The ghastly incident in Sri Lanka that consumed hundreds oflives, and left hundreds more injured, has shattered the calm in this regiononce more. It is a grave human tragedy where innocent lives were lost. This, atan occasion that symbolizes one of the sacred moments for our christianbrethren.
In Kashmir people cansympathize with the affected people, and very well understand what it means tothe families of the lost lives. In this moment of intense grief one can onlypray for the grief stricken families, and also wish that calm returns to thecountry, and different communities living in Sri Lanka continue to live inpeace and amity. That is the human part of the incident. People around theglobe are with the victims, and condemn this horrific act of terror in the mostunequivocal ways.
The messages of grief, sympathy, and condemnation havepoured in from everywhere, and genuinely so. But beyond this there is a need toseriously reflect on why such incidents happen, and what makes people commitsuch dastardly acts. Sri Lanka is one of the countries that remained riddledwith a bloody conflict for many many years.
The horrible memories of that violent conflict are stilllingering in the minds of people. But for past some years the country was calm,and there was nothing of the sort happening that could smack of that violentconflict. But these blasts have ripped apart that calm.
This is the occasion that all the political leadership of the region rises above narrow interests and comes forward to take a grand initiative so that the reasons leading to such acts are rooted out.
On the one hand it is an imperative that those who kill innocent people are dealt with sternly, but at the same time it is an inescapable imperative that the divisive trends present in different countries, among different communities, are looked into.
For the sake of the regional peace it is about time to take a grand initiative. Meanwhile we must all pray for the peace and prosperity of this region.