Army following sop on protests at encounter sites?

The death of seven civilians in firing by security forces has raised the heat in the chill of Kashmir. The deaths are the highest in a single incident of firing in recent memory and raise some questions that need answers at the earliest. The first: Are there no standard operating procedures on how to deal with street protests at encounter sites? It has now become routine for villagers to pour out in the streets and protest wherever an encounter is taking place, sometimes they even try to help the militants escape from the area.

The militants, on their part, have also used villages as a kind of shield against the security forces. Given that this has now become routine, the security forces should be prepared to deal with such situations each time they corner militants and go for an operation. Saturday’s protests after an encounter in Pulwama followed the same pattern, but obviously there were no lessons learnt from past incidents during which there have been civilian casualties. 

The second question: Have mainstream political parties failed the public by not raising awareness about the dangers of protesting at encounter sites? Don’t they have any role to play other than condemning the death of civilians? The onus lies more on the local parties such as the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party to make the public understand that they should not venture near encounter sites. As representatives of the people, it is their duty to ensure that the public does not indulge in anti-national activities. It is not enough for them to just condemn the death of civilians.

But the deaths once again bring to focus the larger issue of the seemingly intractable Kashmir problem. It can perhaps be safely said that, barring the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, no dispensation at the Centre has been serious about resolving the issue. Containment of the militancy rather than resolving the issue appears to be the game plan. While this may pay short-term dividend, it is unworkable in the long run.