CRPF soldier Vasantha Kumar from Vythiri village in Kerala's Wayanad had just returned to Kashmir on February 9 after a brief vacation with his family and was heading to Srinagar. G Subramanian from Tamil Nadu had gotten off a call with his wife after having assured her that their barracks were only a few minutes away.
They were two of over 40 jawans from different corners of India whose martyrdom jolted our collective conscience. On February 14, an explosive-laden SUV rammed into one of the buses in a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying security personnel and mercilessly tore it apart. With this reprehensible ‘fidayeen’ attack by JeM militant Adil Ahmad Dar, 40 brave CRPF men had their lives snuffed out in a despicable and cowardly act of terrorism. This is not to lose sight of the sacrifice of a thousand others who have laid down their lives for the country for so long. The scale of this attack was what delivered a body blow to our version of what was actually transpiring around us. It unmistakably clawed open our eyes.
Yes, the fury is understandable. The gnawing pain is palpable. Consequently, there’ll be attempts to whip up nationalist sentiment and adulterate it with the muck of divisive politics. Yes, we do need to ask a lot of questions. We want answers that truly address pressing concerns and aren't fine-tuned to placate the masses. This is not the time for partisanship or buck-passing. Let there also be room to grieve. Right now, our nation needs togetherness and that too, with a sense of urgency.
Additionally, we should begin to lend a willing ear to the grievances of those who have been dragged into the fray.
Inevitably, those in power might have the propensity to cave into public outrage and are at the risk of resorting to knee-jerk reactions to avenge this abominable attack. This can obfuscate the voices of those who genuinely aim to fructify coherent policy measures that secure the interests of the body politic. We can't allow the clamour for tit-for-tat measures or bloodshed to drown out these voices.
War can set a dangerous precedent and will only end up leaving more violence in its wake. We also can't sit on the fence and let the perpetrators get away with their audacious act of terrorism. The last thing we should be doing is letting them off the hook. What we need is to strike at the root of the problem. The complex geopolitics of the region must be taken into consideration while formulating a response to this brazen attack. It’s time to commit to ironclad policies that reign in countries which canoodle terrorist organisations. The world should no longer give short shrift to the belligerent patronisation of terrorism. Resetting of diplomatic relations with nations that sponsor these nefarious acts of violence should be considered. We have to take an uncompromising stand when it comes to the destabilisation of groups that cause this carnage.
Most importantly, it's high time we realised that there's no way one can conveniently look the other way as this conflict rages on. History is sodden with all the gory stories that violence bathed us in. We don't want another bloody struggle in its annals. We need accountability.