‘Take people along… don't hand out collective punishment': J-K MLAs appeal on house demolitions

Indian Express

29-04-2025

Unanimously passing a resolution on Monday condemning the Pahalgam terror attack, members of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly pointed to the public outrage over the incident across the Valley and cautioned against any 'misplaced action that alienates the people'.
They referred to the reports of harassment of Kashmiri students and businessmen in other parts of the country, as well as the demolition of houses belonging to the families and even distant relatives of terrorists in the Valley, with one MLA describing it as 'collective punishment'.
Referring to the fact that people came out of their houses in protest against the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 dead, 25 of them tourists, People's Conference leader Sajad Lone said the biggest challenge law enforcers have had in the past is that they could not distinguish between an innocent man and a terrorist, with several innocents dying in the process or suffering.
The violence will not end unless there are thousands of pony wallahs such as Syed Adil Hussain Shah who had come to the rescue of tourists, Lone said. 'However, to nurture people and make them like Syed Adil Shah, you have to create the environment… To have such an environment, we cannot take measures which are regressive.'
Stressing that the cooperation of local people was needed for enduring peace, he said: 'We have to make corrections. If we do not make corrections, we will bleed.'
The People's Conference leader referred to alleged incidents of harassment of Kashmiri students in some parts of the country, and said this should be checked. 'We have to tell the people that when you do something, it gets magnified and feeds the mindset that terrorists want. Let us not do what terrorists want us to do.'
Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, an Independent MLA from Thanmandi in Rajouri, Jammu, who supports the ruling National Conference, said that while no words were enough to condemn the 'cowardly' terrorist act, 'there should not be collective punishment of innocent people just because someone in their distant family has become a militant'.
He said houses of even those who no longer have any contact with their relatives who had joined terrorism had been demolished. 'Such actions will not end the terror ecosystem,' Khan said.
Veteran CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami accused the terrorists who struck in Pahalgam of 'trying to foist their divisive agenda' on people. 'A message should go from this House that we are all citizens of this country and it is our collective responsibility to ensure security of all'', including tourists coming to J&K and the students from Kashmir studying elsewhere in the country, he said. 'Only then can we defeat the terrorists' agenda of dividing people on communal lines.'
Calling for establishing 'the rule of law', Tarigami said this ran contrary to the demolition of houses to target terrorists. Many of these structures had been standing for years, he said, 'but all of a sudden, you say today that these are terrorist hideouts'. 'The fight against terror cannot be successful unless the rule of law is established in J&K,' he said.