Chiragh

Begar - forced labour, human shields

2010-06-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

Greater Kashmir June 4, 2010
http://greaterkashmir.com/ShowStory.asp?NewsID=16&CategoryID=11

Delhi must apologize
DIGNITY ASSAULTED
Er S A Rasheed recounts the horror he and his people have suffered at the hands of men in uniform
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Today when I recall the bitter memories of those days when I along with my villagers had to get up at 4 in the night with kerosene lanterns in our trembling hands to perform the most terrible, inhuman, unjustified and humiliating forced labour (called Begaer in Urdu and Kashmiri) for the army, I shiver. Known locally as “convoy duty” (as we were supposed to provide protection to army convoys), this is the most dreaded form of “national service” being taken from the hapless inhabitants of my area. It was not primarily the forced labour which army forced the villagers into, but people had to face torture, humiliation and a lurking threat of getting killed or maimed. Since army men feared militant attacks, hence we civilians on “convoy duty” were used as human shield. Those villagers who used to be on “convoy duty” on their turn, had to do all sorts of manual labour the whole day, from cutting firewood to washing their clothes and utensils of course without any remuneration. From each hamlet of Mawer area, (a mountainous area comprising of around fifty villages), a group of four or more civilians, depending on the population of village had to reach the main road, assemble at a spot identified by the troops and with the kerosene lantern in their hands had to wait for the army jawans to come. Once the army would reach near the group, civilians had to jump like monkeys to give satisfaction to army that they are not suicide bombers and then army people would come closer and conduct our body searches to ensure that they do not carry bombs. After this process the group of civilians had to start their duty, by taking long sticks in their hands to search the road and its peripheries for any landmines or IED planted by the militants. This search by civilians continued to the next locality where another group of villagers waited to take the “charge” and the process continued till last village of Mawer area.

After performing this hazardous “duty” which normally took two hours, the said group of people had to surrender their identity cards at the nearest army checkpoint which were located at villages of Qalamabad, Maratgam, Choutipora, Langate & Haril. During this tormenting forced labour for the army, it would depend on ones good luck or the mood of the army jawans and the intention of the militants to ensure that how safe villagers remain throughout the day of their tormenting “duty.”

After depositing the identity cards at the army checkpoints at daybreak, the villagers had to report at various posts, camps or at other spots of the area, where army would need their “services.” The villagers were required to construct bunkers, get illicit timber from forests, gather firewood, wash their clothes and clean their kitchens, construct roads for installations and do everything whatever was ordered by the army personnel. However, for maximum time of the day we had to be around the jawans’ bunkers to protect them from attacks from the militants. It was only in the evening that we were returned our identity cards and allowed to go back home.

Skilled laboureres like carpenters, masons, timber sawyers had to work in the army camps regularly without any remuneration. Buses, mini-buses, trucks and even personal vehicles had to be kept available for army whenever they needed them for various purposes.

“Begaer” is the horror that still sends shivers down our spine. And no inhabitant was immune to this barbarity of the men in uniform. Everyday 4 to 5 households from each hamlet would send one member from their family for the day’s “convoy duty.” This was done on a rotational basis. However, whenever army would require additional men for any service, from using them for human shield during encounters with militants to do manual jobs at their camps, they would pick up anybody irrespective of his age and job. If someone was the only male member of his family or a government servant he still had to go for the army duty at all costs. If one would offer a handsome amount to anybody to go for the “duty”, but nobody agreed for this given the humiliation and threat to life.

Like any other villager, I had to perform this begaer as my father was a retired teacher and brother was a student. Hence I had to take this duty for army all these years. Sounds unbelievable, but it is a fact that those houses which were located on roadside were occupied by the army during night time. Army would come and bundle inmates in one or two rooms during the evening time. Family members including children were ordered not to make a sound and they would occupy the remaining house and keep inmates hostage till the morning. This was done to check the moment of the militants during nights. My own house was used for this kind of operation on dozens of occasions. These practices continued from Jan 1990 to 3 February, 2003. It only ended when I along with few youths took the battle to roads when an innocent youth Shabir Ahmad Pir of Shirhama village was killed in custody by 30 Rashtriya Rifles on 3rd February, 2003. People staged a huge protest demonstration and inhabitants of whole Mawer area decided not to do the humiliating “convoy duty” for the army. Though we couldn’t give justice to Pir’s family but under tremendous resistance from the villagers, army and civil authorities declared an end to the dark era of forced labour. For the traumatized villagers, this was no less than freedom.

It was a great day for we the wretched villagers but I had to pay for it. I was expelled out of my home by my parents as they were angry for me taking frequent tussles with the army over their excesses against civilians. I had been earlier expelled by my parents on the same reason, for they feared that army will take revenge from the whole family for their son’s “waywardness.” This was my third expulsion and lasted four and a half months. I had to pay a bigger cost for being the rebel as I was jailed in November 2005 by police who accused me for having sympathy for militants. Even after my release I was being harassed for different reasons. I finally decided to resign from my engineering service and contested 2008 assembly elections as an independent candidate and got through inspite of opposition from various quarters and forces. The primary reason for participating in elections was very simple. I was of the firm faith that it is the only civilized and democratic way to expose the atrocities faced by the Kashmiri people at the hands of security forces, renegades and militants. I after getting elected to state legislative assembly filed some 24 cases before State Human Rights Commission on 10th Dec 2009 on the eve of International Human Rights Day, seeking justice for innocent killings by army, police, renegades and militants. One of the cases was regarding the forced labour which we had to endue for years and I sought compensation for 13 years forced labour, for myself and my people.

It is my firm faith that we must not have double standards. We must respect human right irrespective of religion, class or caste. A violator is a violator weather he is in uniform claiming to fight for the security of country or a militant claiming to be fighting for Azadi. Government claims that militants are terrorists, without a religion, outlaws and have no respect for humanity. If it is assumed to be true then atrocities committed by militants are nothing new and one should not be surprised as their acts should be seen in light of this definition by government. However, when we define security forces, that they are obviously supposed to protect life, property, honour and dignity of the citizens of the country irrespective of their cast, region, religion or political affiliation. Security forces are bound by law of the land hence there should be a difference between them and the militants.

My intention is never to embarrass the security establishment of the country, but I deem it my duty to make my countrymen understand that nobody is above the law that is why I as an MLA had registered the case against the forced labour and I am seeking Prime Minister’s intervention to get myself and my people compensated for the barbarity we have faced. Let PM apologize on behalf of State that he is grieved because his own people were subjected to forced labour and other inhuman acts for 13 years.

If the Government of India is sincere in its claims of reconciliation and bringing Kashmiris closer to country’s mainstream, then there should be public dislike and abhorrence for the humiliation Kashmiris have suffered. And apologizing the people of Mawer will be beginning for that humane approach of Delhi.

Confidence, self respect, dignity and honour of Kashmiris – this all is to be restored and compensating inhabitants of Mawar and its adjoining areas will be a step forward in the process. Now when the CID has established (vide their letter No. CID/HR/SHRC/18/2010 Dt: 23/03/2010) that my complaint regarding forced labour is true, let government compensate and tender an unconditional apology. This will be a encouraging message for the Kashmiris. And it will deter potential criminals from going ahead with their designs.

(Er S A Rasheed is MLA Langate North Kashmir, Ideas expressed are his own)

14-year old boy shot dead by Indian paramilitaries

2010-02-05T21:55:00.001-08:00

Troopers kill boy

Day 5: Kashmir Shut Amid Protests, Clashes

DANISH NABI

Srinagar, Feb 5: Barely five days after cops killed a 14-year boy in old city here, paramilitary BSF troopers allegedly shot dead another teenager at Kralsangri-Brain Nishat in the city outskirts here Friday.
“Sixteen-year old Zahid Farooq son of Farooq Ahmad Sheikh of Sheikh Mohalla Brain was shot in the chest by the troopers near the office of Inspector General of CRPF at Kralsangri-Brain Nishat,” witnesses told Greater Kashmir.
Locals said they rushed the injured Zahid to SK Institute of Medical Sciences Soura where the doctors declared him brought dead. “The boy was hit by a bullet in the chest but he didn’t have the exit wound. He was dead when he was brought to the hospital,” said, Deputy Medical Superintendent SKIMS.
As the word about Zahid’s death spread, massive protests broke out in Brain and adjoining areas with protesters demanding stern action against the erring BSF men.
Mourners, carrying Zahid’s body and raising slogans, tried to march towards Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s residence at Gupkar Road. Police and CRPF men intercepted them and resorted to heavy baton charge and fired tear-smoke canisters to disperse them. Mourners offered stiff resistance and retaliated with kangris (fire pots).
As the pitched battle continued, the ambulance carrying the victim’s body stood still there. After the protests subsided, the ambulance drove back and handed-over Zahid’s body to his family members for last rites.
The mourners, however, demanded that an FIR be registered against BSF before the victim was laid to eternal rest. They took the body to the concerned police station. The last rites of the victim had not been performed when this report was filed. The killing of comes at a time when the valley is on the boil since Sunday following the killing of Wamiq Farooq hit by a teargas shell in old city. An Assistant Sub Inspector of Police was placed under suspension for firing the shell.
Pertinently, the Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Muhammad Sagar, on Thursday said the government had reviewed the situation and such incidents would not recur.

OFFICIALS SPEAK
The Inspector General of Police - Kashmir zone - Farooq Ahmad said the accused hadn’t been identified yet.
“It’s a mystery whether it was BSF, CRPF or any other force involved in the killing of Zahid. We have registered a case under 302-RPC and we will investigate to find out the truth,” he said, adding the Government has ordered an independent probe into the killing.

LIFE REMAINS PARALYSED
Meanwhile, life in the summer capital remained paralysed for the fifth consecutive day, Friday as authorities imposed “undeclared curfew” in the old city and elsewhere.
Huge contingents of police and paramilitary CRPF were deployed in every nook and corner of the old city and troopers had blocked roads by erecting barricades and laying spools on concertina wires.
Strict restrictions were imposed in the inner areas of old city, including Rainawari, Khanyar, Nowhatta, Gojwara, Rajouri Kadal, Naid Kadal, Gojwara, Nallahmar, Maisuma and Gaw Kadal, which witnessed massive protests and clashes against the killing of 14-year-old Wamiq Farooq Wani, hit by a teargas shell earlier this week.
Residents of these areas said the troopers didn’t allow them to offer Friday prayers in Masjids. “When we tried to move towards Masjids we were asked to stay back and pray indoors. We were restricted from offering prayers in all Masjids on the main roads,” a resident of Nowhatta, Imtiyaz Ahmad said over phone.
People said they were beaten up for moving out in the morning while the police and CRPF didn’t allow them to get the daily commodities. They said the troopers didn’t even allow the newspapers in the area.
Ding dong battles however continued throughout the day between youth and protesters at Lal Bazar, Elahi bagh and other areas in city outskirts.
Restrictions were in place also in the uptown areas mainly in Barzulla, Bemina, Natipora and Batmaloo but the private vehicles could be seen plying at quite a few places.
The troopers went berserk in Tankipora, Batmaloo and adjoining areas in the morning and broke the window panes of houses, residents told Greater Kashmir over phone. The troopers, they said, beat up several people. The vehicle of the daily Kashmir vision editor, Shafaat Kira, was also damaged by troopers.
Total Shutdown was also observed in Ganderbal and Kangan districts amid pro-freedom protests after Friday prayers at Qamariya chowk.

NORTH KASHMIR
A complete shutdown was observed in Varmul, Bandipore, Sopur, Kupwara, Handwara, and other districts and towns of north Kashmir for the fifth consecutive day amidst restrictions over the civilian movement imposed by the authorities.
Witnesses said the police and paramilitary CRPF had been deployed in strength in main town Varmul and they beat up people for moving out. Owner of the Sheikh news Agency was also beaten up for opening his shop in the morning. Mild protesters were reported from Delina Varmul and Khawaja Bagh.
Total shutdown was also observed in the apple town Sopur while the clashes took place between youth and the troopers at several places.
Complete shutdown was also observed in Kupwara, Handwara and Bandipore areas where shops and business establishments remained closed and traffic remained off the roads.

SOUTH KASHMIR
A complete shutdown was observed in major districts of south Kashmir including Islamabad, Kulgam, Pulwama for fifth running day.
Heavy deployment of police and paramilitary CRPF was maintained in all the districts amid reports of mild protests from several places. After Friday prayers youth tried to stage a protests march but it was intercepted by troopers resulting in mild clashes. Ding-dong battles were reported from Chini chowk and Reshi bazaar in the afternoon.
Mild clashes were also reported from Kulgam, Pulwama and other districts.

Another cricketer brought home dead

‘Teenage Zahid Shot In Chest’

GOWHAR BHAT

Srinagar, Feb 5: In one more incident of its kind in less than a week, another young boy who had gone to play cricket near his residence at Nishat on Friday, was bought home dead.
16-year-old, Zahid Farooq alias Shoaib of Sheikh Mohalla, Brain, Nishat, according to his friends - also eyewitness to the incident - said they offered Friday prayers in the nearby mosque and then went out to play cricket in a field on the banks of Dal Lake.
“But it started raining heavily and we sat on a parapet beneath a tree. In the meanwhile, a BSF gypsy and a lorry passing by the Boulevard Road stopped near us. The BSF troopers got down from the vehicle and came towards us. They asked us to go home as curfew was in force in the city,” Zahid’s friends, staging protests, said.
“The BSF men abused and chased us away. We started running but Zahid stayed back. Suddenly, we heard gunshots and when we looked back, we saw a BSF trooper firing at Zahid. The trooper fired three shots at him from point blank range,” said his friend with fear writ on his face.
Zahid received a bullet in his chest and he crawled several meters with blood gushing out of his body, before he fell flat on the ground. “We offered him water and in a few minutes he breathed his last,” he stammered. Zahid was shifted to SKIMS where he was declared dead on arrival.
Zahid was the only son of his parents who are now left with two daughters. His father, Farooq Ahmad Sheikh, is a government employee in the Public Health Engineering Department. He was a student of Meerak Shah School, Shalimar and had passed his matriculation examination in December last year.
“Zahid was such a loveable child and was everybody’s darling. My mind fails to fathom why he was killed and for what. There were neither any protests nor any clashes in the area,” said Javaid Ahmad, his neighbour and friend. “This is a cold-blooded murder,” he grumbled.
When Zahid’s body was bought home, many of his friends and neighbours, unable to bear the grief, fell unconscious. Zahid was a cricket freak and despite the rains he went out to play cricket. “Get up Shoaib, Get up, we have to play,” his friends shrieked as they followed the ambulance carrying home his body.
Relatives, neighbours and locals staged massive demonstrations amidst heavy rains and took his body on the Boulevard and tried to march towards CM’s residence. But a large number of police and CRPF men blocked the roads by armoured vehicles and lobbed teargas canisters to quell the funeral procession.
A youth came out of the ambulance with the hospital admission ticket in his hand and went to SSP, Srinagar, Javaid Riyaz Bedar: “Please have mercy on us. Look at this ticket; Zahid was killed by targeted fire, a bullet pierced his chest. Please stop shelling on this procession.”
Earlier this week, another teenager, Wamiq Farooq who had also gone to play cricket in the old city was bought home dead. He was hit by a teargas shell in his head when police were dealing with protesters near Gojwara.

Kashmir lecture series at Harvard

2009-12-20T08:49:00.001-08:00

" In an attempt to capture the nuances of the conflict and to build an inclusive dialogue, the Carr Center presents the 2009-10 Speaker Series Kashmir: Human Rights Policy for “The World's Most Militarized Dispute."
Read more

How to invesitgate your own war crimes

2009-12-20T08:15:00.000-08:00

CBI clears CRPF of rape and murder; charges witnesses and doctors for creating "false evidence"

CBI DROWNS SHOPIAN

Greater Kashmir December 15, 2009

‘No rape, no murder’

NASEER AHMAD /SAMAAN LATIF

► Police, Troopers Cleared Of All Charges
► Docs, Advocates, Witnesses Booked For ‘Creating False Evidence’
► ‘Case Was Framed To Defame, Discredit Police, Forces’

Srinagar, Dec 14: Contrary to Justice Jan Commission’s findings that Asiya Jan and Neelofar were raped and murdered, the Central Bureau of Investigation today produced chargesheet of Shopian case before the High Court, saying the victims had died due to drowning and there is no evidence to substantiate the charges of murder and rape. The chargesheet has been already submitted by the CBI to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar on December 10.
“The death of Asiya Jan and Neelofar has occurred due to ante-mortem drowning and offences under section 302, 326, 376 and 201 RPC could not be proved,” said the CBI chargesheet.
The Shopian Majlis Mashawarat and the High Court Bar Association rejected the report. The Majlis moved an application before the Court and said it was formally disassociating itself from the case. The Majlis president, Abdul Rashid Dewa, said they were not interested to see the presentation prepared by the CBI about the case. The CBI counsel Anil Bhan was insisting that the power point presentation should be shown in the open court. But the Majlis refused to watch it.
“Now they say it is case of drowning. There is nothing to watch,” said Dewa. The Bench comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh, Justice Yaqoob Mir though suggested the Majlis to assist the Court and said the CBI presentation was not sacrosanct and gospel truth, the Majlis however refused to watch it in open court. It submitted to the Court that it should not play the same in open Court, and the request was conceded. The Majlis accused the CBI of preparing ground for today’s report by selective leaks.
Outside the Court, the Majlis expressed its resentment against the chargesheet by burning it in full media glare. Shakeel Ahmad, husband of Neelofar and brother of Asiya Jan, burned the CBI chargesheet outside the Court. He said the CBI today committed another rape by declaring the incident as of drowning. He said it was not the question of two women of Shopian but of all women of Kashmir.
The CBI chargesheet presented before the CJM Srinagar says that during investigation, the allegations of rape and murder couldn’t be substantiated. “At the same time the investigation has established that the concerted efforts were made to create false evidence by creating false post mortem reports, fudged slides of samples taken from dead bodies and by inducing the witnesses to implicate the police, security forces in a false case of rape and murder of the two ladies,” it said.
“The findings of earlier post-mortem examination by the team of Shopian and Pulwama doctors stand negated by the opinion of the Board of Doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences,” the chargesheet said.
The CBI said that it was of opinion that the cause of death in Asiya Jan’s case was due to asphyxia as a result of ante-mortem drowning. “The lacerated wound present on forehand could be produced by blunt force striking head against the hard surface or object; and was not sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature. There was nothing suggestive of penetration of penis or like object through the hymeaneal opening as the hymen was found intact,” the CBI said.
In Neelofar’s case, the CBI said it is of considered opinion that the cause of death in this case was due to asphyxia as a result of ante-mortem drowning. “There were no external ante-mortem injuries on the body.”
The CBI said clothes worn by the two women on the day have been found intact. “The ornaments worn by Neelofar were intact at the time of discovery of her body, as is apparent from photograph taken by police photographer Nazir Ahmad Rishi which prima facie rules out robbery as motive for her death,” the CBI said.
The CBI said that since the two witnesses had stated that they had seen uniformed persons standing near a 407 police vehicle parked on the Zawoora Bridge from which screams of ladies were heard on May 29, 2009, it made extensive efforts to determine whether the vehicles or personnel were involved in the incident. “In the process the movement of 23 vehicles and their staff at the disposal of C Coy, 14th Bn CRPF; DPL Shopian and SOG camps in Shopian district located at Keller, Gagren were verified but nothing suspicious emerged.” The CBI said that the investigation pertaining to the vehicles belonging to the police and security forces has not revealed anything linking them to the incident so far.
The CBI said that investigation has established that false post mortem reports were prepared by the first team of doctors comprising Dr Bilal Ahmad Dalal, and Dr Nazia Hassan and second team of doctors comprising Dr Nighat Shaheen, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi and Dr Maqbool Mir in connivance with Dr Ghulam Muhammad Paul. All the doctors have been arrayed as accused in the case.
“The investigation disclosed that after the falsification of the various postmortem reports and fudging of evidence by the doctors who were involved in the post mortem examination of two deceased ladies, a concerted effort was made by some advocates of Shopian Bar and some private persons to create further false evidence for implicating the police and security forces in a false case of rape and murder of the two accused,” the CBI said.
The CBI has named advocates Abdul Majid Mir, Mushtaq Ahmad Gatoo, Muhammad Yousuf Bhat, Altaf Muhammad and Sheikh Mubarak in the chargesheet along with Ali Muhammad Sheikh and Zahoor Ahmad Ahangar. The CBI said they induced, assaulted and threatened the witnesses to make false statements implicating police and security forces in a false case of rape and murder. The Court said the accused committed offences under section 120-B RPC r/w 167, 193, 194, 195A.
The CBI has accused the doctors of giving provocative statements after they conducted the post mortem on May 30, 2009, in Shopian hospital. The CBI said Dr Nighat after conducting the PV examined of the deceased women came out of the operation theatre in Shopian hospital and made false statement before the Deputy Commissioner Shopian. The CBI said subsequently a crowd gathered there saying that Asiya Jan had been subjected to rape and “that every care should be taken to protect Kashmiri girls.” The CBI said similar statement was made by Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi. “These statements aggravated the atmosphere as the general public of Shopian was blaming the conduct of police and security forces,” the CBI said. The crowd became furious and resorted to large scale violence which resulted in extensive damage to property.
The CBI said that Dr Nighat has not truthfully revealed the sources of the vaginal smears used for making slides. The CBI accused her of making false statements and of fabricating the slides with active connivance of other doctors.
The CBI report says the flow in Ranbiara was fast enough for Asiya and Neelofar to drown, a claim it has tried to substantiate through noise of water-flow in the stream.
The report also says the water in the stream had receded at the time it was photographed after the bodies were found at its banks. The photographs have shown the flow of water in the stream was too low for anyone to drown, a fact accepted by Justice (retd) Jan Commission also. Pertinently, the shots were taken barely 12 hours after Asiya and Neelofar had gone missing.
“The photographs and videos of the Rambiara Nallah taken a few days after the incident, when the discharge of water had decreased still show a fast moving stream, creating a great deal of noise as it moved amongst a huge number of rocks and boulders,” the report says.
CBI has mentioned the Zawoora bridge on the stream in its report to justify its claim. It says: “It has come to light that due to the high discharge of water during the summer season in order to visit Shopian town. The residents of village Nagbal normally used to cross the Rambiara using the wooden bridges which are slightly upstream of the Chashma into which the deceased were seen descending.”
The report says the post mortem of the bodies has revealed presence of diatoms inside the lungs of the victims which are present in the Ranbiara.
“The diatom test conducted by FSL Madhuban, Haryana, confirmed that the diatoms were detected in the lungs and sternum of Neelofar Jan and Asiya Jan and also in the lung tissues of Asiya Jan. These diatoms were similar to the diatoms found in the water samples collected from the place of recovery of the dead body of Neelofar Jan in the Rambiara Nallah,” it says.
While the earlier probes into the incident have categorically mentioned that the bodies were found in a naked state, CBI says the witnesses had found sand and mud was found from the clothes of the both Asiya and Neelofar.
“Witness Javid Iqbal Malik found sand in the undergarments of Neelofar. Similarly, witness Muhammad Ismail Sheikh noticed sand in Asiya Jan’s bra,” report says, adding witnesses had also found mud accumulated in the nostrils of Neelofar Jan during the initial examination of her body.
“Further, sand and mud like material was also found by the board of doctors in the lung tissues and esophagus of Neelofar. Similarly, during the dissection of the lungs of Asiya Jan, fine material and mud was found lodged in the trachea, bronchi and bronchioles,” it adds.
The report, however, claims that Sajad Ahangar, a neighbour of the victims, has stated before CBI that the water of the Nallah was high. “And it was quite risky for anyone to cross it, especially women.”
“If someone had suffered a fall in the nallah chances of his survival would be remote keeping in view the flow of water,” report has quoted Sajad as saying.
The report says the CBI has witnesses to prove that the family of the victims had taken the incident as a case of drowning at the time of the recovery of the body. “The impression of the family members of Neelofar and Asiya is also reflected from the fact that immediately after the two ladies went missing on the fateful evening, Shakeel and his family members started searching in and around the nallah and in the night also with local PS staff, they searched the Rambiara Nallah only for tracing the then two missing bodies,” it says.

