Vigil call in the Valley

Spring in Jammu and Kashmir has always brought with it the renewed threat of militancy because the melting snows make cross-border incursions that much easier. But this spring could be a particularly difficult season for reasons that go beyond nature and geography. For one, the state will soon witness a general election which will, in turn, encourage renewed attempts to derail the process through a combination of threat and violence, through boycott calls and targeted terrorist attacks. For another, there has been consistent movement on the peace track — a development that cannot be easily countenanced by those who have made death and disruption in the state their single biggest cause.

The preparatory talks between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India went off smoothly last month; the second round of the Hurriyat-New Delhi dialogue is on the cards a few days from now — and, of course, the cricket teams of both nations are presently padding up to face each other on the playing field. Logically then, for those who have sought to sow disaffection in the state, this is the time to strike, and jihadi terrorist outfits across the border — given their dangerous resolve — are likely to make full use of this moment. The tragic sight of a magnificent 80-year-old building, housing the state information department in Srinagar, in flames on Tuesday night testifies to that resolve. That just two men — both of whom owe allegiance to the Lashkar-e-Toiba from all evidence — could have wrought such damage seems to point to a strategy of renewed violence in the region. And, as if to confirm this, there was more death and bloodshed in Badgaon district a few hours later when an abortive bid was made by militants to abduct a local contractor, besides the recovery of a large cache of explosives from a construction site in Srinagar. These developments indicate not just a calculated escalation by the militants but an unfortunate slackening of vigilance on the part of the authorities.

Managing this historic moment would require great sagacity on the part of the authorities given the high stakes involved. The smooth conduct of the election process in the state that is bound to witness much political acrimony and the continuation of the dialogue process — both at the Hurriyat-New Delhi and Indo-Pak levels — are crucial for bailing out the region from the vice-like grip of cyclic violence that it is currently under. This would demand a difficult combination of sensitivity to local sentiment, a concern for the human rights of ordinary citizens, as indeed an effective counter-strategy to defeat the violent project of the insurgents.