Kashmir is currently witnessing quiet painful situation. More than 75 protesters have been shot dead by security forces and about 10000 are injured and hundreds have been blinded by the pellets. Shutdown has crossed 65 days with most of the days having been marked by crippling curfew. Just few days back a high powered All Party Delegation lead by Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the trouble hit Kashmir valley. It was painful to observe that even this visit by All Party Delegation failed to achieve anything that can be termed optimistic or concrete.
Coercion and oppressive measures can no longer be an answer to quell the political sentiment of Kashmir and time has come to recognize Kashmir as political problem and offer political solution. The painful situation in Kashmir has also been termed by many intellectual voices of India as a blot to “Indian democracy “.
All those who have caused this bloodshed should be punished but unfortunately State has never shown a will in past three decades to act tough against security forces responsible for innocent killings as a result anger, rage and alienation has been increased.The need of the hour is to stop bloodshed in Kashmir and initiate a meaningful , result oriented dialogue process with all stakeholders.