In 90s the common term used for these operations was crackdown wherein villages after villages were cordoned and people assembled at one place and houses were searched one by one in order to ensure that the insurgents dont hide anywhere .For Delhi based security analysts and experts their elimination was important as they were a nuisance and If not eliminated they would have extorted money, burned property, killed or harmed the respectable citizens in these villages. So assembling all the people of villages at one place and going for an all out against these insurgents was necessary. The kind of atrocities that would have been committed against common people by these insurgents if they were not wiped out, would have been gruesome, security experts in Delhi , overzealous T.V anchors , party spokespersons and armchair analysts would quote many more such reasons that necessitated crackdowns and related measures irrespective of their modus operandi. But what happened at these places where people were assembled would not be discussed much by experts and analysts. It happened , people faced , people suffered and most of these crackdown like events were so heinous and barbaric that any account of these would sent the waves of terror shimmying down the spine of listeners . But since it was done for a larger good national security or whatever and committed by men in uniform who were backed by law, govt. and 1 billion people all the violations of human rights in the process stay nullified and justified.
Anyways most of these events have remained unrecorded, unnoticed and if there are some who could narrate the exact horrific and gruesome events that unfolded during these operations are the common Kashmiris, whose voice hardly matters. Lets not discuss those happenings here and keep them dumped deep inside our hearts. One may ponder had those foreign insurgents survived , what would have been the extent of atrocities they would have unleashed on the common people. Could they have by any means exceeded the heinousness, ruthlessness, barbarism etc. committed by our saviors the anti insurgency forces who saved us from the so called offing dangers.
Years passed and much changed in the geopolitical scenario of world. But here in Kashmir everything is at standstill or rather reemergence of every past heinousness has become a new norm. There might be a change of nomenclature , crackdowns renamed as CASO etc. But the sufferings of people continue till date. We lost many people in past to ambushes and so called cross firings and we still loose them every next day in one way or another .Though the methods and reasons of killings have been renamed as stray bullets, mistaken identity etc. after all a Kashmiris identity is always mistaken in one way or another.
Year 2017 may be called as relatively peaceful by government, but the fact is it was an year of CASOS, we witnessed about 60 civilian killings. Alienation among youth increased further and distrust in democracy and democratic institutions persisted. Looking at the present scenario the future too seems bleak.
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