What purpose other than making their presence and some relevance felt in the already waning and plummeting terror activities and violence in Kashmir, was accomplished by armed killers by killing in cold blood three activists of Bharatiya Janta Party in Qazigund in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district? The shooting occurred in Y K. Pora area of Qazigund recently where the three, the district office bearers and workers of the BJP were shot dead. The Prime Minister has conveyed deep condolences to the bereaved families and while strongly condemning the killings, he has appreciated the work which the young activists were doing. It may be recalled that the three victims were in the house of another BJP worker and the militants were reported to be waiting for them and the moment they left the house, they were caught hold of and taken a few metres away to be shot dead at point blank range. While such heinous acts committed at the behest of the forces from across the border that committed publicly the same day about their country’s role in the February 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack which resulted in the martyrdom of 40 CPRF personnel, were going to cost them heavily, it raises several questions about the loopholes in our intelligence network and security apparatus . How the killers reached the particular house unnoticed where the three workers had gone and their long wait outside the house too remaining out of the knowledge of the intelligence and security apparatus is baffling. It denotes that much remained to be done on this particular front which the authorities must take note of seriously
The new terror outfit, The Resistance Front – a shadow group of Lashkar-e-Toiba is believed to have claimed responsibility for the gruesome killings. This year alone, eight workers and leaders of the BJP have been killed. Bandipora witnessed a father and his two sons attached with the BJP killed while a Sarpanch affiliated with the BJP was killed in Kulgam and another BJP worker killed in Ompura, Budgam. Though a massive operation is stated to have been launched by the police to nab the killers , yet the searches etc conducted have not led to the arrest or neutralising of the armed criminals involved in the ghastly killing. Something more in terms of providing security to the mainstream political parties workers needed to be done who are actively and positively working towards creating an atmosphere of trust, peace and revival of nationalist political activities in the valley . It would not be out of context to point out that in criticising the Government and the party in power, care needs to be taken by the political leadership to maintain a distance between fair and healthy criticism and nursing hate and fears which plays an emboldening part to commit such crimes or give a spurt to such feelings by such misguided, misled and indoctrinated elements still active, though faintly, in some pockets of the valley. The terror organisations, whichever are still active in the valley and their mentors, needed to take note of the changed scenario as compared to early 1990s and that there was no doubt, absolutely not, that whosoever took to gun would get consumed by the gun sooner than later. That such ghastly killings should still continue to take place is reprehensible despite series of assurances from the Government of proper rehabilitation of the youth who had chosen the path of violence provided they surrendered and joined the mainstream after shunning the path of violence and destruction. The Kashmiri based politicians too should openly and strongly condemn such senseless killing and play their part in motivating such elements to stop violence and bloodshed
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