By Shivam Patel
SRINAGAR (Reuters) – India should not do anything to alienate Kashmiris in its hunt for militants who killed 26 people last week, especially as residents of the Muslim-majority Himalayan region have staged protests against that attack, its chief minister said on Monday.
The April 22 killings of tourists by gunmen from an armed Islamist group have prompted a crackdown on suspected militants in the troubled region, including the demolition of nine homes belonging to the families of suspected Islamist militants.
Hindu-majority India has been fighting an armed insurgency in Kashmir for decades, though in recent years the situation had improved. The picturesque region is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan but ruled only in part by the neighbours.
“We should not do anything to alienate the people after their spontaneous reaction (against the attack),” Omar Abdullah, chief minister of the Indian federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir, said in the local assembly house.
“Guns can only control militancy, not finish it. It will only end when the people are with us. It seems people are now reaching that stage.”
He did not elaborate, but several protests, including candlelight demonstrations and a symbolic day long shutdown, were held in the past week in Kashmir against the attack.
Some Kashmir residents have also spoken out against the move by the authorities to destroy several homes of militants’ families, like that of Rifat Sheikh.
On Monday, she stood next to her razed kitchen, assessing the damage she said was caused by explosives used by the police to demolish the house.
Police say her brother Asif is with the Lashkar-e-Taiba armed group, which New Delhi has declared a terrorist organisation and is suspected to have had a role in the April 22 attack.
Sheikh said her family had not seen or spoken with Asif after he left home one morning in 2022 on the pretext of going to the local market.
“Why are they punishing us by destroying our house this way for what they say he has done?” she asked. “We don’t know where he is or what he is doing. This is provocation, but I pray that people remain calm.”
Two police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter, say they were only acting against homes that retained connections with militants. They denied using explosives or detaining any members of militants’ families.
Nazir Ahmad Wani’s house in Kashmir’s Khasipora village was one of the nine homes destroyed so far. Police say his son, Amir Nazir, is a member of the Jaish-e-Mohammed group that India has designated as a terrorist outfit.
Broken pieces of glass lay in the backyard of Wani’s home where he grew maize crops. The roof of the house was pulled down due to the impact of the explosives, his relatives said, adding that Amir left the home in April last year and didn’t return.
“I was kept at the police station all night. They didn’t tell me anything at the time. I only learned of the damage the next morning when I came to the house,” said Wani.
(Reporting by Shivam Patel, Editing by William Maclean)
