Start engaging J&K, or security will suffer

Pakistan’s irregular forces, in the guise of its anti-India terror outfits, on Thursday attacked the Army’s artillery base close to the northern town of Kupwara in North Kashmir, not far from the Line of Control. Yet again, the heavily-armed terrorists were able to breach the perimeter defence by the simple expedient of snipping fencing wires. Exactly the same deficiency was seen in the recent attack on the 16 Corps headquarters at Nagrota near Jammu, as well as the terrorist assault on the brigade headquarters at Uri in northwest Kashmir on September 18 last year, that was followed by India’s so-called “surgical strike” across the LoC as a retributive measure.

A young Army captain died in his sleep in the pre-dawn Kupwara raid, while two soldiers laid down their lives while engaging the three-member assault team, two of whom were killed. But shortly after, residents of a nearby village began stone-pelting the troops, seeking to disrupt the Army’s action, and demanding the bodies of the slain terrorists.

This is the variant of a theme that has played out time after time in the past year, and encapsulates the story of the political and security scene that has emerged in Kashmir in the past year — New Delhi failing totally on the political front in winning the confidence of the civil population, every section of which stands thoroughly alienated due to the ostrich-like refusal of the BJP at the Centre to engage Kashmiris in any kind of conversation.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti visited New Delhi last weekend to plead with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate political steps, but was rebuffed. The time was not now, she was told.

The CM was also advised to let the state police play a more proactive part in dealing with the renewed and reinvigorated militancy (presumably so that the Central forces come in the line of fire as little as possible). This was a bit rich. The police is already heavily deployed. It is possibly because of this that their homes are under attack, and their families are being repeatedly warned by extremist outfits to quit service.

Failure on the political front has gone in step with a glaring deterioration in the security outlook. In 2016, as many as 88 Army personnel were killed, the highest in 10 years, and already in 2017 the figure stands at 17. In case the authorities haven’t yet noticed it, when the political atmosphere nosedives, the security situation destabilises. Those in charge of national security appear not to have understood this. This is the context for the state government ordering the shutting down of 22 social media sites. The order has been flouted. May be it is technologically not feasible, or perhaps there has also been some sabotage.