a valley of pain,agony and despair...

On March 23, 2000 five civilians Zahoor Ahmed Dalal, Juma Khan, Mohammad Yussuf Malik, Juma Khan (different from the one mentioned earlier) and Bashir Ahmed Bhat werekilled at Pathribal and the Government claimed them to be responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chattisinghpora on March 21, 2000.They were branded as terrorists for life...In the aftermath of the Sikh massacre at Chattisinghpora, the security forces had claimed to have eliminated five 'foreign militants' responsible for the carnage in an encounter in Pathribal forests. The bodies of the five persons killed were charred beyond recognition. Subsequent public protests forced the state administration to exhume the five bodies and order DNA tests on them to establish the true identity of those killed. However, the DNA samples collected and sent to laboratories in Kolkata and Hyderabad were found to be fudged. An embarrassed government suspended the entire team of forensic experts headed by Dr Balbir Kaur, head of department of forensic science, Medical College, Srinagar. Later, fresh samples were collected by experts from Kolkata and Hyderabad. The final reports received from the two laboratories on Monday said there was conclusive evidence that the five people killed in Pathribal were locals and not foreign militants as claimed by the police.

When I think about a certain Tufail Mattoo,the 17 year old who was killed by a tear gas canister which struck his head during a protest in srinagar in June this year,I think of these lines from Randy Travis's song "valley of pain"

"DON'T LET ME GROW BITTER I PRAY

GIVE ME STRENGTH TO CARRY ON

MY WAY IM LEANIN'

ON YOU LIKE A WOODEN CANE WHILE

I'M WALKIN THROUGH I'M WALKIN THROUGH

THE VALLEY OF PAIN"

The striking feature of all these heinous crimes committed was the brazen and barefaced realization among the murderers that they will get away with it.What protest we are witnessing in Kashmir today is not the outcome of prvocateur's self centred ambitions to oust an Abdullah but these are women with stones and pots and pans of their homes out on the street to let the Government know that the faith with which they had elected Omar is now long gone.Violence makes you impatient and impatience gives you a certain strength and it becomes a vicious cycle.

Our PM is a noble man and not much of a statesman unfortunately,not a hardliner and certainly not the best man for the Kashmir today.He talks about economic reforms and developmental works at the time when the protesters have lost all faith in Governance.Omar is right when he says that there is a need for a "political package",one that restores the faith and curbs the ebullient separatist ideas so fervent currently.People are in turmoil and suffocated with their unstable identity on the world map and it will take more than a speech by Dr. Abdullah on national televison to heal all these wounds and angst.

Once as a kid I was told that what describes us as human is the ability to constantly feel the pain of others,to understand the meaning of their tears and to pray for them rather than praying for ourselves.Torn between political mess,geographical wrangling and economic distress....kashmir is bleeding.It will need more than honest prayers of all the indians....and thats the saddest fact.