Attack in Pahalgam: Another Black Day Among Countless Others

Hello readers, I've chosen to talk about something that can be uncomfortable for many. But, here goes nothing. 

On April 22nd, 2025, when I was taking a nap after having lunch, 26 innocent civilians lost their lives, and many others were wounded. A terrorist attack took place in Pahalgam, where countless families went on vacation. One second, it was all peaceful, and the very next moment, all hell broke loose.

It seems so eerie and strange to even think about it. It could have been my friend who went there just a month ago. Or worse, it could have been me. A system failure, a security breach, an organisation that operated only to take the lives of the innocent; all of that happened within a matter of seconds. Strange. 

But what's more strange is that, as a young citizen of India, I still cannot fathom the whole incident yet. So many questions come to mind when I start thinking about it. But above all, the most highlighted question is always: HOW? 

As a kid, it was easy to breach the school's security. Once, we actually left the school in broad daylight before our classes ended. Nobody stopped us. The security guard looked at us, asked us, we lied, and that was it. We breached the security just like that.

When we go to a mall or to the cinema, there's a checkpoint at every gate. We usually laugh at the way they frisk us: just casual tapping and ruffling bags. Sometimes, not even that. It's all fun and games. We sneak in snacks to the movie halls and feel good about ourselves. Yay! We breached the security yet again. 

But today, when we are on the receiving end of a security breach, it hurts. Today, we are not laughing. We're not proud of it. Perhaps, the culprits are. And that makes it even more outrageous.

When we casually breach security checkpoints at a place, it affects the whole system little by little. The people in charge also become casual. When a “arey kuch nahi hota hai, jaane dijiye” impacts the life of 26 innocents, that's when we realise that oh no, we're in deep trouble. The sense of casualty should be unacceptable. Yet, we somehow take advantage of that to suit our needs.

Asking the higher-ups to take responsibility for this breach is the first thing we have done. As we should, no disagreement there. But, are we also taking responsibility for encouraging the casual violations in the system every day? A butterfly effect, indeed. Something to think about, right?

The outrage has obviously died down. Of course, like any other case. We have done our fair share of candle marches once again, and pointed fingers at everyone but towards the right questions. And as part of democracy, this makes us part of the problem, too.