In the middle of the controversy and commentaries on the IC 814 Netflix ,something is not being mentioned as adequately as it should have been and that is the central character of the drama behind the scenes and what happened after the sordid episode was over on 31st December 1999, . The saga of IC814 gave a new lease of life to terrorism in Kashmir.
All these years since December 1999 have seen Kashmir and the rest of the country witnessing a series of acts of terror , including suicide bombings , terror assault on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 and Pulwama terror attack in February 2019 . The hijacking of IC 814 and the way this sordid saga was handled cast their shadow over Government’s policy on Kashmir and terrorism . It also underlined that the opponents of release of terrorists in exchange of the crew and passengers of the ill-fated plane find no place in the narrative of counter terrorism . This flick should make the nation to undertake a fresh study of terrorism, its genesis particularly in reference to Indo-Pak relations and Jammu and Kashmir, rather both.
It becomes particularly important at the time when Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing first Assembly election since the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories – J&K with legislative assembly and, Ladakh without any such body-. The IC 814 release is coinciding with the times when debate over terrorism has taken center-stage. BJP leadership, and most recently Union Home Minister Amit Shah has declared that Article 370 was used both as a shield and promotion of terrorism in J&K . He also has blamed National Conference-Congress alliance for seeking to revive the dark period of terrorism , deaths and destruction . NC, PDP and Congress are asking questions , “ is terrorism over after the abrogation of Article 370?” They point to the series of terror attacks that rattled Jammu region where more than a dozen soldiers, including officers, were killed in terror attacks.
Masood Azhar , who was arrested from an autorickshaw in Anantnag district of south Kashmir,, who later became the most dreadful name in the annals of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and whose outfit was involved in the December 2001 Parliament attack, and later in Pulwama bombing of February 2019, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed .
As the controversy is raging over the names of terrorists involved in hijacking , the real issue is being swept under carpet , that is how the release of Masood Azhar, who some reverentially name him after using the prefix of Maulana ,changed dynamics and narrative of terrorism in the country. This was one of the most ineptly handled hijacking case in the country. Imagined fears and public outcry made the government to do what it did, leaving not only inviting a lifetime stigma for it , but also emboldened terrorists to launch high-velocity terror attacks across the country.
The context has to be understood , more than the controversy over the names of the terrorists . A larger picture is being missed . At the time of his arrest , there was a little clue about Masood Azhar’s importance in promotion of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir . He was an idealogue who could motivate hundreds, if not thousands, to pick up guns and chose path of death before inflicting pain and horrors on the people whom they deemed as enemy or obstacles to their imagined goal of “ liberation of Kashmir” . e was a religious preacher but political objectives marked his sermons.
Role Of Farooq Abdullah . Then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir had opposed tooth and nail the release of two – Masood Azhar , lodged in Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu, and Mushtaq Zargar , lodged in Central Jail, Srinagar , in exchange of the release of passengers . He said no to it because he feared , and he shared it with the then RAW chief A S Dulat and Union Home Minister L K Advani that it will open floodgates of terrorism and things will go out of control.
His words proved prophetic . IC 814 was not a simple case of hijacking and release of three terrorists – two of them from Jammu and Kashmir, but the one that scripted a horrendous chapter of terrorism in Kashmir .
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