Kashmir: I Wish...

In past few days, I have been really happy about one thing done by Indian Government; and that is hanging of Kasab and Afzal Guru. This news somehow made me feel really happy, that at last the terrorists are being punished...the terrorists who have been responsible for bringing pain to hundreds or even thousands of families!!

I have always been of the opinion that why should we be “humane” with such inhumane people...they should be killed at the earliest possible, rather than keeping them in the jails and waiting for some plane to be hijacked! But knowing about the unrest in Kashmir, because of Guru’s hanging really enraged me, thinking how can people, of my own country agonize for the slaying of a terrorist, how can they call him a martyr...a freedom fighter!!!!?? And I was like What Freedom!!?? It’s a free country!! Everyone in Kashmir is as free as everyone in any other part of the country!!

Freedom is gift that has been given to us by some of the great freedom fighters at the cost of their own lives!! I can’t even think if I could have been able to live in those times. I am not at all proud of the social conditions (crimes, scandals, etc etc..) which our country faces as of now, it should have been way better than this (at least that’s what our freedom fighters envisioned!!) But still, reading about those pre-independence times makes me feel that we anyhow are in a way better place than the people at that time! I can’t even think of the pain or the humiliation the people in those times faced that they felt, it’s worth it even to sacrifice their own life if that in some way contributes in bringing country out of those conditions!!

But apparently, there are people who still feel that pain and humiliation!! While keeping a tab on news related to hanging of Afzal Guru, I happened to read that Afzal Guru, before being hanged, was calm and composed throughout and even the letter he wrote to his wife indicated a sense of peace or calm, as if he is happy for his fate. In the letter he spoke about the ongoing “freedom struggle” for “Kashmir’s freedom”. Doing some googling and reading about the mass unrests in Kashmir, I realised that he Guru was not the only one who had such a feeling! I came across some really “scary” news and videos about conditions in Kashmir. Some of them being about the torture they have to face in the name of interrogations! The scariest I read was “Kunan Poshpora” incident!! There are n number of incidents that make people of Kashmir HATE India!!

At this point of time there are so many thoughts and questions in my mind...that what went wrong...or what is justified!!

Is Afzal Guru (and others having similar thoughts) right? I doubt...as they end up killing innocent people!! That is definitely not a fight for freedom! I am a fan of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Azad and I feel that violence is needed for freedom struggle! But they never ever killed any innocent and they never intended to!

Are conditions of people in Kashmir justified!!?? NOT AT ALL!! No one deserves to faces such torture!!

Is Indian Army the reason for all the issues? I don’t think so...if it was not for Indian Army, our country would have been shattered to pieces by terrorists bombing various cities!! Army is the one guarding our national borders and stopping the terrorist infiltrators!! And somehow I feel that there can be collateral damage in the process of protection, but definitely the percentage of collateral damage has to be minimal and incidents like Kunan Poshpara are not that of collateral damage!! Still, not every soldier can be blamed for that, it’s just a few who did that deed and then “AFSPA Act”, which saved them from being punished!!

Who is benefitted by all this mess!!??? Who else but our dearest neighbour!! They first send in the terrorists who use guns and bombs...then when they are somehow stopped by Indian Army (which might have caused some unintended damage)...the neighbour sends in more terrorists who use the emotions of hurt Kashmiris to create a mirage and brainwash them against India...against their own nation!!!

I wish that the Government of India and Indian Army understand that passing acts like AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) is neither good for the Army nor for the citizens!! And such acts are being ill-utilized by some notorious people! Further if it might help, some special units of Army can be trained to specially take care of conditions of people in the valley! GOI should understand that somehow people of Kashmir have being alienated from their own country and now we need to make them feel at home!! Further, we also need to understand the difference between people like Afzal Guru, who think that they are fighting to improve the conditions of Kashmir and terrorists like Kasab who have no motive other than terrorizing India!

I wish that somehow we can make people of Kashmir understand, that the “help” they receive from across the border is not a help for their cause, rather they are being used and their emotions are being played with! I hope they understand that once the purpose of these militants is served, militants would discard them and move to their next target! I wish the people of Kashmir feel that they already have the freedom they are fighting for...I wish they feel proud to be Indians

I wish Kashmir is no longer trapped between terrorism and faulty policies and is restored as the crown of India!

I wish...