The Return Of Terror

To the objective hardnosed observers, not just the local cynics,possibilities of a major terror attack were imminent. That it should havehappened days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holds talks with Hurriyatseparatists in New Delhi on May 3 (he is later slated to travel to the state onMay 25 for a roundtable conference with Kashmir leaders) was the securityagencies' worst night-mare come true.  In the end, the sheer enormity,cold-bloodedness and ruthlessness of the massacre that killed 19 civilians,including a nine-year girl, in Kulhan area of Doda district in Jammu, left eventhe cynics stunned 

While in the garbled accounts from agencies, these figures were firstestimated to be 22, the sheer brutality doesn't even take into account thenumber of nine seriously injured or the other equally gruesome terror attackthat didn't get as much media coverage. Just as the numbing news of the killingsin Doda was sinking in across the country, came the news that ofthose abducted from a village in Udhampur district of Jammu region the daybefore, the number of killed had gone up to 13. Anofficial spokesman for Jammu & Kashmir police confirmed the recovery of ninemore bodies belonging to the minority community from Basantgarh area of thedistrict. Four bodies had been recovered yesterday,as per the spokesman, who could not confirm the exact number of people abductedby the terrorists.

The victims were once again those described as the 'soft-targets': theminority community, who in the state of J&K happen to be Hindus, revivingharrowing memories and the terror-talk of "ethnic cleansing" in thestate. Typically,no terror-group would take responsibility for such an act of terror against thecivilians but J&K police strongly suspects these attacks to be the handiworkof Pak-based Lashkar-e-Toiba. 

It would seem, experts point out, that when the Udhampur incident did notreceive media-coverage, the terrorists had obviously decided to up the ante. Asper Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Gopal Sharma, at around 2 a.m.,about 10 heavily armed terrorists, suspected to belong to Pak-basedLaskhar-e-Taiba, wearing army fatigues, descended on two localities -- Panjoliand Thava -- of Kulhund village in Doda, about 200 km from Jammu. They orderedpeople out of their houses, herded them into the homes of two local villageheads and opened indiscriminate fire. 

While 10 peoplewere killed in Thava, nine were gunned down in Panjoli. Village heads Gopi Chandand Jagdish Bhagat were among those killed. Bhagat's daughter Sapna Devi too waskilled while his wife Giloo Devi and another eight-year-old daughter were amongthe injured. Of the nine persons injuredin the attack, eight were airlifted in Army choppers and admitted to a hospitalin Jammu. One of the survivors, Rajinder KumarSharma, elaborated that while some of the terrorists were in army fatigues, someof them were also in "Pathan garb". He said that the terroristsclaimed to have been seeking revenge as they charged some people from thevillage to have helped the security forces in the past.

Former chief minister Mufti Mohammed was among thefirst of all politicians across the party lines to strongly condemn the terrorkillings: "The killing of our Hindu brethren in Doda and Udhampurdistricts. These acts, carried out by elements inimical to peace whenever thereis a positive change in the situation, are aimed at derailing the peace processand harming the communal harmony in the state."  DeputyChief Minister Muzaffar Baig made the same point that was to be echoed by all:"By singling out Hindus for such a major massacre, they are sending amessage to the entire Indian nation that this exercise (the peace process)undertaken by the government is futile."  From JKLF leader YasinMallik to the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, the condemnation was unanimousacross the political divide. 

In separate statements both factions of HurriyatConference have also condemned the killings and demanded immediate independentprobes. Chairman of moderate Hurriyat Mirwaiz Umer Farooq called it an"inhuman act .. this is open terrorism and is against the Islamicprinciples to kill armless people". Hardline Hurriyat Chairman Sayed AliShah Geelani and separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah said that "whoever haskilled innocent persons has massacred humanity. They also demanded "animpartial and credible inquiry by a commission into such inhuman acts," andappealed to people to maintain communal harmony and foil nefarious designs ofthose bent upon to flare up communal trouble in the state. 

Typically, while others across the political linescalled for ensuring communal peace, for L.K. Advani, on his lackluster yatra,this was one more stick to beat the UPA with and he came out full guns blazingand blamed it all on the lack of "'soojh bhoojh' (intellectual ability) todeal with the situation" on their part. Regardless of how abysmal MrAdvani's own track record in handling the situation in J&K is, given theenormity of the upsurge in the attacks on the minorities in the troubled state,and the effect it could have on the larger communal tensions in the country, itis an area that the UPA and the state government need to urgently address. 

After a high-level meeting chaired by home minister Shivraj Patil to reviewthe security scenario in Jammu and Kashmir, all that home secretary V K Duggalwould say was that the centre has "advised the state authorities to reviewthe security measures for the minorities in the state" (that includeHindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Shias) and that theincident "clearly shows the desperation of the terrorists who want tohamper the peace process in the state".

In addition to seeing it as aimed at queering the pitch for the PM's talkswith Hurriyat, terror-experts also point out that these couldbe read in different ways, as warnings for those engaged in the"peace-process", as proof of their capability to strike aimed to causea larger communal conflagration in the state and the country. Experts also pointto the significance of recent release of tapes by bin Laden and al-Zawahirithat specifically focussed on Hindus and J&K as well.