Repeal of AFSPA will be the first remedial step in Jammu & Kashmir

It simply won’t be enough to call the incident in Gool area of Ramban district in J&K tragic and deplorable. There have been too many such gruesome killings in the state. The fact is the extent of militarisation in the state makes it possible for such incidents to occur, and when they do, it becomes an additional part of the core problem of disaffection and alienation among Kashmiris. At the centre of this mess is the draconian law called the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Having soldiers or paramilitaries live in such close proximity, almost in perpetuity, of civilian areas means an extraordinary presence of the security forces in the ordinary, daily lives of people. This, per se, makes for a potential mutually hostile situation. And with AFSPA around, there is a milieu where the security forces are felt to be allowed to get away with just about anything. The utterly abysmal rate of security forces accused of human rights violation being brought to book consolidates that perception. All talk of democracy and normalcy will sound hollow as long as the black law of AFSPA remains.

The call to repeal this law has come, loud and clear, from various quarters — including many judicial commissions. This call must be heeded now. It is, in the end, a matter of political will. The government must muster it, realising that this political will is the key requisite to solving the wider issues in the state. AFSPA must go, and the army must withdraw to the borders.

Home minister Sushilkumar Shine has ordered a probe into the incident. It is absolutely critical that this probe is seen to be impartial and thorough. Many such probes have been ordered in the past, with nothing by way of fixing accountability having been achieved. Now, if members of the BSF are found guilty of acts of desecration and killing unarmed civilians in cold blood, the punishment must be exemplary. There is no other way of reassuring the ordinary people of Jammu and Kashmir that their lives and rights are as important as those of citizens elsewhere in the country. This is an elementary aspect of addressing wider issues in J&K — which now again feels like a state under siege.