Srinagar, April 28: Amid massive crackdown against militants and their sympathizers alongside demolition of houses of ultras by blasting, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that while guilty should be punished without mercy; innocent people shouldn’t become collateral damage.
“After the Pahalgam terror attack, there must be a decisive fight against terrorism and its origin. People of Kashmir have come out openly against terrorism and the murder of innocent people, they did this freely & spontaneously,” Omar said in a post on X. “It’s time to build on this support and avoid any misplaced action that alienates people. Punish the guilty, show them no mercy but don’t let innocent people become collateral damage,” he added.
Omar’s statement came hours after party colleague from National Conference and Member Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi in a brief post on ‘X’ said that “Kashmir and Kashmiris are being given a collective punishment.”
Earlier, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said the Government of India should tread carefully and avoid alienating innocent people while acting against terrorists.
“The Government of India must tread with caution and carefully distinguish between terrorists and civilians following the recent Pahalgam attack,” she said in a post as per GNS, urging Centre “must not alienate innocent people, especially those opposing terror.
“There are reports of thousands being arrested and scores of houses of common kashmiris being demolished along with those of militants,” she said, adding, “Appeal Government to direct the authorities to take care that innocent people are not made to feel the brunt as alienation aids terrorists goals of division and fear.”
J&K Peoples Conference President and Handwara MLA Sajad Lone said that using “collectiveness to define criminality or terrorism is a curse and will never allow reconciliation and social introspection.”
“The mass protests against the Pahalgam killings was a rare occurrence, a first of its kind in the last 78 years. It showed a shift in mindset from a society in which some significant sections may have accorded social sanctity to the concept of violence —— to a society which matched in thousands across villages and towns condemning violence thereby signifying the social stigmatisation of violence,” he said, adding, “This a monumntal shift, a milestone. But at the same time, a fragile shift.
I hope those in charge of law and order do understand the significance of the shift and don’t do anything erroneously which impedes the shift Or facilitates a return to the earlier mindset.
There is a general feeling across the valley that whole family is being punished for the actions of one person. We approached the court also and termed it as a form of collective punishment, inspired by the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, where the British were convinced of their criminality and and attributed it to their ancestry.”
He said using Collectiveness to define criminality or terrorism is a curse and will never allow reconciliation and social introspection.
“I hope what has been achieved in the aftermath of the heinous carnage in Pahalgam, is understood by those at the helm. And these precious gains are not frittered away,” he added.
In February this year, Mehbooba and Peoples Conference President Sajad Lone had welcomed the J&K and Ladakh High Court’s ruling that an individual cannot be denied a passport just because a family member was involved in militancy.
She had termed the ruling as a “step in the right direction” while strongly criticizing what she described as the weaponization of travel restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019.
“The honourable High Court’s decision of not denying a passport to an individual for merely being related to a militant is certainly a step in the right direction. Given how even the basic fundamental right to travel is being weaponised brutally since 2019 in J&K,” the PDP President had said in a post on X.
The court had emphasized that the decision to issue a passport must be based on the applicant’s own actions rather than those of their relatives.
The High Court direction came in a plea filed by a resident of Ramban, who had filed an application for passport issuance in 2021. However, his application was kept pending due to an adverse police verification report that Malik’s late brother, Mohammad Ayaz Malik, was a militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen and was killed in an encounter in 2011, while his father was an enlisted over ground worker (OGW). The petitioner in his plea asserted that there were no criminal charges against him and that he was being unfairly penalized for his family’s past. Sajad too had lauded the judgment by the High Court.(GNS)
