DNA Edit: Dove days are over

On a day when millions of Indians are still reeling with incomprehension as they attempt to come to terms with the dastardly attack that saw the lives of nine pilgrims recklessly snuffed put, the J&K Human Rights Commission has awarded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to Farooq Ahmad Dar, allegedly a stone-pelter and a ringleader who was instigating a mob to decimate a polling booth in Kashmir’s Budgam district in April this year. To feel a helpless wave of outrage wash over you is only natural.

Even as hundreds of soldiers keep vigil on the border, paying for our freedom with their life and limb, and even as the number of innocent lives lost continues to mount with each passing day, the state HRC, in its wisdom, has seen it fit to demoralise the very institution that protects its hallowed corridors. Reports filtering in from the Amarnath tragedy have suggested that the insurgents were looking to target the police officers deployed for protection of the pilgrims and not the pilgrims. However, another report by the Press Trust of India puts paid to this hypothesis.

According to the report, the Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Zone) in a letter to the Army, the CRPF, and other DIGs had cautioned them about new intelligence inputs on how terrorists were seeking to “eliminate 100 to 150 pilgrims and about 100 police officers and officials”. If these inputs are anything to go by, these militants have not been entirely successful in perpetuating the kind of horrific event that they had set their heart on. Nonetheless, India’s pain is unmitigated, its horror is utter and its reprisal must be quick and decisive. To that end, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is reviewing the security situation on the ground, with the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval briefing him as well.

However, the order of the J&K Human Rights Commission has only served to rub salt in our wounds. It was for his adept handling of the crisis that could have so easily spiralled into a disaster that Major Gogoi was awarded the Chief of Army Staff’s Commendation Card. Sure, many a bleeding-heart journalists and armchair activists can’t stomach that Dar was tied to a bonnet. None of them have taken the pains to highlight that by doing so the Major successfully averted shooting at a 1,200-plus crowd which had besieged a small group of security personnel and was on the verge of setting a polling booth on fire. The government must remind itself that today’s Kashmir is not one which will fit the bill of Kashmiriyat, Insaaniyat, Jamhooriyat as prescribed by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.