring peace, these forces are on a kiling spree that too of innocent people. "In spite of the public stand advising the security forces restraint, people are getting killed," says Shahidul Islam, a moderate separatist. In the battle of bullets versus stones, it is obvious that the stone-armed ones are the vurnerable lot to death. 27 deaths in just four days is what the valley people is getting from the government who rather preferred the para-military forces to their own local cops for handling the crises.
Deployment of these forces should have been the last option to tackle the situation, instead the Government should have reached out to the people for a talk and should have consider their reasonable demands. This act on the part of the ruler has worsened the scenario and people, youth in majority are defying the system and have adopted the words of the Moderate Separatist Leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who said, "Protests are a fundamental right of the people and cannot be denied to them. He further said that if government uses any force against them, it will be responsible for the consequences. And now the government is facing the 'consequences' with the protest still going on.
People of Kashmir have seized the belief from the new government with a promising leader, Omar Abdullah as their Chief Minister. All their expectations led to heartaches when the CM brought in CRPF to control the angry crowd. This deployment added fuel to the fire; the already tormented people either by the government or the militants felt more tortured. The promises made to bring peace and harmony to the state during the election campaign proved to be just another fake promises by any xyz politicians. Everytime Kashmiris are ditched, that's why they have plunged in to this never-ending protest this time. And the age-old blame-game have started with everyone blaming everyone. " The problem is the gap between promise and performance." Islam says. While J&K Congress President Saifuddin Soz says, " Omar Abdullah cannot be entirely blamed as there are many actors and factors."
In the midst of this blame-game, it is only the people of Kashmir who were, are and still will be suffering. It is a high time that the rulers pull up their socks and come up with a new approach to handle this unfortunate situation before the things go out of the hand and the situation get worsened than ever. Not only these so-called leaders but also the people should get involved in bringing peace and harmony to the valley and make Kashmir once again the undoubtable Paradise on Earth.
