“They shot my father at the back. They are cowards.”
- Niyanta Pandita (D/O Sarpanch Ajay Pandita)
Human Rights violations are generally associated with the activities of Armed Forces, whereas if analysed properly terrorists are the real perpetrators of such violations. There are a few cases of HR violations by the Security Forces, which mostly are due to negligence or occur when the situation goes out of hand. Despite the fact that forces seldom commit such things intentionally & always try to control the situation with minimum damage to civilians & their property, all such cases are dealt with a firm hand & necessary actions are taken against the soldiers involved. There have been numerous examples of harshest punishments levied in such cases. However, on the other hand all the activities of terrorists, be it violence against civilians, their family members, misuse of their property to hide by creating pressure & threatening them, misbehavior with the family members & ladies (which mostly involves sexual assaults) are rampant cases of HR violations against the common Kashmiri civilians by the terrorists. Neither the HR violation monitoring NGOs nor UN can do anything against such prevalent crimes except condemning them, appealing to the terrorist organisations or issuing statements. On the other hand they raise their voices to unrivalled levels on false allegations against the Security Forces that take tangible actions to prevent such HR violations by terrorists against civilians.
Till September 2021, terrorists have already killed nine civilians & critically injured four civilians in South Kashmir only. On the other hand they have accounted for nine kills & 13 critical injuries against Security Forces & their family members. These attacks also include gruesome & inhumane assaults on wife & daughter of Fayaz Ah Bhatt of 162 TA at Hariparigam, Anantnag & wife & daughter of Head Constable Sajjad Ah Malik of JKP at Kokagund, Anantnag. Such barbaric acts are conducted by the terrorists, with direct support from their OGWs. OGW are over ground workers, who in the garb of civilians support terrorists covertly, without coming out in open. Most of these are working in government departments & do not reveal their true identity & continue providing weapons & intelligence of security forces presence to the terrorists. They shelter terrorists in their homes & misguide security forces by giving wrong information. All the recces of the targets, their routines & their homes is done by these OGWs, who are guised as well-wishers & common civilians. This information is secretively passed onto the terrorist. They have an equal, if not larger role in spreading the violence & fear in the minds of common civilians.
Dealing with the terrorists is relatively easy for security forces as compared to dealing with the OGWs. They are the main planners & support base for the terrorists, who orchestrate all the violence, recruitments & funding of the terrorist tanzeems & at the same time stay out of the limelight. It is very difficult to prove their involvement in the terrorist activities & take legal action against the OGWs as they never carry the weapons & thereby have to be left with minor prison terms, even if caught. These terrorists & OGWs claim to be fighting for the just cause as part of the civilian struggle, but in actual they target the civilians who do not support their radical, violence driven agenda of hatred against a particular community. Their nexus is very strong & have people working for them from all fields & departments. They use social media to radicalize the youth by spreading false propaganda against the security forces & government.
United Nations Security General Mr Kofi Annan appropriately stated “Terrorism strike at the very heart of everything that UN stands for. It is a global threat to democracy, the rule of law, human rights & stability & therefore requires a global response”. This statement crisply highlights the effect of terrorism on humankind globally. We must join together to fight this menace globally. No one, be it the government, the security forces or the terrorists should have the authority or power to violate basic human rights of anyone. While, the first two are answerable to people & subjected to the law for their actions, the third ones neither claim responsibility nor are answerable to any lawful body for any of their actions. Having freedom to support any ideology/ faith, expressing dissent or to protest against the government to put forward the demands, does not in any way imply that we could take law into our hands, create anarchy, lawlessness & spread violence. Terrorism is an act against humanity & no argument can justify the killings of peaceful civilians.
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