P. B. Mehta: What the attacks against minorities in Kashmir reveal

By Dilip -

India’s security environment is precarious, its political future fragile, and its human sympathies dead. It will require a great act of statesmanship to overcome these challenges. The targeted terror attacks against minorities in Kashmir mark a dangerous but not entirely unanticipated turn. It is important to be clear that these are targeted killings. Sikhs and Hindus were identified and shot for being who they are.

The weight of the horrendous cumulative violence in Kashmir by the Indian state, or the presence of Muslim casualties, cannot be an excuse for soft peddling this fact. The purpose was pure terror to drive out and deter minorities, and exploit the communal fissures developing in India. India’s fragility is being exposed at so many levels. These attacks are a reminder that very few counter-insurgency strategies succeed in the absence of a comprehensive political settlement that involves all parties.

For small groups of terrorists, it is easy to switch to softer targets. It has been so easy to give a lie to premature and triumphalist claims about “normality” in Kashmir. There is an analogy rightly being drawn with the Nineties when Kashmiri Pandits were targeted and driven out. But there is another aspect to that analogy. Despite the intelligence inputs, it is once again proving difficult for the state in Kashmir to provide protection for minorities. Now, as then, it is easier to politically use the plight of minorities in Kashmir than to provide them security. The BJP government now has its Jagmohan moment….

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/what-the-attacks-against-minorities-in-kashmir-reveal-7561263/


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