Tourist attack shakes peace; India vows justice and unity across religion and region
The Kashmir Valley shut down on Tuesday, the day after a cowardly terror aimed against tourists reared its head. This was not just a silent protest by the stricken people of the valley but a condemnation of the deed that so clearly was meant to spread fear and disaffection.
The attack bore all the signs of the kind of terror that a neighbouring country nurtures and sponsors regularly. The intention of the attackers was clear — scuttle peace, sow panic in the minds of residents and visitors in the time of peak summer tourism and whip up communal discord in India, of which Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part.
As a civilised society that is essentially peace-loving, India must respond in a mature way while allowing the security apparatus to do its job unfettered in hunting down the perpetrators and bringing them to face the law.
Also, the government must do all it can to contain the harm that can come from expressions of religious differences that can crop up because of the nature of the crime in which people of religions other than the one to which the terrorists belonged were targeted and killed or injured. And there is no denying the Islamist terror angle, regardless of where this bunch emerged from.
A proxy of a known terror outfit operating from across the border and which has been active in J&K over the last four or five years has claimed responsibility. A thorough probe will reveal whether this group is indeed the one that plotted this spineless attack and whether terrorists from across the border were involved. It would help if the guilty were identified so the truth is established.
The price to pay for the battle against terror is eternal vigil. Regardless of the number of plots discovered in time and defused or potential assassins tracked down and killed in the frequent encounters that are a feature of life in the Valley, one set of terrorists picking easy targets and killing indiscriminately as this bunch did is sufficient to bring on charges of intelligence failure, etc.
The timing of the attack, coming in the wake of the reckless abandon with which the loose cannon of a Pakistan army chief vented out at India last week with venom, irresponsibly spewed, must have instilled apprehension in the security forces tasked with guarding the Valley. That they did not spot this one, as was evident from the lack of presence of security force personnel in a highly popular tourist area, led to tragic consequences.
It is not only the tourism industry that will be badly hit by such attacks. J&K has shown a steady rise in GDSP over the last three years that is better than the national average, hosted an increasing number of domestic and foreign tourists and invited investment into the UT in industry and trade. An attack like this might prove a dampener on the good outlook that such development has engendered.
To plough on in trying to ensure the safety of every Indian, regardless of religion or caste, is the task of the security forces, whose lot is unenviable. To back them with weapons, every means of communication and the wherewithal to crack the lines of communication of the terror groups is the duty of the Establishment as it exists today in the UT, with the armed forces and police personnel in charge of security and intelligence gathering.
