Arif was a three year old boy, who was gunned down by terrorists few days back in Shopian town of Jammu and Kashmir. This was such a cowardly act that any and every human being will condemn it but did every body condemn? Answer is NO. Neither the hurriyat, which calls itself, voice of kashmiris (which is questionable as they don’t have the guts to contest the elections) nor self proclaimed champions of human rights, likes of Teesta Setalvads, Mahesh Bhatts, Arundhati Roys and Nandita Dass were not heard condemning this ghastly act. No noise, no whimper, nothing. WHY? Is this their double standards or they didn’t consider this as a case of human rights violation. This silence from hurriyat is understandable as they are not the voice of kashmiris but the voice of terrorists operating in Kashmir, so how could they condemn their own people. But what about the others?
This killing of Arif by the terrorists is neither the first of its kind nor its going to be the last. The way India is dealing with terrorism has left a lot to be desired. The first and the biggest problem is that India is trying to deal terrorism with diplomacy. For gods sake how a nation of over one billion is committing such a big blunder. Purpose and out come of diplomacy is all together very different from the solutions, for terrorism.
Diplomacy is more about discussing bilateral and multilateral issues. Like, issue of Kashmir could be discussed between India and Pakistan and some solution could be arrived at. But issue of terrorism in Kashmir or in other parts of India could never be solved by diplomacy or discussion.
Then what is the way out for this problem of terrorism? Solution and answers depend on individual to individual and government to government. But I would like to mention the response of two different nations on two different acts of terrorism.
First is the most atrocious act of terrorism against United States of America by Al Queada on 11th September 2001. We all know what was the response of USA in retaliation of this terror act. Most of the people will agree and some will disagree with the American response. But matter of the fact was American response was not diplomacy, as they knew diplomacy is non starter in case of terrorism.
Second case dates back to 1972, when during Munich Olympics all the participants from Israel were kidnapped and murdered by a Palestinian terror group called ‘Black September’. The response of Israel was in form of “Operation Bayonet” or to put it simply “Operation Wrath of God”. With out going into much specifics and details of the operations lets see the result, which was, that all the plotters and executors (except one) of this act were eliminated (in different countries of Europe and over many years) and the group” Black September” could never take any other terror activity. The remaining one who is still alive is underground in some African Nation. One point that is worth mentioning is security agencies of many European countries helped Israel in gathering the information on the plotters of this attack.
What stopped India from taking stern action against the plotters of Mumbai blast of 1993? Had India taken a decisive action against those people then most probably other blasts in Mumbai and terrorist activities in other parts of the country could have been averted. Same thing is with 26/11 Mumbai attack. Why are we expecting Pakistan to act on the people whom it had sent to execute this act? Pakistan will never do it. Rather, these perpetrators would have emboldened with India’s inaction and would be planning another heinous act against it.
Though terrorism is the global problem but there cannot be a global solution to it. Every act of terrorism must be dealt separately and severely so that other terrorists at least have some fear in their minds while plotting a terror act.
Till the time our government realizes that India has to fight its terror problem on its own and acts tough against these terror groups, there is no guarantee that other Arifs will not be killed in terror attack. What India can expect from other countries is some support in intelligence and logistics but India has to fight its own battle and no one is going to do it on its behalf.
On lighter side the immediate provocation for the government to act very tough against the terrorists is to remove security cover from all the politicians. Once this cover is removed automatically this nation will become terror free as politicians will ensure that government takes toughest stand against terrorism.
Excellent.
People see a particular incident through the glasses they wear and thus the double standards.
Ultimately India has to fight its own battle. Nobody else is going to do it.