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| Everyone knows causes behind 17 deaths in Kashmir, Why inquiry? | | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 28: The NC-Congress coalition’s Cabinet on Tuesday took an extraordinary step and invoked provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Commission of Inquiry Act, 1962. The Cabinet Ministers belonging to both the parties, plus the Congress-supported MLA Ghulam Hassan Mir, who is also a Cabinet Minister, attended the meeting. Besides, approving the draft transfer policy, the Cabinet in its wisdom constituted a commission of inquiry to look into the circumstances leading to death of 17 persons in Kashmir during the clashes with the “State Police/Security Forces”, which took place on and after June 11. The newly-constituted commission of inquiry is to be headed Justice (retd) Syed Basher-ud-Din, with Justice (retd) Y P Nargotra as member of the commission. The commission has been asked to submit its report within three months.
Where was the need to constitute an inquiry commission? Doesn’t the government know what led to the police-crowd clashes and, the resultant deaths? Had not the intelligence agencies kept the government informed as to what exactly happened on June 11 and thereafter that culminated into those 17 deaths? What would the government gain and achieve out of this exercise? Has the government appointed the inquiry commission to divert the people’s attention? Only the government can answer these questions. The government is the better judge and it is within its right to constitute such a committee.
At the same time, however, people know what happened in Kashmir on and after 11. The intelligence agencies know, media persons know, ordinary men know and the powers-that-be who constituted the inquiry commission know all the more. In fact, no less than the State Chief Minister had publicly accused the PDP leadership and other “vested interests” of instigating violence and instigating the unruly mobs to attack the CRPF bunkers and confront the State Police and the CRPF personnel. So much so, he had himself said that his government will take stringent measures against those indulging in stone-pelting and similar other violent activities. This assertion of the Chief Minister was the main cause that had made the PDP to boycott the all-party meet, which was convened by the Chief Minister at Srinagar on July 12 in order to find ways aimed at defusing the situation in Kashmir.
Not only the Chief Minister, even the Union Home Secretary, G. K. Pillai, had held various elements responsible for the emergence of stone-pelters in Kashmir, whom he described as “unruly mobs”. But more than that, he had defended what the under-attack- police and the CRPF personnel did in self-defence. Various national dailies as well as several local dailies had carried stories on the police-crowd clashes, which culminated into death of stone-pelters and left several persons injured during the clashes.
The fact of the matter is that it was the “unruly mobs”, who at the behest of elements both within Kashmir and outside (Pakistan), willfully took the law of the land into their hands and confronted the State Police and the CRPF personnel on duty. These “unruly mobs” deliberately provoked the men in uniform. The objective of those who instigated the people, including young boys, to pelt stones on the police and the CRPF personnel was obviously to create a situation that would culminate in the death of civilians, including stone-pelters. Things developed in the manner the separatists and pro-Pakistan and pro-independence elements, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq wanted. Things are crystal clear and there appears nothing on the ground that remains to be inquired into.
The only worry is that the constitution of the inquiry committee may not lower the moral of the police, the CRPF, the BSF and the Army, all involved in anti-insurgency operations braving all odds. An impression is gaining ground that there are elements in the establishment who are out to help out the extremists and troublemakers by maligning the security forces and implicating them in various cause under the garb of “human rights.” Another cause of worry is that there are reports that sections in the security forces may throw away their arms in view of the treatment they are being meted out by certain quarters and ask the political establishment to handle the situation in the manner it wants. There are reports that a number of CRPF and others charged with the responsibility of fighting out militants and radicals have been booked under various charges.
The main grouse of the security forces is that they are not being protected by those who order them to contain militants and others taking recourse to violent methods. This is not a positive sign. The day the aggrieved, the angry and the unprotected security forces will say goodbye to Kashmir, it would become impossible for the political class to control the situation and one can easily anticipate the results. It is hoped that the authorities would take care of these very crucial aspects and not do anything that can endanger not only the life of political leaders, but also the national security.
Hence, it would have been better to deal with the situation as it is and isolate and book the unruly elements instead of invoking the provisions of the 1962 Act. But now that the government has already instituted an inquiry commission, it is reasonable to believe that it would be at the receiving end whatever the findings of the inquiry commission. If the inquiry commission holds the State Police and the CRPF personnel responsible for those 17 deaths, there would be disaffection among the security forces. And, if the inquiry commission doesn’t hold the State Police and the CRPF personnel responsible, the State Government would be in the dock. Let’s wait and see what ultimately happens.
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