SRINAGAR: Peoples Conference chairman and MLA Handwara, Sajad Gani Lone, said the Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 25 tourists and a local resident, has triggered a historic awakening against violence in Kashmir, ending what he described as the “social sanctity” that violence once held in the Valley.
“In the past 35 years, we have not witnessed an incident like the one that happened in Pahalgam,” Lone said in his speech during a special session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Monday. “Someone from outside came and martyred them on our land. They were tourists who came to enjoy the beauty of Kashmir, who stayed in our hotels, and who travelled with our taxi drivers,” he added.
Calling it a watershed moment, Lone said that while Kashmir had witnessed bloodshed for decades, the public response to the Pahalgam attack was unprecedented. “It was not just a street, not a lane, not a city, not a village where people did not come out in anger and oppose this violence. This has never happened in the last 78 years. This happened for the first time,” he said.
He praised the families of the victims for preventing a surge in communal hatred. “The fire that could have been lit — they put it out and created an atmosphere of love. In the whole of India, the face of that Kashmiri was seen — the Kashmiri who gave his life to save a tourist,” Lone said, recalling how locals carried injured tourists through forests for over an hour to get them medical help.
Expressing gratitude, Lone continued, “We should be thankful to their relatives. After such a big loss, they demonstrated humanity when others might have turned to anger.”
The PC chairman also made a request to the House: “We have not written their names in the resolution. Otherwise, it becomes just a statistic. When names are written, human lives are remembered. Even after 20 years, when we may not be here, someone will say, ‘I have a right; my father or brother sacrificed here.’ We must write their names one by one.”
Lone said that Kashmir’s culture of hospitality, tied closely to tourism, was under serious threat due to recurring violence. “I am not talking about economics. Allah has tied our livelihood to tourism and hospitality. This hardship aims to uproot an entire generation,” he said.
He acknowledged how violence had become normalised in Kashmir’s social fabric — and how that perception was now being challenged. “For 35 years, we have seen violence, and we should not do politics on this. There was a societal acceptance of violence. Some people saw it as legitimate. But what we saw with these marches was a social stigmatisation of violence. People are not willing to accept it anymore.”
However, Lone cautioned that this was only the beginning. “This is not the end of the social sanctity of violence. It is the beginning of the end. We should create such an environment that this mindset does not return.”
Lone also referred to the challenges faced by civilians during counter-insurgency operations. “The biggest challenge for law enforcers has been that sometimes they could not distinguish between an innocent person and a terrorist. Sometimes four innocents were killed while trying to arrest one terrorist,” he said. “We do not want to blame anyone. But healing cannot come through force. Unless thousands of Adil Shahs are created, violence will not end.”
He added, “The police have a limited role. The army has a limited role. What the people of this place will do — that no one else can do.”
Lone also urged the media to act responsibly, warning that hostile narratives were putting Kashmiri students at risk. “Some sections of the media have acted positively. But others have sown division and placed innocent students in danger.”
He proposed a “formal step” — even if not made public — to ensure unity and prevent reactions that serve the aims of terrorists. “Let us not do what the terrorists want us to do,” he said.
Lone further called for institutional support for the families of those killed. “I am not talking about ex gratia. Ex gratia trivialises sacrifice. Guardianship of these families should be assumed by the Jammu and Kashmir government. If someone’s daughter wanted to become a doctor, it is now our duty to make her a doctor.”
Overcome with emotion, Lone reflected on the grief faced by families. “When a dead body arrives, riddled with bullets, the first feeling is helplessness. I have cried myself. When someone dies from a bullet, that is when you understand the agony of those final moments. The most painful are those last three or four minutes, when a person realises they will not survive — those moments feel like doomsday,” said Lone, whose father, Abdul Gani Lone, was killed in 2002. (KNO)
