More civilians are killed in Kashmir and more silent is the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and this is what deepens the wounds of the people of Kashmir for the last three years. It has become a usual practice for the Chief Minister to brief the Union Home Minister and sometimes even the Prime Minister about the law and order situation prevailing in the state without bothering to have a re-look at the crowd control policing methods experimented by the police, paramilitaries and army for the last three years now. The police, paramilitaries and army take pride in the conduct of cordon and search operations (CASO) during which not only the militants but civilians are also killed. Often the Chief Minister exhorts the top brass of police, army and paramilitary forces to adhere to Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) during cordon and search operations (CASO) in populated areas but civilian are killed during the searches and cordon day in and day out. A popular government obliged to take care of its constitutional duty of protecting the lives and property of civilians is failing to stop the killing of civilians during the operations which police, paramilitaries and army carry out against the militants. Now the opposition National Conference has asked the Chief Minister to introspect and acknowledge the damage caused by the government’s policy in dealing with the expanding rings of militancy in several parts of Kashmir valley.
Though detoriating situation in Kashmir demands a change in crowd control policing methods which have come under huge criticism from people of all shades including top human rights activists and civil society members within and outside Jammu & Kashmir, but Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti neither herself bothers to take some bold initiatives for immediate changes in the widely condemned crowd control policing methods to avoid the killing of civilians nor persuades the central governments to do so in furtherance of the larger objective of restoration of peace in the state.
Chief Minister as minister in charge home affairs and the head of the unified headquarter (UHQ) has an institutional and administrative responsibility to look for changes in the methods of crowd control policing which have killed hundreds and blinded thousands during last three years. Chief Minister has to solicit the views and guidelines from the Union Home Minister and the Prime Minister only on such key security issues which demand the nod of the central government but not the issues related to the usual working of the police, paramilitaries and army in the state. Though detoriating situation in Kashmir demands a change in crowd control policing methods which have come under huge criticism from people of all shades including top human rights activists and civil society members within and outside Jammu & Kashmir, but Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti neither herself bothers to take some bold initiatives for immediate changes in the widely condemned crowd control policing methods to avoid the killing of civilians nor persuades the central governments to do so in furtherance of the larger objective of restoration of peace in the state.
