Two back-to-back incidents of vandalism at religious places in the “City of temples” Jammu have forced the security agencies and the district administration to look deeper into the events to prevent any flare-up of violence between members of two communities.
Hinting at the possibility of the involvement of some elements working at the behest of agencies in Pakistan, Jammu Deputy Commissioner Simrandeep Singh on Friday said that creating communal discord in society was one of the best methods of unleashing “low-cost terrorism.”
Sharing his assessment during a radio talk show produced specially to spread awareness on the sensitive issue among the masses and warn them not to fall for rumour-mongering, Singh said when the first incident of temple desecration was reported on June 14, parts of Jammu city witnessed lot of tension and public property was damaged. However, when the second incident of a similar nature was reported, it became evident that this could be part of a sinister design to create communal discord in society, he added.
Singh said he suspected that some vested interests could be trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the State ahead of the June 22 by-election in Anantnag where Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is also one of the candidates.
He said while sending heavily-armed terrorists from across the border to foment trouble in the State was a difficult job, exploiting fault lines of society was relatively easier.
“You have to pick one person who can easily fall for a bottle of alcohol, easy money and some drugs to create this scene. Different religious groups fall prey to this nefarious design and clash with each other, inflict injuries and create discord in society,” he explained.
With the annual Amarnath yatra slated to begin in July, Intelligence agencies working on ground zero will have to redouble their efforts to prevent repeats of similar strikes by identifying potential threats well in advance.
The security grid will also have to do a fresh review of the security bandobast across important religious places and reach out to the heads of religious institutions urging them to remain vigilant and exercise restraint under difficult circumstances.
Singh claimed they were planning to meet heads of different religious institutions in Jammu with an aim to sanitise them and make them aware of possible threats.
He said since it was not possible to provide security cover to all the religious places due to paucity of security personnel, area domination exercises can be done in and around such places to prevent major strikes.
In an interaction with journalists here at the Press Club, the Deputy Commissioner along with Jammu-range DIG Ashkoor Wani and SSP Jammu Sunil Gupta, appealed to the people to remain vigilant and show maturity by way of respecting religious sentiments of members of all communities.
Meanwhile, Internet services suspended by the district administration were gradually restored on Friday. Jammu bandh call given by Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party received poor response in the region.
Source : Daily Pioneer
