Learn lessons from gruesome Kathua incident: PDP’s Bhat tells Govt

Jammu: Close after chief minister Mehbooba Mufti strongly condemned pro-criminal rally at Kathua, various political parties and social groups endorsed the call. Appreciating the gesture, senior PDP leader and vice-chairman Muslim Wakaf Board on Saturday said that this proves how our society is guided by collective conscience and mutually shared values.
Bhat said it is this inherent strength of our ethos which needs to be explored further by the conscientious class so that any space for crime and criminals is choked.
He said that it is unfortunate that in last many decades Jammu and Kashmir state has been extending privilege and protection to people with criminal tendencies and record and we should not be surprised if at occasions crime is legitimised and criminals get kind of a hero worship as was witnessed at Kathua.
Bhat said states and societies have always developed into proud civilisations and cultures by eliminating crime and abhorring sin. “However, for some reasons, our state became a safe haven for rogues and ironically state apparatus provided shield and cushion. It has witnessed brazen support to such elements which at many occasions was allowed to grow as a campaign.”
Bhat said Chief Minister deserves appreciation as she did not lose time to see that such trends are not only discouraged but scuttled at the outset. “Since the moral base of the society is not totally lost and state is conscious to adverse implications of nasty ventures, voices of condemnation became immediately more than strong.”
He hoped that both society and government should draw a lesson from the ugly Kathua incident and should allow the system to grow on legal and moral basis than on its misuse.
Bhat said it is important for the people of the state to realise the immense damage done to its polity and culture by shielding or promoting criminals for temporary political or strategic interests. He said such expediencies nurture evil which ultimately eats at the vitals of legitimate state apparatus and society’s human and moral edifice.
He said it is still not too late that state frames a moral agenda to make it the basis for fighting all evils than compromising with the evil. He appealed various political and community leaders to come forward for this common cause. “Sooner it is done better it will be for the state and its people,” he added.
He said that in Kathua some people took out a rally in support of those who are accused of rape and murder of the innocent child which shook the conscience of the society.