Amarnath yatra terror attack: 3 points to consider before we mindlessly outrage

On Monday night terrorists opened fire on a bus carrying over 30 pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The incident occurred at around 8.20 pm between Baltal and Mir Bazar. 7 pilgrims- 6 of them women- were killed while 19 others were grievously injured. The bus had been in Srinagar for the last two days but avoided the security corridor as it is suspected that it was not listed with the Amarnath shrine board.

While social media warriors wage war against ‘liberals’ and ‘sickulars’ we must bear in mind these 3 points:

► Pilgrims were an easy target not necessarily the primary one

The militants first attacked a STF and CRPF post but were unable to inflict any casualties. Frustrated, they found an easy target in the bus carrying Amarnath pilgrims and opened fire at them. All 7 killed belong to Gujarat. The bus did not have any security accompanying it and had deviated from the secured course presumably because it did not want to be detected by the administration.

It was the driver of the bus, Salim, who saved many lives by outrunning the militants despite being under heavy fire. Corruption kills in many ways. Rarely ever directly. The government today came out and appealed to the pilgrims and bus operators to follow safety protocols. A day late and as is the case with most government measures- poorly implemented.

►  The reaction to every attack must not be the same predictable outrage 

Immediately after every terror attack the reactions almost follow a template. The bloodlust flows over. Politicians give statements expressing condemnation, anger and grief. Social media warriors churn out mindless hashtags that basically mean nothing. And the context of the attacks is almost always twisted around to justify arguments over other polarising incidents. Militants and terrorists are anti-national forces. They are not ‘Indians’, their victims almost always are; communal violence or riots or mob attacks are by Indians at Indians. There can be no justification of either. And there can be no comparisons either. Predictably also, the government has vowed tough action and newspapers have increased the font size of their headlines two-fold. Because, why not.

►  We are asking the wrong questions.

This brings us to the two most important questions to consider: how do we ensure such an attack does not happen again?

And to an equal degree this: how do we bring the guilty to book?

Both these questions have no easy answers. Both these questions have remained unanswered by various governments over the years who have struggled to put in place effective mechanisms for intelligence sharing. Time and again India bleeds and the story is always the same.

It is impossible to ignore the fact that the intelligence agencies issued an alert late last month warning of an attack during the Amarnath yatra. What were the steps taken post that alert to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen? The alert warned of attacks on security forces saying terrorists wanted to slaughter as many as 100 Kashmiri police officers. The Centre and the state both have BJP governments and yet there was a clear slip up by the administration.  

Mere condemnation solves nothing. The pilgrims were killed by the same people who see nothing wrong in beating up and killing a Kashmiri Muslim man publicly just because he happens to be a police officer.

For them religion is secondary. 

The intel alert specifically mentioned that the idea was to attack Hindu pilgrims in a bid to spark communal tension in the country. Considering the tinder box that India currently sits on, they just might succeed.

India simply must outwit its enemies.