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Journalism of Courage
Two stark pictures separate themselves from the many etched into the terrible devastation. The first is not made up of any one specific event. In fact, it is born of the countless acts of daring and courage in Operation Imdad, being conducted by the Indian Army in the areas of devastation, round the clock, despite the steep odds. In J038;K, the army is determinedly reaching places where the civil administration can8217;t or won8217;t. It is opening up roads to remote, affected villages high up in the hills, like the road to Dachi on the hills to the north of Salamabad. In the absence of equipment, armymen are scooping out bodies and survivors from the debris with their bare hands. This is an image of hope. It could grow in the future into a renewal of faith.
The second image is of a frozen fear as the earth trembled. In the early hours of Monday, militants carried out a deadly strike on two families in Rajouri district of J038;K, leaving 12 innocent people dead. Even as the aftershocks continued to rock the region, and while the panic was still to recede, militants attacked and they killed. The terror attack amid the natural disaster only confirms that terrorists are a brutalised people, hopelessly locked into a circle of violence. It further warns us that we attribute political causes and reasons to them at the nation8217;s peril.
