Jammu, October 23: There was a news item somewhere that a former militant commander has threatened Kashmiri Pandits returning Kashmir saying they will not be allowed to return. The threat obviously has evoked strong reactions from various quarters particularly Kashmiri Pandits who have challenged the threat saying times have changed and nobody can stop them from returning to Kashmir but on their own terms and conditions.
Now there are several questions attached to it and the first one is whether Kashmiri Pandits would actually return to Kashmir as proposed by the Government of India under its return and rehabilitation plan which till date has met a cold response except of course the employment package which too is in quandary.
The second question is why a sudden threat when till date even strongest of separatists and terrorists were not uttering a single word against their return knowing well that opposing Kashmiri Pandits return to Kashmir would go against the international conventions where they have already lost the battle of ideas.
The third and the most relevant question is why these terrorists suddenly raise their heads despite the fact that government wants us to believe that everything is under control and the answer that security observers give us is that this is one of those mistakes that India has been committing since Independence in Kashmir.
They say that it was during Kandhar hijacking when Mushtaq Zargar alias Mushtaq Latram and Maulana Masood Azhar who were lodged in J&K jails were released in exchange of the hijacked passengers during which the then chief minister Farooq Abdullah had shouted loudly on AS Dulat saying it was a big mistake to release these people.
The problem actually begins from the point political interference in the course of law comes into effect and law is circumvented to allow political appeasement, short term gains and lack of futuristic vision among politicians as well as the administrators managing the security affairs of the state.
They say that if the law of the land was allowed to reach to the conclusion the situation might have been different and we would not have seen emergence of Maliks, Shahs’, Latrams, and others of their ilk who were allowed to go scot free instead of numerous FIRs registered against them which included waging war against the state, rape, abduction, killing and other heinous crimes but somehow all these things were conveniently forgotten to let them led a normal life encouraging them to treat the law as their own fiefdom.
This the observers say would lead to further chaos in future as they know whatsoever crime they commit they would get political immunity later on thus making mockery of the law.
There are certain quarters among the intelligentsia who are questioning the status of the FIRs against these terrorists registered during the peak militancy particularly in 1989 and 1990 adding government must come out with a detailed reply of what happened to those FIRs.
One of the intellectuals said that he was planning an RTI to seek reply to his numerous queries regarding the FIRs against these people during militancy and their status to see whether they been taken to logical end or forgotten in the way?
They feel that government must stop patronizing separatism, anti-social and anti-national activities of any kind and let the law takes its own course instead of giving political immunity if at all it wants to save the future generations from criminal chaos.