MEHBOOB MAKHDOOMI
Right from the January 1st to December 31st, there is no day which could be commemorated as a bloodless day in Kashmir. Every date has a history of state murders, especially, if we check the calendar from the year 1989. There are few known ones like Gaw Kadal massacre, Bijbehara massacre, Sopore massacre which have earned strikes & seminars every year and even Wikipedia pages in their name. However, there are 362 other days as well which are painted red. Apart from the dates and days, as far as my analysis goes, there is hardly any male name in Kashmir which we have not seen in the list of devoured ones-Owais, Ashfaq, Aijaz, Gulzar, Tufail & the list never ends. I fail to find one name which is not inscribed on the grave stones of Martyrs graveyards across the valley. At least, there has been no discrimination in this regard. Kudos to the forces for that. Moreover, It seems to be a good idea for valley’s tech savvy students to come up with one more phone application, where we could enter any name and the killing details would pop-up.
On Monday, Mehraj and Faisal also qualified to be updated in this App, when they were driving a Maruti 800 car along with their two other friends, who could, hitherto, qualify to be in the list of ‘critical ones’, but the need to transfer their names from one section to the other, of the said app, may arise anytime. Who knows? These kids had no stone in their hands to be branded as ‘drug addicts’ or ‘paid goons’ for the powers that be. Whether they, knowingly or inadvertently, jumped the check post, we don’t know, but what followed next was gruesome, yet again, not surprising in our context. I can certainly understand the psyche of the people who pressed their triggers. After all, they are defending this land from the people of this land, donning automatic rifles, temptation of which gets irresistible when the number of militants recede to less than 150, hence less encounters, but the impunity to kill any Kashmiri remains and then someone shows unwillingness to stop when they order them to do so. Wait! Killing dogs can anger certain animal rights activists and aiming at birds requires more accuracy, so hunting down Kashmiris is easier and safer. If you think, I am exaggerating. I ask you, what on earth can you do to the culprits of Chattergam and what have you done to other killers till now? If the answer is ‘Nothing’, then I am not exaggerating. At the same time, the Army has been generous this time for which we should be indebted to them. They have said, ‘Sorry’. The Chief Minister, who could not even touch AFSPA in his 6 years rule, is also tired using same vocabulary of ‘unfortunate’ and ‘sad’ repeatedly. He has come up with an innovative word, for this incident and has termed it ‘Avoidable’. We all know when we lightly rebuke someone, we use this term to indicate ‘you have done it but you could have avoided it’. Someone should gift him a good dictionary to keep appropriate words ready because there is no way that any CM of J&K can do anything regarding it, other than having a correct vocab, at least. This is Kashmir where a ‘plain shoulder badge Sepoy’ of the Indian Army is more powerful than the CM.
This does not end here. When we return to our homes in the evening , after burying these Rafiqs, Javids and Ishtiyaqs, 6 feet under the soil, another wing of their army, ‘The Media Regiment’ which act as the apex court on the same evening, not only exonerate their ‘brave soldiers’ but sing ballads and eulogies in their name to keep their morale high. This time, they also innovated a bit, by posting a news headline ‘Terrorist Attack in Kashmir: Two Soldiers Killed, Two injured’. E-Kashmir protested and mocked at such reporting, which is indicative of the media race in India to be more and more hyper-nationalist. Thanks to that ‘over grown schoolboy’ who speaks for the entire nation every night 9pm, for setting up this trend to commercialize anti-Kashmir sentiment in India, by converting it into the TRPs. Surprisingly, I agree 100% with the above headline posted by The Times of India. Read it again and see, each word is right in the headline. I don’t know their intention but I wish they could have ‘not deleted’ this news item. What they thought, they misreported in haste, was actually the most perfect depiction of the incident. I hope you understand what I mean.