Rajasthani truck driver killed in Shopian: Terror link in murder reveals Pakistan’s designs, western media’s duplicity on Kashmir

It is easy to understand why Pakistan is trying to create instability in Kashmir. Two terrorists — one of them suspected to be a Pakistani national — have killed the driver of an apple truck and assaulted an orchard owner in Sindhu Shirmal village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district. The gravity of this crime may remain unrecognised even at home, and the western media — that has emerged as a major critic of India’s decision to remove Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status — will likely ignore this incident because it sits at grievous odds with the dominant international narrative on Kashmir. On the one hand, Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan claims to be spending sleepless nights and nurturing a bleeding heart in support of Kashmiris in India, while on the other hand, the country sends terrorists across the border to kill and create an atmosphere of fear and terror in the Valley, so that the apple harvesting season may be disrupted, Kashmir’s economy may remain crippled and subsequent anger and frustration may rise. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir’s horticulture department released figures that indicate a bumper apple harvest in Kashmir that matches the production of 2017-18, belying fears, as Praveen Swami had noted in Firstpost, that the “decision to end the state’s special status, as well as labour shortages and violence, were forcing farmers to leave their fruit crop, valued at Rs 1,200 crore, to rot.” However, despite the bumper crop and government’s price control mechanism to remove the middlemen and procure directly from farmers at a better price, trucks remained scarce at Azadpur wholesale apple market in Delhi, indicating that the terrorists are succeeding in their tactic of intimidating the locals.