Amarnath Yatra attack: How politics grappled the aftermath

Hyderabad: The unfortunate event of July 10 had desolated the country when terrorists attacked the innocent Amarnath pilgrims while their return from Srinagar. Seven had died while one succumbed to injuries in the hospital and several got injured.

The cowardly act of so called ‘warriors’ would have been intensified if the valiant driver, Sheik Saleem, did not drive the bus at 70-80 kph despite being shot from three sides. On one side the politics around the incident looked mature and stable while, on the other hand, there were political workers showing neglect crossing all the limits of ignorance.

National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Ram Madhav said, the security was fully furnished, the forces were prepared. The yatra had been going on for the past 15 days, and it was peaceful. He also said that the Army suffers at the rate of 100%, while terrorists’ chances to suffer are 1%.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Kumar Singh said there were security lapses.
The security has been tightened so there could be no chances of such incidents in future, Madhav added.

What did the Driver say:

There were reports initially, the bus was not registered by Amarnath Shrine Board. Whereas, Saleem said the bus was registered, which accompanied the convoy that escorted it till Baltaal, where the pilgrims offered their visit.

On their return to Srinagar at around 4 pm, Saleem’s bus was accompanied by 3,4 more buses of pilgrims. “After 4 to 5 Km, our bus tyre got punctured. It was when we stopped to repair it while the other buses left. We had to return again as the tyre got another puncture. This took around three hours. There was a security vehicle which stopped and bought a Bisleri bottle.”
“Several security vehicles came and left and no one asked us as to why the bus was stopped there and why no security was deployed with them.”

So where is the confusion:

There came reports that bus was not registered, but the driver said otherwise. Additionally, if it was not registered then why the convoy accompanied it till Baltaal and if it was not registered then how did the pilgrims offered their visit is still a mystery.

Now a question arises that if it was registered, the security should have escorted the bus to pass Jawahar tunnel. So, with whose permission the bus could pass after 7 pm when no vehicle is allowed to travel in the valley after 7 by the forces. Why no one stopped the bus when it breached the law six times.

Nirmala Thakur was amongst the deceased, her daughter Neetu Singh accused the security of the incident.

A stir also occurred on social media, Shuchi Singh Kalra said on Home Minister’s Twitter page-which she later removed where she had used foul language- it was not Home Minister’s work to appease the situation, and it was his duty to drag the cowards (militants) and kill them. She also said that no one should consider the Kashmiriyat at that moment.

The Home Minister Rajnath Singh in one of the most responsible ways replied it was his job to maintain the peace and all Kashmiris are not terrorists.

Out of nowhere, responsible citizens instead of speaking about security glitches started connecting the #Notinmyname campaign with the terrorist attack.
But the campaign against terrorism demonstrated to protest against this attack at Jantar Mantar on July 11 and showed that no brutal killings were justified.

Whose lapse was it?, If the bus was not registered, how did it get allowed to pass. If it was registered, then why did it not have the security with it.

-With inputs from Ravish Kumar’s Prime Time