What happened in Pulwama last week raises concern. We lost more than 40 jawans of CRPF in the terror attack. There is anger and shock as 125 crore Indians are stunned. We are anxious to see to it that Pakistan must be taught a lesson. We must retaliate.
The nation is engaged in decoding this terrorist operation. It will continue for some time to reach the depth of the operation carried out by a local Kashmiri man who had joined the Pakistan based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad a year ago. It is being said that the intelligence agencies had alerted a day before the incident about a possible terror attack. The question is why then the security forces failed to take the warning seriously and act accordingly. The Governor of Jammu & Kashmir Satya Pal Malik also admitted that there was some lapse in security cover to the convoy. There should not have been a movement of forces on such large scale, the Governor observed. The Governor also expressed concern as to how an explosive-laden vehicle made movement around Srinagar for more than an hour before hitting the target.
One question being asked is why the input of Intelligence agencies is ignored and not taken seriously. After every big terrorist attack, there are reports that the Intelligence agencies had already alerted and warned about the attack. If the input of agencies are ignored then what is the use of government spending thousands of crores of rupees on it every year. If that be the case then offices of Intelligence agencies should be locked.
It is unfortunate that in this hour of grief and mourning when we lost our jawans, some leaders are making an irresponsible statement. Take the statement of National Conference leader and former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah. “Such incidents take place here often,” he told a TV news channel. Dr. Abdullah was not ready even to admit that Pakistan was responsible for the dastardly attack in Pulwama.
He held the Government of India responsible for the violent situation in the state. One should remind him that Abdullah was the Chief Minister of the state for several years and the situation in the state was no better under his rule. He would just say that India should initiate dialogue with all stakeholders including Pakistan. However, Dr. Farooq Abdullah has never come out with a solution to the problem. He has nothing to suggest resolving the situation in the state. What is the point in suggesting that India should talk to the leaders who are on the payroll of Pakistan’s ISI? Does Farooq mean that India should talk to the stone pelters? In a fit of rage last year, Dr. Abdullah had gone out to say that “Kashmir does not belong to India’s father (Kya Kashmir Bharat ke baap ka hai).
In order to reach the depth of the situation in Jammu & Kashmir, we should know that the Islamic radicalism has taken deep root in the valley. A novel by Leo Tolstoy ‘Hazir Murad’ mentions the so-called holy war in Chechnya against Russia like terrorist heads Masood Azhar and Hafiz Sayeed talk of ‘jihad’ in Kashmir. It was in the backdrop of 1951. Russia (then the Soviet Union) has been fighting this war in Chechnya for long.
Time has come when we can’t talk of peace and love against the dreaded enemy of humanity. We had enough of talks and dialogues on Kashmir issue. The time has run out for any further talk with Pakistan on Kashmir issue. We have an example of China before us. China has scrapped the Islamic fundamentalists there. The Islamic fundamentalists have been forced to change their food habit as well which is against Islam. The action against Islamic fundamentalists is being taken at the behest of the Communist Party of China. No country has dared to condemn China on this count. Even 57 Nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has not registered any protest against China on this matter.
In Xinjiang province of China, lakhs of Muslims are being re-educated to adopt Communist way of life. Muslims are being told to shun Islam. They are also being asked to criticise certain tenet of Islam failing which they are threatened to follow the instructions.
Pulwama incident happened because of flexible policy. Our ancestors must have some solid reason to coin this idiom, “Laton ke Devata Baton se Nahin Mante” (those who deserve boots would not understand the language of words).
Ever since Burhan Wani was killed by our security forces, there has been a spurt in stone pelting incidents and rise in militancy in the valley involving local youths. Hundreds of our jawans were injured in the stone pelting attack. However, the state government did not use force to contain the incident and punish the offenders.
There are people who embrace the stone pelters. Leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Rahul Gandhi don’t mind demonstrating in favour of separatists forces in Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Time has come to crack down with an iron hand on the separatist and terrorists in Kashmir without caring for the leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, and Sitaram Yechury.
Another point of concern is the huge quantity of explosives used in the Pulwama attack. It is said that some 100 Kg of RDX was used in the suicide bomb attack on CRPF jawans. It only goes to prove large scale smuggling of explosives in the valley. Not only that the terrorists have a huge quantity of arms and grenades including assault rifles. How smuggling of arms on such a large scale is taking place?
Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India will avenge the attack and that our Armed forces have been given free hand to teach Pakistan a lesson. More than 50 countries of the world today stand by India to act against terrorists and their patrons in Pakistan. Even the National Security Advisor of the United States of America has said that India has the full right to defend itself.
(The writer is a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha.)
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