The breathtaking landscape of the Kashmir valley once called by beautiful names as the “Pir Waer” and the “Paradise on Earth” is struggling with increasing crime rate over the last many years. The valley considered safe place for all people irrespective of caste, creed, color, sex, religion, region, country and race is witnessing an unprecedented increase in crimes. Here hardly passes a day when a crime does not happen in the Kashmir valley. Mutual help, trust, respect, sympathy, empathy, compassion, benevolence, humanity and human rights considered as principles of living lost altogether. People of the valley turned into wild beasts and replaced the beautiful name Pir Waer by the “Crime and Drug Waer” due to gruesome crimes. With the advent of science and technology, modernization, westernization, and avoiding religious and moral education by so-called modern people, the crimes against the women, senior citizens, and children have surged very high in the Kashmir valley. The criminal does not recognize what is right and wrong and what is good and bad. Criminals are lost into another world and detached from the actual realities of the world. The recent stabbing of three innocent youth in broad daylight in Srinagar and Budgam sent shock waves among the residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The gruesome incidents in the valley are showing the decreased level of humanity and increased level of wilderness. Intensity of crime rate particularly in the Kashmir valley has crossed all limits. The brutality and monstrosity of criminal acts in the Kashmir valley are beyond comprehension. The youth who must have pen in hand are having sharp edged knives, drugs and other crime related materials. Incidents of kidnaping, sexual assault, rape, murder, theft, burglary, trafficking, cyber bullying have become very common and order of the day. The impact of criminal activities by criminals is borne by every section of society. The criminals are not only finding soft targets like women, children and elderly persons but also young innocent youth. Everybody is equal before the criminals for the crime. Why young youth of valley are involved in drug addiction, trafficking, rape, sexual abuse, cyber bullying, theft, burglary, stabbing, acid attack, and murders of beastly nature. There are many push and pull factors responsible for rising crimes in J & K. Rising unemployment among the educated youth is pushing them towards drug addiction and drug addiction is the mother of all kinds of crime. Drug addiction is adding fuel to all crimes in the valley. For the past many years, the unemployment crisis in the valley has surged leading to anxiety and depression among the educated youth. Depressed educated youth easily fall victim to drug addiction that are leading them towards gruesome crimes. As per the recent report, there are about ten lakh youth in Jammu & Kashmir involved in drug addiction and the youth particularly in the age group 15- 35 are involved in drug addiction. Due to unavailability of money for drugs, the addicted youth find soft targets and can commit any crime for drugs. The recent attack on a retired police officer with an axe in Chadoora Budgam speaks volumes of the changing nature of crime leaving innocent people in a state of shock and despair. The addicted youth never recognize what is old, young, mother, sister, father, brother. The gruesome incidents committed in the valley for the last one year are unforgettable to everyone. In December 2022, an addicted youth in Anantnag killed three people including his mother and injured seven others. In March 2023, an addicted son strangled his own mother in the Dangerpora area of Sopore. In March 2023, a father killed his own little daughter in kupwara. Secondly, lack of religious education among the youth is another reason for rising crimes in the Kashmir valley. Religious education contains moral values that help to differentiate between right and wrong or good and bad. Earlier, children had given moral education in homes and religious institutions. Moral education instills morals, ethics and discipline in children and makes them good human beings. However, in contemporary times, imparting necessary religious and moral education to children has declined due to greed and materialism of people. With the result, society encounters new checks and challenges with every passing day.
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The Kashmir valley has already lost very much, youth of the valley have great inherent talent, and potential and need is to explore their talent through proper guidance and counseling instead of letting them free. Let us join hands together to fight bravely against rising crimes so that Kashmir valley will become crime free valley as it was in the past.
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Late marriages in contemporary time due to unemployment and social evils like dowry, extravagant spendthrifts also become the cause of crimes in the valley. Late marriages promote illegal premarital relationships, adultery, unwed pregnancies and create anxiety and depression among young youth that most times turns very disastrous in the form of various kinds of crime. Unnecessary freedom to children and carelessness by parents is another reason. According to studies, parents who offer unnecessary and more than required facilities to their children mostly become victims of bad habits and later they are uncontrollable for parents. Children with excess freedom, facilities and no vigil by parents mostly get derailed and indulge themselves in social evils at adolescence stage and it brings disastrous results ultimately. Negative impact of social media is also adding to the crimes. Young generation continuously watch social networking sites and these sites contain good and bad contents, videos, images etc. Bad contents in the form of images and videos not only waste precious time of children and youth but also are detrimental to their lives. Children and youth learn negative things through social networking sites and they try to imitate and practise them in a society that proves very dangerous. The government needs to tackle this issue of rising crime rate in the Kashmir valley on a war footing basis. They need to adopt a multifaceted approach and multi pronged strategy in order to eradicate the crimes in the valley. They also need to be more prompt and aggressive in controlling the crimes. Creation of ample employment opportunities for unemployed youth in various sectors like education, health, police, agriculture, tourism, industry etc. will keep them on the right track and reduce crime rate in Kashmir valley. Drug de-addiction awareness through seminars, campaigns, and debates, massive crackdown on drug peddlers’, and smugglers’ and imprisonment of criminals like drug addicts, murderers, acid attackers, under PSA will reduce the crime rate to more extent in the entire valley. Imparting necessary religious and moral education, skill training and marriages of youth at the young age will also reduce the crimes in a society. There are ample government schemes for youth and an urgent need is to create awareness among dismayed youth so that they are engaged in different activities. Keeping children away from social networking sites and creating awareness among youth about negative impacts of mass media can help to reduce crimes. It is the responsibility of civilised and conscious people to cooperate and collaborate with the police department in eliminating the crimes in the valley. The Kashmir valley has already lost very much, youth of the valley have great inherent talent, and potential and need is to explore their talent through proper guidance and counseling instead of letting them free. Let us join hands together to fight bravely against rising crimes so that Kashmir valley will become crime free valley as it was in the past.
(The author is a teacher at Govt Boys Higher Secondary School Beerwa Budgam . The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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