India must wrest initiative from China

Even as China has abandoned for now its plans to capture Indian territory in Ladakh due primarily to fear of US intervention on the side of India, it is fuelling a fresh wave of attacks on Kashmiris loyal to India and fanning the embers of anti-India hatred in neighbouring Nepal. The brutal killing of Sheikh Wasim Bari, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who was killed along with his father and brother on Wednesday evening by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in the northern Kashmir town of Bandipora close on the heels of a Hindu sarpanch in Anantnag being killed by terrorists is a sign of pre-meditated targeted attacks which may well be at China’s instance. At the time of his death, the 33-year-old Wasim Bari was one of the 40 executive members in Jammu and Kashmir for the party. He was pro-active in the party activities. In past five years, he had been able to arrange over two dozen party rallies in Bandipora district, according to a party activist. All the family members of Bari’s family, including his slain brother and father, were BJP workers. Bari’s younger brother, Umer Bashir, was part of the youth wing of the BJP and his father Bashir Ahmad had served as vice president of Bandipora unit of the party.

In Nepal too, the hidden Chinese hand is manifest in the manner in which Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli is being propped up by the Chinese despite groundswell of public and party anger against him. The time is indeed ripe for India to frustrate the designs of the Chinese dispensation and turn the tide back in India’s favour. Not only must Indian supporters in Kashmir be well-protected but in Nepal too, India must cash in strongly on the goodwill it has built up over the years.