A time for unity

Nation fully supports security forces' effort to eradicate terrorists in Kashmir

Unlike politicians, the Indian Army top brass is not known — though there are always exceptions — to make bombastic and/or hyperbolic statements. So, when a senior commander like Lt General JS Sandhu, General Officer Commanding, XV Corps, holds a Press conference of the joint command in Jammu & Kashmir with his police and para-military colleagues to state on record that “there has been a remarkable change in the (security) situation in the Valley" where security forces have eliminated as many as 190 terrorists, many of them hardcore, this year the nation needs to sit up listen. More importantly, political parties across the spectrum need to back the security forces in their effort to eliminate all vestiges of those who have taken up arms or are in other ways waging war against the state. Internal security experts feel that given the fact that the terrorists eliminated in 2017 have been key operatives and squad leaders, and include relatives of LeT leaders from across the border, the groundwork for the political outreach to intensify, from a position of strength, is nearly complete. A coherent strategy on the security front is now clearly discernible, especially over the past 18 to 24 months. The appointment of the Centre's interlocuter for Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, a former Intelligence Bureau chief, sent out an unambiguous message to those not willing to become part of the Indian mainstream that the days of simpatico academics, journalists and bureaucrats happy to buy into the myth of a Kashmiriyat that no longer exists on the ground are over. The relentlessness and focus of the security forces in taking on not just the terrorists but their active sympathisers, with a clear warning by the Chief of Army Staff to stone-pelting youngsters who try to impede and obstruct anti-terror operations that they would be treated as the enemy and not some version of “misguided youth” has had a sobering effect with parents and community elders now trying harder than before to keep kids out of harm's way. The simultaneous squeeze by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on terror financing has put many a separatist leader under pressure and led to a loss of sheen for them among ordinary Kashmiris. Using media as a force multiplier to expose the double standards of the separatist leadership when it comes passports, Government jobs or educational opportunities abroad for their kin has also kept the pressure on the anti-India forces in the Valley.

It is now for the security forces to carry on as they have been and ensure they do not rest till every non-state actor in possession of an illegal weapon is eliminated/arrested while strengthening their internal checks-and-balances architecture to prevent excesses from their side without impacting operational efficacy. The nation is behind them and political parties looking for the popular vote will have to fall in line.