LoC killings: Is Afzal Guru back to haunt India?

Bangalore, Aug 7:Is India paying the price for the February 9 'heroics'? Reports have said that militants have killed 35 security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir till July this year (the number was 15 last year) to avenge the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. This has sharply reversed the trend of declining violence in an otherwise disturbed state on many counts.

Minister of state in the home ministry RPN Singh said in the Lok Sabha that the militants have increased their attack on the security forces because of Guru's hanging. The latter was hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail on the early morning of February 9 and even his family came to know about the execution after it was carried out.

Singh had said after the hanging of Guru that one shouldn't play politics over Guru's death and calm and sobriety were what needed. Six months after the incident, he has admitted that violence has increased. Was the formula for calm miscalculated?

That the hasty and secret hanging of Guru didn't help New Delhi's causes is being proved over the past few months and jawans committed to their nation are facing the heat day in and day out. The leaders, perhaps in a temporary moment of glory, felt that the fears of alienating the Kashmiris and probable retaliation by the terror outfits were baseless but the ground reality has been proved to be something else.

For one Guru, the nation is witnessing endless bloodsheds and nobody knows what to do, except charging Pakistan tough, which is the easiest thing in these situations. Singh has also been trying to convey that the security personnel themselves were careless and had to pay the price. If that is the reason, then we fear the biggest act of irresponsibility was carried out by the leaders themselves.

The execution of Afzal Guru was an example of reaping political benefits at the expense of national security and it has been proved. New Delhi's policy on terrorism in the valley is likely to be jeopardy in days to come and given the highly fractured political mood prevalent in the country today ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, one wonders whether there will be any urgent effort on the Indian's government's behalf to reassert a firm policy to stop the violence. We have put our brave sons, the final hope for our defence, in the danger zone just because we lack the political capacity to deal with pressing challenges.

What's in store for us?

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