SRINAGAR – A video showing a man in military uniform boasting aboutbloodshed and worship of weapons was widely shared on social media in theKashmir Valley on Sunday when tension was already running high over thekilling of two men by security forces, Hindustan Times has reported.
The authenticity of the clipping could not be independently verified andthe officer was not identified either, but it appears to have been shot ina hilly place much like Kashmir in winter.
“We were falling for the things like peace. It has been my record whereverI have gone, there has been bloodshed. So I am not satisfied till there isbloodshed,” the man with a drink in his hands says in the video. A maroonberet — standard with military paratroopers — lies on a table in front ofthe man.
Army spokesman Rajesh Kalia said he has not seen the video and will be ableto comment after going through it.
The video also shows the man, who appears to be an officer in the rank of amajor, talking about a poem by his “favourite poet Yogendra Sharma” andapparently titled “Shanti vanti chodo (Forget peace)”.
“There is talk of peace nowadays. Wait a second,” he gulps down the drink,throws away the glass and recites the poem.
He stops after one of the couplets and explains how one should worshipweapons, not gods. “We are the ones who kill,” he says.
The man recites the entire poem, which is full of religious symbolism andnarratives on defending the motherland. At the end, he talks about how “weare all Arjun”. The poem’s last line says: “Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi takBharat hi Bharat ho.”
Kashmiri social media users reacted sharply to the video — some dismissedit as drunken banter, others castigated the man and wanted the army to takeaction against him.
Retired Lt Gen HS Panag said: “Unbecoming bravado! Disciplinary actionwarranted.”
Another user tweeted : “We are not fighting a war & its not mahabharat.Veer Ras ki kavita…..som ras peene ke baad achi jarur lagti hai…parsachai se bahut dur hai. we would love to have peace in & around the Indiansub-continent”.
The video surfaced on a day Kashmir observed a shutdown after soldierskilled two men when a military convoy was allegedly targeted with stones insouth Kashmir’s Shopian district on Saturday evening.
A Srinagar-based army spokesperson said security personnel fired atprotesters after taking “the extreme gravity of the situation” intoaccount. Residents quoted by local newspapers said the army fired at peoplecoming to Gawanpora village to condole the death of Hizbul Mujahideenmilitant.
Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti spoke to defence minister Nirmala Sitharamanon Saturday and said every civilian killing, notwithstanding howerroneously made, impairs the political process in the state.