Farooq Wani
Kashmir is famous, not only its alluring beauty but also for its spiritual significance. It’s a place where predominance of Sufi culture has helped in creating a pluralistic society with exceptional religious tolerance. The social environment was so peaceful and tranquil that Kashmir was often referred to with reverence as ‘peer var’ (abode of the saints) and incidents of violence were a rarity. Even though Pakistan attempted to lure a section of locals into pursuing a separatist agenda, the people of Kashmir rejected ISI’s attempts to communalise this campaign.
Unfortunately, things changed after the ISI started a proxy war through local youth trained and armed by the Pakistan army in the late eighties. In 1990, these indoctrinated militants targeted the minority Pandit community in Kashmir Valley, forcing their mass exodus. The ISI had completely brainwashed the youth and as such, they didn’t even spare members of their own community who spoke up against killing of hapless Kashmir Pandits or the dirty game that Pakistan was playing by pitting two communities against each other.
The proxy war in Kashmir brought about two grave social evils – violence and substance abuse.
The problem with violence is two-fold. Firstly, once unleashed, it spreads like a wild fire that can’t be controlled and secondly, it breeds animal instincts amongst some and generates fear and indifference amongst the masses. This is exactly what’s happening in Kashmir as evident from the disturbing rise in incidents of gruesome violence, as well as the shocking display of public apathy with respect to the same. Earlier, any serious crime like a murder would cause considerable concern amongst the people and the culprits would be looked down upon with contempt. But today, things are completely different.
Every day one reads about some extremely disturbing violence related incident and yet no one seems to care. Recently, a married man killed a 30-year-old woman, and after chopping her body into several pieces dumped them in different locations in Budgam district to hide his heinous crime. Just the other day, a 36-year-old taxi driver murdered his nine-year-old daughter after a quarrel with his wife in Khurhama village of Kupwara district. There was also the shameful news that a prostitution racket was busted in the Bagh-e-Mehtab area of Srinagar and four local female sex workers were arrested.
Next is the burgeoning drug menace that militancy in J&K has spawned. An inseparable link between narcotics and terrorism exists all over the world, and Kashmir is no exception. Drugs provide terrorist handlers two distinct advantages. One, it is an excellent source of money which helps in sustaining terrorism. Two, once ‘hooked’ on drugs, the youth are willing to do anything to satiate their craving for narcotics and hence can easily be exploited to indulge in acts of terrorism.
In 2020, DGP J&K had said that “Drugs are wreaking havoc on the society. When militancy was about to end in Punjab, Pakistan played with the lives of youth there by sending drugs of all kinds. And today, when you see what has happened there (in Punjab) you would realise that Pakistan has started the same exercise in J&K. Easy availability of drugs from across the border in various forms has further added to the problem. The highest numbers of addicts are those who were born in the 1990s and have seen maximum violence.
So, besides mainstreaming violence and murder, the so called ‘armed struggle’ in Kashmir has also eroded moral values by promoting a depraved mindset that believes in making a fast buck through illegal means like indulging corrupt practices, scams and scandals, sexual predation and even rape, kidnapping for ransom and murder. Unfortunately, though civil society and influence groups in Kashmir wax eloquent on this issue, they haven’t undertaken any comprehensive campaign to tackle this debilitating menace. The reasons for their inactivity on this account is not known. However, there are suspicions that since the drug scene is controlled by those fuelling militancy, no one wants to take the risk of inviting retribution by condemning drug peddling from across the LoC.
Whenever there is talk of drug addiction in J&K, memories of the gruesome Sopore murder are revived in which a young drug addict killed his own mother for a few bucks so that he could purchase narcotics.
Let’s all work together to protect our society from becoming a safe haven/breeding ground of criminal and anti-social activities. Since we have neglected to act on the issue of unbridled violence and substance abuse for more than three decades, the road ahead will be a difficult one requiring sustained efforts. However, something has to be done immediately in order to arrest the rapidly declining moral and social values.
In short, it’s time to revive our age-old pluralistic practices and rather than blame others for the existing sorry state of affairs, look inwards, because as the wise have said, charity begins at home!
Bottomline: Having suffered immensely for more than three decades, the people of J&K don’t want terrorism to once again gain ascendancy and the authorities need to ensure that it doesn’t happen. Some positive steps have been taken in this regard, but more needs to be done. No space should be given to terrorists and divisive forces to take Kashmir Valley back into the nineties when terrorism was at its peak.
The author is Editor Brighter Kashmir, author, TV commentator, political analyst and columnist.
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