Extremism has made deep inroads into J&K

Kashmir society has been hardening. In the quarter century, between the last carefully organised militancy by Pakistan in the Valley, which shook the Indian state, and the present burst which originated last July, young Kashmiris have been sucked into ideological brainwashing and military training and some of them have even turned into psychological monsters peddling the wares of death in its most grotesque forms.

The proof was the lynching to death by a mob of deputy Mohammed Ayub Pandith outside the famous Jamia Masjid in Srinagar around midnight on Thursday. It is a sordid tale that will live as a reminder of the extent of mental and ideological training of potential terrorists. The killing was done expertly, crudely and openly on Shab-e-Qadr, one of Islam’s holiest nights during Ramzan.

Radicalised violence of the Al Qaeda and Islamic State variety is a far cry from Kashmir’s traditional, tolerant and tender Islam. Violent distortion has not yet overwhelmed Kashmir’s culture. But after the humiliation heaped on Pandith’s person following his brutal murder by a few in front of a baying mob, it is hard to dismiss the fact that brutality of the worst kind has made deep inroads into Kashmiri society.

In the name of their religion, and raising slogans in support of a country which has long gone off course, the criminal gang killed the police officer, who was on duty, by piercing his body with a rod and then tossing the corpse into a ditch.

It is shocking that separatist leaders have maintained a studied silence, except for Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is also chairman of the Hurriyat Conference. The Mirwaiz noted that state violence in Kashmir had brutalised Kashmiri society. This can only be part right.

By far the bigger problem in the Valley has been penetration of extremist ideology exported from Pakistan. This is accompanied by the most cynical and systematic use of violence on a routine, everyday basis against fellow Kashmiri Muslims as a part of the larger Pakistani design of incorporating Kashmir through a so-called popular uprising, carried out less and less in the name of Kashmiri nationalism and more and more in the name of Islam (through local outfits such as Hizbul Mujahideen).

The Indian state has played right into the Pakistani gameplan by rejecting any meeting ground with the local population, by repudiating the prospect of any political discussion on their wide-ranging grievances concerning autonomy and economy, and seeking to bring them to heel through a show of force.

This uncaring attitude is unworthy of a democracy but the Narendra Modi government, the BJP and the proponents of the RSS ideology, give no evidence of having even the most rudimentary grasp of the fragile reality in Kashmir and its impact on the country as a whole.