The Legitimate Desk: Chenab
Last week two brothers one among them a senior BJP leader where shot dead in Kishtwar town of Jammu region by unknown gunmen. According to reports the due were killed in the evening when they were returning home from their shop in the town.
Although Anil Parihar had two personal security officers and both the brothers were accompanied by them, however, the unknown gunmen shot them dead from a point blank range near veterinary hospital.
Parihar was the state secretary of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and earlier he has unsuccessfully contested Assembly elections on the Panthers Party ticket in 2008.
Parihar who was enjoying the support in the township due to substantial political clout triggered the widespread rage among the people.
As soon the news about the death of two brothers spread, hundreds of people assembled outside the hospital and staged protests and heckled the two senior officers of police who suffered minor injuries.
The township remained closed for many days and authorities imposed curfew fearing spike in the communal tensions.
However, the tensions were defused after the people from both the communities condemned the killings and assured to maintain the communal harmony to defeat the designs inimical to peace.
On the other side the governor Satya Pal Malik also revealed to media that the killing of two brothers was the job done by the militants who wanted to sabotage the upcoming Panchayat polls in the region.
The Chenab valley unlike Kashmir had witnessed a huge turnout in the recently concluded urban local body polls.
The disturbing developments have been coming up on the close heel to the Panchayat elections followed by the mega Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
So far there is no evidence of militancy present in the Chenab valley as per the security inputs. But some developments in the recent past in the region seem very disturbing and experts are on the opinion that it is likely that militancy may revive in coming times in the Chenab valley.
They have some different reasons to substantiate claim. Whatsoever, the fact is that the gun is back in the Chenab and it may pose a severe threat to the peace in the region and its adjoining peaceful Jammu region it was revived.
In 1990’ when the insurgency in Kashmir started Chenab Valley was also on the map of militancy but the region shunned it immediately after the slew of measures launched by the government.
After three decades now, it is again back in the mountains at a very critical time when the elections are about to arrive.
It ash not only posed the severe challenge for the government to understand the dynamics of gun reviving here, however, for security forces it is also an equal challenge to ensure the peace sustains in the woods.
The militancy that is vibrant in the Kashmir right now in last three decades could not cross the Banihal tunnel due to stringent security measures and the typical demography.
However, from Chenab valley it may not be difficult for militancy to pass on to the mainland.
