Most of the terrorist killings in Kashmir have always been religiously targeted right since the beginning of the separatist insurgency in 1989. Pahalgam killings were not the first to be executed in the name of religion. All those Muslims killed during terrorism were killed for their political beliefs or over the suspicion of being government collaborators and not because of their religion.
When Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said the killings of displaced Kashmiri Pandit employees were not executed because of their religion, there was widespread outrage among the community. For Sinha, and for that matter for any politician, being “politically correct” is always the safest option. Moreover, Sinha had to assert that everything was normal in Jammu and Kashmir after August 2019.
It is for the first time that the “apologists” of the separatist insurgency in Kashmir could not find a proper cover up for the communal killings. Otherwise, the liberal ecosystem has always managed to cover up such killings as having “nothing to do with religion”. The terrorists not only asked about the religious identity of their victims, they also asked them to recite ‘kalima’ that every Muslim knows and even asked them to lower their trousers to check whether they were circumcised or not, as they apparently thought that even a non-Muslim could recite ‘kalima’.
Whenever there have been random killings by terrorists, these have always been exclusively that of non-Muslims. Notorious terrorist Bitta Karate went on record in a television interview that he had killed about two dozen Kashmiri Pandits, just because they were Hindus. When he was asked why he killed them, he replied he was ordered to do so and he did. His first victim was his childhood friend, Satish, whom he killed for being a Hindu.
Never ever did Kashmiris resort to protests against such killings. While selective killings were quite frequent, there were some massacres like in Nadimarg (also depicted in the film ‘The Kashmir Files’), Wandhama and Sangrampura just to name a few. There were no protests and no shutdowns against these massacres.
It may sound bizarre and macabre, but at times such killings were even celebrated and those responsible for the killings were honoured and glorified. Bitta Karate is married to an officer of the Kashmir Administrative Services. The particular officer married him while he was in jail and she believed she was performing a highest religious duty by marrying a ‘mujahid’ (one who does ‘jihad’). Yasin Malik, who is facing trial for the murder of three Indian Air Force officers, is married to a wealthy Kashmiri-origin British woman.
When men left their homes to join terrorism, they would be celebrated and seen off like “bridegrooms”. Once they were back, it was again a celebratory time with feasts served to guests and dances performed. For many, these may sound exaggerated accounts, but those who have watched terrorism in Kashmir closely and lived through it, would remember it.
So what changed in Kashmir that there were “protests” against the killings?
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As already mentioned, the Kashmir apologists supported by a “liberal elite” have always defended Kashmir terrorism as “freedom struggle” that has nothing to do with communalism. Yasin Malik is projected as a “Gandhian”. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, an organisation Bitta Karate belongs to, is described as a “secular” organisation.
Since there is no defence and no cover-up available for what happened in Pahalgam, the same “ecosystem” tried to push the actual tragedy to the background and started highlighting the “protests” by Kashmiris against the killings. They also cited the examples of Kashimiri pony operators lifting the victims on their shoulders. Being fair to them, everyone who was around that time tried to help the victims.
But what this ecosystem tried to hide was that some of the terrorists involved were locals as well, apart from those belonging to Pakistan. They must have got enough support from the locals in the villages, who either provided them with cover or ignored their movement. The type of weapons they were carrying must have been too difficult not to be noticed. Moreover, the way they tried to check the identity of their victims suggests definite involvement of the locals.
Public condemnation of the killings is understandable. Who will not condemn such brutal killings? Particularly, when you are going to score a political point that even when the victims were non-Muslims, the entire Muslim population in Kashmir rose in protest.
Political correctness and posturing aside, there is also an economic and financial angle involved in these protests. All those involved with the tourism sector are feeling destroyed and devastated. Most of the hotel bookings have been cancelled. Airlines are flying empty in peak season. For the last several years, Kashmir’s tourism industry was booming and blooming at a phenomenal pace. Now it has come to a grinding halt.
The protests, which got widely publicised, were aimed at showing to the outside world that the Kashmiris “did not” support or approve of the killings. That the tourists can return to Kashmir with a sense of safety and security. The liberal ecosystem also stepped in. Almost all liberal handles on social media played down the actual incident and instead played up the “candle light protest marches”, suggesting that people in Kashmir were “deeply pained” over the killings. They actually might be.
One thing has changed for sure in Kashmir - people have now realised that they cannot “celebrate terrorism” anymore as it will come at a price. A certain section of people also has started feeling that peace is a better option as it brings prosperity. The incident will keep on haunting the people of Kashmir for quite some time, not for the pain and trauma of the victims, but for the loss of their own livelihoods.
It is the economy, stupid, that is revealed in those “candle light protests” and televised “wailing and whining”. Otherwise, nobody really cares for the blood of innocent and helpless victims.
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