The Sopore massacre: a blame game?
“Gar firdaus bar-rue zamin ast, hami asto, hamin asto, hamin ast.”
~If there is a heaven on earth, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here~
The heaven; blood-soaked, stained from decades of militancy and insurgency, constant shadow of gloom, deaths, debates, ceasefire, political propaganda, verbal warfare, laws and continuous violations. A state that suffers the entire burden of external interference, internal disruptions, and international interventions. Yes, that’s Kashmir for you; continuously torn between two mindsets. First, the ones who think every Indian’s life lost in Kashmir needs to be avenged, and the second, the ones who wish to destroy every single element of peace and order in the valley.
A recent incident in the valley shook the entire nation at once. And not just this, but the image which surfaced from this incident is much more gruesome than the incident itself.
It is all a matter of perspectives which surface from a single mishap.
This incident took place on July 1st, 2020, when terrorists opened indiscriminate fire on a patrol party of the Central Reserve Police Reserve (CRPF) in the Baramulla district’s Sopore town, 50 kilometers away from the capital city, Srinagar. This open fire created a havoc in the surroundings and the CRPF personnel were left with no choice but to retaliate. While the terrorists unfortunately managed to escape in the midst of the retaliation, what gathered the attention was that a CRPF soldier, along with a civilian, had been hit in the crossfire. The civilian, who’s identity has been claimed as Bashir Ahmed, was driving to work along with his 3 year-old grandson. Fortunately, the forces managed to rescue the child safely, his grandfather could not make it out safe. The local policemen who were present at the scene of encounter claim that Bashir was inside his car with the child in the front seat along with him, and hence, could not take immediate cover when the firing began. And while the terrorists continued to fire, Bashir got hit.
THE TWO SIDED PROPAGANDA
Speculations have been triggered which are nothing less than a wildfire. While the question still stays, who really killed the civilian; which has a simple answer, that crossfires have their own drastic consequences. Reports from the Kashmir Zone Police, the Sopore Police and the CRPF have made absolute claims that the civilian has been hit by the bullet in the ongoing crossfire where he exited the vehicle he was driving in order to get a safe cover. But baseless twitter libtards claim otherwise. Practically speaking, the views of the family and loved ones of the deceased who are in an absolute state of shock after this incident are treated with utmost respect. Absolutely agreeable. But however, the bifocal social media has; as always, with no possible productive outcome; been torn into two sides.
After going through the allegations made on the armed forces personnel and the Kashmir police, it can be very well claimed that there have always been certain elements in the valley who boast of a strong anti-India agenda, whether it’s the militancy, the paid chaos-creators, the ones in power, or the ones who have lost their power along with some basic sensitive sanity.
Leaders with separatist ideologies, ungrateful attitudes and strong but meaningless words put-together-in-a-statement, have made claims against the act of self defense by the security forces, in favor of the militias which have been claimed to have started shooting from inside a mosque.
AMBIGUITY OF ORGANIZATIONS
Practice what you preach, an ancient saying, but an extremely significant one. Talking about hypocritical approach of responsible organizations, a series of tweets by Amnesty India, needs to be considered. The Non-Governmental Organization which strictly focuses on human rights and condemns its violations, tweeted about the recent incident, claiming the violation of article 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of children) Act, 2015, by the Kashmir police. The article prohibits the disclosure of identity of children; the Police shall not disclose any record of the child for the purpose of character certificate or otherwise in cases where the case has been closed or disposed of.
Works. Next we have a series of self explanatory tweets by the organization in the previous years. As a response to the NGO’s Tweet, journalist Aditya Raj Kaul shared the screenshot of one of Amnesty India’s 2018 tweets, where the NGO has shared a picture of a toddler who was allegedly hit by pellets. In its tweet, the NGO had not only shared the picture of the 9-month-old toddler but had also shared the name of the child, violating the very act that they blame the armed forces personnel for having violated, out loud.
THE WORSE
Kashmir is entangled in the throes of violence. Thanks to the ones who have moulded it into a dungeon of barbarism. It is a place where one man kills, and a hundred others pay. There are cases beyond the cycle of surfacing and resurfacing, the cases that do not even come into the limelight. The violation of justice beyond the judicial arena is a norm that requires a significant change. Still, justice remains long forgotten.
