Niloofar Qureshi
Every death is a monumental tragedy in itself but the intensity of the shock and enormity of grief that it causes increases many times over when one realises that the accident which claimed multiple lives could have been avoided. And in this week alone we witnessed two such unfortunate incidents; one on last Friday in Amritsar where more than 60 people who were part of a large crowd witnessing the burning of Ravana’s effigy during Dusherra festival and had spilled over to the adjacent railway track were mowed down by a speeding train. The second incident occurred two days later in Laroo village of Kulgam in south Kashmir in which seven people of a crowd that was rummaging through the debris of a house at the site of a recently concluded encounter between militants and security forces were killed when a massive explosion occurred.
While both the tragic incidents rightly evoked public anger, politicisation of these tragedies in the garb of showing solidarity only insulted the dead and those injured in the Amritsar and Kulgam accidents. And in this melee of accusations and counter-accusations the crucial issue of how such avoidable accidents could be prevented in future has completely been lost sight of. In the Amritsar accident, the opposition parties are busy trying to prove that the Congress led UPA government in Punjab is solely responsible for this tragedy since it overlooked public security concerns byallowing Dusherra celebrations at a venue that was close to the railway lines. The Punjab government in turn has hit back at the BJP led NDA government at the center blaming the Indian railways for unpardonable procedural lapses.
Surprisingly, no one is talking about the need to increase awareness amongst the public to implicitly follow basic security norms like not thronging on railway lines!
In the Kulgam incident the situation too was no different. Rrather than expressing condolences to the bereaved family members of the deceased, Hurriyat (M) announced a complete shutdown on October 22 to strongly condemn & protest the mayhem unleashed in Kulgam by the ruthless Indian state. While JRL has all the rights to do as they please, but since the Kashmir issue concerns all of us, we have all the reasons to express shock and anguish on the attempt to trivialise death by politicising this human tragedy.
The JRL’s petition to UN Secretary General mentioning that On 21 October 2018, seven unarmed civilians were ruthlessly killed and hundreds injured by pellets, bullets and bombs at Laroo area of southern Kulgam district is based on speculation and thus not likely to be taken seriously.
Though the JRL expresses great anguish on loss of human lives in Kashmir but its detractors contend that this is merely an eye wash. They say that if this was really the case then the JRL would have certainly implored the people to refrain from exposing themselves to danger of bodily harm by doing things like gathering near encounter sites and pelting stones at security forces. Critics also cite statements that the JRL keeps issuing as proof that the separatists not only defend confrontation but also emotionally instigate the public to indulge in reckless acts of violence since retaliation by the forces gives the separatist conglomerate the fuel to continue their shutdown strategy. While one may not agree with this but the fact that the JRL hasn’t been able to work out an alternative to shutdowns even after three decades does raise concerns as its presentstrategy keeps throwing life out of gear and thousands of daily wagers and those in the tourism industry are hit the hardest!
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