In J&K, peace in the crosshairs

The Ganderbal attack is aimed at spoiling the atmosphere of hope in Kashmir and derailing a return to normalcy for the region

The gruesome terrorist attack in Ganderbal district on Sunday in which seven civilians, among them a Kashmiri doctor, died is a grim reminder that peace in Jammu and Kashmir is fragile. The incident is both a wake-up call to the administration and a pointer to the challenges the Omar Abdullah government, which was sworn in just last week, will face as it seeks to pivot the Union territory (UT) to a new future.

Kashmir, India - October. 21, 2024: People carry the body of Doctor Shanawaz Dar during his funeral proession at Nadigam village in Budgam, some 20 kilometers from Srinagar,21 October 2024. (Photo By Waseem Andrabi /Hindustan Times)--

Clearly, the attack, the first on a major infrastructure project, was to spoil the emerging atmosphere ofhope in the UT. The attackers seem to have chosen a soft target — unarmed migrant workers at a construction site at Gagangeer who were involved in the building of a tunnel on the Srinagar-Sonamarg route — to make the point that the successful conduct of the assembly polls, which saw a large turnout and the involvement of parties across the ideological divide, does not suggest the end of militancy. The attack came against the backdrop of external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad, the first by an Indian minister in nine years, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting. The optics of that visit hinted at a thaw in India-Pakistan ties which have been frozen since the 2019 abrogation of Article 370.

Mass support for separatism may be over, but a small section continues to invest in militancy and wants to rock the peace boat. Sunday’s incident is the fourth attack on civilians in Kashmir this year — four people had died in the previous three incidents, including a person in Shopian on Friday. The last major attack was reported from Reasi, Jammu in June when nine persons were killed after militants targeted a bus carrying pilgrims. A majority of the recent incidents have been on military installations and convoys, and mostly in the Jammu region.

The lesson from Sunday’s attack is that the revival of electoral democracy is not enough to guarantee peace. Security measures will have to be in place so that attempts to disrupt peace are defeated. Policing and intelligence will have to improve so that the security establishment is not taken by surprise. Both the Centre and the state will have to work together to build on the gains the return to an elected government promises.