Enough is enough — put stone pelters and separatists away-Yes, Kashmir valley is seeing Pakistan propelled violence at a peak but it has happened before. The Centre must act in spite of a few liberals bringing up the ridiculous argument of the human rights of stone pelters. It is time to see the problem squarely and call it Islamic terror and lock up the people spreading it.

Enough is enough — put stone pelters and separatists away April 17, 2017, 9:58 pm IST Ashali Varma in No Free Lunch | India | TOI I salute the officer who tied a stone pelter to the front of his jeep to save the lives of police and the CRPF men who were merely doing their duty. They were only nine of them guarding a polling booth and were threatened by a mob of 900 stone pelters who were angry enough to throw rocks. Stoning a person to death is okay in the Muslim religion but unthinkable in today’s world. All Muslim leaders should strongly condemn this. I am amazed that Bollywood stars are not speaking out for our soldiers. They are pretty vocal about the right of Pakistani actors to act in Indian movies. The jihadis in the valley wanted to prevent the people from casting their votes, said a person who witnessed the incident. The Jawans realized that they would not be able to get out alive unless they did something. They called for the Army Quick Response Team (QRT) to come and rescue them. Just before this incident a video of Jihadi elements in the valley, kicking and harassing a CRPF soldier, went viral. The soldier was carrying a gun, yet he refrained from threatening them. It is painful to see the video that shows a man kicking the soldier and another hitting his helmet off. They are shouting in rage and jeering at him, while he looks straight and walks along. They threaten to lynch him. It is like watching a bad film where no matter what you throw at the soldier he walks bravely along. As this video went viral, many saw it. The media reported it but then nothing was done! Not a word from the intolerance gang including Bollywood! As I write this, the Supreme Court is trying to say that soldiers can be prosecuted for any action that they may take even for self defence. This is alarming — imagine throwing a soldier in the midst of the jihadis and saying that your hands are tied now you swim or sink. To put it starkly the soldier is facing terrorists armed to the teeth and has to die because for some weird reason the human rights of the jihadi is more important than the soldiers. This is the plain truth. And it is unreasonable and will debilitate our security forces. In America, where I am visiting, the police would have taser guns and full body armour and they would have shot at the mobs. I have seen what taser guns do. Pellet guns are mild compared to tasers. A soldier or policeman is highly regarded here and any threat to their lives is taken seriously. This is what we need to do to rock and stone throwers and then we need to be serious about taking them off the streets for a long time. As I wrote in a previous article the jihadis have to be dealt with strongly and their jail terms mandated upfront in prisons that are far out of Kashmir. Coming back to the very brave story of an army officer who tied a rock thrower to the front of his jeep to rescue the soldiers stranded by mobs who would have killed them. He knew that the mobs would never attack one of their own so just this very clever gesture got the Quick Response Team a clear passage through the mobs to the soldiers who were going to be lynched. I need to add here that failed politicians like Farooq Abdullah– under whose watch 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits were ethnically cleansed from the valley and are still living as refugees after almost 27 years. But Farooq is not quiet and blames the Central Government and the army for the mayhem today. Has he forgotten what happened under his watch? Farooq Abdullah and his son are clearly on the side of the terrorists and the Pakistanis. He did nothing for the Hindu Pandits when he was Chief Minister and thus sided clearly with the fundamentalist. His son Omar, I had more hope for , but he is also critical of the army for tying a rock pelter to shield them and save several lives. They were just 19 men and had to rescue nine trapped soldiers plus a few more. Thanks to the officer’s quick solution everyone was saved and the stone pelter was handed over to the police. Any army in the world would have sanitised the area before entering it, which means getting rid of dangerous elements. The Central government has decided to stand by the Army officer , which is as it should be. The question arises why Omar Abdullah and his father were not leading from the front trying to calm the stone pelters. Why were they hiding behind Z security? Both have been Chief Ministers of the state and claim they handled such mobs with aplomb. So why did they not try to reach out to them. If dialogue is needed then why don’t they start one. Talk is cheap but actions speak louder. Defence minister Arun Jaitley is likely to address the issue when he meets Army commanders this week. The government has appreciated that the controversial decision was taken in an extraordinary situation where the officer incharge of the unit had a difficult choice to make. Indicating that the government feels the Army is being made a political target, minister of state for PMO and Udhampur MP Jitendra Singh told a J&K newspaper that “apologetic” Kashmir leaders were guilty of encouraging terrorism in the Valley. He said these leaders had lost the moral authority to make insinuations against Army personnel who they found a soft target while they lacked the the courage to condemn perpetrators of terrorism. Yes Farooq and Omar have been thoroughly discredited, more so since Omar released the video of the stone pelter being tied up. This clearly shows he wanted to rile up even more people in the valley. He has been caught inciting more violence. Obviously he does not care a whit for human lives. His sole aim is to get elected. He has forgotten that his father could not quell the violence against the Pandits and even during his many terms as Chief Minister, the valley was anything but peaceful. Yes, Kashmir valley is seeing Pakistan propelled violence at a peak but it has happened before. The Centre must act in spite of a few liberals bringing up the ridiculous argument of the human rights of stone pelters. It is time to see the problem squarely and call it Islamic terror and lock up the people spreading it. DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.