While Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has almost half a dozen times in last two months publicly said that killing of militants won’t end militancy but Director General Police Dr S P Vaid and Inspector General of Police Kashmir Range Muneer Ahmed Khan working under her direct administrative control as minister incharge home department have made it emphatically clear that “all out operation will continue till the last militant is killed”. Interestingly the last but not the latest reiteration of her statement that militancy won’t end by killing militants has come from the Chief Minister during her participation in a national level leadership summit “India Ideas Conclave 2017” at Goa. When Chief Minister makes some statement about the internal security of the state she owes an explanation to the people as Chief Minister of the state, head of the unified quarters comprising heads of state police, CRPF and BSF and corps commander of the army in Jammu & Kashmir and as Minister incharge home department. Shockingly the Chief Minister is contradicting the words and actions of both Director General Police and as well as Inspector General of Police Kashmir Range. Keeping in view her contradictions of the words of the state police chief and IGP Kashmir the Chief Minister can be asked that if she is realy does not endorse the policy of killing militant then why she as minister incharge home is not asking police to stop cordon and search operations conducted for arresting and killing militants. Opposing the policy of killing militants but not restraining police from conducting cordon and search operations conducted to arrest or kill militants shows that Chief Minister is either confusing or intentionally tries to settle political scores. Since the Chief Minister herself has the distinction of remaining connected with the people at the grass roots as the leader of the single largest opposition party from 2008-2014 and as such any her attempt to confuse the politically conscious people in Kashmir would ultimately add to her own confusion? Her remark could be seen as an attempt to confuse the people because of the categorical endorsement of the cordon and search operations conducted to arrest or kill militant by the Home Minister, Defence Minister, Army Chief and the Director General Police of the state.
For all practical purpose Chief Minister has to call off the policy of cordons and search operations if she really believes in all that what she says on the killings of militants as otherwise she is confusing both the people and the officers who are on the forefront of implementing the decision of her government.
Chief Minister raising questions on the words and actions of the officers particularly those connected with the matter of law enforcement and internal security working under her control by all standards of understandabilities shows her deviation from the policy of the government. For all practical purpose Chief Minister has to call off the policy of cordons and search operations if she really believes in all that what she says on the killings of militants as otherwise she is confusing both the people and the officers who are on the forefront of implementing the decision of her government.