CBI CHARGESHEETS 6 DOCS, 5 ADVOCATES, 2 CIVILIANS:
The 66-page chargesheet accuses 13 persons including 6 doctors, 5 advocates and 2 civilians of ‘fabricating the evidence’ in the aftermath of recovery of two bodies in Shopian in May this year.
The CBI informed the High Court that a chargesheet had been filed before Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar against 13 people for allegedly creating false evidence and witnesses.
In its report the CBI has accused Dr Nighat Shaheen, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, Dr Muhammad Maqbool Mir, Dr Ghulam Muhammad Paul, Dr Bilal Ahmad Dalal, Dr Nazia Hassan, Advocate Abdul Majid Mir, Advocate Mushtaq Ahmad Gatoo, Advocate Muhammad Yousuf Bhat, Advocate Muhammad Altaf Mohand, Advocate Sheikh Mubarak and two civilians Ali Muhammad Sheikh and Zahoor Ahmad Ahanger and charged them under section 120-B r/w 167, 193, 194, 195 A of RPC and substantive offences under section 167, 193, 194, 195A RPC.
CBI said the investigation had established that the five doctors conspired to defame, discredit and cause injury to the personnel of the police and security forces and wrongfully convict for a capital offence, by creating false reports and fudging the vaginal slides. The chargesheet said the 6 advocates and 2 civilians induced, assaulted and threatened the witnesses to make the false statements implicating the police and security forces in a false case of rape and murder.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, senior advocate of High Court, Syed Riyaz Khawar said the Section 120-B of RPC pertains to criminal conspiracy for commission of offence of death, life or offence which carries rigorous punishment of more than 2 years, adding that section 167, 193, 194, 195 A of RPC pertain to fabrication of evidence.
He said section 167 of RPC pertains to public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury and imprisonment for 3 years or fine or both. Reyaz said section 193 of RPC pertains to giving or fabricating false evidence in judicial proceedings. It was bailable offence with imprisonment of 7 years and fine.
Section 194 of RPC pertains to giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to cause any person to be convicted of a capital offence. Life or rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and non baliable, Reyaz said. He said section 195 A of RPC pertains to giving or fabricated evidence with intent to procure conviction of an offence punishable with imprisonment for life or for 7 years.

Democracy in action, part II - India bans pre-paid cell phones in Kashmir

2009-11-03T00:04:00.000-08:00

Greater Kashmir November 3, 2009
Pre-paid ban hits 20000 jobs

DANISH NABI

Srinagar, Nov 2: After the Union Home Ministry announced ban on pre-paid mobile connections in Jammu and Kashmir on security grounds, the jobs of 20000 people associated with the retail business of pre-paid SIM cards hangs in balance.
While people have been desperate to know the fate of pre-paid SIM cards, only a few subscribers are turning to retailers for conversion into post-paid.
According to the figures provided by the association, around 10,000 people are running pre-paid recharge and collection centres in the State with an average monthly income of Rs 9000 to 10000. In addition, around 5000 people are associated with the activation and distribution of pre-paid SIM cards.
Besides, the ban would render jobless an estimated 5000 mobile accessory shop owners in the state.
“An average recharge outlet would earn average Rs 300 to Rs 500 a day given the number of telecom operators in the state but they will suffer due to the ban. Similarly, the distributors and activation agents working for petty salaries will be rendered jobless,” the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir STD Owners Association- amalgam of STD owners and recharge outlets in the state- Bashir Ahmad Dar told Greater Kashmir.
He said the ban would indirectly hit estimated two-lakh people in the state. These include the family members of those associated with the business. “It was our bread and butter but we have to look for a new business due to the ban.”
Lashing at the Government for imposing the ban, Dar said the telecom operators in the State should be held responsible for giving SIMs cards to ‘irresponsible people.’ “They (telecom operators) gave pre-paid SIMs to every Tom, Dick and Harry which is now being portrayed as a security threat. They earn in billions but only the poor retailers are bearing the brunt of the ban,” he said.
The SIM card retailers and company outlets of the telecom operators in the state have barely witnessed any rush of subscribers who want to switch over to post-paid services.
“Since the ban was announced we have received only a few subscribers who want to shift to post-paid services. Subscribers mostly enquire about the modalities of the ban but they are reluctant to switch over to post-paid connections,” Dar said.
He said around 90 per cent active SIM cards in the state were pre-paid connections as the service was both affordable and convenient. He said only 20 per cent subscribers could afford post-paid services. “Post-paid service is expensive even if people opt for the cheapest monthly plan. Majority of the pre-paid subscribers are students and people from lower strata of the society and they can’t afford post-paid services,” he said.
The Centre has imposed ban on pre-paid connectivity in the state since November 1. The telecommunication companies have already been asked to halt issuing new pre-paid SIM cards while the validity of the mobiles would not be renewed. Around 38 lakh active pre-paid SIMs need to be converted into post-paid or they would be rendered useless.
The acting President, Kashmir Traders Federation, Muhammad Yasin Khan said the ban would thousands of shopkeepers in the Valley. “They are completely dependent on cellular service and their business will come to halt due to the ban,” he said, adding they support STD owners association in their stand against the ban.

Democracy in action: India prevents Kashmiri professor from travelling to China to receive international award

2009-11-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

Valley academic stopped from flying to China

Greater Kashmir November 3, 2009
GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Nov 2: A Kashmiri professor became the fresh victim of the row between China and India over issuance of separate visa to Kashmiris, as the Indian immigration authorities stopped him at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday while he was boarding a plane to China to receive a prestigious award.
Dr Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, associate professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics Kashmir University, was proceeding to China to receive the Kasumigaura International Award for his research work on ‘Pollution Modelling of Himalayan Lakes’ on November 2 during the 13th World Lake Conference at Wuhan.
“After I cleared the immigration check, I was stopped from boarding a plane of China Southern Airlines by the Indian immigration authorities. When I protested, they said as the visa granted by the Chinese Embassy did not mention my nationality as an Indian, I can’t board the plane,” Romshoo told Greater Kashmir from New Delhi.
Romshoo said he had travelled to 30 countries including US and even China. “But I never faced such problem. I showed the immigration authorities my standing visa of US and Japan but my requests to board the plane met with deaf ears. I left the Airport dejected,” he said.
From this year, Chinese Embassy in New Delhi has been issuing stapled visas to Kashmiris on a separate sheet of paper and not on their passports. China has adopted the same procedure for travellers from Arunachal Pradesh saying it was a disputed territory.
India has been lodging strong protests against China’s travel procedure for Kashmiris terming it an attempt to question the status of Jammu and Kashmir as part of India. It has been asking Beijing to “stop discriminating against Indian nationals on the basis of their ethnicity and domicile.”
Romshoo said he took up the matter with the Chinese authorities. “But they said it is their policy to issue separate visa to Kashmiri. “It is our policy to grant separate visa to Kashmiris. We have nothing against Kashmiris. The problem lies with India,” he quoted the Chinese authorities.
During past some months, Indian immigration authorities have stopped several Kashmiri students and businessmen from boarding flights to China.
Pertinently the relations between India and China turned sour after the latter’s troops reportedly entered into Ladakh territory. India had even threatened Beijing to either stop the new visa practice ‘right away or face a similar discriminatory regime in processing of Chinese applications for Indian visa.’
Notwithstanding India’s resentment, China has been maintaining its stand, terming it as correct and valid.
“In the tussle between China and India, why should Kashmiris suffer?” Romshoo asked.

Once upon a time a tyrant...

2009-10-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there lived a ruler who was so hated by the people that he couldn't bear to see them, or for them to see him. Whenever he visited the city the people were forbidden to leave their homes or even to open their windows. Students missed their exams, the sick their medicine, the babies and the elderly had no food that day. He chose not to see the terror, the repression, the cruelty of his government. His soldiers walked the land and ruled through force and terror. As the condition of the people grew more desperate day by day, his announcements became more and more divorced from reality. While his courtiers smiled and cheered, a few brave souls took to the streets.....

Photos and reporting from Greater Kashmir

in Greater Kashmir October 29, 2009

Wanpoh, (Islamabad) Oct 28: The prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, Wednesday said New Delhi was willing to talk with anyone in Jammu and Kashmir who abjured violence and had “meaningful ideas” to promote peace and development.
“We want to carry all sections of people with us in resolving the political and economic problems of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, addressing a public rally here before flagging off the 12-km Qazigund-Islamabad rail service, which completed 120-km link between North and South Kashmir.

Kashmir shuts down

Clashes in Maisuma, Gaw Kadal, Habba Kadal

GOWHAR BHAT

Srinagar, Oct 28: For the second consecutive day, Valley observed a total shutdown Wednesday in response to the Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s call against the visit of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The day also witnessed clashes between protesters and police in uptown areas of Maisuma and Gowkadal, resulting in injuries to half a dozen protesters.
All shops, businesses and most educational institutions remained closed in the summer capital and in the major towns and district headquarters across the valley. The Government offices remained open but witnessed a meagre attendance. Public transport remained off the roads in the city and other districts.
Authorities had made elaborate security arrangements, mainly in south Kashmir’s Islamabad district, where Prime Minister along with his cabinet colleagues inaugurated the 18-km long Qazigund-Islamabad railway line.
Most of the roads presented deserted look even as police and paramilitary CRPF personnel were deployed in strength in a number of areas in old city.
In uptown Maisuma, which was sealed by police, youths wearing masks took to streets and staged pro-freedom demonstrations and clashed with the CRPF deployed in the area. Shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, youths brunt the effigies of Prime Minister and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
They pelted stones on the troopers who retaliated by baton charging and firing teargas canisters repeatedly. The ding-dong clashes continued intermittently throughout the day.
The protests also spilled over to the neighboring areas of Mandar Bagh, Gaw Kadal, Habba Kadal and Tengpora in city outskirts.
Authorities restricted the movement of public and private transport along the Boulevard Road. No vehicle was allowed to move beyond Nehru Park while the vehicles from Nishat, Shalimar and Harwan areas were asked to take Hazratbal route.
“Restrictions will continue till Thursday morning when the PM would leave,” Senior Superintendent of Police, Traffic, Showket Hussain said.

SOUTH KASHMIR
Complete shutdown was observed in south Kashmir districts of Islamabad, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian on the PM’s visit.
Shops, businesses, educational institutions were closed while Government offices witnessed very thin attendance.
In Kulgam, youths stopped and pelted stones on the buses carrying people to Wanpoh, Islamabad, where the Prime Minister was to address them. The situation remained tense till late afternoon.

NORTH KASHMIR
Reports of total shutdown also poured in from north Kashmir districts of Varmul, Bandipora, Kupwara and Ganderbal.
Students appearing in their matriculation exams had to face inconvenience in absence of public transport.

Indian soldiers commit suicide

2009-10-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

2 troopers end life

Greater Kashmir Oct 5, 2009
GK NEWS NETWORK

Jammu, Oct 4: Two troopers committed suicide in Rajouri district since last evening, police said on Sunday. It said a paramilitary BSF trooper, Jitender Singh, who was on guard duty, fired upon himself with his INSAS rifle at a BSF camp in Noushera area this afternoon. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
An army trooper, Amarjeet Singh, committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Qilla Darhal area last evening, police said, adding the trooper had come home on leave from Pune.

State employment discrminates against Valley, in favour of Jammu

2009-10-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

does not surprise, but must be documented

For 334 posts, 151 selected from Jammu

Greater Kashmir October 5, 2009
Of 21 English Lecturers, Only 3 From Valley

MUDDASIR ALI

PET Selections For Kashmir Districts
Srinagar, Oct 4: There seems to be a definite angled pattern emerging in the selections being made by the State Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Services Selection Board (SSB) with the state’s one region grabbing the lion’s share of the selections, at all levels – state, divisional and district cadre.
The latest case in point is the selection of English lecturers made by the PSC on October 1 and that of Physical Education Teachers (PET) by SSB on October 3.
While only three candidates from the Kashmir valley figure in the PSC selection list of 21 English lecturers, the candidates from Jammu region have grabbed almost half of the openings filled up by SSB against the district cadre vacancies of PETs in the five valley districts.
Believe it or not, out of 334 selections of PETs the SSB notified on Saturday for the district cadre posts of Islamabad, Srinagar, Kupwara, Budgam and Varmul, as many as 151 candidates have been selected from the Jammu region.
As per the selection list issued by SSB, out of 137 selections of PETs made by the recruiting agency for district Islamabad, 52 candidates are from the region region.
Curiously, in certain cases, the column specifying the category of the selected candidates has been left blank. For instance, nothing is mentioned in the category column of the candidates appearing in the PET selection list of Islamabad at serial No 6, 7, 39, 42, 49, 67 and 98.
A candidate selected against the ST category (serial No 16) for district Islamabad is a resident of Rainawari in Srinagar. Similarly, another candidate with the surname of Dar and a resident of Sopur (serial No 20) has been selected against the Scheduled Caste (SC) category for district Islamabad.
For district cadre Srinagar, out of 95 PETs selected, 33 are from the Jammu region. Curiously, in the Srinagar selection list, only four selected candidates are the bona fide residents of the district.
The selection list for district Kupwara presents the most glaring instance of unfairness. All the 17 candidates selected against the district cadre posts of PETs for Kupwara are from Jammu region.
The candidates from district Budgam present almost the same picture as those of Kupwara. Out of 31 PET selections made against the posts of district cadre Budgam, 28 are from Jammu region.
Similarly, in Varmul, out of 54 PETs selected, 16 are from Jammu region.
As per the official figures, out of 3,689 divisional and district cadre selections made by SSB under the fast-track mode in the Kashmir valley, candidates from Jammu region walked away with around 750 posts while on the contrary just two candidates from the Kashmir valley got selected in 2521 district/divisional cadre selections made in Jammu region.

Killings, protests continue

2009-10-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

DAY 3: Varmul simmers

Greater Kashmir Oct 4, 2009
Protests, Clashes Continue; Cops Exercise Restraint: IGP

ALTAF BABA/PTI

Varmul, Oct 4: For the third consecutive day Sunday, this north Kashmir town continued to simmer with hundreds of youths defying restrictions and clashing with the police at various places, in protest against the killing of a 12-year old boy in police shelling.
In the morning hundreds of youths from the old town gathered at the cement bridge and raised pro-freedom slogans, demanding action against the policemen responsible for Friday’s killing. The police resorted to lathi-charge and tear gas shells on the youth and the latter retaliated by pelting stones.
As the day progressed, the clashes intensified in which nine persons including two policemen were wounded.
Shops and business establishments remained closed across the town with most of the commercial vehicles off the roads. Only some private vehicles plied in the civil lines area.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, the inspector-general of police, Farooq Ahmad, said the situation in the civil lines areas was normal while the old town observed strike marked by stray incidents of stone pelting near the two bridges linking the two parts.
“Police has shown great restraint which is evident in the fact that two dozen policemen, including an additional superintendent of police, sustained injuries yesterday,” he said, adding that another five policemen were injured in stray stone pelting incidents which were confined to the Cement Bridge area only.
The situation in the town is tense since Friday evening when 12-year old Irfan Ahmad Lone of Drangbal, a Class-7 student, was killed after being hit by a tear-smoke shell fired by police.
Irfan was killed and four youths injured when police resorted to baton charge and fired teargas shells to quell a demonstration in the town protesting the continued house arrest of Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman, Syed Ali Geelani.
Geelani is under house arrest at his Hyderpora residence in Srinagar since September 9. On September 8, he was released on court orders from 95 days of imprisonment.
While police first claimed that the boy died of heart attack, later it said the student received shell splinters. Locals maintain that he was hit by a teargas shell on his head.

ADC APPOINTED INQUIRY OFFICER
According to a notification issued by the district magistrate today, the additional deputy commissioner, Muhammad Ashraf Shuntoo, has been appointed as inquiry officer to probe the boy’s killing.
“Anybody who is witness or has some knowledge about the incident may record his statement before the inquiry officer in DC Office Varmul from October 5 to 10, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m,” an official statement said.

Demilitarization for a day

2009-09-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

Short-lived demilitarization joy in Langate

Greater Kashmir Sept 20, 2009

UMER MAQBOOL DAR

Langate, Sept 19: When Ghulam Hassan Wani walked in his orchards Saturday morning, he felt as if he walked on moon.
He could not hide his emotions and kissed the soil in elation. Army’s 30-Rashtriya Rifles Friday removed their camp from the orchards of Deedarpora village spread over 79 Kanals, including Wani’s, after occupying them for three and a half years.
But the joy of the villagers, comprising a reasonable number of Sikh families too, proved short-lived. “We have heard that a new company is taking over within days. But we would not allow them to take our lands at any cost,” locals said.
DIG north Kashmir, AQ Manhas, confirmed what the villagers feared. “No camp has been removed. This is routine matter, one company leaves, other comes,” he told Greater Kashmir.
“Army has vandalized our orchards. The soldiers have chopped off the trees for firewood and ruined the land by digging trenches for construction of bunkers and underground cells. Our survival depends on this land, we won’t allow them to re-occupy our orchards,” said the villagers in unison.
The residents have decided to launch an agitation if troops again occupy their lands.

