SRINAGAR: The inability to move out of one’s house for prolonged periods can really be a harrowing experience and who knows this better then the people in Kashmir who have been forced to stay indoors for more than two months due to the continuing curfews. So Fauzia and her younger sister Nadia must have heaved a sigh of great relief on learning that curfew would not be imposed in Srinagar on Tuesday. And it was perhaps their natural urge to get over the stifling experience of claustrophobia due to prolonged confinement in their house that prompted these two girls aged 20 and 18 years respectively to take an early morning walk.
I’m sure the parents too were happy to see their daughters who had been cooped-up in their house for so long finally getting the chance to go out and they would have expected the girls to come back mentally reinvigorated. But it was not to be so! Instead, what returned was the dead body of Fauzia and a badly battered and bruised Nadia- this young duo had been hit by a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) near Rogan Gali in Parimpora area of Srinagar. Accidents in Srinagar are not uncommon but seldom do these occur in the early hours of the morning as there is no heavy traffic on the roads at this time and that is why the parents of these two girls must have been shocked beyond belief.
Academically speaking, this was a ‘freak’ accident as the ‘killer’ SUV was not being driven rashly and neither were the victims violating any traffic guidelines for pedestrians. It was just that coming under a sudden salvo of stones pelted at the SUV by masked miscreants the driver panicked and in a desperate bid to save himself and his vehicle from fury of the mob reversed the SUV with such haste that he didn’t notice the two girls walking behind. The victims too must have had no inkling that a SUV moving normally on a deserted road would suddenly make the unexpected manoeuvre of reversing and were thus caught totally unaware!
Accidents are something that can’t be avoided and when these are fatal they cause untold grief to the family of the victims as the loss is sudden, unforeseen and irreparable. In such cases expressing anger at the person responsible for the accident, cursing the system and blaming destiny does give the victim’s distraught family members an immediate emotional outlet to release their pent-up anger and anguish. In a way this is good as it helps them to gradually accept their loss and learn to cope with it. However, in this case on whom can the unlucky parents of the victims take out their anger? Since the victims were hit by the SUV its driver is undoubtedly to blame, but would it be morally correct to hold him responsible? Wouldn’t anyone in his situation done exactly what the driver did?
Though extremely unfortunate, such an accident was just waiting to happen. Ever since the current protests started, numerous well meaning people have been raising the issue of youth unnecessarily disrupting vehicular traffic by erecting barricades and pelting stones. Specific instances of even ambulances, doctors and medical staff being prevented from going to hospitals have been cited by irate citizens in the form of written pieces and letters sent to newspapers. Displaying a commendable sense of social responsibility the local media has been reporting such cases and many newspapers have even addressed this extremely important issue in their editorials. Unfortunately, while the separatists have condemned such acts, they have taken no meaningful actions to ensure that this despicable form of vigilantism by the youth against their own people stops.
So who killed Fauzia? The police would say it is the driver of the SUV, who in turn will blame the violent mob for making him lose control of his mental faculties by scaring the life out of him. The stone-pelters will simply say that they were only ensuring implementation of the hartal call and as the SUV driver was defying the same he the guilty person and was thus rightly given the treatment he deserved. As elders we chose to look the other way while our youth took law into their own hands and started enforcing restrictions on movement even when the same was categorically permitted by the ‘Joint’ Hurriyat. Thus, by not fulfilling our societal responsibilities as elders, it is ‘us’ who have really killed Fauzia!
Even though I personally don’t subscribe to the policy of continuously extending the duration of protests, I am not for a moment questioning the wisdom of those who keep issuing new ‘protest calendars’ every time the one being followed nears expiry. Yet I strongly feel that whatever method of expressing dissent is adopted, it should be such that it does not harm our own people in any way. When we claim that our protests are peaceful then how come we continue having instances of our own people being attacked by each other? If we claim that the masses are voluntarily observing the hartal calls given by our leaders then what explains the existence of unruly mobs resorting to use of physical force for ensuring the same?
Something is certainly wrong somewhere and this malaise needs to be remedied immediately. To my mind the real problem lies in our inability to correctly guide and where required even discipline our youth as the failure to do so in real time will only make them believe that they are law unto themselves and can do as they please. Proper upbringing that will make our youth responsible persons when they grow up is the need of the hour as any negligence or delay in doing so could have catastrophic consequences for our society!
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