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All
six were arrested a couple of days ago. The nexus came to light when
one of the militants who had come to attack a police station was
earlier seen with a clerk of the Sogam police station. The
interrogation of the clerk, Abdul Ahad Rather, unraveled the
conspiracy. They were collaborating with the militants on a regular
basis for long. Indeed, militants had supplied the policemen with
wireless sets so that they could be told about the movements of
their prospective targets.
Without doubt, the
incident would further bolster the charge that a section of the
Kashmiris played host to the Pak militants. The local Muslims were
beholden to Pakistan for various reasons, mainly religious and
financial. There is more than a kernel of truth in the charge that
Pakistan exploits the religious feelings of the Kashmiri Muslims to
rope them into its spurious `jehad’ in J and K. Even senior
civilian officers of J and K who happen to be Muslims tend to be in
thrall of the socalled `jehadis.’
That Pakistan lays
claim to Kashmir only because it is a Muslim-majority enclave in the
entire country is clear to all. Even the other day the Pakistani
dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, made bold to claim in a
television interview that but for the presence of `seven lakh Indian
troops’ Kashmiris would walk out of India. He made his claim only
because he believed that Kashmiris being Muslims would not like to
stay with India.
Is there a lesson
for Indians, especially the so-called secularists among them, in the
arrest of J and K cops in the conspiracy behind the murder of Lone
and Musharraf’s claim over Kashmir? Yes, there is. And it is that
it would not help to close your eyes to the reality in the Valley.
The Kashmir problem is rooted in the religion of its majority
community. And Pakistan exploits this religious affinity to create
mayhem in Kashmir and to lay claim over it. Indeed, in recent years,
there has been a systematic attempt to alter the religious profile
of other regions in J and K in such a manner that terrorists can
spread their tentacles beyond the narrow confines of the Valley
proper.
To a large extent,
this willful demographic alteration has already been implemented.
Therefore, while a law and order approach to deal with the menace of
militancy might pay short-term dividends, the long-term solution to
the Kashmir problem lies in its full integration with the rest of
the country. Article 370 is an artificial obstacle in the path of
Kashmir’s integration with India. Given that Pakistan’s claim on
Kashmir is based on the religious affiliations of the majority
community in Kashmir, it stands to reason that India would weaken
this claim by demolishing the artificial clamps on free settlement
of Indians from other parts of the country in that once idyllic
enclave.
Unfortunately,
successive governments in New Delhi have invariably pandered to the
spurious Pak claim by sealing off Kashmir to all Indians while
offering unlimited sops to Kashmiris to stay loyal to this country.
But the Kashmiris were clever. They took the sops, and demanded
more, while flaunting their religious affinity with Pakistan, even
when India, and not Pakistan, was home to the second largest Muslim
population in the world after Indonesia. So much for the wisdom of
our rulers. We wonder when our political class would come to terms
with this stark truth in the Valley. Till then, the Indian State
will continue to bleed at the hands of Pakistan and its agents in
Kashmir police and bureaucracy notwithstanding the periodic charade
of a dialogue which Islamabad might go through with New Delhi to
upstage India in the international fora.
[
The Free Press Journal ] | 
