Jammu, August 01 (Scoop News)-Panun Kashmir has expressed profound anguish over the latest targeted killings in Kashmir, extending its heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and reiterating that every innocent life lost to terrorism is a national tragedy. The organisation, however, cautioned against viewing such incidents as isolated acts of violence divorced from the ideological and historical processes that continue to shape the conflict in Kashmir.
In a statement issued today, Panun Kashmir asserted that while the State's immediate response in the form of security operations, investigations, enhanced deployment and financial assistance to victims' families is necessary, such measures by themselves cannot constitute a lasting solution.
Shri Tito Ganju, Chairman, Panun Kashmir, said that India's response to recurring targeted killings has increasingly become ritualistic, concentrating on the consequences of violence while avoiding an honest engagement with its ideological origins.
"Every targeted killing is followed by condemnation, compensation, security reviews and assurances of justice. These measures are administratively necessary and morally expected, but they become cosmetic when they fail to confront the ideological ecosystem that repeatedly produces such crimes. Cosmetic responses do not dismantle the architecture of hatred; they merely manage its consequences. In that sense, they inadvertently contribute to the consolidation of genocide by allowing its objectives to survive despite the elimination of individual perpetrators."
He further stated that genocide is not confined to mass killings occurring within a brief period of history.
"Genocide is a historical process. It unfolds through intimidation, selective assassinations, forced displacement, destruction of cultural symbols, demographic engineering, denial of justice and the gradual normalization of exclusion. Equally significant is the process of denial. When society refuses to acknowledge the continuity of identity-based violence, denial itself becomes an instrument through which genocide is consolidated."
Ganju observed that Panun Kashmir has consistently argued that the Indic civilisational concept of Jatividhvans offers a more comprehensive understanding of identity-directed violence than conventional security terminology because it captures not merely physical destruction but also the systematic dismantling of a community's historical, cultural and civilisational existence.
Dr. Agnishekhar, Convenor, Panun Kashmir, stated that contemporary targeted killings cannot be understood in isolation from the genocide and exodus of Kashmiri Hindus beginning in 1989-90.
"The ideological foundations that legitimised the expulsion of an indigenous community have never been fully confronted. The perpetrators, methods and immediate victims may change, but the underlying objective of terrorising, excluding or eliminating those identified as the 'other' continues to manifest itself. Unless this continuity is recognised, every incident will be treated as an exception rather than as evidence of an unfinished historical process."
He added that reducing targeted killings to ordinary law-and-order problems obscures the broader ideological context in which such violence emerges.
"A nation that refuses to recognise patterns ultimately condemns itself to repeatedly confront their consequences. Historical amnesia is not neutrality. It weakens the moral and intellectual foundations necessary to prevent the recurrence of identity-based violence."
Shri Kuldeep Raina, General Secretary, Panun Kashmir, said that counter-terrorism must be accompanied by a determined effort to dismantle the ideological, political and social ecosystem that legitimises violence.
"Operational success against terrorists is indispensable, but it cannot by itself secure lasting peace. Unless the ecosystem that glorifies separatism, rationalises targeted violence and perpetuates denial is decisively challenged, terrorism will continue to regenerate in different forms. Security measures must therefore be complemented by intellectual clarity, constitutional resolve and historical truth."
He further emphasised that the recurring normalisation of targeted killings poses a grave challenge to the nation's collective conscience.
"When every incident is followed by temporary outrage and routine administrative measures before public attention shifts elsewhere, society gradually becomes conditioned to recurring violence. Such normalisation weakens national resolve and allows the objectives of terror to endure beyond individual attacks."
Panun Kashmir reiterated that acknowledging the historical continuity of identity-based violence is indispensable for evolving an effective national policy capable of preventing its recurrence.
The organisation maintained that durable peace in Kashmir cannot be founded upon selective memory, political expediency or institutional denial. It called upon policymakers, constitutional institutions, academia and civil society to recognise the ideological dimensions of Jatividhvans, strengthen historical truth as an instrument of justice, and ensure that the victims of identity-based persecution are neither forgotten nor reduced to isolated episodes in the nation's memory.
Panun Kashmir reaffirmed that justice requires more than the punishment of individual perpetrators. It requires recognition of the larger process that enables such crimes, accountability for those who sustain it, and a national commitment to ensuring that genocide, in any form, is neither denied nor allowed to consolidate through indifference.
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