Pakistan's border brutalities,
radicalisation of Kashmir warrant stern, swift measures
Updated: May 18, 2017 17:25 IST By: Col. (Retired)
Anil Bhat
New Delhi [India], May 18 (ANI): Hailing from the troubled Kulgam district, 22 year old
Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz, the son of an apple grower, was a classic example of a
young Kashmiri boy who aspired to do well in life and in his case, by joining
the Army.
Selected for the National Defence
Academy, where he excelled in studies and sports, he was commissioned into the
Rajputana Rifles in December 2016 and posted to its 2nd Battalion deployed in
Akhnoor.
While on leave to attend a marriage in
the family, on May 9, 2017, he was abducted by terrorists from his relative's
house in Kulgam town and his bullet-riddled body was found in Harmain area of
Shopian the next morning.
While it is not shocking that in an
environment poisoned by hate spread painstakingly by Kashmiri separatists
controlled by Pakistan army/Inter Services Intelligence, Fayaz was targeted for
joining the Indian Army, what is shocking is that stone-pelters did not even
spare Fayaz's funeral procession.
Terrorists and their supporters are
intimidating young Kashmiris wanting to join the Army, police or security
forces. A video of one of them being tonsured was widely aired.
Many Jammu and Kashmir police
personnels' homes have been raided by terrorists/their supporters to threaten
them for discharging their duties.
They have also issued diktats against
sending children to Army's goodwill schools, where students have been faring
well, accusing these schools of compromising 'Kashmiriyat', which actually is
being killed by Pakistan supported Kashmiri terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen and
the separatists, who are not even sparing their own fellow Kashmiris.
Fayaz's brutal abduction and murder
came shortly after another mutilation of two Indian security personnel by
Pakistani troops and/or their terrorists comrades in the Krishna Ghati Sector
opposite Battal in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) on May 1 2017.
This repeated barbaric act of
mutilating Indian soldiers/security personnel has further raised the level of
public ire which has been simmering since heightened levels of heckling of
security forces by Kashmiri youth of the valley's 'infected' districts.
Mutilations and more exposures about
separatists and their Pakistani contacts have hardened Indian public opinion/
rhetoric like never before. Never earlier had Indian television news anchors
been heard referring to separatists as 'Pakistan ke dalaal' (Pakistan's agents)
on the face of some of the pro-separatist speakers, while some guest
commentators referred to the separatists/ their supporters as pimps.
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi did not
mince his words in media, when he recently stated: "The recent report
about a stone pelter tied to an Army vehicle helped contain stone pelters and
saved the poll officials".
While the army is reportedly planning
punitive action against the Pakistan Army for mutilations at a time and place
of its choosing, there are some meaningful calibrated measures the government
must take on incriminating evidence.
Because surgical strikes may cause
lethal damage to the Pakistan Army and terrorists, but will not stop the ever
rising level of poisoning the minds of the Valley's youth and support of
terrorists by separatists.
Immediate actions the government must
take in Kashmir Valley are (a) stop the largesse/benefits to separatists, which
should have been done ages ago, (b) stop the totally ineffective house arrests
and instead, put them in jails outside J & K State, (c) expose Indian
liberals/apologists/peaceniks and repeatedly criticize/condemn/comment against
them (d) publicise Indian Army's Kashmir Super - 40 initiative for coaching J
& K youth for engineering entrance exams breaking all previous records and
overwhelming responses to recruitment into the Army, police and security forces
and (e) publicise Pak army's atrocities in POK and Balochistan.
On Pakistan announcing death penalty
for retired Indian Navy commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, following a ridiculous
Pakistan Army-managed kangaroo trial accusing him of being an Indian spy and
terrorist, New Delhi finally decided to approach the International Court of
Justice (ICJ), which has temporarily stayed his execution.
Whether the government's decision to
approach the ICJ was based on a suggestion made by Dr.Subramanian Swamy,or
other reasons is not yet known, but such a step has been taken after many
decades of declining to do so.
The ICJ must also be approached for the
many cases in which the Pakistan Army has been charged with mutilating Indian
Army personnel and recently one of the Border Security Force.
This writer recently reviewed Supreme
Court Advocate Aman M. Hingorani's book, Unravelling the Kashmir.
Interacting with Mr. Hingorani, this
author found that the latter maintains that mutilations by Pakistan are in
gross violation of international law.
There is nothing to prevent India from
taking Pakistan to the ICJ at The Hague for condemnation, reparation and
damages. The Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration do not preclude India
from doing so.
In any case, Article 103 of the UN
Charter provides that in the event of a conflict between the obligations of the
UN Members under the Charter and their obligations under any other
international agreement, their obligations under the UN Charter shall prevail.
Former CIA station chief in Islamabad,
Kevin Hulbert writing in Cipher Brief, a website for the intelligence
community, states, "With a failing economy, rampant terrorism, the fastest
growing nuclear arsenal, the sixth largest population, and one of the highest
birthrates in the world, Pakistan is of grave concern.. while Pakistan is not
the most dangerous country in the world, it probably is the most dangerous
country for the world."
The repeated recommendations by
liberals/apologists/peaceniks for talks with Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists,
as also conciliatory moves like drastic reduction of Indian Army troop levels
in the hinterland must be nullified, as this is what has led to at least five
Valley districts being dominated by terrorists.
India needs to ratchet up its moves in
the Kashmir Valley and against Pakistan, it must militarily raise the cost,
while continuously exposing Pakistan's politic and diplomatic duplicity.
Will a stage be reached when Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's August 15, 2016 reference to Balochistan be taken
forward?
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