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Harassment of Kashmiris (Editorial)
Kashmir Times, Dec 17, 2001
Whatever the investigations on the attack in Parliament house on Thursday and whatever
the evidence against two Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed militant organisations,
for the people of Jammu and Kashmir Thursday's attack only means an excuse with the
government for increasing and accelerating its repressive measures against them. There
are still conflicting versions about the involvement of two Kashmiri youth in the
suicide attack. But Kashmiris have begun to be targeted by the government, security
forces and its investigating agencies in and outside the state already as if every
Kashmiri happens to have a personal involvement with what happened inside the
parliament house premises on Thursday. Several arrests have already been made
including the arrest of a Delhi University professor, and several others are being
harassed. In the recent years, the way people of Jammu and Kashmir are harassed
outside the state, particularly the Muslims of the state on trivial pretexts !
defies any democratic norms of a free state. It is known fact how security forces have
been picking on Kashmiri youth on the Delhi-Jammu highway and extorting money from
them.
Though complaints are galore about the same, no action has been taken probably because
those at the helm also see the Kashmiris with a suspicion. Now there are reports of
Kashmiris, specially Muslims being asked to 'go back to the Valley', as if they have
no right to visit Delhi, stay their for their studies or business purposes or settle
there. The government is encouraging such a practice irrespective of the fact that
this would not only communally create divisive atmosphere in Delhi and elsewhere but
would also further accentuate the alienation of the already isolated Kashmiris. Just
because a handful of Kashmiri militants are suspected to be involved in Thursday's
incident, why should the entire lot of people be branded alike and looked down upon
with suspicion, hatred and mistrust.
This is no different from the attack on the Asian community particularly the Sikhs in
America in the wake of the World Trade Centre attack on September 11, for the pure
reason that for the ignorant Americans, the Sikhs and Osama bin Laden looked alike in
their turbans. If the government chose to condemn the attacks on the Asian community
in America that time, why should it now choose to defend harassment on similar lines
of the innocent people, for the only reason that they happen to belong to a militancy
infested state or because they happen to be Muslims. Why should the government deny
innocent people their democratic rights to reside and live peacefully in any part of
the country. If Kashmiris staying in Delhi or visiting the capital city are being
harassed, those staying back in their homes are no less harassed either.
If the guilt of being a person from the same community and the same land as the
suspected terrorist, is enough to make one a suspect in the eyes of the powers that be
in a democratic country, why shouldn't everyone start suspecting all Delhi-ites to
have some sort of a nexus with the criminals, with the city's growing crime graph, and
start believing that all Mumbai-ites have connections with the underworld because
Chotta Rajan and Shakeel etc come from there. <<...OLE_Obj...>>
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