It's bad enough that Kashmiri locals feel so hopeless as to turn to suicide bombing, and harassment and unjust retaliation won't help
Police personnel block the road in Srinagar even as the members of People's Democratic Party (PDP) protest on Sunday against the harassment of Kashmiris following the Pulwama terror attack. Pic/PTI
The suicide bombing of a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, Kashmir, that left 40 dead on Thursday was a horrific tragedy. During the past five years, death has become a daily affair in Kashmir, be it from attacks on the military, para-military or local police, or in shoot-outs with insurgents, or the killings of civilian bystanders. Only a mass killing wakes the rest of us to the grim misery of existence in Kashmir.
Reactions to Pulwama have been unsurprisingly banal, if not shameful, like the sporadic mob violence against Kashmiri youngsters in north India. It only serves to remind us how nasty we Indians can be, collectively, against our own — even if we are cowards when it comes to the US or China. On social media, inexplicably, some Indians target non-Kashmiri Muslims, though it has been repeatedly established that no religion sanctions terrorism. Also targeted is the usual gang of liberals, leftists, students, intellectuals, secularists, etc. I'd much rather openly identify with the latter than with the navel-gazing, middle-class, couch potato.
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There is much talk of an intelligence failure — that the government believed an attack imminent — and of a failure to meet a CRPF request to airlift its 2,500-plus personnel from Jammu to Srinagar for deployment. The real question to be probed, however, is: how did the explosives get into the Valley? Reportedly, a Scorpio carried a massive amount of RDX into Kashmir which was used by a local boy, Adil Ahmed Dar, in the suicide bombing. This is startling, and needs to be thoroughly investigated. One, how was the RDX sourced — I hear it wasn't smuggled from across the border, it was procured locally. But such material is hardly available at a local kirana shop. It might have come from an official facility. Two, how did a large amount of explosive smuggled in a SUV slip through the tight security cordon around Kashmir. There is either connivance or corruption, either of which punctures the claim of our being a strong, muscular state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the massacre will be avenged, and that he has given the military a free hand. But when did the military not have a free hand? And free to do what? If you tell a General he has a free hand, he will undoubtedly ask you what our political objective is. Revenge is not an objective, it is an emotional fulfillment, and fortunately governments do not operate on emotions, but according to the national interest. Also, revenge is too broad — how do you calibrate the right tit for tat? Is it a surgical strike against a few terrorism training sheds? But then it has snowed so much along the LoC — the heaviest in years — that an on-ground operation is out of the question for a month or two. Hopefully, the snow will cool emotions during that period. Anyway, each time you publicise a surgical strike, your political dividend faces the law of diminishing returns. As does the electoral dividend, particularly since the do-or-die parliamentary election is just weeks away from being announced.
Additionally, it is likely the Pakistan army will be bracing for a surgical strike, or even a more daring action like that to bomb the Bahawalpur headquarters of the Jaish-e-Mohd, the group that immediately claimed responsibility for Pulwama. Our army may seem ready to meet any escalation, and though the army chief has on occasion declared that the army is ready to fight a two-front war — against Pakistan and against China — Modi won't draw China into a fight at any point. Though the US may say India is free to extract some form of payback, India has limited choices. Modi has painted himself into a tight corner: unless he does something macho, he is likely to lose the next election.
There is talk about diplomatic isolation, and economic sanctions. However, such was tried after the attack on Parliament in December, 2001. Nothing worked. The fact is that the world pays us lip service — statements from embassies and homilies from high officials are cheap, but in the end, India is left to fend for itself.
Most worrying is the fact that the suicide bombing was carried out by a local Kashmiri. This has only happened once earlier, in 2017, and previous suicide bombers were from across the border, paid by the ISI or their tanzeem to carry out a suicide mission in Kashmir. That the Kashmiri feels so alienated and hopeless that he tur ns to suicide bombing is a bad omen. Anyone can be targeted. Modi's "free hand" to the army will basically end up being used against Kashmiri civilians. Kashmir is locked in a vicious cycle of death, and the rest of us are doing nothing to help. It's hardly becoming of an emerging power.
Aditya Sinha's latest book, The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace, co-written with AS Dulat and Asad Durrani, is available now. He tweets @autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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