It was a welcome development of profound symbolic significance when a small gathering of civil society groups gathered at a park in Lal Chowk to condemn the Monday killings of seven Amarnath yatris in South Kashmir. The participants which comprised members of businesses, cultural and civil liberties groups wanted to put three messages across. One, that they were aggrieved by the killings of yatris and condemn it in no uncertain terms. Second, they wanted an impartial probe into the incident, preferably by United Nations Human Rights Commission, which could reveal the identity of the perpetrators. And third, they wanted to send a message to the people across the country that while they were condemning the massacre of yatris why was Indian civil society watching impassively the civilian killings and blindings in Kashmir. The placards rubbed this message in: “Kashmiris condemn the killings of yatris. Do Indians condemn killings of Kashmiris”. Or that “all lives are valuable”. “Killings are neither Hindu nor Muslim”. “Silence is criminal”.
Speaking on the occasion the convenor of Coalition of Civil Society Khurram Parvez said Kashmiris are not selective in their condemnation of the civilian killings. “We are united on this. But the question is whether people in India are united in their condemnation of the civilian killings in Kashmir. They are not,” Khurram said. He too demanded an investigation into the incident to expose the identity of those behind the carnage as this alone will build deterrence against such killings in future. Others like the academician and the former Vice Chancellor Siddiq Wahid who spoke on the occasion said the killings of Yatris had saddened all Kashmiris. He too highlighted the element of ambiguity about such killings in Kashmir. One important point brought to light by the civil society members besides their welcome unequivocal condemnation of the tragic incident was that it has never been transparently known in Kashmir who the perpetrators of many a carnage are. This has created a situation where all the potential parties to a crime deny their role and blame each other leaving people confused. The situation continues like this until another carnage takes place and a similar blame game resumes. It is thus very important that there should be a transparent way of knowing who the perpetrators are. But this is an idealistic expectation. This is unlikely to ever be the case. More so in the hopelessly conflicted situations like Kashmir where apparent and actual can more often than not be two different realities. And this kind of situation always creates a vicious cycle.
The anonymity of the perpetrators and their motivations is itself a disturbing reality. It means little check on such killings in future. But there is no way such a messy state of affairs can be controlled let alone understood as long as the conflict in the state which underpins it remains unresolved. Until then the situation will continue as it has so far. But Tuesdays civil society protest does offer some hope. We cant stop the wrong happening but we certainly can register our protest and dare to stand on the side of what is right.