The dastardly act of lynching DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandit at the historic Jamia Mosque in Srinagar on the night of Shab-E-Qadr has reminded the dark era of the 1990s when policemen and public alike feared to venture out on the streets.The same fear came back when a radicalised mob killed the DSP on Thursday in the heart of the city. 
DSP Ayub Pandit belonged to the Security Wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police who was deployed at the mosque to protect the devotees. He was on the guard to see that no miscreants enter the mosque premises and vitiate the atmosphere while namazis pray. 
It is an irony that this incident occurred in the holy month of Ramzan and that too on the night of Shab-E-Qadr when Muslims pray for forgiveness for their sins. It’s disturbing that when vengeful mob was beating the DSP, nobody came to his rescue. Many people would have identified him since he was a resident of Nowpora area, barely a few kilometers away from Nowhatta where the mosque is situated. 
It is no less ironic that when the blood thirsty mob was on the rampage, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, whose father was killed by militants too,was preaching tenets of Islam on the premises of the mosque. Neither he nor did his supporters come out to protect their brethren. It’s another matter that he later tweeted condemning the brutal killing as if a second thought occurred to him.  

It seems a section of Kashmiris have rejected the tradition of Sufism, which has been the identityof the Valley for centuries.What is more worrying trend is the credos of Islamic caliphate are finding traction among youths in the Valley. The lynch mob at the mosque was raising pro-Pakistan and Pro-al Qaeda slogans while beating and kicking the DSP in the same way as Islamic State, al Qaeda and Taliban fighters do in the areas under their control. 
The mob at the mosque seems to have been inspired by the former Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander and now an al Qaeda operative Zakir Musa who had declared a few months back that militants wanted to establish an Islamic caliphate in Kashmir and threatened Hurriyat leaders with beheading if they term their struggle as the movement of azaadi for Kashmir. 
What is much more perplexing is despite the free hand given to the Army and security forces, the violence in the Valley has been on the rise. After the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani, in July last year, the Valley has witnessed a spiral of violence. Schools and colleges are witnessing protests on a daily basis. Youths are coming on the streets in flocks and pelting stones on the security forces. 
Raising of pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans and surrounding the encounter sites are very common in the Valley today. This is what happened on June 16 when security forces were engaged in an encounter at Arwani village of Anantnag in which Lashkar commander Junaid Mattoo was killed along with two other militants.
Since the killing of Burhan Wani, security forces have killed several top ranked militants including Sabzar Bhatt, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander who succeeded Zakir Musa when he broke the ranks from the militant organization, and Lashkar commander Junaid Mattoo. But it has failed to break the backbone of militants. 
In the last six months, around 20 cops have been killed in the state. On June 16, militants ambushed a police party in the Achabal area of Anantnag killing 6 cops including SHO Feroz Dar while 5 cops carrying cash to a bank ATM were killed by militants on May 28 in Kulgam district.
The spate of killing of cops has enraged the police and they are angry with the state government for restraining them. Their anger reflected in the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s statement when she said that people must not test the patience of police.“If they run out of their patience, old days will come back and people will run upon seeing a police Gypsy,” she warned after the killing of the DSP.
The government is facing a tough task to keep the morale of its police force high. If militants are attacking them, they can handle it. However, when radicalized mob is on the loose, it is difficult for cops to counter them. Hence, it is of paramount importance for the government to devise a strategy to insulate the people of the state from fundamentalist Islamic credos and radical militants’ influence. 
It is a fact that without the support of local police, no operation by Army and other security forces can succeed in the militant-infested Valley. A police force with low morale will be of no use in the fight against militancy. 

                                                                                                                (The writer is Executive Editor, Live India television)