Chenab valley has emerged as a fresh challenge from security point of view. The otherwise peaceful area witnessed the 2023 as one of the most deadliest year with 19 killings of security forces and 28 terrorists.
The terrorism was an unheard for the entire Chenab valley and given the surge in recent attacks on security forces by terrorists in the area, the centre government is feeling the heat ahead of Lok Sabha elections to be held in coming months.
The challenge does not stop here rather it is becoming increasingly complicated owing to the handling of situation post terror attacks by security forces. The death of three civilians apparently in the custody of army have opened a fresh debate as what has changed on ground from the security point of view. How much the responsibility is fixed.
It is an undeniable fact that the security forces especially troops may also go through the pain and anger when they witness the death of their colleagues. But the question arises can this anger be diverted towards the civilians or they shall seem more offensive to beat the terrorism. After Ahmshipora, Shopain fake encounter in 2018, this is probably the second time that the army operation has come under questioning.
In the Ahmshipora encounter, the army fixed the responsibility and held a transparent inquiry into the incident in which a major was convicted though he later managed a bail from civil court. The move was appreciated but the larger point is why such incidents happen. Prior to 2019, there have been many incidents where the security agencies came under questioning but centre over the years after directly ruling Jammu and Kashmir managed to stop such unfortunate incidents from happening to a larger extent.
BJP election manifesto is peace in Jammu and Kashmir as one of its agenda to sell. While there might be differences of opinion, but BJP doesn’t entirely see Kashmir as a political turf and strives hard to usher it into an era of peace and development and see a permanent solution to security problem. But such incidents would take this region back to square one as evident from the past.
Such incidents have only taken Kashmir into a grip of vicious cycle of violence in the past. During the past several years, in Kashmir there have been significant number of encounters between security forces and terrorists. However, nowhere the protests, shutdown was reported but civilian deaths are intolerable in such conditions.
There is a strong consensus over zero tolerance on terrorism across the board but what both political and security agencies need to understand that civilians and common people deserve sense of security and peace. That can only help Centre to full fill its mission of Naya Kashmir.
