Horrific Targetted Killings in J&K: (Insane?) Response to Project "Colonise Kashmir"?

[Sukla Sen]

The morally horrific targeted killing appears to be a response, of sundry terrorist groups, to no less horrifying drive by the, incomparably mightier, Indian state to colonise the Valley with settlers from the mainland and gradually driving the original inhabitants out via various coercive methods - following the Israeli model, as claimed by an Indian diplomat (ref.: <https://youtu.be/dhj0EHLhbh8>).

This must be appearing to the perpetrators the only feasible way to deter the project demographic shift - by scaring away the actual and, even more than that, the would-be settlers.

And despite being indicative of the failure to bring "normalcy", it does pretty well serve the purpose of the current breed of Indian rulers, help them further foment hatred and animosities across the religious divides and, thereby, tighten the grip over the mainland even more.

<<India's fragility is being exposed at so many levels. These attacks are a reminder that very few counter-insurgency strategies succeed in the absence of a comprehensive political settlement that involves all parties. For small groups of terrorists, it is easy to switch to softer targets. It has been so easy to give a lie to premature and triumphalist claims about “normality” in Kashmir. There is an analogy rightly being drawn with the Nineties when Kashmiri Pandits were targeted and driven out. But there is another aspect to that analogy. Despite the intelligence inputs, it is once again proving difficult for the state in Kashmir to provide protection for minorities. Now, as then, it is easier to politically use the plight of minorities in Kashmir than to provide them security. The BJP government has now it's Jagmohan moment.>>

(Excerpted from: <https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/what-the-attacks-against-minorities-in-kashmir-reveal-7561263/>.)

<<More civilians than security forces have been killed this year in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in various terrorist related incidents. The targetted killing of civilians that includes prominent citizens and non-locals in the Valley reverses the trend of the past six years, data shows.

Till October 5, 2021, as many as 22 civilians were killed in the Valley as compared to 20 security personnel in the same period.>>

(Excerpted from: <https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/more-civilians-killed-in-jammu-and-kashmir-than-security-personnel-this-year/article36867890.ece/amp>.)