The Pulwama incident has once again raised political temperatures in Jammu & Kashmir. Three terrorists, who were being sheltered by villagers, and who fled into an orchard when Security Forces (SFs) arrived at the site on specific information regarding their presence, were killed in the ensuing encounter. One Army man also lost his life. A violent stone pelting mob sought to obstruct SFs during and after the operation. Seven villagers were killed in retaliatory fire by SFs, and an estimated 35 were injured. 

The loss of life in this incident, and in the numberless others that have preceded it in the State, is tragic and must be a matter, both, of concern and of objective analysis. The latter has been conspicuous in its absence in the wake of this latest episode. Indeed, the dominant commentary has sought to blame the SFs for excessive use of force against 'innocent' or 'unarmed' civilians. In this and earlier incidents, moreover, significant sections of the local and national media have peddle disingenuous narratives in which every person who is shot was 'innocently' returning home after a hard day's work, or from diligent application at school, or simply standing around in the street. No one in Kashmir appears to have the common and good sense to run indoors or to a distance from a location where an exchange of fire is occurring. No one who is killed or injured at the site of such incidents ever seems to be involved in the slightest misdemeanour. The blood thirsty SFs simply open fire with intent to kill, absolutely without provocation. 

Even where such a perversion of perspectives is not visible, the onus remains exclusively on the SFs. Political leaders who have headed governments that have themselves presided over hundreds of civilian fatalities during much larger stone pelting campaigns, now piously demand 'solutions'. Thus, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti declared, "How long are we going to shoulder the coffins of our youngsters? So many civilians killed today post encounter in Pulwama. No country can win a war by killing its own people. I strongly condemn these killings, and once again appeal for efforts to stop this blood bath." And former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, describing the incident as a "massacre", tweeted, "Protests around encounter sites are now the norm not the exception. Why are we unable to learn how to handle them better?" 

It is significant that these expressions of distress include no concrete proposal on "how to handle them better" or any corrective "efforts". The reality is, there are no 'non-lethal' options available to deal with murderous crowds of individuals who intentionally and violently intervene in a military operation against armed terrorists. These are not 'unarmed civilians', they are violent mobs. These are persons who knowingly engage in lethal violence - the stones they throw kill and cripple SF personnel - in explicit defence of individuals involved in terrorism. In any country of the world they would attract comparable responses, and those who are apprehended during such actions would face stiff sentences, often of decades of imprisonment. Indeed, in most Western countries, protecting the lives of security personnel is regarded as the highest priority, and the threshold for justifiable lethal response is ordinarily much lower than it is in India. It is only in India that such 'protestors' are projected - often by a puerile media - as 'innocent civilians'. 

In the flood of commentary on the Pulwama incident, there is not a single word to the separatists, to community leaders, or to parents, exhorting them not to put their children and youth in harm's way. Separatist leaders regard the mounting tally of 'martyred youth' as building blocks of their movement. Indeed, with terrorist groups suffering debilitating reverses, the stone pelting campaigns have become an increasingly important core of their strategy. And as the footprint, both of terrorism and of violent street mobilisation, shrinks to a handful of locations across J&K, this is increasingly a strategy of survival for these elements. 

107 civilians have been killed in J&K in 2018 in terrorist and separatist violence. Of these, 44 have been killed by terrorists, overwhelmingly by the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) - which claims to represent the Kashmiri people - several in cold blooded executions. Another 50 have been killed in stone pelting incidents, 29 of these at encounter sites and the remaining 21 in other violent demonstrations. Another 13 have died in cross-fire during encounters. 95 SF personnel have also lost their lives in this conflict this year, as have 259 terrorists. Pulwama is part of this broader context, not an isolated case of 'innocent and unarmed civilians' wilfully murdered by unruly SFs.