The doves among the separatist, in the run up to the Prime Minister’s visit, were also expecting a direct contact from the government of India for restarting the talks, which have been stalled for the past four years.

The Prime Minister did express his government’s willingness to open a dialogue process with any group or individual in the state who ‘shuns the path of violence’ but the offer lacked the conviction it needed to convey to the doubters. It seemed that the human rights violations were weighing heavily at the back of his mind and dialogue process took the back seat.
In a carefully worded and prepared speech, Manmohan Singh avoided a direct mention of the incident in which three Kashmiri youths from Nadihal village in Baramulla district were taken to Macchil on the promise of providing high paying jobs, shot dead in what can only be described as cold blooded murder and later, dubbed as infiltrators for getting cash rewards.

Probably concerned that a direct indictment of the security forces — particularly the army — would affect their morale while fighting militancy, the Prime Minister even sought to link such incidents, which have been described in varied terms like genocide and war crimes against Kashmiris, with the phenomenon of infiltration of militants from across the Line of Control.
“There are a handful of people who do not want any political process for empowering people to succeed. This is the reason that attempts to disturb the lives of the people in the Valley still continue from across the line of control. Whenever such incidents happen, they spread terror and cause disruption in the life of people. Our security agencies are forced to act in the wake of such incidents. During the process sometimes innocent civilians have to suffer, but whenever such incidents happen it becomes necessary to act against those responsible for them,” Singh said while dealing with the Macchil incident.

The Prime Minister did not even indulge in rhetoric, as has been done in the past in such cases, of handing out exemplary punishment to the guilty but issued a mild reprimand. “I am aware of some complaints related to human rights. On this issue, the government policy is to protect the human rights of the people even when dealing with terrorism. The security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have been strictly instructed to respect the rights of the civilians. We will act to remove any deficiency in the implementation of these instructions,” he said.