Though condemnation of the killing of yatris from all quarters shows how unnatural violence is hated by people of all hues in Kashmir but yet again and again the people in rest of the country are blaming “Islam” and “Islamism” of kashmiri muslims for the killing of yatris. Instead of talking about an impartial judicial probe necessitated by the occurrence and re-occurrence of deadly attacks on police in Kashmir reported during last one month the Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Range) is claiming to have inputs about the involvement of some militant outfits in the deadly attack on a police party and a bus carrying amaranth yatris but he is not talking about the security lapses that have led to yet another attack on a police party and a bus carrying yatris on Monday evening. After the killing of six policemen including SHO of local police station in a deadly attack on a police party at Achabal in Anantnag district last month the government transferred the SSP Anantnag to give an indication that the district police chief was punished for showing laxity in handling the situation. Now when a new district police chief was assigned the responsibility of restoring the writ of police in the smooth conduct of the law and order situation a deadliest attack resulting in the killing of seven amaranth yatris should not have occurred in a short span of less than one month. Without contesting the claim of IGP Kashmir Munir Ahmad about alleged involvement of a militant outfit in the Monday’s attack on Amarnath Yatri’s in Anantnag district the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti as Minister Incharge Home owes too many explanations to the people over the failure of the government in the conduct of incident free Amarnath Yatra this year.
The attack on yatris merits the constitution of a high level impartial judicial probe to fix responsibility on the officers of civil and police administrating responsible for the security of the Yatra as words alone are not sufficient enough to heal the wounds of those killed in the attack and emotions of kashmiri muslims mourning the death of the yatris. This is an institutional failure and Chief Minister as minister incharge home affairs has an institutional responsibility to take some corrective measures for addressing institutional failures.
Keeping in view the hostile atmosphere in almost all the four districts of South Kashmir the government should have taken all measures to ensure incident free conduct of Amarnath Yatra but the killings of yatris are showing the laxities the police has shown in providing security to Yatris this year. As the fact remains that despite intolerable failures in last two months, the Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Range), Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, DIG ( South Kashmir Range), Deputy Commissioner Anantnag and SSP Anantnag have been spared obviously for the reasons of drawing proximities with some of the political bosses holding key positions in the Mehbooba government. The attack on yatris merits the constitution of a high level impartial judicial probe to fix responsibility on the officers of civil and police administrating responsible for the security of the Yatra as words alone are not sufficient enough to heal the wounds of those killed in the attack and emotions of kashmiri muslims mourning the death of the yatris. This is an institutional failure and Chief Minister as minister incharge home affairs has an institutional responsibility to take some corrective measures for addressing institutional failures.
