Terrorism, and its evil agenda

To just condemn the attack on tourists in Pahalgam will be a gross understatement: It is a crime and it is also a betrayal of everything Kashmir has stood for. And in that sense, it goes against the very soul of Kashmir. And those who did it are Kashmir’s worst enemies. The aim, very patently, is to not let Kashmir ever be at peace with itself. It is also a clear attempt to derail the normalcy of the past five years, by attacking the softest possible targets, the tourists.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has rightly called it an “abomination.” It is another Pulwama-like attack. Only difference is that now the civilians have been killed. It is hard to imagine what ideology would justify the murder of a tourist with a camera in hand? What cause would ever explain shooting at families on vacation?

But while we mourn the dead, we have to bear in mind that the attack is a very calculated move, geared to serve sinister ends. The effort is to undo and unravel the gains of the past five years and push Kashmir back into turmoil. Ever increasing tourist inflows were the key feature of a normal Kashmir in recent years. In 2024, 2.95 million tourists visited Kashmir, up from 2.71 million in 2023 and 2.67 million in 2022.

This gave a leg up to the Kashmir economy battered by decades of violence and uncertainty. The gain of the last five years is that the situation became not just normal but also predictable. For once, one could confidently say that the prevailing peace is here to stay. It is this sense of certainty which is sought to be broken by the attack on innocent people. And it is this peace and certainty that we need to preserve and perpetuate. All our responses to this tragedy should be guided by this approach.

Prime minister Narendra Modi who is on a visit to Saudi Arabia made the same point when he said that the “evil agenda” of terrorists “will not succeed.” Home minister Amit Shah is in the Valley to take stock of a very grim situation. The need is for a tough response with a goal that the situation in Kashmir is not allowed to destabilize again. It is essential that the Valley remains on the path of peace, without giving in to fear or provocation.