The Occupation, in numbers

2009-08-24T19:16:00.001-07:00

Frontpage

'Troops occupy 10.40 lakh kanals in JK'

8.55 Lakh Kanals Held Illegally: Government
Greater Kashmir August 25, 2009
ARIF SHAFI WANI/MUDDASIR ALI

Srinagar, Aug 24: The Government on Monday revealed that different security agencies have occupied 10,54,721 kanals of land in Jammu and Kashmir. It includes 8,55,407 kanals under illegal occupation and 1,99,314 kanals occupied by the agencies on the basis of lease, licenses and acquisitions under the provision of Land Acquisition Act, government informed the Legislative Assembly.
Kashmir Valley tops the list with 5,33455.78 kanals illegally occupied by the security agencies including Army, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Force and Border Security Force, followed by Jammu with 3,21951.4 kanals of land under occupation.
Out of 5,33455.78 kanals in Kashmir region, 26,3376 kanals are under illegal occupation in Leh while 13,3804 kanals are in Nobra.
In response to a question by National Conference legislator, Rafi Ahmad Mir, the government in a written reply said 8,55407 kanals of land were under occupation in 80 tehsils of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh.
In Kashmir, the Budgam has 20,959.18 kanals of land under occupation followed by Uri and north and south tehsils in Srinagar respectively with 15,602.12 kanals, 15,364 kanals and 12,949 kanals of land. The security agencies have occupied 12935.17 kanals of land in Karnah, 7415.05 kanals in Pulwama, 5563.01 kanals in Kupwara, 5368.14 kanals in Handwara, 4248.12 kanals in Shangus, 3636.14 kanals in Awantipora, 3624 kanals in Khaltsi, 2816.15 kanals in Lar, 2751.18 kanals in Islamabad, 2555.13 kanals in Kargil, 1665.02 kanals in Bandipore, 1250.08 kanals in Sonawari, 1487.08 in Varmul, 1213.13 in Sopur, 1433.10 in Kangan, 1647.12 in Pampore, besides several hundred kanals of land under occupation in different tehsils.
In Jammu region 56862.11 kanals of land have been occupied in Mendhar, 56144.11 kanals in Jammu, 32397.18 kanals in Udhampur, 31525.06 kanals in Samba, 14864.10 kanals in Hiranagar, 13311 kanals in Haveli, 11278.11 kanals in RS Pora, 9958 kanals in Kathua, 7866.06 kanals in Baderwah, 3335 kanals in Reasi, 2194.05 kanals in Mahore, 2569.03 kanals in Bishnah, 2272.16 kanals in Doda, 1002.05 kanals in Bani. In mnay other tehsils of Jammu the measurement of land under occupation runs in hundreds of kanals.
Replying to another question, government said 1,99314 kanals of land had been occupied by the security agencies on the basis of lease, licences and acquisitions under the provision of Land Acquistion Act, which includes, 36,397.24 kanals of land in Kashmir and rest in Jammu.
Under the category, in Kashmir division, Budgam tops the list with 16,698 kanals of land acquired under land acquisition act by the Army, BSF, CRPF and Beacon besides 1048 kanals and 1000.09 kanals of land by the army in Pulwama and Pampore. In northern tehsil of Srinagar, Varmul and Leh 10,656 kanals and 31629.19 kanals and 1508 kanals of land have been respectively leased out to Army and BSF. In addition hundreds of kanals of land have been either leased out or acquired by the security agencies.
In Mendhar tehsil of Jammu, army has unauthorizedly occupied 49825.08 kanals of land and out of 32375.05 kanals of land under them, army and BSF have occupied 875.09 kanals and 1483.08 kanals of land respectively.
Out of 19370.14 kanals of land under its custody in Akhnoor, Army and BSF have unauthorized occupation over 7620 kanals and 4895 kanals of land.
In Samba, Hiranagar, Kathua and Bhaderwah, the government has leased out 16988.10 kanals, 15599.14 kanals, 5283.07 kanals and 7684 kanals of land to security agencies.
In Haveli Tehsil of Poonch, the government had accorded sanction for transfer of 69 kanals of land to the Army however it has unauthorizedly occupied 1984 kanals.
Responding to a question the government said the land acquired under the Land Acquisition Act becomes the property of the party which had acquired it.
“The question of restoration of land to the rightful owners or proprietors doesn’t arise. The land under lease continues with the lessee till the expiry of the lease, after which it can be extended or the land resumed.”
From last year, the government said the land requisitioned under the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act, rental compensation is being released to the land owners under revised rates. “And in case of agricultural land, the compensation is paid on a six monthly basis or on release of the land, whichever is earlier,” the government claimed.
The government said the requisition for the land and request for the acquisition of requisitioned land received from government of India departments and organisations, army were processed in terms of provisions of the Requisitions and Acquisitions of Immovable Property Act.

Shopian rape and murder - NYT finally reports Kashmir abuses

2009-08-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

2 Killings Stoke Kashmiri Rage at Indian Force

By LYDIA POLGREEN

Published: August 15, 2009

SHOPIAN, Kashmir — On a sunny late spring afternoon, Asiya and Nilofar Jan left home to tend to their family’s apple orchard. Along the way they passed a gantlet of police camps wreathed in razor wire as they crossed the bridge over the ankle-deep Rambi River.

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Candace Feit

Nilofar Jan’s husband, Shakeel Ahmad Ahanger, left, with Nilofar’s father. Nilofar and Asiya Jan vanished on May 29. More Photos »

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Violence in Kashmir

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Candace Feit

A sister of Nilofar Jan, with Nilofar’s son, Suzain. Nilofar and her sister-in-law Asiya Jan were found dead this spring. More Photos >

Little more than 12 hours later their battered bodies were found in the stream. Asiya, a 17-year-old high school student, had been badly beaten. Blood streamed from her nose and a sharp gash in her forehead. She and her 22-year-old sister-in-law, Nilofar, had been gang raped before their deaths.

For the rest of the story click here

2009-08-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

Frontpage

Ikhwani camp shifted after 16 yrs

GK NEWS NETWORK
August 24, 2009

Srinagar, Aug 23: The Ikhwani (pro-government gunmen) camp located near the Sadr police station on Nai Basti Road in the south Kashmir town of Islamabad has been vacated after 16 years following court orders. Established in early nineties with the eruption of militancy, a migrant house had been occupied by the pro-government gunmen for use at their camp.
During the past 16 years, locals said, the camp was used as a Joint Interrogation Centre where civilians were subjected torture and, in several cases, even done to death. The camp was under the occupation of the pro-government gunmen, who were subsequently merged into the Territorial Army, but continued to operate from it.
Locals said the Nai Basti camp was one of the three camps the pro-government gunmen had in the town. Another camp is located near the Khanabal bridge while the one in the Heewan Cinema houses the headquarters of the pro-government gunmen.
Pertinently, Islamabad town was the bastion of Ikhtwanis (pro-government gunmen) after they started their activities in 1993. “During their heyday, hundreds of civilians were brought to the camps and subjected to physical and mental torture and even killed. For several years, they virtually ruled the area,” a resident, pleading anonymity, told Greater Kashmir. He said death warrants were also issued from the camp.
However, a petition had been filed before the district and sessions judge, Sheikh Altaf, and following the court orders the camp has been shifted to army headquarters’ high ground where the pro-government gunmen will operate now.

Remembering Zakura, Tengpura massacres, 19 years later

2009-03-01T07:19:00.000-08:00

will the history books someday record these alongside the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre? will they also record that the people who fought for their freedom from the British then turned around and denied that freedom to others?

Zakura, Tengpora carnages haunt survivors

Greater Kashmir March 1, 2009
1 March 1990, When Troopers Massacred 51 Unarmed Protesters

FAHEEM ASLAM

Srinagar, Feb 28: Memories of the carnages carried out by Army at Zakoora Crossing and Tengpora in the city outskirts 19 years ago are still fresh in the minds of the eyewitnesses and survivors of the tragedy. Fifty-one unarmed civilians were killed and dozens more injured when the Army soldiers fired indiscriminately on them on March 1, 1990.
It was the time when the entire Valley was demanding freedom from India and protesting against the atrocities of Jagmohan regime, that a procession of over 1500 protesters headed towards the Srinagar office of the United Nations to submit a memorandum seeking freedom from India.
Eyewitnesses, most of them shopkeepers at the crossing, said the protesters, clad in shrouds, were immersed in the din of Azadi (Freedom) slogans when a convoy of five Army vehicles led by three Junior Commissioned Officers was returning from Sonamarg to Srinagar but found the road blocked near the crossing.
They said three policemen, guarding the crossing, asked the soldiers to wait till the protesters pass. This led to a heated argument between the policemen and soldiers, they added.
“An Army official told the cops ‘give way or we’ll shoot you’,” the shopkeepers said. “Within minutes, the convoy turned towards the demonstration and the soldiers opened fire from three machine guns fitted over the vehicles.”
A survivor of the massacre, Muhammad Iqbal (name changed) of Zakoora, said 11 people died on the spot, and many more succumbed to their injuries on way to the SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura.
Iqbal said 26 civilians were killed and some 50 more injured in the incident, which is today remembered as the Zakoora massacre.
“The mayhem lasted for three hours. None from the civil administration came to the rescue of people,” he added.
Only the locals rushed there ferrying the injured to hospitals, said Ali Muhammad Mir, one of the eyewitnesses, insisting that the protesters had no clash or argument with the Army. “The firing was simply unprovoked,” he recounted.
Until recently, Mir said a 50-year-old survivor of the carnage, a deaf would often visit the tragic place as his son was one among the killed protesters. “But for the past two years, he too didn’t turn up,” Mir added.

Militant's brother tortured, killed by 51 RR

2009-02-03T17:51:00.000-08:00

Greater Kashmir Feb 4, 2009

Militant’s brother killed in ‘custody’

AZIM JAN

Bandipore, Feb 3: Residents of Dewan in this north Kashmir district on Tuesday alleged that troopers of 51 Rashtriya Rifles killed a brother of a militant in custody last week.
Locals pleading anonymity told Greater Kashmir that Waleed Ahmad Bhat son of Ghulam Rasool crossed over to other side for arms training eight years back and didn’t return. They said during all these years troopers have been repeatedly torturing his family members on one or other pretext.
They said that recently 51-RR replaced the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry personnel, camping at a hilltop on Bandipore-Gurez Road. “The new unit after receiving information about Waleed, picked up his father Ghulam Rasool Bhat and his brother Ali Muhammad Bhat, 20, on January 29 for questioning,” they added.
The troopers released Ghulam Rasool Bhat after subjecting him to third degree torture on January 30, but detained his son.
Locals said the troopers handed over the body of Ali Muhammad to the family on January 31 and threatened them of dire consequences, if they disclosed the killing to anyone.
The family later buried the body in a local graveyard. “The troopers threatened the villagers not to register a case with police,” they added.
When contacted, the Superintendent of Police Bandipore, Sheikh Junaid, feigned ignorance about the matter. “Nobody has filed any complaint in this regard. If any such incident has happened police will look into it,” he added.

State terror as usual: Troops shoot youth; protestors booked under Public Safety Act

2009-02-03T01:28:00.000-08:00

Greater Kashmir Feb 3, 2009

Troops kill youth in Kupwara

Police Registers Murder Case

SHAHID RAFIQ

Srinagar, Feb 2: Troops shot dead a youth in Kupwara district of North Kashmir yesterday. Fayaz Ahmad Mir (28), a resident of Zab village of Khurhama, was shot by the troops when he came out of his house to ease himself last night.
Sources said Mir, who had received three bullet injuries, was rushed to nearby hospital from where he was referred to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, here, where he succumbed to his injuries late last night.
As soon as his body reached his residence this morning, thousands of people took to streets and staged a demonstration to protest the incident, the sources said.
Shouting slogans against the Army, protestors blocked the main road, demanding an inquiry into the incident and punishment to the erring personnel, the sources added.
Senior police and civil officers rushed to the scene and assured them that the incident would be looked into and those found involved would be brought to the book. The situation in the village was tense and senior officers were still camping in the area to maintain law and order.
However, an army spokesman denied the allegations of the locals and said the youth was killed when militants opened fire on an ambush party of security forces.
“Army has laid an ambush in the village when militants opened fire on the troops from a nearby hillock,” the spokesman said.
“It was the militant firing which left the youth dead,” the spokesman said.
However, the locals did not buy the Army version and said the troops killed the youth without any provocation.
“Fayaz was hit from a point blank range. We saw troops sitting on the same spot where Fayaz was hit by bullets. Three bullets had pierced his arms and chest,” Fayaz’s close relatives said.
Fayaz’s wife Tahira said in a broken voice, “My husband was innocent and has been killed in cold blood. I want the troopers to be punished.”
Police has registered a case FIR no. 03/09 under section 302 RPC.
When contacted, SP kupwara Uttam Chand told GK, “On the basis of the version of deceased’s father we have registered a case and the killing will be probed by a DSP rank police officer.”

Srinagar protester booked under PSA

MUHAMMAD YOUSUF

Srinagar, Feb 2: A day after SSP Srinagar warned the Srinagar youth of strong action against those who hold anti-Government protests in old city, the Government today booked a youth of Nowhatta for being ‘in contact with’ a dead militant under the draconian public safety act.
In the grounds of detention the Government said Ashiq Hussain Rangraiz, 24, son of Bashir Ahmad Rangraiz of Jamia Masjid has remained close associate of Noor Hussain, a slain militant of Harkat-e-Jehadi Islami. However the family ridicules the charge and says he was booked for lodging protest on Fridays.
The dossier prepared by the deputy commissioner Varmul, Baseer Ahmad Khan, says that Ashiq Hussain was close associate of Noor Hussain before the latter was killed. It says that Ashiq Hussain was providing information and transportation to the militants.
The family members say that he was arrested by the police in civvies on January 15. However, they said the Nowhatta police didn’t register their report about his arrest on the same day. Instead, they said, police in daily diary put the date of his arrest as January 17. They said they were informed that he has been shifted to Varmul joint interrogation centre. They said he remained in the joint interrogation centre and with 29 RR for five days.
On January 20, the family approached the District Judge Varmul, they said. The Court granted bail to Ashiq Hussain. Meanwhile, he was shifted to CIK Humhama and he was kept there for four days. On January 29, he was released. This time from police station Pattan. However next day the police phoned the family and asked them to bring Ashiq to police station for signing necessary documents. The family took Ashiq to police station. There they were handed over the order of Deputy Commissioner Varmul, Baseer Ahmad Khan, booking Ashiq under the PSA.
The brother of Ashiq says that his brother was booked under PSA for lodging protests on Fridays. He said his brother participated in protests during the land transfer controversy when the whole valley was on roads, and even political parties supported the cause at that time. “That is sole reason he was booked under PSA,” they he said.

Kupwara Massacre 16 years later

2009-01-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

Frontpage

16 yrs ago, troopers shot dead 27 civilians for observing strike on R-day

Locals demand reopening of case, punishment to accused

SHAHID RAFIQ
Greater KashmirＪａｎｕａｒｙ　２７

Kupwara, Jan 26: Troopers, who gunned down 27 civilians in this frontier district on January 27, 1993 for observing shutdown on R-day, continue to roam freely even after 16 years. The memories of the massacre are still fresh in the minds of people and they are waiting for the day when the perpetrators would be punished.
On the fateful day, troops of 15 Punjab and Gharwal regiment opened indiscriminate fire killing 27 civilians in Kupwara market. After the incident, police registered a case and assured the residents that erring troopers would be punished.
“There was no headway made after the case was registered. We are waiting for the day when killers would be punished,” said one of the survivors.
The Traders Federation, Kupwara, on Monday held a prayer meeting to remember those who fell prey to troopers’ bullets. “We demand that case should be reopened and killers be punished,” traders said.
Recalling the incident, the survivors told Greater Kashmir the troops fired upon people only to avenge the strike observed by shopkeepers on January 26. They said that the patrolling party of Punjab regiment had warned the shopkeepers on January 25 of dire consequences if they observed strike and didn’t celebrate the R-day.
“As the shopkeepers opened their establishments on January 27, troopers opened fire from all the directions killing 27 people, including traders, policemen and officials. At 11 am the firing stopped. After unleashing death, troopers asked survivors to assemble in the ground and undergo an identification parade,” recalled a survivor.
He said that no one was allowed to lift the bodies and take the injured to hospital. “A boy died in front of his father, who begged the troopers of 15 Sikh Li unit to allow him to take his son to the hospital. But troopers didn’t pay any heed towards his pleas.”
Another survivor said that two days before the massacre, troopers had entered into a scuffle with policemen after a head constable of Jammu and Kashmir police rescued an old man from their clutches. “After the incident troopers warned the policemen of dire consequences,” the survivor said, adding that strike observed by the people on January 26 added fuel to the fire and troopers went on the killing spree next day. “The main target of Army’s firing squad was bus stand Kupwara and a police post on the old bridge. They mistook a forest guard Ghulam Muhammad Mir wearing Khaki uniform as policeman and shot him dead,” the survivor added.

Displaced familiies, land usurped by Indian army

2009-01-20T09:18:00.000-08:00

200 Kanal land under troops occupation since 1990

Greater Kashmir Jan 20, 2009
50 families migrated to AJK, 30 living under avalanche threat

SHAHID RAFIQ

Kupwara, Jan 19: More than 200 kanal of proprietary land at Lashdut in this frontier district, comprising maize, pulse and potato fields besides apple and walnut orchards have been under the occupation of troops since 1990.
As a consequence, nearly 50 families were forced to cross over to AJK in 1990 and 30 other families are living temporarily at Kanyan, Doga and Kamkadi near the line of control under avalanche threat.
Before 1990, Lashdut was a peaceful village. Inhabitants of the small hamlet used to earn their livelihood through cattle rearing, growing food grains and vegetables. In January 1990, Grenadier Regiment occupied the land, and over the years army units, including 14 Raj Rifles, JAK riffles, Mahar regiment and several other units took control of the land. Presently, land is under the occupation of Rajput and 7 Para regiments.
“We were living happily and the main source of our sustenance was land and cattle. But in 1990, when the armed rebellion broke out in the state, army started harassing us and finally occupied the land forcing the villagers to migrate. The occupation has rendered us homeless and made our survival difficult,” said head of a displaced family wishing not be named.
The families alleged that scores of cattle had perished in the past 18 years due to landmine explosions. They said the land had been completely fenced by the troopers and their houses razed to ground. “Troopers have been using trees and furniture as firewood. We have not received single penny as compensation till date,” the villagers said, adding, “Since the day troops occupied our land we’ve not been allowed to visit our fields.”
“Only source of income for my family was my 20 kanal of land comprising walnut trees. But for past two decades, I have been deprived of my livelihood and the troops are using my land as helipad and the walnut trees have been chopped,” said a displaced farmer.
When contacted, the PRO Defence declined to comment on land compensation issue. “I can’t comment on this,” he said.
Officials at district development commissioner’s office at Kupwara told Greater Kashmir that the file had been sent to army’s district estates office, Varmul, for approval.

After the Amarnath land grab, deportations

2009-01-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

Now the Indian state decides that it can deport Kashmiris as "foreign nationals" for visiting their relatives in Azad Kashmir forty years ago. I wonder if anyone has statistics on the creation of a Kashmiri population-in-exile over the six decades of Indian rule.

For visiting AJK at the age of 10, 55-year-old put on deportation list

Greater Kashmir January 5, 2009
NASEER A GANAI

Srinagar, Jan 4: In October 2008, Abdul Wahid Bhat, a resident of Khanyar in old city here, was relaxing in his home when policemen conveyed to him that he is on deportation list. He was asked to leave India in 15 days.
“I was shocked at first,” Wahid says. “My family is here, my children are here, relatives here and still I am told to leave Jammu and Kashmir, my birth place in 15 days. At this age where will I go? ” He asks.
In 1965, Abdul Wahid Bhat, then ten years old, along with his aunt went to AJK on a valid document. He said his aunt had children in AJK who had left Kashmir in 1947. He stayed there for three months. And soon, on September 5, 1965 India-Pakistan war broke out and continued till September 17, 1965.
During the war he had reached Wagah border to cross to India but he was pushed back. He stayed back in other Kashmir. His aunt died there. Later, he said, his father and mother traveled to AJK and brought him back here after he obtaining Pakistani passport for traveling to Kashmir.
Back home, he surrendered Pakistani passport before the Indian authorities and started living as a bonafide citizen of Jammu and Kashmir.
But in 1980, police registered an FIR under Foreigners Act against him in the police station Khanyar. Subsequently, in 1983 a challan was presented before the Court. He pleaded in the Court that he didn’t acquire Pakistani passport voluntarily. He faced the trial and after eight years, the Court acquitted him.
Wahid says for past 29 years he has run his family business and has not violated any condition of citizenship of being permanent resident of the state. He is also enrolled by the Election Commission of India as permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir.
But still in October 2008, he was shocked when secretary Home Department Government of India through CID informed him to leave India and the Jammu and Kashmir state. “I went to Home Department but they didn’t handover the deportation order to me,” he says.
Forced by the circumstances he went to the High Court challenging the order of the Home Department through his counsel Mir Shafaqat Hussain. The Court has issued the orders to the state not to disturb the present status of Wahid. “Why I should be deported. I have my roots here and the Court has already acquitted me,” he says.

CSM article - India: Let Kashmir go

2009-01-02T01:15:00.000-08:00

New Delhi's reluctance to let Kashmiris define their future – options include independence, division along communal lines, comanagement by both India and Pakistan, a UN trusteeship – butts against recent history demonstrating that "letting go" more than holding on benefits politically divided states. Witness the pacific and beneficial demise of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Serbia/Montenegro.

India's future rests not on maturing Cold Start but becoming a 21st century economic power house. Hanging on to Kashmir does nothing to promote that goal. Letting go not only will benefit New Delhi's modernization by reducing the heavy military burden bad relations with Pakistan engenders, it also will allow Islamabad to redirect its military resources to the tribal areas benefiting Washington's position in Afghanistan.

Read the full article here

Kokernag: 36 RR troops accused of raping a minor girl

2008-12-06T14:17:00.000-08:00

Rising Kashmir Dec 7, 2008

Rape of minor girl

Bar to file writ petition against army

Rising Kashmir News
Srinagar, Dec 06: Kashmir High Court Bar Association Saturday said it would file a writ petition in the High Court against 36 Rashtriya Rifles, army’s anti-insurgency wing, against the alleged rape of a minor girl of Kokernag by its troops.

