Mysterious love story costs poor Kashmiri tradesmen Rs. 100 cr

So the truth is out in Asrar Mushtaq Dar murder mystery! By cracking the case and arresting two of Asrar’s friends, Imran and Asim in a case of jilted lovers, police exposed all such mysterious vested interests, which were playing with the emotions of the people of Kashmir. Some stories were communicated through various networks that it was a custodial death and some political opponents distributed money to professional stone pelters to cause damage to shopkeepers. Even thousand-year age-old Chinar tree was burnt by miscreants playing into the hands of vested interests.

Those defeated elements, who have evil designs to cause embarrassment to government on petty crime, give press conferences and statements instigating violence. They never realize that only these murderous love stories cause damage worth crores to people of Kashmiri and deprive them from earning their bread and better for weeks together.

The realization has come too late and at a heavy cost with Kashmiris losing Rs. 100 crore in forced shutdowns and violent protests after the dead body of Asrar was found in Rainawari area on July 7.

Time and again, cases of routine crime have been twisted and given political colour by forces which relish a simmering valley and know very well the art of manipulating facts for their own convenience.

As details about the murder of Asrar unfolded, it also peeled off layer-by-layer the credibility of quite a few of those who wished to make hay out of a Bollywood style kidnap and murder drama.

People need to realize that Kashmiri society has undergone a lot of churning in the last two decades. Our society is not insulated any more against ‘normal crimes’ like rape, murder, kidnap, eve teasing, stalking or robbery. A peep into official statistics will reveal startling figures and episodes like Asrar’s murder by a jilted lover, which are to be seen as events in the same chain of crime that has come to tie our society. The death of a young girl, Romana, who was stalked by two boys and allegedly killed in cold blood on posh Airport Road or the brute killing of another girl where a spurned lover inflicted innumerable wounds on her body are enough indicators of crime entrenching itself in our society.

It will be running away from reality if we blame these crimes which are outcome of our generational shift on police or security forces, just for the sake of some people who love to keep Valley on the boil.

Police and other government enforcement agencies need to play a proactive role in anticipating these crimes and making critical interventions so that spiraling crime rate is controlled.

People, on their part, need to control their emotions and see that they are not led on the wrong path by vested interests, as in the case of Baramulla woman’s claim of alleged indecent remarks by police officers, even overlooking the fact that down the line, although not deliberately, they are helping those people with criminal bent of mind to think that they can now safely commit a crime and escape from the clutches of law as the blame in the first instance, one way or the other, will invariably be put on the police or other law enforcing agencies anyway.

The ongoing turmoil has wrecked havoc on Kashmir’s economy with particularly summer tourist season being hit below the belt. The State is not rich enough to lose crores in mindless hartals and the earlier we realize this the better.

Brand of sympathy politics indulged in by separatists and some opposition parties tantamount to promising Kashmiris peace through the barrel of the gun. Everyone knows that these forces are tucked safely in the back-pocket of their gurus and more they scratch Kashmiri wounds, the more it will unveil their own proximity to their masters.