JK News Today Commentary
Following Delhi blast, there has been a search for what has come to be christened as “ White Collar” terrorists all across Kashmir , alongside the trails leading to the conspiracy designed for serial bombing campaign on December 6- marking the 33rd anniversary of the demolition of Babri Mosque structure. These are fair probe lines, but these do not address the whole issue of the threats that this conspiracy poses to Jammu and Kashmir, and the rest of the country. This brings into focus the need to save the gains made after abrogation of Article 370 , which are under threat at the moment .
Delhi blast of November 10, 2025 , which came a little short of seven months of Pahalgam massacre of tourists on April 22, have disrupted the narrative of Kashmir pursuing peace , though on ground things are somewhat different. At times narratives carry more weight than the actual situation . Post- Pahalgam , Kashmir knew what it had lost though it retained semblance of normalcy. The idea and perception that Kashmir has regained its image as a peaceful holidaying destination .got shattered all at once . And, the shocking reality is that Kashmir has not recovered from that damage even after Operation Sindoor .
Pahalgam terror attack was seen as a sequel to Pakistan army chief Asim Munir’s April 15 speech in which he portrayed Kashmir as an unresolved issue and committed all-out support to struggle of Kashmiris. The way it was executed was designed to send a message to the Indian nation that the perpetrators and their backers were targeting Hindu tourists in the Muslim majority Valley in a bid to validate their two-nation theory., and telling the people in Kashmir that they will have to pay a heavy economic , political and image cost for walking out of the shadows of Pakistan.
Pakistan , after tasting defeat in its proxy war and experiencing reversal of its ideological and terror-spreading methodology in Kashmir , it coined the second edition of two-nation theory. The abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A in August 2019 , a bold decision of the Modi government to integrate Kashmir into the national mainstream , showed Pakistan its place where it stands . The whole context and contour of looking at Kashmir changed . Delhi has thrown the UN resolutions on Kashmir into dustbin of history , while maintaining a line that Kashmir’s destiny is sealed with India forever.
For decades , Kashmir had been living in a state of uncertainty . It was swinging all the time. India was the country to which it had acceded to . It linked the Article 370 as a byproduct of the “ conditional accession.” Since Delhi did not challenge that perception explicitly despite taking steps to erode some of its crucial provisions . The nation was making move in the direction of making Article 370 hollow but it did not gather the courage, until August 209, to shut it off completely .
So, there were challenges to the idea of Kashmir being purely Indian . It reflected on two conditions – that its status within the Indian union was because of “ conditional accession” and the presence of the Indian military all over Secondly , the minds of people were riveted to the UN resolutions on Kashmir . Pakistan continued to push for the implementation of the UN resolutions , despite the fact it was aware that the history of 1948-49 was almost a forgotten chapter .
All the possible consequences that Pakistan and some in Kashmir had anticipated as a sequel to the abrogation of Article 370 did not come through. The people did not take to streets, they defied their own history of 2008, 2010 and 2016 when they had hit streets,, clashed with the army , J&K police and CRPF . They had given a birth to chaos and confusion in a sheer display of their resistance to the authority . Each time , they took to streets, they were successful in channelizing their original source of grievance to the loud echoes for “ Azadi”, or freedom. This was far greater embarrassment to the Government of India than the campaign of bullets and bombs that it could condemn as demonstrative acts of terror. Dubbing the street protests as terrorists-sponsored activities was little difficult . The street protests carried with them a tag of being people’s expression of their grievances . And even those who saw these as dangerous phenomenon as the public property was set ablaze and daily life disrupted with deadly stone throwing , did not speak out .
That was the freedom of disruptive forces on streets , chaining all other aspects of life.
All this came to a stop after abrogation of Article 370 .The people started courting normalcy and peace , developing faith and devotion to India , country that saved them from further disaster , Pakistan, it has become clear now , started working on the alternative strategies to derail the process of peace.
The attack was on August 5, 2019 decisions . It was possible because of three major factors – ( a) Pakistan and its sponsored terror outfits and others went into hiding but they did not stop their activities , ( b) loud political noises hailing Article 370 as the guarantor of Kashmir’s identity, dignity and demography started making the impact. The Constitution of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration ( PAGD) that vowed to fight until last for restoration of the Article 370 no matter even if that takes 100 years was a work in progress with the sole idea to distance Kashmir from the rest of the country , not only in political and constitutional terms but also emotionally ( c) Certain actions like banning terror organizations , Jamait-i-Islami and all factions of Hurriyat Conference were taken without addressing the core issues on which they thrived – the notion of Kashmiri Muslims being the target of Delhi’s policies in the post-Article 370 era were not addressed adequately .
The conspirators must have reckoned the consequences of the assaults . Terror network working behind Pahalgam sent a deliberate message of killing Hindu tourists to the nation , not only through their action but also the way they told survivors to broadcast it to the Indian nation . They knew that it would cause troubles especially between India and Pakistan . And that happened.
Delhi blast came after the J&K Police tracked each and every track after finding a disturbing poster of Jaish-e-Mohammad on walls in Srinagar, which led to the tale of the conspirators – arrest of doctors involved and the network they were running with nearly 3,000 KGs of explosives in their command . That might have been premature explosion , but the repercussions were felt in the Valley . The arrests and raids were a natural sequence , but the twist that these actions have been given have posed a big challenge to the situation that changed since August 2019 . Nowgam blast and the political narratives have made the matters worse .
White Collar seen as new face of terrorism has a wider picture . These sleeper cells have far deeper roots than have been uncovered so far . It’s time to address the issue of the education in schools , and homes and the environment , to start process of disarming the narrative of marginalization and political deprivation on which theories and practice of radicalization is being built . Radicalization is not an overnight phenomenon , and it cannot be undone in few days. It is time to approach white collar approach to neutralize the forces casting evil shadow .
