By M S Nazki
We’ve crossed these battle lines too many times, it passes through the heart but it never leaves a mark, cause your love just keeps on healing me (the people of Jammu and Kashmir who were traumatized by terror)!
-The psychological distress symptoms of traumatized people simultaneously call attention to the existence of an unspeakable secret and deflect attention from it! The Hon’ble Lt. Governor UT J&K has some great innovative plans for the victims of terror in J&K!
-I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
-In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.
-Condition of the terror victims in Kashmir a decade ago was something like this: After a traumatic experience, the human system of self-preservation seems to go onto permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment. When trust is lost, traumatized people feel that they belong more to the dead than to the living.
-But recovery can take place only within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation. And that is the bottom lne!
-The definition of a victim of terrorism includes people who are directly affected by a terrorist crime as well as the families of people who die as a result of a terrorist crime. The families of surviving victims are also entitled to certain support services and protection measures.
-A terrorist crime is a crime committed with the intention of frightening the population or a specific group within the population. For an act to be regarded as a terrorist crime it has to have the potential of harming a state, for example, and of inflicting a severe strain on society.
-All crime victims have several needs in common, which include being given respect, security, protection, information and support. Victims of terrorist crimes and their families may additionally have special needs due to the special nature of the crime. Such needs must be assessed on the basis of individual circumstances in each case.
-Because victims of terrorism are often random, they may feel that they are particularly vulnerable and have difficulties understanding and processing the fact that they became the victims. The considerable general and media interest that terrorist crimes generate can make the situation additionally stressful for victims. Some countries apply special protection and support measures for victims of terrorism.
-Therefore:
-All victims of crime are entitled to be treated with respect. They are also entitled to considerate, professional and non-discriminatory treatment adapted to the individual in question.
-Some of the most fundamental rights of crime victims are:
-To be given information about their rights and about how their case is progressing
-To understand and be understood regardless of language differences or other circumstances
-To participate in the legal process
-To be given various forms of protection during and after the legal process
-To be able to claim damages from the perpetrator
-To be able to seek compensation from the state
-To be able to seek redress from an authority if a right is not respected.
-For the first time, governance in Jammu and Kashmir is not being steered by political convenience or selective outrage. It’s being driven by moral clarity and a deep sense of duty to the people.
-The Hon’ble LT. Governor has exemplified what real leadership means: quiet determination, a sense of justice, and a focus on action, not applause.
-From reopening grievance cells and revisiting old FIRs, to probing land encroachments and recognising victims not as statistics but as citizens this is not just administration. It’s a reckoning. A healing. A long-awaited restoration of truth.
-Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha distributed 40 appointment letters to victims of terrorism. At the event in Baramulla, Mr Sinha spoke to families of those who were killed by terrorists. He assured them the government remains committed to supporting all victims of terrorism through jobs, compensation, and inquiry-based redressing.
– Mr Sinha said a narrative had been running for a long time by frontal groups of terrorists by taking out processions with bodies of terrorists who were killed by the security forces.
-“One day I met a young man who asked me to meet with families of terror victims. I met 150 such families and spoke to them at length. In one case, a man who was killed by terrorists was survived by his wife and three children. One got a government job and the wife got financial help, but the two other children were in trouble,” Mr Sinha said.
-“Many things came to my mind. For example, how do we help the other two children? I discussed it with the Home Minister,” the Lt Governor said.
-After handing over the 40 appointment letters today, Mr Sinha announced the launch of a helpline which victims of terror attacks can contact to send their applications for aid. The authorities will conduct a proper check and take a call on the application, he said.
-Mr Sinha said he also thought about talking to foundations across the country that work to help people in need.
-“During a visit to Pahalgam to see the base camp for the Amarnath Yatra on June 29, I met some families from south Kashmir. There was a young girl, who said her father was a special police officer. He was killed by terrorists. The girl said her mother begged and raised her and her younger sister. Even their relatives refused to help,” the Lt Governor said.
-What the girl said next was devastating.
-“The killers are in a government job, the young girl told me. That day it occurred to me that there could be many more such cases. The killers have a government job, and the families of those they killed were begging on the road,” Mr Sinha said.
-The Lt Governor said he held a series of meetings with all the top officials in the Union Territory and set up a process to ensure every victim of terror attacks got help.
-“We made three-four decisions. There are some people who got financial aid, but did not get a job. Some did not get financial aid, but got a job. We identified gaps and helped them,” he said.
-Anyone who wants to try entrepreneurship can apply for collateral free aid of Rs 10 lakh. Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has enhanced it to Rs 20 lakh.
-“We spoke to the managing director of Jammu and Kashmir Bank. If there are 1,000-2,000 young people who need finance to start small businesses, we will make a special cell for them to take their applications,” Mr Sinha said.
-He said the government received many applications for jobs and aid. The authorities are going through the applications properly with the help of the police and other agencies.
-Indeed a great initiative!
Our pain was finally felt and heard with passion, sympathy and empathy!
Families of terrorism victims in Jammu and Kashmir said that their pain had been ignored for over three decades, their voices unheard, but for the first time, they feel someone is finally listening. Someone’s mother was killed by terrorists. The ones who destroyed our lives were strengthened, and we were left to survive without help or recognition, said a lady!
Someone lost his father and described the enduring repeated cycles of paperwork and unfulfilled promises. We lived through the loss, and then through years of being asked to prove it again and again. It broke us. Past governments only mocked our pain with false promises.
Someone lost her husband in 1994 and raised children alone, If someone says that I sold our land to build two rooms without a roof and none of my daughters are married yet. I’ve never received any government aid. This is nothing but trauma at large!
Some lost brothers who were killed decades ago, said their family was never acknowledged. But now the same id being!
More was still to come:
Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha directed the Deputy Commissioners and SSPs of the UT to reopen cases on priority which were deliberately buried and file an FIR and ensure jobs to the next of kins of all terror victim families. He informed that a Special Cell will be established in LG Secretariat to address concerns of terror victim families.
He further directed them to take immediate measures to free terror victim families’ property and land grabbed by terrorists and their sympathisers. Chairing a high-level meeting in Srinagar to discuss the issues concerning victim families whose loved ones were brutally killed by Pakistan-backed terrorists, Mr. Sinha urged the officials to identify those elements from the terror ecosystem who were involved in killing of common Kashmiris and currently working in Government Departments. He said financial assistance under MUDRA and handholding must be extended to the terror victim family members who want to start their self-employment venture.
We will conclude by saying: No pain can harm the way I’m feeling now, Sir, I know that your love is healing. I’ve kicked around those lines in my head But I’ve never listened to the words that You said. See where its lead, well I know I have it now, cause You showed me how and all I had to do was just to keep my eyes on You! This is what we could make out from the picture with the story!
