Sheikh Khalid Jehangir
Brutal murder of a 25-year old Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gowhar Ahmad Bhat in south Kashmir’s Shopian district last month has once again brought the ugly face of Pakistan-sponsored terror to the fore.
Gowhar was abducted from his home in Shopian. Later his throat was slit and his body was recovered from a nearby village. “Body found with throat slit. Price we pay in our fight against terrorism. Deep condolences. These sacrifices make our determination stronger,’’ BJP general secretary Ram Madhav had tweeted soon after.
Even Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and others expressed shock and outrage over the killing.
Gowhar had joined BJP three years ago and had recently played a pivotal role in organising the BJP’s successful youth convention in Srinagar. Many people believe that this could be a reason why he was killed. A young man was murdered in cold blood but the so-called champions of human rights and the so-called Messiahs of Kashmiris, Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Geelani, Hurriyat dove Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and the terrorist turned so-called JKLF chief Yasin Malik, did not utter a word to condemn this cold-blooded murder. Had they done so their bosses sitting across the Line of Control would have got annoyed.
A Nationalist
A young boy who would have become a star tomorrow was killed just because he rejected Pakistan and its stooges. He was killed for being a part of a nationalist party (BJP) which believes in sab-ka-vikas-sab-key saath. His killers should bear in mind that there are thousands of youth like Gowhar in Kashmir who have rejected them and their ideology. It’s the people who are getting the terrorists eliminated as they are fed up of violence and their coercive tactics. Kashmir is changing as the new generation has outrightly rejected Pakistan and its ideology. The younger generation knows it very well that their future with India is secure and Pakistan is a failed state.
The police have identified the terrorists involved in Gowhar’s killing. Two of them belong to terror outfit Hizbul-Mujahideen and two others are affiliated with banned Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Soft Targets
Nationalist people in Kashmir have always remained soft targets for the terrorists and their handlers sitting in Pakistan. The people who talk about India and believe in Indian democracy have always remained on the hit list of terrorists. None of the Pakistan stooges has ever condemned these killings. For them, these killings are no human rights violation.
People of Kashmir have realised that Pakistan and the terrorists sponsored by it, are not their friends and their only aim is to foment trouble and violence in the Valley.
The Kashmiris, in the name of religion, are being misled and are being turned into killers.
Terrorists killed Gowhar to appease their masters sitting across the Line of Control. As the people sitting across the LoC seem to have only one task, that’s to destroy Kashmir and get Kashmiris killed to keep the pot boiling.
Pakistan has turned into a “festering wound” for India and it needs to be taken care off. How long can we tolerate innocent killings? How long can we allow Pakistan and its stooges to bleed us? It’s high time for us to come together and cross the line and teach these killers a lesson. These perpetrators have started believing that they can kill anyone and get away. This notion has to be dispelled by making them bleed and by avenging the killing of Gowhar and other nationalist people like young Lieutenant Umar Fayaz, who was abducted from a marriage function in south Kashmir and then killed by the terrorists.
(The writer is a freelancer)
