JK PANORAMA SEPTEMBER ISSUE

LET
KASHMIRIS
TAKE A CALL !
Dr Tej K Tikoo
he latest and among the most heart
wrenching images coming out from
Kashmir, which went viral on the social Tnetworking sites, is the picture of griefstricken,
five year old girl, Zohra, as she tries to
touch the coffin of her slain father. With a stark,
pain-stricken look on her face and tears trickling
from her innocent eyes, Zohra tries to call out to
her father, 59 year old Assistant Sub Inspector of
Jammu and Kashmir Police, Abdul Rashid, who
was killed by terrorists in Anantnag on 29 Aug
2017.
Sh. S S Pani, the Deputy Inspector of
Police (DIG), reacting to the picture of grieving
Zohra, wrote on his Facebook wall, “Your tears
have shaken many hearts...every drop of your
tear sears our heart.” The DIG summed up the
anger and grief of the people of the Valley at this
senseless killing of a policeman who posed no
threat to any one and was in fact only few years
away from his retirement from the Police Force.
The killing , coming on the heels of the attack by
Jaish e Mohammad (JeM) militants on the Police
Lines at Pulwama, a few days earlier, which
resulted in the killing of eight CRPF/ local
Policemen, has increasingly brought into the
focus the frustration of the militants and their
masters sitting across the Line of Control. It is
apparent that the militants, rendered incapable
or ineffective by relentless operations launched
against them by the security forces, particularly in
south Kashmir, have chosen to hit at soft targets;
unarmed policemen at traffic check posts, like in
the case of Abdul Rashid, or Police lines housing
families of police men consisting of women and
children or those guarding bank premises, etc.
During the past year or so it had become apparent
that militants have adopted a strategy reflecting
dimensional shift in their strategy. Deliberate
targeting of local policemen was not part of their
operational strategy earlier. However, things have
changed since. Killing of Lt Umar Fayaz on 9 May,
2017, and mutilation of bodies of SHO of
Achhabal Police Station, Foroze Ahmad and six
other policemen killed in an ambush in Kokernag
on 16 June 2017, lynching of Deputy
Superintendant of Police, Mohammad Ayub
Pandit outside Jama Masjid on 22 June 2017;
(incidentally, on Islam's holiest night, Shab e
Baraat), followed by the killing of many other
local policemen, indicates that red lines in the
Pakistan-sponsored militancy have vanished. A
Kashmiri is now as much an enemy as other
security forces.
Whereas the shift in the strategy of
militants is clear as day light, what surprises every
Kashmiri is the deafening silence of the
separatists and their camp followers in the Valley
over such killings. They behave as if it is not
Kashmiri blood that is being spilt. Geelani and his
and his supporters like Engineer Rashid, do not
miss an opportunity to condemn security forces
whenever they see even the slightest violation of
human rights; but here, when such brutality on
the part of militants results in the gruesome
killing of local policemen , some of whom were
14 September 2017 JK