Security Forces Tag ‘TWO ABDULLAS’

The common and distinguished features of Late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and his grandson Omar Abdullah recently was exposed by one of his acts. The young Abdullah who holds the fort of the Government in J & K  and on the contrary older Abdullah (Late Sheikh Sahib) ‘rests in the heaven’. But, neither the old pitch, ‘Kashmir’ nor the catalyst, ‘Security Forces’ have been changed in these sets. In fact, Omar Abdullah’s conspicuous absence from ‘funeral homage’, gathering to pay last tributes, to 5 slain CRPF jawans, killed in the terror attack at Bemina, Srinagar followed by the “Afzal Sahib” remark force political pundits to believe that something new is brewing up for future. 

CM’s latest postures seem either inadvertent or deliberate but little difficult to analyse at this juncture. The two acts at its face seem rather calculated. The Grandson, Abdullah’s  decision to go into the footsteps of his grandfather, late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who had also shown very extra concern over ‘accidental killings’ of two National Conference workers on 5 November 1947 in spite of everyone’s hard efforts to persuade him about the ‘accidental firing and mistaken identity’. 

This time, the Chief Minister’s failure to attend or depute authorized representative from Govt. or NC to represent at ‘funeral homage’ and paying last tributes to slain CRPF jawans and later rushing to the Srinagar Airport after much noise to lay wreaths on 5 coffins and bid adieu to martyrs only offered confusing signals. Now, the “Afzal Sahib” remark has once again confused everyone and people are trying to connect the missing-link. All Political parties cornered CM in the State Assembly and outside over the two separate issues and the CRPF Jawans pointed fingers on the ‘act of ignoring their dead soldiers’. 

Jawan’s ‘CONCERN’

An angry CRPF jawan said," "We die for the country, but there is no value for our lives. At least the CM should have come to see us". "If a civilian dies in stone pelting or during violence they (politicians) go to their houses, but there is no value for our lives”, said another colleague. The statement of the CRPF jawans is undoubtedly genuine for all times. Moreover, there is hardly anybody who can afford to ignore the fact that the gruesome ‘fidayeen terrorist’ attack, a highly well designed and organized  one, by two militants, disguised as cricket players, in CRPF camp has once again reiterated the existence and return of the hardcore militancy in the Valley.

But some attribute Omar’s absence to a deliberate move whereas the political opponents credit it to callousness. Such things have happened time and again but the political class cannot allow it to ignore and allow these things pass on silently. This is everybody’s guess that such things are broadly done with enough wisdom for political gains. However, the recurrence of mistakes of this kind distastes the political atmosphere all over.

One such historical fact speaks about the tallest political leader of Jammu and Kashmir late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the grandfather of the CM, Omar Abdullah. The incident dates back to the most critical period of 1947 when the Pakistani tribals and raiders looted, attacked and killed the peace loving people of Jammu and Kashmir. On looking backward, the history reveals more than one’s expectations.

Old Callousness

The book, ‘Conflict Over Kashmir’ by Major S.R. Johri states, ”An unfortunate incident occurred after 1 Sikh withdrew from Pattan. In the late evening of 5 November a couple of National Conference Volunteers happened to pass in front of the Sikh camp. A sentry challenged them. Instead of answering the challenge the volunteers took to their heels. The sentry suspecting them to be Pakistani raiders fired at them. The two volunteers were killed on the spot. When this news reached the city there was resentment. The next day there was a mass demonstration. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad pacified the mob by pleading that the shooting had been accidental. But the Sheikh was upset over this incident. 1 Sikh had to be removed out of the Bdami Bagh area to the Rifle Range area north of 1 Kumaon”.

Furthermore commenting on the same incident, the book “Slender was the Thread” by Lt. Gen. L.P.Sen, who commanded 161 Infantry Brigade as acting Brigadier during Kashmir operations in 1947 describes Major Somnath Sharma of 4 Kumaon, a highly seasoned soldier who fought in the’ Arakan’ during the World War II and was killed in the battle of Badgam along with his men, killed and wounded, while defending the Srinagar Airport 1947.

This author mentions about the incident in the book and says, “As it had become a routine matter for me to call on Sheikh Abdullah every time I visited Srinagar, in order to brief him on the situation”. “Every time that I visited Sheikh Abdullah, he would sooner or later resurrect the unfortunate case of the two National Conference Volunteers who had been killed on the night of    5 November and tell me what a tragic loss it had been. The first few times I reiterated my sympathy and said it had been an unfortunate accident. But when I found the matter being brought up again and again, I felt it was time for me to put a few basic facts before him”. “I asked how many times he had demanded an apology from the tribals who had killed thousands of the people of Kashmir in their advance to the Valley. Those killings had been deliberate murder, without any semblance of an accident”.

In fact, the historical incident of 5 November 1947 and the ‘CRPF Jawans recent observation’ need to be taken seriously by everyone, particularly the political class  since the need of the hour is to look at the ‘killings by firing of security forces’ genuinely on merits of ‘self-defence and accidents’ and keep politics out and away. Lastly, the time is changing fast and the present Politicians should move forward like optimists and good Politicos for better tomorrow.