1. Home
2. Editorial

Chilling tragedy in Kulgam

Kashmir Times. Dated: 10/23/2018 4:52:58 PM

Six civilian lives could have been saved had the security forces exercised greater caution and followed due procedures

The shocking deaths of 6 civilians in a blast at the encounter site in Kulgam on Sunday highlights once again the vulnerability of the people caught in a vicious and endless cycle of violence. The circumstances in which the six civilian killings took place are a reflection of not just the suffocating situation arising from militancy and militarization and the predominant narrative of insurgency and counter-insurgency, they are also a reflection of unpardonable negligence on part of the security forces. Serious questions are being raised over the Standard Operation Procedures followed by the personnel during and after the encounter. The six are believed to have been killed in a blast at the encounter site after an encounter in which 3 militants were killed and two army men injured was over. The security personnel had used mortars and other explosives to blow up the house where the militants were hiding to kill them. According to the procedures, it is the obligation of the security forces to sanitise the entire encounter site before they leave and allow civilians easy access to the encounter site. The police has admitted in its statement that the after the encounter, locals started assembling at the encounter site and "fiddled with some stray explosive materials". Though civilians must exercise more caution in leaping for such adventurism, but the onus of abandoning an area without ensuring it was safe enough for the people is on the security personnel which miserably failed. That unexploded ammunition was left around carelessly without being detonated before they left would have affected casualties sooner or later, even if the residents of the area had shown no haste in rushing towards the site. The authorities must own up moral responsibility for its utter failure in maintaining due procedures and jeopardizing the lives of ordinary civilians.
The Kulgam incident and the recent spurt in violent activities also serves the larger lesson that use of military strategy serves no purpose other than enhancing the level of bloodshed and loss of precious human lives on all sides. Civilian casualties are not the only tragic consequences of this vicious cycle of violence. The daily repression of crackdowns, arrests and sense of vulnerability pushes young men to pick up the gun, who lose their lives, sometimes within days of joining the ranks of militants. This flawed policy is also straining the security forces beyond the acceptable levels as it constantly feeds in security personnel to maintain a conflict through brutal methods. That the ongoing conflict is resulting in increasing number of deaths of soldiers and policemen should also be a matter of concern. As coffin after coffin of a man in uniform is sent from Kashmir, there is need to introspect whether all this bloodshed could have been avoided through employment of other strategies like dialogue, confidence building and peace process. The increasing levels of anger in the Valley and the dehumanizing effects of continuum of violence would make the possibility of dialogue more and more difficult as time goes by. It is for the Centre to realise the futility of an ongoing war in Kashmir and the official attempts to tame rebellion through guns, bullets, pellets and blasts. It needs to understand that attempts towards political resolution alone can ease the tensions. Though the present Governor Satyapal Malik has been talking about the need for dialogue, this has yet to be translated into reality. The Centre too has dropped few odd such hints in the last four years but never been consistent. On the day that the Valley was horrified by the Kulgam killings, when the Governor chose to dedicate his remarks to the idea of holding fresh assembly elections, the natural question that crops up is: were the remarks an outcome of sheer callousness or was their greater method in this bit of insensitivity.