Author: Editorial
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 14, 2001
The point that worship centres cannot
be a safe haven for terrorists was brought home when the security forces
stormed the Ganai Mohalla mosque at Shangus in Anantnag district and killed
the six militants holed up there. It has forced the All Party Hurriyat
Conference leader, Abdul Ghani Lone, to make an appeal to militants to
desist from using mosques as a base for their operations. Whether or not
the appeal will have an impact on outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and
the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the increasing use of religious places for terrorist
operations is a reality that cannot be glossed over. The militants make
use of mosques for such operations because they believe that by storming
them security forces leave themselves open to the charge of causing sacrilege
to religious centres. It was precisely for this reason that Bhindranwale
found it convenient to operate from a religious place and the police found
themselves hard put to tackle him. Again, it was the fear of causing damage
to the famous Hazratbal shrine that forced the security forces in 1993
to provide safe passage to the militants holed up inside the shrine. The
law and order agencies are yet to recover from the loss of face they suffered
on account of having fed the militants biryani on that occasion and eventually
allowing them to escape.
It should have occurred to the government
that the very act of the terrorists taking shelter in a mosque amounted
to sacrilege and, therefore, no effort to dislodge them from there could
be considered a sacrilegious act. In any case, the militants have not respected
any such distinctions themselves as is borne out by the havoc they had
subsequently caused to both the Hazratbal shrine and the Sufi shrine, Charar-e-Sharif.
Less than a week ago, they had lobbed a grenade at the rebuilt Charar-e-Sharif
shrine killing six women and injuring dozens of devotees. It needs to be
stressed that for the terrorists, religious beliefs and traditions are
important only insofar as they help them foment trouble. Think of it, why
should foreign mercenaries pay any respect to a Sufi shrine? The Kashmiriyat
spirit it represents is after all anathema to Muslim fundamentalists. Small
wonder then that terrorists had no qualms in putting the Charar-e-Sharif
shrine to the torch. That the security forces have summoned up courage
to break through the so-called religious barriers this time round is a
sign of the anti-insurgency operations coming of age in the benighted state.
By basing terrorism in mosques,
the militants are betraying their growing alienation from the climes and
people of Kashmir. But to expect them to give up such tactics is not to
know them at all. The prospects of talks between Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and Pakistan's Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf seem to have unnerved
them. Whether the Pakistani leader meant it or not when he advised the
clerics in his country to refrain from their anti-India propaganda, it
is indisputable that the prospects of talks have raised hopes within and
without Kashmir. The Hurriyat's appeal to the militants to show restraint
in their propaganda denotes a triumph of realism. The success the security
forces achieved at Shangus lies precisely in having induced this realisation.