Condemning the incident, the Bar termed it a shameful act by troops and rejected the magisterial inquiry announced by civilian administration.
A judicial probe should be held under some sitting judge of the higher judiciary, a spokesman of the Bar said.
Keeping the gravity of the incident in view, the Bar will file a writ petition against the culprits in the court, the spokesman said.
“The accused army men should have been arrested and action initiated against them. But nothing like that happened and the guilty troopers are enjoying a free life,” he said.
The army men and the administration are threatening the victims and the villagers, a statement of the Bar Association said.
“They are being pressurized to retract from their statements. Tehsildar Kokerang is acting under pressure. The magisterial inquiry is influenced by army and top civilian officials,” he alleged.
The Bar is concerned over the deployment of troops in the area who are allegedly involved in rape and molestation of women in the area, the spokesman said.
He said the village heads are being threatened of serious consequences by troops if the voter turnout is low.

Police spokesman: “An undeclared curfew would be strictly forced..."

2008-11-29T11:32:00.000-08:00

It’ll be again curfew-like today

Rising Kashmir News November 30
Srinagar, Nov 29: The authorities will impose undeclared curfew in Srinagar on Sunday to foil the proposed “Kupwara march” called by the separatists on the third phase of polling.
“We have decided to impose Section 144 CRPC in Srinagar on Sunday,” Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo told Rising Kashmir.

“More than four people would not be allowed to gather at a single place,” he said.
Kakroo said that authorities have to impose section 144 to maintain law and order in Srinagar city to thwart the “Kupwara March” of the separatists.
The separatists have already called upon people to march towards places, which go to polls on different dates. They have given Jahan poll wahan chalo (where elections march there).
DC said that every measure would be taken to maintain law and order in the city. “We do not want those things to happen, which can prove detrimental for lives of people. We have to ensure safety and security of masses,” he said.
SSP Srinagar Afhad-ul-Mujtaba said lawful restrictions will be imposed in Srinagar on Sunday.
Asked whether movement within the city would be permitted, Mujtaba said, “It would depend on the law and order situation prevailing on the ground”.
CRPF spokesman, Prabhakar Tripathi said the restrictions have been imposed in the wake of proposed separatist march to Kupwara.
“The restrictions would be similar to those imposed on Friday. However, we would allow mild movement within the city,” he said.
Authorities said strict security measures will be put in place in downtown city.
“An undeclared curfew would be strictly forced in that part of the city. In other parts of city, the undeclared curfew would remain imposed in early hours but later in the day the movement would be allowed,” a top police official said.

Custodial killing in Shopian

2008-11-29T11:29:00.000-08:00

‘Custodial killing’ triggers protest

Greater Kashmir Nov 30, 2008

Curfew Imposed In Shopian

MALIK SALAM

Shopain, Nov 29: Authorities imposed curfew in this south Kashmir town and its adjoining areas on Saturday following the alleged custodial killing of a youth.
Locals told Greater Kashmir that troopers of 62-Rashtriya Rifles and local police arrested Ghulam Hassan Malla from Manyal Shopain on Thursday and since then his whereabouts were not known. “We heard this morning that he has been killed in custody. We approached the 62-RR camp to ascertain about his welfare. But troopers chased us away,” they said.
The villagers alleged that Malla was killed during interrogation.
As the word about Malla’s killing spread, hundreds of people took to streets raising pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. When they tried to move towards Shopian town, police dispersed them by firing scores of teargas shells. Many people were injured in the police action.
Fearing violent clashes, the authorities later imposed curfew in the area.
A top police official told Greater Kashmir that while Malla’s body was handed over to his family, police have registered a case against Army. “We have started investigation,” the official, wishing anonymity, said.

Elections in Kashmir, photos from Greater Kashmir Nov 24

2008-11-23T17:32:00.001-08:00

Indian troops shoot dead schoolboy, funeral mourner

2008-11-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

BLOODBATH IN VARMUL

Greater Kashmir Nov 23

CRPF TROOPERS SHOOT DEAD SCHOOLBOY, THEN FIRE AT MOURNERS KILLING 25-YEAR OLD MAN; MASSIVE ANTI-INDIA, ANTI-ELECTION DEMOS IN CURFEWED TOWN

ALTAF BABA / UMER MAQBOOL DAR

Varmul, Nov 22: Massive anti-India and pro-freedom demonstrations were held in Varmul on Saturday where people accused the troopers Central Reserve Police Force and Police of killing a 17-year old boy and a 25-year old man in Varmul town.
While the paramilitary troopers and police used excessive force, and imposed curfew, to quell the demonstrations, the angry protesters torched a vehicle of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s cavalcade, and also damaged the vehicle of Panthers Party candidate.
Mansoor Ali, 17, of Khanpora Varmul was shot dead in the morning by CRPF personnel guarding the Congress candidate for Varmul, eyewitnesses told Greater Kashmir.
“Between 11.45 AM and 12 PM we were playing in the playfield (of government middle school Khanpora) when the troopers asked us to leave. We told them we are playing; we won’t leave, but they beat us up. And when we ran out of the ground the CRPF troopers escorting Congress candidate fired at us and a bullet hit Mansoor in his chest,” Shabir Ahmed Kumar, an eyewitness and colleague of the deceased.
“In the morning some youths had clashed with police and CPRF and pelted stones, but the situation was peaceful when we were playing,” he said.
He said that two other youth, Danish Gojri and Ishfaq Ahmed Kumar, were injured in incident.
“It was a cold-blooded murder,” said a man who claimed he witnessed the incident.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Varmul Shiekh Faisal said that they have received information that bullet was fired by guard of Congress candidate.
“We will definitely investigate the whole matter and then only file the case against the culprits,” Sheikh Faisal said.
The Congress candidate, however, denied the involvement of his guards in killing of the youth.
“A clash between police and protesters was already going on when I reached Khanpora; the youth was probably killed in the firing by the CPRF troopers, there is no hand of my guards in the incident,” the Congress candidate Mushtaq Mir of Nowshehra, Varmul said.
The authorities had already imposed a curfew in old town area since early morning by deploying large contingent of police and CRPF troopers in area. The locals said the CRPF troopers had terrorized them since Friday when they demonstrated peacefully after Friday prayers. The residents said the troopers barged into their houses, beat up the inmates, and ransacked household goods.
As the news of Mansoor’s death spread, thousands of people in volatile old town, defying curfew, took to streets shouting anti-India, pro-freedom, and anti-election slogans. They carried the body of the dead boy towards martyrs graveyard.
But the CRPF men fired upon mourners at Bunglow Bagh, critically wounding Muhammed Rafiq Bhat, who was shifted to SKIMS Soura in Srinagar for emergency treatment.
Another wounded mourner Muhammed Rafiq Najar, hit by a tear smoke shell directly aimed at protesters, told Greater Kashmir that CRPF troopers fired numerous teargas canisters and beat up people with bamboo batons when they tried to lift Muhammad Rafiq Bhat.
“They did not allow us to take the wounded men to hospital. They were brutal,” he said.
After the firing spree on mourners, the agitated people resurfaced and clashed with CRPF men in Mir Sahib Mohalla. The troopers, according to eyewitnesses, fired indiscriminately at the protesters. A bullet hit Tanveer Ahmed Shiekh in his chest, killing him on the spot.
“We took him to hospital in a pushcart but doctors declared him brought dead,” said Fayaz Ahmad.
Medical superintendent of District Hospital Varmul told Greater Kashmir that both the dead persons had bullet wounds on chest.
After killing Fayaz, the witnesses said the CRPF troopers went berserk and thrashed an ambulance driver, Javed Ahmad, and an employee of the Hospital, Manzoor Ahmad, who ferried the body of deceased in old town from the hospital.
Driver Javid Ahmed told GK, “The CRPF troopers asked me to get down from the ambulance and thrashed me and Manzoor brutally. They even stoned our vehicle and damaged it.”
Some of mourners injured in CRPF action are: Muhammad Rafiq Najar, Rafiq Ahmad Bhat, Bilal Ahmad Gojri, Ishfaq Ahmad Kumar, Riyaz Ahmad Malla,Nasreena, Mudasir Ahmad Sheikh, Tanveer Ahmad, and Abdur Rashid Ahangar.
Following the killings, thousands of people in Khanpora and old town demonstrated against India, police, CRPF, and assembly election.
The CRPF and SOG troopers lobbed dozens of teargas canisters in old town to crush the protesters, but the demonstrators offered stiff resistance.
The people damaged the campaign vehicle of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party candidate, Shafeeqa Begum, who managed to escape from the spot.
Later in evening the protesters torched the ambassador vehicle of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti , who was on way from Kupwara to Srinagar .
The people in Khanpora also beat-up people of Uri participating in rallies of pro-India political parties.
The district administration has also announced magisterial probe in the incident.
An official spokesman said the Additional District Development Commissioner Varmul Muhammad Akbar Mir has been appointed as the inquiry officer and asked to submit inquiry report within a week.
The CRPF troopers also ransacked the house of Vishwa Bharati Prinicipal in Varmul.

GK REPORTER BEATEN
The personnel of the dreaded Special Operations Group (SOG) of police beat up this reporter at Main Chowk Varmul when he tried to photograph a street in the old town teeming with troopers and policemen.
“We will show you how a photograph is taken,” said an SOG cop, and started thrashing this reporter.
GKNN

Mehbooba’s escort vehicle set ablaze
Varmul, Nov 22: Angry protesters set ablaze the escort vehicle of the Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti here on Saturday.
Witnesses said that angry youth pelted stones at Mehbooba’s cavalcade near Azad Gunj this evening. “One of the vehicles carrying a security guard of Mehbooba was gheraoed by the protesters. After dragging the driver and the guard out of the vehicle, protesters set it ablaze,” witnesses said.
A police official said that after setting ablaze the vehicle, mob took the driver and the SPO as hostage. “The duo was released after the intervention of the top police officials,” he added.
Police sources said that Mehbooba Mufti who was on her way back from Kupwara was advised not to take Varmul route. “She refused to change the route,” sources added.
When contacted, Mehbooba told Greater Kashmir, “I was not aware about the incident till I reached Srinagar. I am perfectly alright. People didn’t attack my cavalcade. The vehicle which was set ablaze had developed some trouble and it was being repaired by the security men. The incident happened after I had crossed Azad Gunj."
GKNN

PP candidate’s house attacked
Ganderbal, Nov 22: Unidentified persons hurled a grenade towards the house of Panther’s Party candidate here in north Kashmir on Saturday evening, police said.
A police official told Greater Kashmir that the device exploded few metres away from the house of Abdur Rasheed Ganie at Arhama Ganderbal. No one was injured in the attack, he added.
Ganie is contesting from Kangan where polls are to be held on Sunday in the second phase.
GKNN

Blast in DPN candidate’s house
Sopur, Nov 22: Unidentified persons threw a grenade on the residence of Democratic Party Nationalist candidate, Muhammad Abdullah Dar, at Yaseen Colony Sopur on Saturday evening.
“It exploded with a deafening noise and damaged his residence. No one was wounded in the blast,” a police official wishing anonymity said.
The security guards of the candidate opened fire triggering a gunfight with the gunmen. The fight continued for 10 minutes, sources said adding the gunmen later fled from the site.
GKNN

memories of 1947 genocide in Jammu

2008-11-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

Another forgotten genocide, recent Indian history is full of those - a conveniently flexible memory, erasing the mass murder of minorities from the national memory....

3 survivors recount horrors of Jammu genocide

Greater Kashmir Nov 6, 2008
NISAR AHMED THAKUR

Islamabad, Nov 5: It is one of the least known genocides in the modern history. It was carried out with such a precision that it is difficult to find its traces, except in the memories of the survivors, and the tales of horror they passed on to their next generation. It started on November 6, 1947. Nearly two hundred thousand innocent Muslims were slaughtered by Dogra army and extremists in Jammu region.
The genocide was carried out to cleanse the Muslims from Jammu region. The Dogra troops backed up by the extremists succeeded in pushing half a million Muslims to Pakistan administered Kashmir and Pakistan.
Rashid’s father, brothers, sisters, wife, and a son were slaughtered Malik Abdul Rashid, a survivor from Reasi, currently settled in Rawalpindi, says he was 22-year old when the carnage happened.
“Men, women, children were killed in the cruelest manner, maimed, intimidated. The carnage continued for several days. I lost my father, brothers, sisters, wife, and a son,” Rashid said.
“I lost all my dears; the genocide has haunted me all my life,” he said.
On 4 November 1947, when Dogra troops entered Reasi, two highly esteemed citizens of the town, Khwaja Amkullah and Chaudhary Aziz-u-Din rushed to the office of then Deputy Commissioner Thakur Gavinder Singh, complaining against the entry of the troops when Peace Committees, comprising Hindus and Muslims, were already in place to maintain peace. Both of them were shot dead in the office.
“People were mowed down with machine guns and swords during the night. And those who had survived were assembled in a field where they were put to death. Some women who escaped jumped into Chinab river to save their honour,” Rashid recounts.
“Khwaja Ali Muhammad of Bhadarwah who was performing his duties as a public prosecutor at Reasi went to a police station to save his life, but the duty officer, a Dogra, handed him over to the RSS men. They dragged him out and tortured him so much that he begged them to kill him than torture him. But the barbarians cut his fingers one by one and told him ‘we will send your fingers to Pakistan’. He was killed near the court premises in broad day light,” Rashid said.
Rashid said Maharaja Hari Singh orchestrated the carnage to eliminate Muslims from Jammu. “Muslims were not even allowed to have weapons for self defense, but Maharaja distributed arms to the marauders of his community,” he said, adding the killers were trained and armed in RSS camps for the genocide.
He said that Maharaja Hari Singh who fled from Srinagar to Jammu on 26 October1947 ordered his troops to kill Muslims everywhere.
“The carnage started in remote villages, and many Muslims fled to towns and district headquarters. But the killers were everywhere. Hundreds of Muslims committed suicide to avoid torture,” he said.
The killers kidnapped the daughter of legendary leader Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas, the prominent leader of Muslim Conference. Mistari Ahmed-u-Din hailing from Mast Garh Mohalla of Jammu himself killed his two daughters fearing the Hindu marauders would rape them.
On 4 November Muslims who had escaped slaughter were asked to assemble in a ground near police station in Jammu so that they would be driven to Pakistan in buses. On November 5 and 6, 1947, scores of buses, trucks and lorries, loaded with women, children and old men were taken into the wilderness of Kathua forests where Hindu extremists and armed gangs butchered them like chickens.”
‘MY 3 SISTERS WERE ABDUCTED, TWO WERE RECOVERED, SURAYA IS STILL MISSING’
Another Kashmiri migrant from Jammu, Muhammad Khan Naqashbandi, told Greater Kashmir that his mother was killed and three sisters were abducted by the marauders while they were traveling to Pakistan.
Two of his sisters were recovered, but the youngest sister Suraya was still missing. Teary eyed Khan said, “My sister is still missing and I don’t know whether she is alive or dead. I survived because I was studying in Lahore when the carnage occurred. No Muslim can forget that genocide.”
Naqashbandi said the slaughter was well planned and rehearsed to prevent people from acceding to Pakistan.
Muslims were slaughtered at Mavera near Samba on November 5 and the next day carnage was carried out near cantonment in Satvari.
‘OUT OF 6000, 250 SURVIVED’
Abdul Qayum Qureshi, a witness of the genocide, hails from Dalpatian Mohalla of Jammu. Qureshi told this scribe that the blood-bath of Muslims in Jammu province had started several weeks ago but the hunt against Muslims intensified when frustrated Maharaja of the state entered into Jammu on 26 October 1947 and ordered his troops to kill Muslims wherever they can be found. Mohalla Dalpatian was a Muslim majority area where thousands of Muslims from other areas had taken shelter.
“There was a big ground where these refugees were camping. Volunteers were guarding them, but everybody lived in a state of fear. The extremists and Dogra soldiers had besieged the area but they did not dare to enter the area. Muslim volunteers led by a former army official Captain Naseer-u-din defended the camp bravely,” Qureshi said.
Qureshi narrated the horrors thus:
“Meanwhile a fresh group of refugees arrived but the ground was full so they were accommodated in an empty Haveli (a mansion). But the killers had taken positions in a trench close to the Haveli. And when people entered the Haveli premises, the killers started indiscriminate firing, but the Muslim volunteers fought back. Then a Dogra official, Chetan Chopra, arrived with the message that he wanted to talk to Captain Naseer-ud-din. Around 4 PM Captain Naseer returned saying the administration has announced a ceasefire and assured that the violators will be punished. The ceasefire continued for seven days but the situation remained tense. On 5 November Muslims were asked to assemble in the police lines Jammu. I remember about 26 trucks and buses were present in the police grounds. People were ordered to board the vehicles so that they could be driven to Pakistan via Sialkot border. The Dogra officials circulated a rumor that these vehicles have reached Pakistan. We had absolutely no idea that they were butchered in the Kuthwa and Samaba forests.
On 6 November a caravan of refuges in buses and trucks was driven towards the border area. I was also part of this caravan. But after half an hour drive the entire caravan was turned towards Bisna. Around 11 AM all of us, about 6000, were dragged out of the buses. Then they fired at us indiscriminately. The bloodbath continued for nearly three hours; like other people I took refuge in a canal. People hid under thorny bushes and wherever they could. At 3 PM the Dogra officials asked the survivors to come out hiding so that they could be driven to safe places. Having no alternative we came out, and fortunately on the directives of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah we were later shifted to a refugee camp in Jammu. Only 250 had survived. My father was in the Valley and my two brothers were in Mirpur.”

CRPF opens fire, raids homes

2008-10-31T23:04:00.001-07:00

61 injured in Friday clashes

Rising Kashmir Nov1, 2008

* Youth hurt in police firing at Rajouri Kadal
* Valley observes half-day strike

Ishfaq Mir
Srinagar, Oct 31: At least 61 persons including four women were injured in clashes between angry youth and cops in Valley, which witnessed half a day strike on Friday.
Srinagar and other parts of the Valley observed complete shutdown after Friday prayers in response to the call given by the Jammu and Kashmir Coordination Committee (JKCC), spearheading the present agitation in Kashmir.
Eyewitnesses said that dozens of youth chanting pro-freedom slogans took to streets in Maisuma and gathered near the JKLF head-office. The acting JKLF chairman, Bashir Ahmad Bhat addressed the protesters and asked them to stay away from the poll process. “We don’t fear arrests because is part and parcel of the struggle. We will continue our peaceful struggle and won’t be cowed down by the tactics being used by the Indian government,” he said.

He, however, cautioned New Delhi that if any harm was done to the our pro-freedom leaders, it will have to repay for it. Raising slogans like ‘Sarkari Jamhuriyat, hai hai’ (Down with the government democracy), Bhat urged the people to follow the JKCC’s progrmame.
The youth later tried to march towards Lal Chowk but were intercepted by police and para-military personnel, who were deployed in strength in the area. They fired tear smoke shells and resorted to baton charge to disperse the agitating youth, who retaliated by hurling stones and bricks towards them. Half a dozen protestors were injured in the clashes.
Meanwhile the shopkeepers of Koker Bazar and adjacent areas of Lal Chowk alleged that CRPF personnel beat scores of shopkeepers and passerby after the clashes.
Police opens fire in Nowhatta
Eyewitnesses said that police and CRPF personnel fired dozens of tear smoke canisters and resorted to aerial firing to disperse angry youth, who were raising pro-freedom and anti-India slogans at Nowhatta after the Friday prayers. The clashes between the angry youth and cops continued for more than an hour during which 18 persons were injured.
The clashes also took place between the protestors and cops at Kadi Kadal, Rajouri Kadal and adjoining areas. The cops had to fired dozens of tear smoke shells to disperse the youth who pelted stones and bricks on them in Rajouri Kadal. As the clashes continued, the cops fired towards the protestors, injuring one Tuaab Ahmad Bhat son of Gulzar Ahmad Bhat of Safa-Kadal. He was shifted to hospital, where doctors operated on him and removed the bullet.
A woman identified as Nusrat daughter of Ghulam Qadir of Rajouri Kadal was injured in police action at Kadi-Kadal. She has been hospitalized.
A police spokesman while confirming the police firing said that 12 CRPF and 3 police personnel were injured in the stone pelting by the youth in Rajouri Kadal area.
CRPF goes berserk in Zanpa Kadal
Residents of Zanpa Kadal, Chattabal area alleged the para-military CRPF personnel barged into their houses and beat up the inmates including women and children. They also alleged that the CRPF men ransacked the household items and desecrated a local mosque.
“CRPF personnel beat up everyone, who came their way. Even women and children were not spared. Angry youth and CRPF personnel clashed for more than two hours and after failing to arrest any of the protestors, the cops barged into the residential houses and beat the inmates. CRPF men desecrated a mosque on the pretext that they were searching for those youth who pelted stones over them,” said the residents.
As the news about ‘highhandedness’ of troops spread, people in hundreds came out on roads and staged a massive demonstration and para-military personnel. They were demanding stern action against the CRPF personnel.
Reports from South Kashmir’s Islamabad district also said that the CRPF personnel barged into residential houses and beat the inmates.
Clashes in North, South
Eyewitnesses said that police and CRPF men fired tear smoke canisters and resorted to heavy baton charge to disperse the peaceful protesters amidst chanting of pro-freedom and pro-Islamic slogans. The protestors retaliated and the clashes continued for nearly an hour during which 10 persons, mostly protestors were injured. The condition of one Bilal Ahmad who received seven stitches after being severely beaten by the cops was stated to be critical.
After the clashes, additional police and CRPF personnel were deployed in the area to prevent people from taking to roads.
Meanwhile, 13 persons were injured in apple town Sopore when clashes broke out between people and CRPF men.
Reports said that people took out a protest rally from Jamia Masjid to Main Chowk Sopore. As they reached the Main Chowk Sopore, CRPF men intercepted them and tried to stop the protesters. This angered the youth, who pelted stones on them. The cops retaliated and in the ensuing clashes during which many tear smoke shells were fired towards the protestors, at least 13 persons were injured.
Later police arrested Hurriyat (G) leader, Abdul Gani Bhat of Babaraza Sopore.

