January 25/26, 1997: 25 at Wandhama-Ganderbal

March 20, 1997: 7 at Sangrampura

April 18, 1998: 27 at Prankote

June 19, 1998: 25 at Chapnari

July 28, 1998: 16 in two villages of Doda district

August 8, 1998: 35 at Kalaban

February 20, 1999: 4 at Muraputta, 9 at Barlyara and 7 at Bllala

June 30, 1999: 15 in Anantnag district

July 19, 1999: 15 at Layata

February 28, 2000: 5 near Qazigund

March 20, 2000: 35 at Chatisinghpora

August 1, 2000: 31 Amarnath Yatris at Pahalgam

August 1-2, 2000: 27 in Qazigund and Achabal

August 2, 2000: 11 in Doda district

February 3, 2001: 6 in Mahjoornagar in Srinagar [Images]

February 11, 2001: 15 in Kot-Chadwal

March 2, 2001: 15 in Manjkote

March 17, 2001: 8 near Atholi in Doda

July 21, 2001: 13 including 7 Amarnath pilgrims at Sheshnag

July 22, 2001: 12 in Cheerji and Tagood in Doda district

August 4, 2001: 15 in Ludder-Sharotid Har area in Doda district

January 7, 2002: 17 in Ramsoo

February 17, 2002: 8 in Rajouri

March 30, 2002: 12 at the Raghunath temple in Jammu

May 14, 2002: 32 at the army camp in Kaluchak, Jammu

July 13, 2002: 20 in Kasim Nagar, Jammu

August 6, 2002: 9 Amarnath pilgrims at the Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam

August 24, 2002: 10 in Rajouri

November 24, 2002: 14 at the Raghunath Temple in Jammu

March 24, 2003: 24 in Nadimarg

April 29, 2005: 13 in Udhampur district

April 30, 2005: 22 in Doda district

Wonder what these numbers refer to? Yes, these numbers refer to the innocent people who have been massacred by Islamist terrorists in the state of Jammu & Kashmir during last few years. And this is not a comprehensive list by any means. It just highlights the major massacres that have been undertaken by Islamist terrorists in recent years. In addition to these major massacres, there have been targeted killings going on at regular intervals all through these years.

And do you know what was common among these innocent victims? Yes, all these victims of Islamic terrorism were innocent Hindus, who believed in the Indian national flag and Constitution.

Targeted killings of Hindus in J&K continue unabated but nothing moves our state and central government. Instead of any concrete and decisive response, we hear oft-repeated sound-bytes from our politicians and policy makers. Here is how they reacted to the latest massacre in Doda and Udhampur:

Militants kill 22 in remote Doda village

'People of Kashmir have rejected and rebuffed terrorists repeatedly,' said our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh [Images].

'We have advised the state authorities to review the security measures for the minorities in the state. This incident clearly shows the desperation of the terrorists who want to derail the peace process in the state,' said Home Secretary V K Duggal.

Our Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal chimed in: 'The terrorists do not want the peace initiatives being taken by the Centre to succeed.'

And finally J&K's Chief Minister Ghulam [Images] Nabi Azad topped it off by saying: 'The killers will not be spared. We will not allow them to succeed in their designs. We would rather give a big push to the peace process. I want to make it clear once and for all that we will not bow to any pressure from terrorists. They will not be allowed to get away with their acts of mass murders.'

Mr Chief Minister, which planet are you living in? They have been getting away with these acts of mass murder all along without any punitive repercussions and you talk about not allowing them to get away. I know it is said that ignorance is bliss but not in this case. Please wake up and try to see the reality on the ground.

Do these sound bytes sound familiar? How many times have we heard these already? At this point, we don't even need to ask these politicians for their reaction. Don't we already know what they are going to say?

And what do the Opposition parties do? The age-old call for a bandh. That is what the National Conference and Panthers Party have done -- called for a Jammu bandh. The BJP has not even done that. It has totally given up. It might as well close the shop and go for a perpetual Rath Yatra touring every village of India. That will keep the BJP and its remaining leadership busy for a while.

The worst but most-repeated statement that the Government of India issues is: 'These killings will not affect the peace process with Pakistan.'

WHY NOT?

Why shouldn't these killings affect the peace process with Pakistan? Why shouldn't India withdraw from all the peace processes and so-called confidence building measures? Why shouldn't India demand the absolute closing down of the entire terror infrastructure in Pakistan and the verification of the same by joint Indo-Pak forces? Why shouldn't India be forthright and blunt about blaming Pakistan for this scourge of terrorism? Why does India have to play nice while its innocent citizens, including little children, are getting killed day in and day out by these Islamist terrorists who are supported and sponsored by Pakistan?

Until and unless Pakistan stops all the support -- moral, political, diplomatic, economic and military, to terrorists, India should not entertain any offer of talks from Pakistan. India just needs to focus on eradicating terrorists from J&K and I propose the following 13-step process to achieve that with immediate effect:

1. Stop all confidence building measures that are in process with Pakistan;

2. Suspend all diplomatic relations with Pakistan;