WHILE
some of the Kashmiri Pandit families have been persuaded not to migrate after
the gory killings at Nadimarg the police have yet to achieve any major
breakthrough in identifying the killers. As has happened in several cases of
massacres and killings of other innocent persons as also the assassination of
prominent leaders in the recent past the security authorities, which otherwise
fail to prevent such strikes, blamed the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad
militants for the Nadimarg massacre within hours of the incident.
On
the other hand the DIG police while claiming to have achieved some breakthrough
in the investigations refused to divulge the details. Even in the past the
police made similar claims about all the cases of killings but eventually all
such cases were closed without identifying the culprits, not to speak of
bringing them to book. In most cases of such massacres no independent probes are
ordered and in few cases where such inquiries are held the reports, if any, are
kept closely guarded secrets and no follow-up action is taken. Such an attitude
of the authorities and their failure to order independent probes and keep every
thing secret about the cases only creates doubts about the official claims
regarding the culprits. The chief minister has alleged that Nadimarg massacre is
an attempt to derail the peace process. It is also claimed that the Nadimarg
massacre was aimed at frustrating the State government’s move to rehabilitate
the Kashmiri Pandit migrants in the Valley in different phases. For restoring
the affected people’s confidence it is important that the killer are unmasked
and given stern punishment. The failure to probe incidents and bring the
culprits to book in the past has only increased the sense of insecurity among
the people.
This
has also encouraged the killers to strike again and again more brutally. In most
of the cases of killings including the latest incident at Nadimarg there has
been obvious lapse on the part of the security and intelligence agencies who
failed to prevent such killings. To identify the killers and bring them to book
as also to find out the security lapses and inefficacy of the security agencies
in preventing such incidents it is necessary that a high level and impartial
probe is ordered into every such case soon after the incident. While police may
go ahead with routine investigations the independent and impartial inquiries can
help in preventing such incidents for the future while restoring to much extent
the people’s faith in the administration in doing them justice. The killers
must be unmasked and punished in every such case if the government is keen to
prevent such incidents and go ahead with its peace process. (Editorial
Kashmir Times, Jammu).
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