Home of Kashmir High Court Bar Association President raided

2008-10-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

Bar president’s house raided

Rising Kashmir Nov 1, 2008

Lawyers take out protest rally

Rising Kashmir News
Srinagar, Oct 31: Police and CRPF men Friday raided the Barzulla residence of Kashmir High Court Bar Association President Mian Abdul Qayoom.
As the news spread, the lawyers stayed away from the court proceedings for nearly two hours. However, the work resumed after Qayoom reached the High Court and addressed the lawyers.
The strength of police and paramilitary personnel was increased in Lower Court premises to prevent the lawyers from taking to roads and staging demonstrations. However, the lawyers broke free and took out a procession from Lower court premises to Lal Chowk in Srinagar. Carrying placards and banners, the lawyers condemned the clampdown on separatist leaders and large scale arrests.
Addressing the lawyers from historic Ganta Ghar, Qayoom drew world attention towards the excesses being committed by Indian soldiers on hapless Kashmir. “People participating in freedom marches are being arrested and harassed and this is being done to prevent people from participating in such marches. The Kashmiris won’t be cowed down by such measures and will continue their peaceful struggle till Kashmir issue is resolved as per their wishes and aspirations,” he added.

3 yrs on, ‘framed’ KU student languishing in jail without trial

2008-10-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

Rising Kashmir Oct 30, 2008

Enraged mother seeks VC’s intervention
Sofi Imtiyaz
Ganderbal, Oct 28: Arrested three years back for alleged involvement in October 29, 2005 Delhi blasts, Muhammad Rafiq Shah of Shuhama, Alasteng is languishing in Tihar jail without trial.
Delhi police had arrested Shah on the intervening night of October 21and 22, 2005 at 3 AM on charges of carrying out blasts in New Delhi’s Govindpuri area.

"Rafiq was pursuing post graduate studies in Islamic Studies under roll no 8566 and had passed three semesters. Now he was preparing for the final semester, but his dream of completing the PG was shattered when he was arrested,” his father Muhammad Yaseen said.
"For two months, we knew nothing about his whereabouts. Later, when we were informed on phone that Rafiq has been detained in Tihar jail in connection with October 29, 2005 Delhi blasts, we were shocked and tried every possible means for his release, but to no avail. Despite protests by Kashmir University students and wide coverage by media, no progress has been made in the case,” he said.
Yaseen accused Delhi police for framing his lone son.
Giving further details of the case, Yaseen said that police arrested four Bangladeshi militants and a Deoband cleric on April 07, 2006 who reportedly took the responsibility of the blasts.
“Even the mastermind behind the blasts Jalal-ud-din alias Babu Bai confessed of being involved in the attacks when he was arrested soon after the Bangladeshi national's arrest,” he said.
Apparently, the then Delhi Police chief, KK Paul, had given Rafiq a clean chit. But its Special Cell claimed he was guilty.
The family struggles to make the two ends meet. Rafiq being the only son of his parents, the family, including his two sisters, is run on his father's pension with no other source of income.
His mother has sold all her ornaments to visit his son in jail.
"The day the blasts took place in New Delhi, Rafiq was in the University. Even the then Vice Chancellor Abdul Wahid has confirmed it," Raifq's mother said.
Giving emotional vent to her pent-up frustration over the “indifferent” attitude of Kashmir University authorities, she threatened to set the varsity on fire if it fails to get his son released.
"I vehemently appeal to the vice chancellor to intervene in the matter or otherwise face dire consequences," she said with anger and tears in her eyes.
“If VC has the powers, then why not use them for pursuing the release of an innocent student of his university,” she added.
"I am very much tired now. I have lost almost all hopes particularly with media. What can you do by highlighting this issue through your newspaper? We have tested all such means. No one comes to our rescue,” she said with a sigh, adding "if any minister passes through our road, I will set him and his vehicle on fire.”
Anger and frustration is evident on the faces of Rafiq's friends also, who still don’t seem to have come in terms with their companion’s detention.
"He is innocent. He was present in the varsity when the blasts occurred in Delhi. We appeal vice chancellor of Kashmir University, Prof Riyaz Punjabi and Delhi administration to take serious cognizance of the issue so that justice prevails. ", said one of the colleagues of Rafiq.
When contacted, Prof Punjabi wished not to comment on the case.

CRPF opens fire in Varmul, killing one - protests against arrests and paramilitary violence

2008-10-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

VARMUL ON BOIL

Student killed in police firing, curfew clamped
Greater Kashmir Oct 27

ALTAF BABA

Varmul, Oct 25: A student was killed and eight others were injured, four of them critically, when police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force opened fire to disperse demonstrators in this north Kashmir town on Sunday, after which the authorities clamped an indefinite curfew in the area.
Witnesses told Greater Kashmir thousands of people took to streets for the second consecutive day today in protest against the arrest of six youth and alleged ransacking of houses in the old town. However, policemen and paramilitary troopers, who had been deployed in strength, resorted to baton charge, fired tear smoke canisters, and later opened fire, killing a student, Irfan Ahmad Akhoon (20), son of Muhammad Amin Akhoon of Jalal Sahib, and injuring eight others.
Pleading anonymity, a friend of the deceased said he and the victim were watching the protest from a distance near the Cement Bridge without being a part of it. “Suddenly, Irfan fell down as a bullet hit Irfan in his lower abdomen,” he said, adding, “I raised an alarm and rushed him to hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.”
The witnesses said that out of the eight injured, four persons, who sustained bullet injuries, were rushed to Srinagar in a critical condition.
Bashir Ahmad, a local, who had joined the protests, said they were peacefully demonstrating against the “high handedness” of police and CRPF and were demanding action against the erring troopers and policemen. “Police and CRPF directly fired at the protestors,” he added.
As the word about Irfan’s killing spread, thousands of people from the town and adjoining areas, shouting pro-freedom and anti-police slogans, took to streets to give vent to their ire. Reinforcements were rushed to the area and authorities clamped curfew in the entire township.
When contacted, the deputy inspector general of police, Abdul Gani, admitted that one youth had been killed after a bullet hit him. “We have ordered an inquiry into the incident. We would probe the circumstances in which the security forces opened fire on the protestors,” he said, adding that indefinite curfew had been clamped on the town.
Police version
Meanwhile, a police spokesman in a statement said, “A violent mob tried to overpower a small contingent of deployment near Cement Bridge in Varmul which resulted in a scuffle.”
Quoting district police authorities, the spokesman said, “A frenzied mob tried to move towards the main town with the intention to disrupt the normal life. The mob resorted to violent activities by throwing stones and sloganeering and put some innocent people in front. The mob which had swelled in numbers tried to overpower a small contingent of deployment in Cement Bridge area, the deployment had to resort to firing in which one person Irfan Amin Akhoon son of Muhammad Amin of Jalal Sahib was killed, while another person Bilal Ahmad Sofi son of Muhammad Shaban of Jalal Sahib was injured. He has been shifted to SKIMS, Srinagar, where he is under treatment and his condition is stable.”
The spokesman said, “Two more persons were also injured but not by bullets. Muhammad Rafiq son of Muhammad Sultan Kanjwal of Old Town was injured in a collision with a vehicle while the other one Irshad Ahmad son of Ghulam Nabi of Old Town sustained minor injuries.”

LA Times story about Malik Sajjad,ＧＫCartoonist

2008-10-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

Malik Sajad, a talented 20-year-old who has been drawing a daily editorial cartoon for the Greater Kashmir newspaper since he was 15, is about to publish a graphic novel describing his encounter with an elderly man whose son was allegedly killed and subsequently falsely identified as a terrorist by the Indian army.

Such violence and abuse was the reality with which Sajad was raised.

"It's part of me, my art," said the reedy, bespectacled youth. "You see landscapes; you draw landscapes. I saw guns; I draw guns. This is part of my surroundings. It's a normal part of my life."

His novel also recounts a run-in he had two years ago with local security forces that had stopped him at a checkpoint -- a typical experience for young Kashmiri men -- as he made his way home from work one evening. The police refused to believe he was a cartoonist, despite his company ID card, until he whipped out a pen and drew a caricature of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his hand.

read more

Kashmiri cartoonist's ordeal in Delhi

2008-10-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

Back home, I feel reborn
Greater Kashmir Sept 28

The GK Cartoonist Malik Sajad Narrates The Experience Of Being A Kashmiri At A Wrong Time In New Delhi.

I arrived home from Delhi yesterday. I took a deep breath when I laid eyes on the landscapes of the valley. My mother was waiting for me at home. Her face was pale and her eyes were full of tears. My father held me for a long time as if I were away for years. My brothers gathered around me as if my return was unexpected. My mother asked me in a weak voice, “Were you okay in Delhi?” “Yes,” I nodded, “My exhibition had a huge response. Everyone praised my cartoons and I enjoyed the trip.”
They looked worried and I sought the reason for their worry.” They replied, “Sajad, some policemen in civilian clothes came here to verify some information about you while you were in Delhi. You didn’t call us for four days. We thought something bad has happened to you. We were all crying.” I was surprised. My family already knew what I had tried to keep secret for the sake of my mother’s health. At home I felt safe again, and I narrate to them the ordeal I went through in New Delhi for being a Kashmiri.
I was invited by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust to create an installation art in the OPEN FRAMES, EXPLORING CONFLICT, an international film festival about peace and conflict held at the India Habitat Centre. The festival began on the 12 September and lasted eight days. My installation titled “Terrorism of Peace” featured my cartoons hanging from rolls of razor wire with some alcohol bottles hanging on the wire, exactly the same way as found around bunkers of troopers on the streets of Srinagar. I put some mud and stones on the shiny green marble floor of the Stein Auditorium to give the installation the real feel of Kashmir.
On Saturday afternoon, the second day of the festival, I drew a cartoon in my hotel room for my Sunday Slice column. I took a picture of it with my digital camera and headed to a cybercafé about 150 meters from the habitat centre to mail it to Greater Kashmir. After I mailed the cartoon I visited the Greater Kashmir website and my cartoon website. Meanwhile, I heard another browser seated on a nearby computer chatting over the phone about the serial blasts at Connaught Place and Greater Kailash I. Soon everyone in the café joined in on a discussion about terrorism and the blasts. While I was watching news videos on Greater Kashmir’s website, the owner of the café peered over my shoulders to glimpse what I was looking at. Soon the owner and others started to talk about me in hushed voices. “He is Kashmiri! We should check his identity!” they whispered. The owner approached me and asked me for my passport in a soft voice. I gave him my identity card and told him that I don’t have my passport with me. He took it and xeroxed it. He studied my identity card for a long time. He asked me where I was staying in Delhi and I gave him the address of the Habitat Centre. He asked me which websites I had visited. I listed them for him. I could hear the customers saying “He is looking at websites from Kashmir!” Then someone said loudly “Why should we take responsibility for this boy. He could be anything! Just call the police and let them verify who he is!” I started to panic. “I am Kashmiri,” I thought “No one will listen to me.”
There was a PCO in the café. They called the police and told them that there is a Kashmiri in the café and that they should verify my identity. I asked the café owner to call the habitat centre to check my identity as

well. They refused. I pleaded with them to just call the centre, but they wouldn’t. Two fat police constables and a woman inspector wearing two stars arrived within five minutes, wearing a we-have-got-the-culprit look. Her face frightened me. Her hair was jet black and short like a boy’s hair cut. Her eyes were stiff like black moles on her face. She held a very fine stick in her hand. She entered the café shouting “Who is the guy? Who is the guy?” Before anyone pointed at me I raised my hand with my I card, shouting back, “Madam it is me, it is me! Here is my I card!”
She didn’t look at the card, but slid it into her pocket, and ordered a constable to search into my bag. They studied my camera as if it were a bomb. They told me to pack everything in the backpack. I quickly managed to eject the memory card out of my camera and slip it in my pocket, since my photographs were the only proof of my installation at the habitat centre. Before they confiscate my mobile I memorized the number of the director of the film festival. The inspector shouted at me “Salay bahar chalo!” I shook with fear. I didn’t know what to do. No one would listen to me. The constables literally dragged me out of the cafe. Someone shouted “We should place him in the bus.” I was shocked and cried, “Please listen to me! Please listen to me!” Almost two hundred people gathered on the road to see the “terrorist”--Me! The crowd was so big that it created a traffic jam. I shouted in the air “Somebody please go to the habitat centre and tell them the artist whose installation is there has been arrested!”
As they were dragging me to the police station, the inspector shouted at me “You Kashmiri bastard! Why do you people have problem with being part of India? Sala…!” At the police station, they seated me on a bench with another person they had arrested. He had dried brown blood all over his face. His eyes were sharp and red. It was obvious he was drunk. I pleaded, “Please listen to me. I am a cartoonist in Kashmir! I am not a terrorist! I am innocent!” They ignored me and listened to their wireless radios. They continued to hurl abuses at me. Another woman inspector wearing civilian clothes with a wireless radio in her hand shouted at me “You bastard, you speak such nice Hindi! Why do you have a problem with being part of India!” I replied, trying to be as transparent as possible, “Madam, I am speaking Urdu actually, which sounds like Hindi.”
The inspector woman who dragged me to police station began to record the evidence:
1: He was looking at the website with diagrams of guns on it. (This was her definition for my cartoon website kashmirblackandwhite.com!)
2: He was searching for information about the Kashmir conflict. (I was reading some articles to prepare for my talk about the “Dialoguing peace in Kashmir” at the Stein Auditorium on 17 September.)
3: He had a camera with a memory card in it. (Obviously my camera is a Canon digital SLR and it can’t be without a memory card.)
I was crying. I couldn’t feel my fingers and feet. I felt like I had been electrocuted. The incandescent lights in the police station were shining brightly, but it seemed to me very dark.
I had no hope now. I thought of running away from the police station. “The habitat centre is only 50 meters away,” I thought. “Even if they shoot me I would be injured, but I can prove my innocence.”
But I didn’t want to give them any chance. I thought my life was over. “If there is no hope of life, I need to accept the reality,” I said to myself. But somehow this thought actually gave me strength. “I am not going to be scared of them any more,” I thought “They are not going to listen to me any way.” I stood up and said to them sternly, “Come kill me! Shoot me! Do whatever you want, but keep in mind that I am a guest here and my work is being displayed in the Stein Auditorium! Hang me or label me a terrorist! I am going to sit here silently now!” Then they finally called the Coordinator for PSBT. The number was busy. I asked her “Madam, can’t you come with me to the Habitat Centre to check whether I am speaking truth or not? It is only 50 meters away.” Finally, after fifteen minutes, she relented and agreed to take me to the Habitat Centre. They held me by the collar as we walked to the centre. Once we entered the gate no 3 of habitat center, she continued to curse Kashmiris. At this point however, I was in the habitat centre, so I shot back, “Mind your language!” My voice was firm and she became quiet. When she saw my work in the auditorium, she started shouting “You Kashmiris have a problem!” I wasn’t in their grasp anymore, so I picked up a stone lying in the mud of my installation and started to smash my installation. The sound of the glass frames breaking echoed throughout the auditorium. Those watching a film inside the auditorium came outside to see what had happened. The policewoman ran away.
I called GK to inform them what had happened, but the Habitat Centre manger instructed me to not leave the premises and not to call from my phone, or email, for a few days. After three days I called home and the GK office. The PBST issued a letter to the security agencies that I am their guest and they are responsible for my accommodation and tickets. I thank God that I was a guest of the habitat centre and not alone as a cartoonist for GK. Otherwise, the story of another missing Kashmiri would have been all over the news here. I watched the news channel that night to see if they would flash my name….

Leaders arrested

2008-10-05T14:47:00.001-07:00

Malik, Zaffar arrested ahead of Lal Chowk march
October 6 Greater Kashmir

Mirwaiz, Sajad put under house arrest, Geelani stable

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Oct 5: Ahead of Lal Chowk march, police arrested the chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik and senior Hurriyat(M) leader Zaffar Akbar Bhat, while many pro-freedom leaders, including Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone, were put under house arrest since Saturday evening.
A JKLF spokesman said a policemen and paramilitary CRPF troopers raided the Maisuma residence of Malik last night after he visited the historic Lal Chowk yesterday to see the arrangements for Monday’s Lal chowk chalo march.
The spokesman said Malik, who was heading the committees formed by the Coordination Committee (CC), spearheading the present agitation in the Kashmir valley, for the march was taken to an unknown destination.
The vice chairman of the front advocate Bashir Ahmed Bhat strongly condemned the arrest of Malik and termed it undemocratic .
This was for the second time police arrested Malik on Lal Chowk march issue. On August 25, when the CC had appealed the people to reach Lal Chowk, Malik was arrested after he violated the curfew restriction and tried to march towards Lal Chowk.
He and other senior pro-freedom leaders including chairmen on both Hurriyat factions Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were released after about one week.
Police on Sunday arrested senior Hurriyat (M) leader Zaffar Akbar Bhat from city outskirts here. Hurriyat insiders said that Bhat was arrested from Natipora when he was on way to his residence to Bagh-e-Mehtab. Bhat was taken to an unknown destination.
Meanwhile top ranking Hurriyat (M) leaders, including the chairman of the conglomerate Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were put under house arrest on Sunday.
Media advisor to Hurriyat, Shahid-ul-Islam told Greater Kashmir that Mirwaiz, Aga Syed Hassan Al Mousvi, Bilal Gani Lone, Moulana Abbas Ansari and Professor Abdul Gani Bhat were placed under house arrest this morning.
Islam termed their arrest as “undemocratic” and described the clamping of curfew ahead of Lal Chowk march as “unjustified.”
Chairman of Peoples Conference Sajad Gani Lone was also put under house arrest on Sunday.
A spokesman of the party said, “Policemen and paramilitary CRPF troopers cordoned off Sajad’s residence at Rawalpora this morning and informed him that he was under house arrest.”
A spokesman of JKLF (R) said that police raided the houses of the chief spokesman of the front Rasik Khurshid and district president of the front for Kupwara Abdur Rasheed Bhat. “Police and troopers are harassing the front activists throughout the Valley,” the spokesman alleged.
Geelani stable
Condition of the Hurriyat (G ) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was shifted to SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Saturday night, was stated to be stable on Sunday.
Family members of the veteran pro-freedom leader told Greater Kashmir, “ Doctors have described his condition as stable.”
Geelani was shifted to SKIMS after he complained about severe chest pain.

Indefinite curfew imposed in Kashmir

2008-10-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

Indefinite curfew imposed in Kashmir
Greater Kashmir Oct 6

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Oct 5: All major towns and tehsils in the Kashmir valley were brought under indefinite curfew early today in wake of 'Lal Chowk Chalo' call for Monday by the Coordination Committee.
Official sources said curfew was imposed from 0430 hrs in the morning to prevent people from participating in the 'Lal Chowk Chalo' march called by the Coordination Committee (CC), spearheading the present movement in the valley. The CC is demanding, among other things, opening of all cross-Line of Control(LoC) roads for trade and free movement, release of all detenues and revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which provides impunity to the troopers operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
There was no report of any violation of curfew in the Valley, including Srinagar city. “The situation was by and large peaceful in all parts of the Valley and no violation was reported till late in the evening,” a police spokesman said.
However, reports said that a minor clash between the youth and policemen broke out at Nowahata in old city this morning. “The youth were dispersed and situation was brought under control within few minutes,” official sources said.
Pro-freedom demonstration in Varmul
Scores of youth defied curfew at old town Varmul in north Kashmir on Sunday and staged a pro-freedom demonstration.
Witnesses told Greater Kashmir youth raising pro-freedom slogans marched through the bye lanes of the old town this afternoon. However after the march protesters dispersed off peacefully.
Minor clash in Kulgam
Reports said that hundreds of youth tried taking out a pro-freedom demonstration at Kulgam in south Kashmir on Sunday morning. “Policemen and troopers intercepted the protesters and resorted to baton charge to disperse them. Protesters were dispersed and no one was injured in the police action,” official sources said.
Lal Chowk sealed
The historic Lal Chowk was sealed last night from all the sides. Besides, the CRPF and policemen had also been deployed in strength in the civil lines to prevent any gathering there, official sources said.
All the routes leading to Lal Chwok were sealed. Tin sheets and barbed wire were put around Ganta Ghar (Clock tower).
Gulmarg under curfew
Law enforcing agencies imposed curfew strictly in famous health resort of Gulmarg on Sunday. Reports said that policemen and troopers asked the shopkeepers not to open their shops and the tourists who were present in the health resort were directed to remain inside the hotels, and the huts they were putting up in. “This is for the first time that curfew had been enforced so strictly in Gulmarg,” a caller from the health resort told Greater Kashmir over phone.
He said that tourists present in Gulmarg were facing severe hardships due to curfew.

