DNA Edit: Getting even

Last week, Feroz Ahmad Dar, a station house officer (SHO) of the Achabal police station was gunned down along with five of his colleagues at Thajiwara village in Anantnag district of Jammu & Kashmir. Dar’s story is reminiscent of the cold-blooded murder of Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz, who was abducted and murdered in the Shopian district in early May. Stories of these brave men resound with the Indian establishment because it is a testament to the fact that a large share of Kashmiris is still interested in serving the state police machinery and the Indian Armed Forces. Lashkar-e-Taiba militants have claimed responsibility for the death of Dar and his five colleagues, claiming it as a retaliation for the death of its commander Junaid Mattoo.

Once again, it is incumbent on the military establishment stationed in the state to give a befitting reply. By targeting police and military officials that hail from Jammu & Kashmir, the militants are trying to drive deep the fear that working on the side of the Indian government can only lead to deleterious consequences for the locals. This will only undo whatever bona fide that the military has been able to establish in the state while ceding a higher hand to the terrorists. If the militants succeed in establishing this sense of alienation, then the struggle for a peaceful and secure Kashmir under Indian suzerainty will never cease and the terms of conflict will shift from fighting out-of-state insurgents to the local citizenry.

Meanwhile, a strong sign that the youth is not completely disillusioned with the state can be seen from the fact that 14 Kashmiri aspirants have made it to the privileged ranks of the Indian Administrative Services. Close to 100 Kashmiri applicants have made it into the IAS clique in the past eight years, and many more will be joining in the future as the idea has caught the public’s imagination. Many perceive it as a way of finding representation for the state in upper echelons of the Indian government, while for some, it is a path to escaping the unemployment and poverty so deeply embedded in the state.

Meanwhile, South Kashmir has become the new theatre of battle as an increasingly higher number of small-scale conflicts have come to mark the region in the past few months. This has worked to take the attention away from Northern and Central Kashmir. Military tacticians suggest that this is a mistake that can assume grave proportions as a large number of soldiers are said to be thronging North Kashmir. The need of the hour is to wean away the local youth from the call to insurgency while simultaneously fighting back Pakistan’s ulterior motives.