Killing more of their own

SINCE last year, off-duty policemen, and even an odd soldier, in Kashmir have been targeted by militants. But the Shopian killing of four cops was out of the ordinary. The men on duty were protecting a minority locality; one of the few remaining islets of diversity in the Valley where ethnic cleansing in the ’90s robbed the place of the ‘other’ who lent the syncretic concept of Kashmiriyat its true meaning. There is no knowing the rabid repercussions elsewhere in the mainland had the militants broken through the picket. The attack’s objective may have been to terrorise the local Kashmiris in the police force. But the specific target — a picket in a minority area — was clearly meant to widen the ambit of targets from just off-duty police personnel and informers.

Policemen, as also politicians, serve as organic links with society; a role the security forces can scant aspire to play. The politician in Kashmir is out of the picture after the dissolution of the state Assembly and the three-tier elections that New Delhi bravely — some would say imprudently — attempted to ram through became a nonevent. The absence of a political setup even as military operations are in full swing removes a crucial mediator, useful in calibrating the heavy hand of the forces. Politicians also impart a degree of credibility for ongoing security operations in the eyes of the common people — their presence a keen reminder that at the end of the day, it is the political process, and not guns, that will resolve the tangle.

The feeble attendance at funerals of policemen shows the militants have been able to credibly justify the killings to the people. The target on a picket outside a minority locality shows that if this sullenness persists, the demand will not remain confined to separatism or autonomy.  The police, the most visible and vulnerable face of the government, is under attack. New Delhi needs to factor in these troubling trends, which could become norm. The time to act is now. An earnest political reachout may help reclaim the creed of Kashmiriyat, jamhooriyat, insaniyat.