Public health eemployees threaten suicide - wages not paid for four months

2008-09-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

PHE daily wagers threaten suicides
Oct 1 Rising Kashmir

Demand wage release

Mir Tariq
Bandipora, Sep 30: While demanding immediate release of their salaries a large number of daily wagers in this North Kashmir district of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Tuesday threatened that they will commit suicides in case their demands were not conceded.
More than 200 daily wagers of the PHE staged a sit in protest near the D.C office who are running from pillar to post to get their salary released, which the department had allegedly withheld without any reason.
The employees threatened to commit suicides in case their demands were not conceded. "We and our children have been brought on the verge of starvation due to non-payment of our salaries for the past four months. What shall we eat? Where shall we go? Does the department wants us to beg?" they questioned.
Spokesman of daily wagers Farooq Ahmed said: “PHE has not released their salaries form July this year. Despite the orders from the Government in this connection but department is not releasing the same in our favour without any reason," he said
"We approached the officers in PHE however; but they are not responding," said Sajad Ahmed a daily wager, adding, "Our salary was stalled despite orders by the chief and superintending engineer."
They urged the government to release pay at the earliest as the employees had taken loan and are under huge debt.
"I had to eke out extra money in April to deposit the admission fee of my children. I had to borrow money from a relative to sustain my family for past four months," said a daily wager Ghulam Ahmed
Meanwhile a group headed by Farooq Ahmed met Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Sheikh Mushtaq and briefed him their grievances.
Talking to Rising Kashmir Executive Engineer Ghulam Qadir Pintoo said, "Due to some technical faults we were not able to release the wages of the daily wagers earlier.”
"However we have diverted the funds for the release of the one month salary to the daily wagers," said Pintoo.
The department of PHE Government of Jammu and Kashmir released funds amounting 38. 56 lakh (approximately 38, 56, 640) under Major Head: 4215 134/CE/PHE/PlG of 2008 (12-09-2008), which includes 6.13 lakh for PHE Special sub-division Bandipora. But the department is not releasing the wages due to unknown reasons.

Govt impounds KCCI chief’s passport

2008-09-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

Trade talk gets dull
Rising Kashmir Oct 1

Govt impounds KCCI chief’s passport

Mehboob Jeelani
Srinagar, Sep 30: Regional Passport Office on Tuesday impounded the passport of president Kashmir Chambers of Commerce and Industries (KCCI), Mubeen Shah, who was to lead a trade delegation to Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PaK).
Police sources said that the intelligence wing of the state police had requested the passport office to impound the travel document of the KCCI president following an "adverse report" about his alleged separatist activities.
Shah received a letter on Tuesday from the office of Passport Officer informing him about the impounding of his passport. It has been mentioned in the letter that Shah had come into the ‘adverse notice’ of Police and Central Investigative Department (CID).
KCCI president, Mubeen Shah told Rising Kashmir, “I received the letter in the morning and I don’t know why it has been done. I have decided to take a legal action against the authorities for impounding my passport”.
He, however, said that the reasons of impounding his passport were not mentioned clearly in the letter. “The letter reads that on ‘adverse grounds’ my passport was impounded. No specific reason has been mentioned,” added Shah.
The KCCI president was expected to lead a trade delegation to PaK as a reciprocal visit for discussing possibilities of strengthening trade ties between the two parts of Kashmir. The cross-LoC trade will commence from October 21.
Shah is the member of Jammu Kashmir Coordination Committee (JKCC), which is spearheading the peaceful agitation across the valley. It was formed after the economic blockade of Kashmir by the right-wing Hindu activists of BJP, VHP, Bajrangdal and Shiv-Sena.
After the lifting of economic blockade by the Hindu extremist elements, the Kashmir-based traders have boycotted the Jammu trade. The boycott campaign against the Jammu based products is being headed by Mubeen Shah and President of Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries Kashmir (FCIK), Shakeel Qalander.
The president of Jammu chambers of commerce and industries, Ram Sahai recently visited Kashmir and pleaded Shah and Qalandar to lift the boycott.
After refusal, Sahai accused Shah of being ‘puppet’ in the hands of separatist leaders.

Police refuse to release detainee despite court orders

2008-09-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

Distraught mother’s Eid wish, her ‘illegally’ detained son’s release
Rising Kashmir Sept 30

Wasim Khalid
Srinagar, Sep 27: Asha Begum, 65, beseeches help from authorities for the release of her detained son Meharj-ud-Din Mir who is languishing in the custody even though Jammu Kashmir High Court his detention more than two months ago.
“I am begging authorities to release my son this Eid. I am exhausted by frequent visits to courts and higher police officials for his release from illegal detention,” Asha said with tears in her eyes.
Narrating her ordeal, the distraught mother hailing from Rudbugh, Beerwah said her son fled home in 2001 never to return.
“He was only 18 then and was studying at a school in Magam. I have never seen him since then. Six years later, police claimed to have arrested him from south Kashmir on October 7, 2007. He was then sent to Central Jail Srinagar,” she said.
Asha said a police case registered in Beerwah police station against Meharj-ud-Din alleging him to be a militant was already cleared.
“The case was registered under Indian Arms Act. Sessions court Budgam granted him bail on February 15, 2008. As my son was about to be freed after six months, the Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) arrested him again inside the jail premises after which Public Safety Act (PSA) was slapped against him.
The police in their report alleged that Meharj-ud-Din alias Rizwan-ul-Haq, son of Muhammad Shaban Mir of Rudbugh, Beerwah, Budgam was an IED expert and had crossed LoC to get the arms training. The police further alleged that huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from his possession.
“He was then shifted to Kotbalwal jail for about four months but was shifted back to Srinagar Central Jail since he had to appear in matriculation examination. In the meantime, the High Court quashed the PSA and ordered to set my son free in its July 15, 2008 order sheet,” Asha said.
The High Court order sheet in its clause 3 reads, “ The order of detention bearing No DMP/PSA/3/ dated 16-02-2008 is quashed with further direction to the respondents to release the person of Mehraj-u-din Mir, s/o Muhammad Shaban Mir of Rudbugh, Beerwa in district Badgam forthwith unless required in any other case.”
However, Mehraj-u-din is still languishing in the prison.
“After his release order, my son was taken by CIK. They kept him for 50 days. From there he was shifted to police station Nowgam. He is still there and police is refusing to release him,” she said.
She added that along with her husband she pleaded before the police officials to release their son, but to no avail.
“SSP says he is a militant and they cannot release him,” she said.
“We have approached courts and followed legal procedures. But the stubborn security officials have flouted the court orders also. We are facing economic crisis making it unaffordable for us to follow the case. My son lives separately. And my lone daughter feeds me and her blind father by shawl weaving. The daily visits to courts and offices of concerned authorities have drained us completely and I do not know if I could see my son ever,” Asha added.
Speaking to Rising Kashmir, senior advocate Shafaqat Hussain said thousands of such cases are pending in Kashmir where prisoners have been jailed without remand.
“Routinely the CIK present inside the jail arrests the person again after PSA against him is quashed,” Hussain said.
“In Mehraj-u-din’s case, we challenged the PSA in petition HC 52/08 where the honorable court quashed the order and directed his release. He has been earlier cleared by the Court Indian Arms case. There was no case pending against him. However, police took him into custody and kept him at police station Nowgam,” he said.
“This is illegal detention. According to law, a person cannot be kept in custody for more than 24 hours in police station. They have to produce court remand within the stipulated time. But here the state flouts court orders and keeps people illegally confined for months together,” Hussain added.

JAVED CAN NEVER BE AN ATHLETE NOW

2008-09-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

JAVED CAN NEVER BE AN ATHLETE NOW
Greater Kashmir Sept 21

FROM REPRESENTING SCHOOL IN ATHLETICS COMPETITION TO FACING THE TRAUMA OF AN AMPUTATED LEG AND SIX SURGERIES, THE EIDGAH BOY'S DREAMS ARE SHATTERED.

RABIA NOOR / NAZIA AKHTAR

Srinagar, Sept 20: Javed Ahmad Pathan wanted to become an athlete. And he had a perfect pair of legs, which were shaping into legs of an athlete with constant practice. And then a bullet fired by the CRPF troopers hit him in the leg that was amputated, and with that, his dream.
On 12 August, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers fired at a peaceful pro-independence demonstration. Javed was hit in the right leg. The bullet had severed a major vein, damaged vital tissues and the bone. Luck didn’t favour him either. Due to heavy rush of people wounded in CRPF firing in the Valley, there was acute shortage of blood.
Javed remained unconscious all this time, and then the doctors at SKIMS, Soura took the life-changing decision: amputate his leg.
“When he regained consciousness in the post-operative ward, nobody dared to tell him anything. The reality slowly dawned upon him,” said Javed’s uncle, “Tears flowed from his eyes, and he didn’t utter a word either.”
“I won’t be an athlete now,” Javed said, “everything has changed.”
A student of Eight Grade, Javed represented his school, Government High School Narwara, in an Inter-State competition at Jammu last year. He was a regular visitor to Bakshi Stadium where he would practice and exercise. He lives at Saidpora near Eidgah grounds, a popular playfield.
“We lost the competition not because we didn’t perform well, but because there was discrimination. There was anti-Kashmir bias,” Javed said.
Javed is the only son and eldest among four siblings. “He is very good at studies, too. He always scores a minimum of 75 per cent marks every year and his favourite subject is Science,” said his mother.
Being a meritorious student, Javed’s parents had very high expectations from him. At this time, however, they are concerned about the health of their only son.
His family says that he has been operated upon six times in less than a month.
And his trauma is physical and psychological, but an athlete in him would be feeling the physical part more than the psychological.

When he regained consciousness in the post-operative ward, nobody dared to tell him anything. The reality slowly dawned upon him. Tears flowed from his eyes, and he didn’t utter a word either.

DRUG SHORTAGE HITS VALLEY - Indian companies refuse to ship directly to Kashmir

2008-09-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

DRUG SHORTAGE HITS VALLEY
Greater Kashmir Sept 25

Chemists Seek Int'l Red Cross, Amnesty Intervention

MUHAMMAD TASIM ZAHID

Srinagar, Sep 24: Kashmir continues to suffer from drug shortage as major drug companies are refusing to send direct supply to the valley. This is despite the fact that valley consumes 80 per cent of the total state drug consumption.
Exasperated by the indifference of the drug companies towards Kashmir, the Valley Chemists and Druggists Association has asked the International Committee of Red Cross, Amnesty International and human rights organizations to come forward and intervene to save Kashmir from going to the brink.
Though the companies earn more in Kashmir, they want to trade through Jammu traders following a threat of political backlash by Jammu-based Pharma Association if they directly send supply to Kashmir.
However, in the valley there is strong resentment against ‘keeping Jammu middlemen alive’ in this age of globalization with chemists saying it is proving detrimental to the their trade and the people of Kashmir. The valley chemists also are opposing trade with Jammu following the economic blockade of Kashmir by Jammu-based companies, which had led to humanitarian crises here in August.
Mushtaq Ahmed is the spokesperson of the Valley Chemists and Pharma Distributors Association. He says, “There is a 30 per cent shortage of medicines presently in the valley. In case the condition does not improve we will have no option but to ask international agencies like Red Cross to intervene and save Kashmiris.”
Today the association took out a protest demonstration asking the international agencies to intervene and save Kashmiris. One of the protesting pharmacists, Nasir Ahmed, said, “We will not let Kashmiris suffer again for want of medicines.”
The association has given a deadline of September 30 to all major drug companies to decide about direct supply to the valley instead of going through Jammu-based agencies.
Mushtaq says that their demands are not illogical. “Our demand is simple, that the companies start supplying drugs directly to valley as Kashmir contributes almost Rs 100 crores a month to the pharmacy industry. Jammu contributes hardly 20 per cent of that.”
While five companies are already directly supplying drugs to Kashmir, but their names are being kept under wraps after threats from Jammu.
The association is, however, optimistic about the other companies also, saying that no company has out rightly refused yet.
Before the armed uprising in 1989 in the state, all major drug companies had their depots in Kashmir. But after the situation worsened the companies shifted depots temporarily to Jammu. Since then even the new players in the drug market have set up their depots in Jammu. While initially their number was around five, today there are almost 30 drug depots in Jammu. Industry estimates put the yearly turnover of Pharma companies in Kashmir region at almost Rs 1200 crores.
The arrangement was working fine until the Amarnath land transfer agitation in Jammu led to the economic blockade of Kashmir. The blockade led to a severe shortage of drugs in the valley.
The association is ready to boycott those companies who do not send drugs directly to the valley. Mushtaq said, “We will boycott their products and black list those companies. We will also talk to doctors and ask them not to prescribe the medicines of those companies and instead prescribe alternatives.”
The association has already black listed drug giant Cipla because the company has given its marketing rights of Kashmir to a Jammu-based agency. Cipla has its own distribution unit in Jammu but the marketing rights for the valley are with a Jammu-based agency.

Kashmiri protest at the UN

2008-09-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

CRPF invading homes, filming women and girls; spokesman calls it a "familiarization program"

2008-09-27T06:15:00.000-07:00

CRPF conducting survey in Handwara: Residents

Familiarization Program Meant For Developing Contact With People: PRO Tripathi
Greater Kashmir Sept 26
SHAHID RAFIQ

Handwara, Sept 25: The Central Resereve Police Force have started a survey in north Kashmir's Handwara township which the locals allege is nothing short of harassment.
Residents of Banday Mohalla and Ganai Mohalla in the border town told Greater Kashmir that CRPF troopers enter their houses without permission when the male members are out for work.
“They ask questions how many men and women are in your family, what is their age, what is the source of income and how did you accumulate such property? And, after questioning they warn of dire consequences if any of us is found in a demonstration,” said Irfan Sofi (name changed on request.)
Zoona Begum, a middle aged woman, said that many CRPF troopers entered her house in the main market of Handwara yesterday. “My daughters were very frightened when they saw CRPF personnel shooting their pictures with their cell phones. They counted the rooms of my house and took my signatures on a paper while leaving; I fear they would misuse these video clips and put the honour of my daughters at risk,” Zoona Begum said.
Because of this “survey” men prefer to stay at homes leading to loss of workdays.
The CRPF has already completed the registration process in Jamia Qadeem, Khonabal, Rest House Colony, and Iqbalabad in the past few days, the residents said.
When contacted, the Superintendent of Police Handwara, Muhammad Rafiq Vakil, told Greater Kashmir, “I have not received any complaint in this regard as yet; I don’t think CRPF personnel have time to register the details of the locals.”
The Public Relations Officer of CRPF, Prabhakar Tripathi, however, admitted that such a survey was in progress.
“This is a familiarization program meant for developing contact with people. We have directed the troopers to meet people and know every one; nothing more than that. People should not be sacred of CRPF personnel,” Tripathi said.

