The incident of stone pelting by miscreants at a picket of Army in the Sunjuwan Military Station here is being viewed as an attempt of Kashmiri radicals to trigger communal passions in the winter capital of Jammu that is known for having so far maintained harmonious relations among all communities.

The incident on Friday was first of its kind in which an Army picket was stoned here. Jammu does not have the history of disrespecting soldiers guarding the borders and also coming to rescue of civilians at the time of natural calamities.

The PDP-BJP government headed by Mehbooba Mufti is being blamed for such an ugly situation that has been created due to its soft policy towards those engaged in radicalisation and also professional stone pelters who were reportedly being funded by various Pakistani agencies.

The social media was on Sunday flooded with comments against the stone pelting incident and criticising the government for letting such ugly incident happen in Jammu. Communalising the situation in Jammu has been on the agenda of Kashmir based separatists who never lose an opportunity to exploit any situation to create a communal divide.

However, the PDP-BJP government has miserably failed to contain the separatists who were making attempts of radicalisation even while being under the so-called house arrest. The government has made a mockery of house arrest term as the top separatist, Syed Alishah Geelani, is allowed to spit venom against India and the security forces by telephonically addressing rallies from his home where he is placed under house arrest.

Another separatist, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, also uses the social media for this purpose when put under house arrest. The PDP in particular is considered soft towards the separatists and this came in open when Mehbooba’s father Mufti Sayeed immediately after taking oath as Chief minister in 2014 thanked separatists for letting elections to be held peacefully.

No meaningful action action has been taken by the government against the separatists who have kept Kashmir on boil since 2016 when the top terrorist Burhan Wani was killed in encounter with security forces. Two successive tourist seasons in the valley have virtually failed because of the unrest generated by the separatists.

Last year’s tourist season was washed off amidst hysteria of braid chopping in Kashmir where several innocent people were thrashed by mobs and the separatists accused the security forces of chopping hair of women.

Army chief Bipin Rawat has put a question mark on the issue of J&K government granting amnesty to 9730 stone pelters. What sort of goodwill are they trying to show to those who continue to pelt stones on the  security forces Rawat is reported to have have said in an interview.