Srinagar: A ruling party legislator in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday narrating his harrowing story in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature showed how dialogue can ease emotions and change people's lives in times of extreme situations.
National Conference leader and legislator Qaisar Jamsheed Lone said that when he was a Class nine student he had to face a horrible situation which made him to think to pick up a gun and become a militant, but a convincing dialogue by an Army officer soothed his emotive nerves and he changed his mind.
"When I was in Class nine, I was tortured by an commanding Army officer in my village during a crackdown of our area. The officer asked me whether he knew a man who was a militant in his area, when I replied in yes, he beat me with a stick," Lone said while speaking during the Motion of Thanks on Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha's address in the JK assembly.
Lone is an MLA from Lolab assembly constituency of the frontier Kupwara district which is located on the Line of Control. The area was as route for infiltration of militants since 1989. Lone defeated Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate. He is the nephew of late NC leader and former minister Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, who was assisinated by militants in the 1990s.
In 90s cradowns and roads were common in the Kashmir valley as security forces used these methods to apprehend militants and their OGWs when the militancy was at its peak. The crackdowns in the valley were order of the day.
Lone said in that crackdown which had began at 6 in the morning and ended at 5 in the evening, 32 other youth like him were tortured and it infuriated him so much that he wanted become a militant.
"After the torture, a senior Army officer asked me about my studies and aim in life- doctor, engineer, IAS or IPS officer. I told him I had these ideas in mind, but now I want to become a militant because I am angry with the torture and humiliation," he said.
Lone said relating his anger the senior officer summoned the junior officer and rebuked him for torture. "The senior officer held conversation with me for 20 minutes, calmed me down and rebuked the junior officer. And then I changed my mind," he said.
Lone said that out of the 32 youth who were tortured and beaten during the crackdown, 27 went to Pakistan for Army training and become militants. "I narrated this incident to convey the importance of holding dialogue. Dialogue can pave way for the roadmap. If we use might and force, matters get worse," he said.