Events log Sept 11- 27

2008-09-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

27 September Saturday
-Resistance Leaders Muhammad Salim Nanaji and Farooq Ahmed Dar previously abducted by Indian Security forces, booked under PSA and shifted to Udhampur Jail.
===================================
26 September Friday
-Indian Army to use laser gun in Kashmir. laser beam, will virtually "blind" the target for around 40 seconds. The flash beam of the gun is two to three metres wide
-84 km Mughal Road linking Poonch to Srinagar to be copleted by November 2008
-Department of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) is distributing ration to the population of Kashmir division according to 2001 census though population has risen significantly in past seven years
-Mixed response to LoC trade from Resistance leaders
===================================
25 September Thursday
-CRPF start survey in Handwara. Residents of Banday Mohalla and Ganai Mohalla state that CRPF troopers enter their houses without permission. CRPF ask questions such as how many men and womrn are in family, age,source of income and wanr of dire consequences if anyone is found in demonstration.
--CRPF has already completed "registration" process in Jamia Qadeem, Khonabal, Rest House Colony, and Iqbalabad.
--As per Public Relations Officer of CRPF, Prabhakar Tripathi : “This is a familiarization program meant for developing contact with people. We have directed the troopers to meet people and know every one; nothing more than that. People should not be sacred of CRPF personnel,”
-Traders Federation sent back two trucks of flour to Jammu
-India-Pakistan to start trade through Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkot from 21 October.
-Indian government not cooperating in Dal conservation.
--Chief Secretary appears before High Court while Advocate General does not.
--Senior advocate Zaffar Shah acting as amicus curiae in the case said that Pollution Control Board (PCB) and other autonomous bodies associated with the conservation of the Dal Lake should be allowed to report independently to the court.
===================================
24 September Wednesday
-Six unarmed Kashmiris injured when Kashmiris protesting the attack on Resistance Leader Moulana Showkat Ahmad are attacked by CRPF troopers with batons and tear gas.
-Kashmiri Chemists seek Red Cross, Amanesty intervention due to shortage of medicine. Following the economic embargo unleashed by fascists in Jammu and North India , Kashmiri chemists need to trade directly with drug companies instead of through Jammu intermediaries
===================================
23 September Tuesday
-Sumbal observes shutdown to protest the killings of two unknown people, possibly civilians
-Unidentified men lob grenade at lal Bazar, Srinagar residence of Resistance Leader Moulana Showkat. Peopel suspect government hand
-Sumo taxi drivers are routinely harassed, beaten and their vehicles are forcibly taken by army (Rashitriya Rifles) men. Vehicles taken throughout kashmir espcially in Shopian, Pulwama, Khanabal, Sopore, Baramulla and Pattan, Safapora, Wakoora and Sumbal like areas
-Hindu films of Uri turn down protection offer of Indian government saying "When there was bloodshed in 1947 in subcontinent we fled from Muzaffarabad and settled here. It was Muslims who protected us. Our security lies within hands of Muslims,"
-Chamber of Commerce and Industries Kashmir (CCIK) on Tuesday decided to continue the boycott of Jammu goods and import commodities from different states of India.
-KCCI threatens to boycott cross-LoC trade if expected items (apple, handicrafts and medicinal products..) are excluded from the list and modalities hurt the Kashmir trading community.
-Detained Kashmiri MBBS students released by Delhi Police
===================================
22 September Monday
-Special Grade Constable Shamim Ahmed Bhat, prime witness in fake encounter of carpenter Abdur Rehman Padder by suspended SP Hans Raj Parihar, his deputy Bahadur Ram, assistant sub-inspector Farooq Ahmed Gadoo, prime accused SOG driver Farooq Ahmed Padder, constables Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Bansi Lal and Zaheer Abbas
-3 Kashmiri students detained by Delhi Police, Naveed Farooq son of Muhammad Amin Narchur of Janglat Mandi Islamabad, Muhammad Zainulabaddin son of Muhammad Ayub Dar of Gangnag Qazipora Islamabad and Adnan Firdous Raina son of Firdous Sultan Raina of Usmanabad Colony Kupwara- were detained by cops after they disembarked from a plane that arrived from Kolkata. The three are final year MBBS students in Bangladesh.
-State government sanctions Rs 2 lakh in favour of family of Romesh Chander son of Krishen Ram of Peer Mitha, Jammu, who had fallen to death from a rooftop of a house on July 6 when police was chasing stone pelting protesters during Jammu agitation.
Union Minister for Chemicals, Fertilizers and Steel and Lok Janshakti party chief Ram Vilas Paswan demands imposition of blanket ban on BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Swansevak Sangh “Economic blockade is the root cause of the present crisis in the Valley. The situation arose only after the terrorist organisations like BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal and RSS blew the Amarnath land transfer issue un-proportionately and imposed economic blockade of Kashmir. Such organizations should be banned for promoting hatred,”
===================================
21 September Sunday
-Reports of local TV channels told to submit identity cards at DC office before 6th of October Lal Chowk Chalo march for freedom.
-Recruitment in Islamabnad of -800 Special police officer auxiliary police force used mainly in counter-insurgency and "extra-legal operations". candidates were not asked to fill up the application forms for the post, nor were any customary advertisements published in the newspapers. Instead the local cable television channels were displaying the advertisement for the past few days
-Governement delays Market intervention scheme (MIS) at the behest of senior bureaucrat in Agriculture department, who is a close relative of a former official of the Shrine Board. The said official has been openly saying in meetings that the government will not implement the scheme to ‘punish’ Kashmiris who revolted against the land allotment to Shrine Board,” Principal secretary, Agriculture production Department, Sonali Kumar (previously secreatry of forest department and wife of Arun Kumar, SASB CEO) refuted the allegations of the growers and said she was awaiting the impact study of the MIS. Fruit growers term Sonali’s statement a mere excuse. Fruit growers state
“If the study was so important it should have been done in winter. It is a sheer excuse to hamper the procurement process and harass the growers of Kashmir,”
===================================
20 September Saturday
-Demonstrations & Total shut down in response to call from Kashmiri Resistance in Srinagar, north Kashmir's Baramulla, Bandipora, Kupwara, Handwara, Sopore and Pattan districts and major town's and south Kashmir's Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts
-Demonstrators beaten by CRPF in Nowhatta and adjoiing parts of downtown Srinagar.
-High Court Bar Association challenges detention of Resistance leader, Masrat Alam
-Resistance leaders Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Zaffar Khursheed Mirza of Rajouri abducted by Indicna security forces
===================================
19 September Friday
-15 year old orphan Ishfaq Amin Bhat abducted by Special Task force (STF). Station House Officer (SHO) Shaheed Gunj, Aijaz Ahmad said there is no record against Ishfaq in the police station. Ishfaq has been moved to detention centre Air Cargo, Haftchinar
-Unidentified gunmen try to kill Shabir Ahmad Dar and Ghulam Hassan Bhat, at Sigdi, Chatroo, Kishtwar but the duo manage to escape
-protest demonstrations in Maisuma, Lal Chowk, old Srinagar city, Pattan and Ganderbal.
-resistance leaders Muhammad Salim Nanaji and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bita Karatey detained by Indian security forces after attending Iftaar part hosted by Pakistan High Commissioner.
-Teargas canisters fired at Jamia MAsjid, Hyderpora, Srinagar
-Muhammad Altaf Dhobi and Anis Rashid of Safa Kada abducted by Indian security forces
===================================
18 September Thursday
-People of Islamabad called in by Police Station House Officers and asked to give in writing that we won't participate in pro-freedom protests. The detainees are: Javaid Ahmad Khan, Hilal Ahmad Dhobi, Mehraj-ud-Din Najar, Mir Hafizullah, Abdur Rashid Lone, Ulfat Mohi-ud-Din, Muhammad Ramzaan Lone, Saif-ul-Lah Sofi, Riyaz Ahmad Beig, Bashir Ahmad Rather and Manzoor Ahmad Sheikh.
-J&K High Court issues notice to governer's administration for detention of 11 persons from Valley under Public Safety Actfor ptestting economic blockade.
-Muhammad bin Qasim, 17, and Ahmed bin Qasim, 8, appeal for release of their parents, Muhammad Qasim Faktoo (detained since 1984) and Asiya Andrabi (detained this month)
===================================
17 September Wednesday
-Case registered against Major and personnel of 26 Rashtriya Rifles for the murder of Muhammad Aslam Malik of Gandoh Tehsil, Doda. the deceased had surrendered before SSP Doda on the 4th of August.
--As per Lt Col SD Goswami said that on specific information about presence of 2-3 militants in the area, a column of 26 RR and police launched a joint search operation. “As the troops zeroed in on the hideout, the militants fired on troops" and militant Aslam was killed.
-Shiv Sena, Bal Thackrey, threatens fresh “economic blockade” of Kashmir if Indian companies bypass Jammu distributors and directly supply goods to Valley. "Shiv Sena cadres from Delhi to Lakhanour will be mobilized to stop trucks going to Kashmir Valley directly"
-Mirza Muhammad Afzal Beigh (MMAB) Memorial hospital in south Kashmir’s Islamabad town is running short of the X-rays films and syringes for last few weeks.
-Four youth abducted by Indian security forces in Baramulla
-Srinagar Chemist and Druggists Association,Arshid Hussain suggests doctors in Valley not to recommend medicines from drugs companies operating in Jammu from September 30
-India finally includes trade of fruit in list of utems finalized for cross LoC trade. It was India that had excluded sruit of the list due to, as per Minister for External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, 'fruit happens to be in the 'negative list of commodities' in the SAARC charter.
===================================
16 September Tuesday
-CRPF troopers beat up people returning after Taraveeh prayers late last night and barge into houses and beat up inmates without provacation. CRPF officials have been informed that their men are creating law and order problems.
-Muslim organisations float Jammu Muslim Coordination Committe to ensure equal opportunities of progress and development to muslim. Convenor Professor Zahiruddin.
-Kashmir Economic Forum comprising FCIK, KCCI and KTMF launched.
-As per Shakeel Qalander, President FCIK, “Establishing customs office on LoC can change its status to International Border,”
-Kashmiri traders oppose list-bound commerce
-Government today revoked the detention orders of Swami Dinesh Bharti and Daleep Kumar, a youth from Jammu's Kathua district, under Public Safety Act
-Convenor of PUCL, Balraj Puri expresses surprise over failure of the government to arrest Swami Dinesh Bharti and withdrawal of PSA unconditionally against him despite reports that he was spreading hatred among communities.
-Central Reserve Police Force has started house to house surveys to ‘register’ youth above the age of 18 years in Srinagar. as per CRPF PRO, Prabhakar Tripathi, said the survey was part of the CRPF’s “familiarization programme.”
-officials of state Excise and Taxation Department extort money in the name of Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti from truckers
-Jammu and Kashmir Pharma Association's, Rakesh Gupta reiterates stand asking the Pharma companies not to supply medicines directly to Kashmir. Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Jammu, disassociates itself from letter of secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Pharma Association
-Srinagar Chemists and Distributors Association(SCDA) Fayaz Ahmad Azad lodges complaint against the Jammu Pharma traders with the apex pharmaceutical group of the country, All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD). SCDA states “We strongly condemn the anti-Kashmir policies of the Jammu pharma dealers. They are propagating the Sangh Parivar agenda and want Kashmiris to be at their mercy. During the recent economic blockade, they even stopped supply of life-saving drugs endangering lives of many patients. We can’t tolerate this and would continue to boycott medicines from Jammu. We expressed strong resentment against Jammu traders to the AIOCD. Though, the apex body has assured us all support, we will soon approach the international aid and humanitarian organizations like International Committee of Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) and United Nations to facilitate smooth and sustained supply of medicines to the Valley”
-As per State Administration, Resistance leader Shabir Shah has the right to challenge his abduction by Indian authorities
-Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koïchiro Matsuura expresses concern over the death of a local television cameraman allegedly by the hands of troopers and beating of media men over the past few weeks.
===================================
15 September Monday
-Muhammad Ashraf Rather of Cheki, Kulgam found dead after being abducted by gunmen last night.
-Additional Deputy Commisioner Srinagar to investigate and file report into desecration of Dastgeer Sahib Shrine within 15 days.
--FIR (No 114 of 2008) under section 295 RPC, copy given to shrine management. Exemplary punishment demanded of erring CRPF.
-Jammu Pharmacy associates, Rakesh Gupta warn Indian and multi-national pharma companies of stern action in case they directly supply medicines to "anti-national Kashmir based associations" following divisional commissioner, Kashmir, letter giving information to Pharma companies about shortage of medicine in Valley.
--Gupta writes. “the divisional commissioner (Kashmir) should have understood the basic fact that the route to the Valley from any part of the country is through Jammu province only.”
--the Jammu-based JK Pharma Association (JKPA) has informed its dealers in Jammu to go for non-cooperation with Lupin Laboratories in Jammu from September 15. Lupin Laboratories was first to directly go for trade with Kashmir distributors without involving the Jammu middlemen.
-India reviving ex-convict Ikhwan groups to intimidate and kill pro-freedom leaders and activists and so that security forces may not be blamed for unchecked killings"
-Israeli Commandos to train Indian soldiers in counterterror tactics, urban warfare and fighting in guerrilla settings following visit of Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrahi to Kashmir
-Curfew continues for 3rd day in Shopian
-governement orders enquiry into desecration of the holy Dastgeer Sahib shrine at Saria Bala here, by the paramilitary CRPF troopers on Saturday
-Students Kashmir UNiversity stage peaceful protest against "atrocities" committed by indian security froces.
-as per indian government, Fruits and dry fruits have been included in list of items for cross LoC trade.
===================================
14 September Sunday
-14 year old Masarat Akhtar of Achabal injured in police firing, people catch 6 ex-convict gumen working for 7 Rashtriya Rifles who were ransacking homes in Islamabad. people hand them over to police, police however release the ex-convicts, villagers stage demonstrations, and SHO Achabal with police arrive and without provocation fire, injuring 14 year old Masarat Akhtar
-Hundreds of people in Sarai Bal protest against desecration of Dastgeer Sahib including Kashmiri Resistance Leaders Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani,Javaid Ahmad Mir, Shahid-ul-Islam, Showkat Ahmad Bakshi
-Fruit not included in the list of items to be traded across the Line of Control (with Pakistan), Kashmiris continue to be at the mercy of the fanatic right-wingers of North India
-Police order probe into complaint filed by Sajad Ahmed beaten by CRPF at Amira Kadal on Saturday. (see video link)
-New Delhi ready to talk to seperatis groups “if they give up their pro-Pakistan stand”
===================================
13 September Saturday
-CRPF ransack Shrine of Dastgeer Sahab, beatup the caretakers of the mosque. desecrated copies of Qur’an and other wall hangings having Qur’anic verses written over them
-It is worth mentioning that Hanuman Mandir is a stones throw away and that has not been touched by any Kashmiri
-Senior Superintendent Police Anand Jain states that "suspected millitants fire police shots into crowd and doctors have ascertained that Manzoor Ahmed Sheikh of Kupwara was killed at point blank range".
Authorities of Varmul District Hospital state that doess have not conducted any autopsy. As per doctors, "Shaheed Manzoor had a big entry wound near his heart, but there was no exit wound. It seems he had been hit by a rubber bullet.”
-Many including lawyer Sajad Ahmed(see video below) beaten by CRPF at Amira Kadal and all other parts of kashmir.
-BJP President Rajnath Singh demands nationalisation of entire route to Amarnath cave in the Kashmir valley.
-BJP also demands that Kashmiri Pandits should be rehabilitated in special enclaves in the Valley.
-Protests in Varmul, Sjopian, Srinagar against killings by Indian Security forces
-Indian Security forces hounding teenage girls and boys to "teach them a lesson" for participating in recent pro-freedom protests
-CRPF,Shahampora, Nowhatta uses Rafiq Ahmad Bhat,rickshaw driver (JKo1F 3708) as "human shield" to counter stone pelting Kashmiris
-Kashmiri Resistance Leaders Haji Ashfaq Mirza and Umar Arshad Malik of Rajouri abducted by Indian security forces
-Kashmir Chamber of Commerce (KCCI) President Mubeen Shah refuses to meet Chambers of Commerce and Industries Jammu (CCIJ) President Ram Sahai since CCIJ supported economic embargo of kashmir.
-Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK), Shakeel Qalander has informally met Commerce and Industries Jammu (CCIJ) President Ram Sahai. CLARIFICATION IS REQUIRED AS TO WHAT IS FCIK's stand with respect to goods from Jammu. Qalanadar states, "I also told them that officially no announcement of boycotting the Jammu products was made by any of our trade organization and that it is the people of Kashmir who are rejecting the Jammu products,”
-KTMF (Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federatio) Mohammad Sadiq Baqal said that Sahai was lying as his federation did not meet CCIJ delegation during its recent visit to the Valley
-CCIJ President Ram Sahai said that the meeting was successful in terms of breaking ice with Kashmiri counterparts. “We met many trade organizations and I will not hesitate to say that all the meetings turned out to be a success,”
-Ram Sahai is a non state subject hailing from Pathankot. He is representing the CCIJ for the last one decade on a stay order from the court. Being affiliated with BJP and RSS, he not only supported but fomented the imposition of economic blockade on Kashmir
-CRPF destroying apple orchards in Shopian
===================================12
12 September Friday
-Imtiyaz Ahmed Ganie of Pulwama martyred and 13 others injured when CRPF fire on unarmed Kashmiri protesters in Shopian
-Manzoor Afzal Sheikh of Kupwara martyred and gour others injured when Indian Security forces fire on unarmed Kashmiris in Varmul distruict
-List of wounded
--Muhammad Salim Wani of Aliyal Pora and Abdul Ahad Sheikh of Wokay, Kulgam critical
--Bashir Ahmad Dhobi of Kulgam, Muhammad Saleem Dar of Lal Bazar Srinagar, Abdur Rahman Bhat of Lawayhind Shopian, Muhammad Rafiq Manhas of Karewa Manloo, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat of Kitapora Shopian, Aijaz Ahmad Bhat of Bongam Shopian, Muhammad Ayub Wani Narpora, Rafiq Ahmad Turray Sopian, and Reyaz Ahmad Sheikh, Muhammad Yousuf and Muhammad Abdullah Gundroo of Shopian.
-SP Shopian, Javaid Iqbal - Police fired on protesters since hey “resorted to heavy stone pelting on police and troopers.” “Still we will file an FIR and probe the killing,”
-Students of Government Medical College, Srinagar stage massive pro-freedom protest
-Resistance leader Yasin Malik beaten up by indian security forces, shifted to SMHS after addressing demonstrators at Clock Tower, Srinagar
==============================================
11 September Thursday
-Gowhar Ahmad,final year student Islamic Colege Science and Commerce abducted by CRPF, hundreds of students protest against abducted of their colleague.
-Islamabad threaten to expel ex-convict Ikhwanis from Kadipora and jalatmandi. these ex-convicts like SPOs, Jehangir and Imran have been housed by indian government in houses of migrant Pandits and have been given a free hand to harass people.
-trade bodies of Kashmir refuse to meet Chamber of Commerce and Industries Jammu (CCIJ) who supported the agitation of Sangharsh Samiti. Dr Mubeen Shah, President of Kashmir Chambers of Commerce and Industries (KCCI). said that KCCI had decided to boycott trade with Jammu in order to avoid future blockades
-On 50 years of the enactment of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the Jammu and Kashmir Peace Foundation, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons and some other forums Thursday launched a signature campaign to demand repeal of the Act.
-as per legal experts, the government is bound to compensate the families of the Kashmiris killed during the recent agitation in the region as per the United Nation charter and Maharaja Hari Singh's instrument of accession of Kashmir to India.

Mothers of the disappeared

2008-09-18T14:16:00.003-07:00

Mother of four ‘martyrs’ left at fate’s mercy
Rising Kashmir Sept 19

Rashid Paul
Srinagar Sep 16: Hajra, a 75-year-old widow of Wangam, Bandipore who lost her four sons to the ongoing armed rebellion is struggling to make her living.
She is admitted in a city hospital with nobody around to attend to her.
The lady had only succour left in her husband, Ghulam Mohammed Sofi, who also died in January this year due to multiple organ failure.
“We were bakers and enjoyed a contended life till 1996 when army killed my son Muhammed Rafi,” Hajra told Rising Kashmir.
To avenge the killing of his brother, Hajra’s eldest son Nazir went for arms training across the border and returned with a militant outfit.
“The army started hounding us. They picked up my other son Bashir.
It was snowing when a contingent of 14 RR, the counter insurgency wing of the Army lifted him from the bakery shop and asked him to provide the whereabouts of his militant brother,” she said.
“We approached the nearest army camp who agreed to allow us to meet him. But later the RR personnel claimed that Bashir escaped from the camp,” she added.
Hajra does not trust the army claims and insists that her “non-combatant” son was killed during torture.
“Some Gujjar tribesmen later informed me that a body was burnt to ashes in the nearby forests immediately after the arrest of my son,” she added.
The elderly woman alleges that she had to sell off her precious households for persuading the police officials to file a First Information Report. However as per her the exercise proved futile as no investigation was carried into the disappearance of Bashir.
Nazir who had pledged to avenge the killers of his brother was eliminated in an encounter with Army two years after the custodial disappearance of his brother. The former had four children.
Ultimately the fourth son of the bakers, Ajaz was overwhelmed by the killing of his elders and opted for militant struggle. He was killed in a combat operation at Kreeri, Pattan five years ago.
“I am unfortunate not even to have a last glimpse of my son as he had already been laid to rest when I heard of his death,” she said.
Hajra is acrimonious of the politicians, both pro-India and separatists.
“They have cashed in on the blood of our youngsters. None of them bothered to ameliorate our sufferings although lot of money was brought into Kashmir in our name,” she said.

Five charged in Banihal for "supporting and instigating" pro-freedom rallies

2008-09-18T14:16:00.002-07:00

Banihal, Mahore youth allege harassment
Greater Kashmir Sept 19
Cases filed against 5 in Banihal for holding protests

MUDDASIR ALI

Srinagar, Sep 18: Police in Banihal have registered case against five persons for “supporting and instigating” the people to take part in protest rallies.
A copy of FIR (No 168/08) dated August 26, registered in the Banihal police station against six persons mentions that the accused organized a meeting and planned the anti-India protests in the area. “The meeting was attended by many locals and some anti-social elements. The accused instigated the people to hold anti-India demonstrations and sought cooperation with the separatists in the Valley,” reads a copy of the FIR lying with Greater Kashmir.
The police has registered the cases against the accused under the sections of RPC—149, 148, 147, 188, 190, 152 (A), 124 (A), and 120.
Quoting “sources” the FIR copy mentions that the accused after discussing the situation in the Valley “decided at a meeting to hold pro-freedom rallies in the area in support of the Kashmiri people. The meeting also decided to support the extremists groups in the Valley.”
It reads later the accused while leading a protest and carrying sticks and flags in their hands went into the Banihal Bazaar and staged anti-India demonstration. “It was in brazen violation of orders issued by the district magistrate, which prohibit the assembly of the people in the Bazaar,” the FIR says.
The processionists, the copy mentions, shouted pro-Pakistan and pro-freedom slogans. “They accused people of minority community of damaging the mosque in the Kathua area of Jammu region. The protesters also vowed to continue demonstrations till Kashmir gets Azadi,” the copy reads.
The other charge in the copy: “The accused and their supporters also warned people of dire consequences if they informed the authorities about the rally and meeting.”
Local residents said several protesters have been beaten in the police stations where they are being regularly summoned.
The duty official of Banihal police station, Abdul Majeed, told Greater Kashmir on Monday “police has registered case against five persons and is carrying out investigations.”
Mahore
This area hardly makes news, except for rare encounters between militants and troops in the past. For past some weeks, however, police is harassing youths, some of them associated with PDP, after the killing of a Special Police Officer (SPO), residents of the area said.
“Recently an SPO went missing after he had gone to the nearby forests in Adbaiz. A house of militant falls in the same area and it may be the reason police was harassing the locals,” sources said.
They said on September 12 police called four youth, Bashir Ahmad, Sajad Ahmad, Shabir Ahmad, and Muhammad Amin—all residents of Adbaiz—to the police station. “They were again summoned to the police station today allegedly in connection with the missing SPO and threatened of dire consequence if they didn’t cooperate,” sources said.
They said police was also allegedly harassing the youth in different villages of the Mahore, a Muslim majority area, for their support to the pro-independence rallies.
They said one Mohi-ud-Din of Adbaiz has developed gangrenous wounds after alleged torture by the local police.
“He was then threatened with dire consequences of he went out of the village for treatment, or told anybody about the torture,” said a local elder on condition of anonymity.
However Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mahore, Adil Hameed termed the reports as “baseless.”

Minitruth: "We invited local youths for iftaar"

2008-09-18T14:16:00.001-07:00

meanwhile, the arrests continue>>

Greater Kashmir Sept 19
Police seeks bonds from Islamabad youth

Allegations baseless, says DIG

KHALID GUL

Islamabad, Sep 18: People of south Kashmir’s Islamabad district on Thursday alleged that policemen were asking the youth to present themselves in different police stations, and give it in writing that won’t participate in pro-freedom protests anymore, a charge denied by the police.
The residents of various areas of Islamabad, Kokernag, Dooru, Bijbhera and other adjoining areas told Greater Kashmir, “We were called by Station House Officers today and asked to give in writing that we won’t participate in pro-freedom protests any more,”
They alleged that police officials told them if they don’t give it in writing, Army would arrest them.
However, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), south Kashmir, Niyaz Mehmood termed the allegations as baseless. “We’ve are not calling any youth to police stations nor are we asking anyone to give it in writing,” Mehmood said, adding,
“We are holding Iftaar parties these days and are trying to build a strong police-public relationship. We are even discussing Hurriyat’s program in these parties. We are telling people not to become violent.”
___________________

11 detained under PSA for protesting blockade

HC NOTICE TO GOVT

MUHAMMAD YOUSUF

Srinagar, Sep 18: The J&K High Court on Thursday issued notice to the governor’s administration on the detention of 11 persons from the Valley under Public Safety Act allegedly for protesting the economic blockade enforced by some extremists in Jammu and for raising pro-freedom slogans. It directed the district magistrates and Home department to file objections.
The court directed the police and jail authorities to allow the relatives of the detainees and their lawyers to meet them forthwith.
The court of Justice Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Muhammad Yaqoob Mir today heard the cases in which the police had detained the persons under the Public Safety Act.
In the court of Justice Imtiyaz, senior lawyer Mian Abdul Qayoom, while pleading for seven persons from Varmul, said the district administration had issued the PSA orders against his clients. He said police later arrested them and was not allowing the relatives of these persons to meet them.
“Police is not given the whereabouts of my clients to their family members and relatives,” Qayoom said and alleged that police was violating the rules of Supreme Court and High Court by not providing the details about the detainees.
Qayoom, who is also the president of High Court Bar Association, said, “Police has adopted a policy under the PSA of not allowing the relatives of the detainees to meet them. They are not even allowed to provide clothes, medicines and other requirements to the detainees,” he said.
Besides Qayoom, other lawyers present on the occasion while presenting their details termed the invoking of PSA by the district administrations on police recommendation as ‘violation of law.’
Muhammad Ashraf Wani, pleading on behalf of Mir Hafizullah, said his client was taken into custody from Pahalgam. He said Mir was accused by police of actively participating in pro-freedom rallies.
After listening to the arguments, the court issued notice to the district magistrates and Home department to submit objections.
The detainees are: Javaid Ahmad Khan, Hilal Ahmad Dhobi, Mehraj-ud-Din Najar, Mir Hafizullah, Abdur Rashid Lone, Ulfat Mohi-ud-Din, Muhammad Ramzaan Lone, Saif-ul-Lah Sofi, Riyaz Ahmad Beig, Bashir Ahmad Rather and Manzoor Ahmad Sheikh.

