In attacking DPS Srinagar, terrorists are sending a message: No one is safe
Every tragedy has a turning point from where things hit rock bottom—and the only way is get out or go up.
The attack on Delhi Public School in Srinagar - one of the few shining examples of normality in a state marred by endless trauma since 1989 - is possibly the lowest point, following so soon in the footsteps of the lynching of Jammu and Kashmir DySP Mohammed Ayub Pandith. Anything that is remotely “Indian” is being attacked systematically, the message being two fold. One, the Valley wants to have nothing to do with India, and anyone who thinks otherwise is setting himself up as an easy target, as a “collaborator”.
So whether it is Jammu and Kashmir police, whose brave officers were the vanguard of keeping the Valley safe or Delhi Public School, an institution that founder Vijay Dhar built with his own bare hands as a testament to his abiding love for his homeland, destruction is the only option.
And it is all being presided over by a government that is partnered by the hypernationalist and super patriotic BJP. And we are told we are living in an era of progress, with a diversion a day for entertainment, whether it is a working lunch with US President Donald Trump or a midnight session of Parliament to usher in GST.
A party which boasts of India being the world’s fastest growing nation cannot ensure security for its citizens in a state they govern in alliance with a handpicked chief minister. Is this what Jammu and Kashmir voted for? Is this what India voted for?
The attack on Delhi Public School has all the hallmarks of what happens when institutions are not allowed to function and have either lost their way or simply not been allowed to do their job. The terrorists had warned of an attack on the school two months ago—so this is not an accidental target as reports emanating from the Valley seem to suggest--but there was absolutely no back-up given to the school authorities. When the attack happened, precious time was lost in confusion on command—was it the job of the Army, the BSF, the CRPF or Jammu and Kashmir Police?
The entire school is covered by CCTV but only half hour ago was the footage accessed to locate the terrorists who had holed up in the school since last evening. Dhar can only heave a sigh of relief that the children are safe and that the attacked happened an hour after they had left. He has been deluged with calls from parents and relatives, asking about the children, and his only request to television channels is that they broadcast the message that the children are safe.
And Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed? Where is she? Where is Ram Madhav, architect of the grand alliance which put her in power? We know where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is of course, and we also know that he would rather tweet about deaths in foreign capitals than terrorist attacks in his own nation.
The intention is clearly to paralyse life in the Valley and prevent any “outsider” from establishing roots. Especially if the “outsider” is a Kashmiri Pandit who has deep and abiding roots in the Valley and who has wished only that children are exposed to the best of what the world of education offers. The terrorists want to turn schools into fortresses and mosques into hatemongering centres. They want to turn Kashmir into a graveyard because they say they are not afraid of the wounds of war. That they have lived with ghosts of the living dead for over quarter of a century.
But they don’t realise that war kills and maims everyone. It has no victors, only victims.