State transport employees in Kashmir have not been paid for four months

2008-09-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

Wage-less SRTC employees form human chain

Greater Kashmir Sept 19

FAHEEM ASLAM

Srinagar, Sep 18: Adding novelty to their “anti-government” protests, employees of the State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) on Thursday marched on the city streets in the form of a human chain, drawing wide public attraction.
Hundreds of employees tied their hands with each other to form a human chain as a mark of protest against “the government’s failure to fulfill their demands.”
The employees marched along the Residency and Moulana Azad roads in a single row, demanding immediate fulfilment of their demands including release of pending salaries, disbursement of pending instalments of Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) and holding of the departmental promotion committee meetings.
As the employees marched, pedestrians and shoppers watched them keenly.
Many employees, who spoke to Greater Kashmir, said the government must come to their rescue forthwith. “We want the Governor NN Vohra to intervene and let us heave a sigh of relief,” they shouted.
“We and our children have been brought on the verge of starvation due to non-payment of our salaries for the past four months. What shall we eat? Where shall we go? Does the government wants us to beg?” they questioned.
The employees demanded “one-time” settlement. “The government has signed dozens of agreements with us so far, but none of them was implemented in letter and spirit. We want the government to go for a reasonable one-time settlement with us,” said a group of employees, who blamed the SRTC management for the mess.
The JK SRTC Employees Workers Union chairman, Shakeel Ahmad, said the government must act fast and not deprive the employees of their rights. “Why is the government and SRTC management depriving employees of their salary and emoluments?” he said. “We are ourselves fed up with the daily protests, but we are helpless. Our children are suffering for want of school fee. What shall we do?”

UN concerned over safety of journalists in Kashmir

2008-09-16T16:57:00.001-07:00

UN concerned over safety of journalists in Kashmir
Rising Kashmir Sept 17

Rising Kashmir News
Srinagar, Sep 16: United Nations on Tuesday expressed concern over the death of a local television cameraman allegedly by the hands of troopers and beating of media men over the past few weeks.
The United Nations agency tasked with promoting press freedom has condemned the death of a local television cameraman, and voiced concern for the safety of journalists in the area.
Javed Ahmed Mir, 35, was shot dead on spot while covering a demonstration near Bagh-e-Mehtab on 13 August.
Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koïchiro Matsuura said, “I trust that the authorities will do all in their power to shed light on this crime and create conditions necessary for the media to improve its functions.”
He said: “It is essential for democracy and rule of law that journalists should be able to exercise their profession freely and contribute to inform. Stifling debate only breeds frustration and violence, which is why I urge the authorities to support journalists in Kashmir.”
According to Reporters without Borders, at least 32 journalists have been thrashed by troopers since the start of the demonstrations a few weeks ago, and about 10 of them have been hospitalized.

from the UNESCO website
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27513&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Director-General condemns death of cameraman Javed Ahmed Mir in Kashmir and voices concern over media safety
16-09-2008 (Paris)

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, today deplored the death of local television cameraman Javed Ahmed Mir in Indian Kashmir, and voiced concern for the safety of journalists in the region.
“I deplore the death of Javed Ahmed Mir,” the Director-General declared. “I trust that the authorities will do all in their power to shed light on this crime and that the condition necessary for the media to exercise its functions be improved. It is essential for democracy and rule of law,” Mr Matsuura added, “that journalists be able to exercise their profession freely and contribute to informed debate. Stifling debate only breeds frustration and violence, which is why I urge the authorities to support journalists in Kashmir.”

Javed Ahmed Mir, 35, was shot while covering a demonstration near Bagh-e-Mehtab on 13 August. Kashmir has been subject to a wave of demonstrations over the past weeks linked to a dispute related to a land transfer.

According to Reporters without Borders, at least 32 journalists have been beaten by members of the security forces since the start of the demonstrations and about ten of them have been hospitalized. Three journalists are reported to have been attacked by demonstrators.

UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom. Article 1 of its Constitution requires the Organization to “further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.” To realize this purpose the Organization is required to “collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through all means of mass communication and to that end recommend such international agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image…”

CRPF ‘registering’ youth in city - marks houses, demands mobile and vehicle registration numbers

2008-09-16T16:48:00.001-07:00

CRPF ‘registering’ youth in city
Greater Kashmir Sept 17

House to house survey; police ignorant

MUDDASIR ALI / MAJID MAQBOOL

Srinagar, Sep 16: Central Reserve Police Force has started house to house surveys to ‘register’ youth above the age of 18 years in Srinagar. The move comes after two months of pro-freedom rallies across the Kashmir valley. Surprisingly, police said they were neither contacted by the CRPF nor do they have any information about the survey.
Residents of the posh Sanat Nagar and adjoining Lal Nagar areas told Greater Kashmir on Tuesday that CRPF was conducting house to house surveys for registration of youth above 18 years of age in every house.
“The CRPF is registering the names, mobile numbers of all the male family members above 18 years of age. They are also registering the vehicle numbers, if any, of the youth,” said Riyaz of housing colony Sanat Nagar, refusing to disclose his second name for fear of reprisal by troops. The CRPF, Riyaz said, started the survey two days ago on Sunday.
Mushtaq Ahmad, another resident of the locality, also said two days back a group of CRPF troopers came into the locality early in the morning and started numbering and marking the houses. “They marked each house with chalks. For the past two days they must have covered some 400 houses in the Sanat Nagar area,” said Mushtaq.
Mushtaq said when he tried to inquire from the CRPF personnel about the purpose behind the marking and registration he was asked to leave the scene.
The move by the CRPF is worrying the residents who have started bothering about the wellbeing of their wards. “I have two sons, both are above 18 years of age. This move of registration and house to house surveys by the CRPF is worrying us,” said Saleema Jan, Mushtaq’s aunt.
The troopers, residents said, threatened them of dire consequences in case they didn’t furnish the details. They said the troopers misbehaved with them when they questioned them why they needed the details about the youths. “One of the troopers kicked me when I asked him what for he needed the names of youth,” said another resident.
Some residents, however, said the troopers admitted that they needed names of youth to keep their record in the wake of recent pro-freedom marches. “But how can we give them the names of youth. They (troops) will not spare them,” said one Shahid of Sanat Nagar. “Is participating in a march a sin? We can’t understand why our youth are subjected to unwarranted harassment?” he questioned.
Many residents of Lal Nagar near Bypass, whose houses were surveyed by the CRPF for registering the youth, said the troops while registering the youth were neither accompanied by any official from the civil department nor from the police department. Station House Officer, Sadder Police Station, Shabir Ahmad, under whose jurisdiction the areas fall, also confirmed that CRPF hasn’t informed anything to the police about the surveys. “We don’t know anything about it. If the CRPF has visited any house in connection with the survey, people should approach us,” the SHO said.
Bashir Ahmad, another resident of Rawalpora Housing Colony said this morning CRPF personnel were going from house to house and taking names and phone numbers of all male members above 18 years of age. “When they came to my house, I inquired about the information, and the troopers simply jeered at me”, he said.
Aijaz, another resident of Lal Nagar, said the CRPF troops were even taking the details of the families and house owners where there was no youth above 18 years of age.
The CRPF PRO, Prabhakar Tripathi, said the survey was part of the CRPF’s “familiarization programme.”
“A new battalion, 174, has recently taken over the area and in this connection troopers have been asked to get familiar with the residents,” he said.
Tripathi however denied that the troopers were harassing the residents. “The familiarization programme has been going on for long. So there is nothing to worry about it. By getting familiar with the residents, the troopers can easily locate unscrupulous elements in the area, if any,” he said.
Meanwhile shopkeepers of Bagh-e-Mehtab near Railway Bridge said the CRPF was registering all the shopkeepers in the area. Last month two youth of the area were killed in police firing following which the residents had held anti-CRPF and anti-police protests.

LeT condemns ‘murder of innocents’

2008-09-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

LeT condemns ‘murder of innocents’

‘We’re not even remotely linked to Indian Mujahideen’

Rising Kashmir News
Rising Kashmir Sept 15
Srinagar, Sep 14: Laskhar-e-Toibah (Army of the pure) has condemned the killing of innocent persons in the serial bomb attacks carried out in New Delhi on Saturday evening. While distancing from the “Indian Mujahideen”, reportedly involved in the bombing, Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi, Lashkar spokesman, told Rising Kashmir over phone that the outfit was totally against killing of innocent and unarmed civilians as it was against the Islamic jurisprudence.
“Laskhar-e-Toibah is not even remotely linked to what is said to be the Indian Mujahideen. Lashkar is an organization that belongs to Kashmiri people and is fighting for their liberation from Indian occupation. We profess a religion that does not permit the murder of innocents,” Dr Ghaznavi said adding, “Government of India has always tried to tarnish the image of LeT by linking the organization to everything that happens in India that too without even investigation.”

Minitruth: "We have received no complaints"

2008-09-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

No investigation of excesses without complaint: CRPF
Rising Kashmir Sept 15

Police says probe due after normalcy

Wasim Khalid
Srinagar, Sep 14: Paramilitary CRPF Saturday said they would not investigate excesses committed by their men on people over the past two months unless they receive complaint from the victims. However, police said they would investigate all allegations of excessive use of force by CRPF and police after normalcy returns to the Valley.
“Every allegation leveled against us has so far proven baseless,” CRPF spokesman, Prabhakar Tripathi told Rising Kashmir. “There is no truth in allegations that CRPF has committed excesses on people.”
Vehemently terming the allegations as “false”, Tripathi said they would investigate only when they get complaints from the people.
“We can not go from house to house to identify the guilty CRPF men,” he said. “We would work on complaints. People should identify the erring CRPF men so that we can take action.”
However, Tripathi rejected allegations that CRPF men entered into houses in various localities, damaged household goods and intimidated inmates during the protests.
“During our investigation we found that nobody among us entered a single house and broke doors or windows panes,” he said.
On whether CRPF would take action taking cues from reports, photographs and video footage, Tripathi said: “All these photographs are actually of CRPF men beating the stone pelters not the innocent people.”
On the allegations of the people that CRPF committed more atrocities than police while handling peaceful protests, Tripathi said: “We have not used force. We are not working independently here. Anything we do is done after taking police into confidence.”
There has been a widespread condemnation of paramilitary CRPF and police using excessive force in dealing with peaceful protests.
At many places, CRPF has resorted to firing and killing and injuring scores of people. They have also used batons and fired thousands of tear smoke canisters.
Residents of old city localities including Nowhatta, Habba Kadal, Fateh Kadal, Zaina Kadal, Safa Kadal, Rajouri Kadal and Rainawari allege that troopers committed excesses with them.
They alleged CRPF men of barging into their homes, breaking windows panes and doors, beating family members and warned them of dire consequences. Similar complaints were reported from uptown Srinagar.
As a result, people in the Valley have continuously alleged that CRPF men and police have adopted a dual approach in dealing the protesters in Kashmir and those in Jammu.
Commenting on the issue, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, B Srinivasan said they are verifying the allegations.
“Our social police wing is investigating the allegations. If we find them correct, we would take proper action against the guilty policemen and CRPF men.”
Srinivasan said they have taken every measure to deal with the situation so that inconvenience is not caused to the people.
He said they have not registered any case since they are largely engaged in maintaining law and order. “After the tension will be over, we would surely take action,” Srinivasan said.

Indian forces shoot schoolgirl on her way home

2008-09-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

Police fires at protesters, school girl wounded

Greater Kashmir Sept 15

People catch 6 Ikhwanis beating people during night, hand them over to police which releases them swiftly; people hold demo, attack police station

KHALID GUL

Shergund, Utersoo (Islamabad), Sep 14: A 14 year old girl sustained critical bullet injuries when police opened fire to disperse the protesters in this small hamlet in south Kashmir on Sunday. The victim was returning home from school.
The protesters were demanding action against six government gunmen (Ikhwanis) who had entered several houses during Sehri (the pre-dawn period during which people eat food during the fasting month of Ramazan) hours and thrashed the inmates.
According to the locals, “Six gunmen in civvies working for the Army’s 7 Rashtriya Rifles battalion entered our homes during Sehri They ransacked household goods; beat us up, our women and children without any reason,” said Abdul Gani Malik who suffered an eye injury.
Malik raised an alarm and hundreds of villagers came out of their houses and caught all the gunmen and handed them over to the police at Police Division, Utersoo. But after learning that all of them were immediately released by the police, the villagers demonstrated in front of the police station and demanded punishment to the accused government gunmen.
The villagers alleged that Station House Officer of Achabal police station along with a team of policemen, arrived on the spot and without any provocation resorted to baton charge and then fired several rounds, first in the air and then at the protesters, injuring a 14 year old girl, Masarat Akhtar daughter of Ghulam Rasool Sheikh. Masarat was returning home from school. She received a bullet in her abdomen and is battling for life in SMHS, hospital, Srinagar.
Several other villagers were injured today when police resorted to baton charge.
“We asked the SHO why the gunmen who unnecessarily harassed us were released, but he told us ‘he would teach us a lesson’ and kill all of us,” said an eye witness, pleading anonymity.
As soon as the news spread the area hundreds of people from Shangus , Utersoo and adjoining areas came out of their houses and shouted slogans against police and Army. The protesters also pelted stones on Police Division, Utersoo damaging its window panes.
“The Commanding Officer of the 7 RR told me that four soldiers wearing pherans had raided a house after receiving information that a militant was hiding in the house. But they didn’t find any militant there, and beat up the house owner who raised alarm in response to which villagers came out and caught the soldiers. The people handed over the soldiers to police division. But today they tried to set ablaze the police station. A constable opened fire which rebounded from some structure and hit the school girl indirectly. Still we will hold a proper inquiry,” Me’raj-ud-din Shah, the deputy superintendent of police headquarters told Greater Kashmir by phone.

Hurriyat leader, many youth held
Police and paramilitary troopers arrested the Hurriyat leader Hamid-Ullah Bawani and dozen of youth along with him in Dooru, Islamabad in south Kashmir for participating in pro-freedom marches and processions.
After their arrest, people took to the roads and protested against the police and CRPF troopers and demanded release of the detained youth.

The blockade continues, this time by the Govt. of India

2008-09-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

Growers miffed at ‘exclusion’ of Kashmir fruits

Greater Kashmir Sept 15
‘It will be construed as official economic blockade’

ARIF SHAFI WANI

LoC Trade
Srinagar, Sep 14: The fruit growers of Kashmir are up in arms against the government for its reported move to exclude the fruits from the list of items finalized for cross-LoC trade saying it will be construed as “official economic blockade.”
Reacting to media reports about the list, the fruit growers termed it as a conspiracy. “We are shocked to learn that fruits have been excluded from the list. Over 60 Kashmiris have laid down their lives for opening of cross-LoC trade. We are ready to offer more sacrifices for export of fruit. It is not merely a matter of business but our self-respect and identity,” president of Kashmir Fruit Growers Association, Ghulam Rasool Bhat, told Greater Kashmir.
Following a mass uprising against the economic blockade to the Valley, the government of India on September 4 has proposed to open the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road and other routes along the line of control for trade with Pakistan and Pak-administered Kashmir from October 1.
The minister for external affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, recently stated that he had made a formal request to Pakistan for revival of the cross-LoC trade. Reports said India had submitted a list of 14 items for import including precious stones, namdas and embroidery works. Similarly, 23 items have been short-listed for export. These include carpets, rugs and shawls, but intriguingly exclude fruits for which the valley is famous all over the world.
“We know why Indian leadership does not want us to export our fruits through LoC. They are killing two birds with one stone. They want to appease the international community by restoring the cross-LoC trade and on the other hand punish the fruit growers for raising voice against economic blockade,” Bhat said.
“We are being punished for giving a call for Srinagar-Muzaffarabad march on August 11. India wants Kashmiris, whose economy is considerably dependent on horticulture, to starve. I want to tell India that Kashmir contributes 24 per cent of its GDP. Stopping us from exporting the fruit through LoC will be considered as ‘official’ economic blockade,” he said.
Pertinently, due to its unique eco-system, Kashmir produces quality apple, pear and other temperate fruits which are in demand not only in India but abroad. With over 70 per cent of Kashmiris directly and indirectly dependent on the fruit sector, it is considered to be the backbone of Kashmir’s economy.
According to estimates, the Valley exports nearly seven lakh metric tons of fruits outside the state. The fruit growers said they have been incurring huge losses due to what they termed as sustained and planned attacks on the fruit laden trucks from Kashmir during more than two months past.
“The Government has kept us out of the meetings held to finalize the trade list. Instead, they have been talking to some self-proclaimed representatives of fruit growers who have been working against the interests of the fruit industry,” Bhat said.
Bhat said if the government did not clarify its position on the exclusion of fruits from the trade list, the growers would be compelled to launch a fresh agitation. “And, in that event, the government will be squarely responsible for the consequences,” he added.

Events log Sept 8-14

2008-09-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

14 September Sunday
-Girl injured when Indian security forces fire at Kashmiris protesting against ex-convict Indian government hired gunmen.
-Hundreds of people in Sarai Bal protest against desecration of Dastgeer Sahib including Kashmiri Resistance Leaders Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani
-Fruit not included in the list of items to be traded across the Line of Control (with Pakistan), Kashmiris continue to be at the mercy of the fanatic right-wingers of North India
-Police order probe into complaint filed by Sajad Ahmed beaten by CRPF at Amira Kadal on Saturday. (see video link)
===================================
13 September Saturday
-CRPF ransack Shrine of Dastgeer Sahab, beatup the caretakers of the mosque. desecrated copies of Qur’an and other wall hangings having Qur’anic verses written over them
-It is worth to mention that Hanuman Mandir is a stones throw away and that has not been touched by any Kashmiri
-Senior Superintendend Police Anand Jain states that "suspected millitants fire police shots into crowd and doctors have ascertained that Manzoor Ahmed Sheikh of Kupwara was killed at point blank range".
Authorities of Varmul District Hospital state that doess have not conducted any autopsy. As per doctors, "Shaheed Manzoor had a big entry wound near his heart, but there was no exit wound. It seems he had been hit by a rubber bullet.”
-Many including lawyer Sajad Ahmed(see video below) beaten by CRPF at Amira Kadal and all other parts of kashmir.
-BJP President Rajnath Singh demands nationalisation of entire route to Amarnath cave in the Kashmir valley.
-BJP also demands that Kashmiri Pandits should be rehabilitated in special enclaves in the Valley.
-Protests in Varmul, Sjopian, Srinagar against killings by Indian Security forces
-Indian Security forces hounding teenage girls and boys to "teach them a lesson" for participating in recent pro-freedom protests
-CRPF,Shahampora, Nowhatta uses Rafiq Ahmad Bhat,rickshaw driver (JKo1F 3708) as "human shield" to counter stone pelting Kashmiris
-Kashmiri Resistance Leaders Haji Ashfaq Mirza and Umar Arshad Malik of Rajouri abducted by Indian security forces
-Kashmir Chamber of Commerce (KCCI) President Mubeen Shah refuses to meet Chambers of Commerce and Industries Jammu (CCIJ) President Ram Sahai since CCIJ supported economic embargo of kashmir.
-Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK), Shakeel Qalander has informally met Commerce and Industries Jammu (CCIJ) President Ram Sahai. CLARIFICATION IS REQUIRED AS TO WHAT IS FCIK's stand with respect to goods from Jammu. Qalanadar states, "I also told them that officially no announcement of boycotting the Jammu products was made by any of our trade organization and that it is the people of Kashmir who are rejecting the Jammu products,”
-CCIJ President Ram Sahai said that the meeting was successful in terms of breaking ice with Kashmiri counterparts. “We met many trade organizations and I will not hesitate to say that all the meetings turned out to be a success,”
-CRPF destroying apple orchards in Shopian
===================================12
12 September Friday
-Imtiyaz Ahmed Ganie of Pulwama martyred and 13 others injured when CRPF fire on unarmed Kashmiri protesters in Shopian
-Manzoor Afzal Sheikh of Kupwara martyred and gour others injured when Indian Security forces fire on unarmed Kashmiris in Varmul distruict
-List of wounded
--Muhammad Salim Wani of Aliyal Pora and Abdul Ahad Sheikh of Wokay, Kulgam critical
--Bashir Ahmad Dhobi of Kulgam, Muhammad Saleem Dar of Lal Bazar Srinagar, Abdur Rahman Bhat of Lawayhind Shopian, Muhammad Rafiq Manhas of Karewa Manloo, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat of Kitapora Shopian, Aijaz Ahmad Bhat of Bongam Shopian, Muhammad Ayub Wani Narpora, Rafiq Ahmad Turray Sopian, and Reyaz Ahmad Sheikh, Muhammad Yousuf and Muhammad Abdullah Gundroo of Shopian.
-SP Shopian, Javaid Iqbal - Police fired on protesters since hey “resorted to heavy stone pelting on police and troopers.” “Still we will file an FIR and probe the killing,”
-Students of Government Medical College, Srinagar stage massive pro-freedom protest
-Resistance leader Yasin Malik beaten up by indian security forces, shifted to SMHS after addressing demonstrators at Clock Tower, Srinagar
==============================================
11 September Thursday
-Gowhar Ahmad,final year student Islamic Colege Science and Commerce abducted by CRPF, hundreds of students protest against abducted of their colleague.
-Islamabad threaten to expel ex-convict Ikhwanis from Kadipora and jalatmandi. these ex-convicts like SPOs, Jehangir and Imran have been housed by indian government in houses of migrant Pandits and have been given a free hand to harass people.
-trade bodies of Kashmir refuse to meet Chamber of Commerce and Industries Jammu (CCIJ) who supported the agitation of Sangharsh Samiti. Dr Mubeen Shah, President of Kashmir Chambers of Commerce and Industries (KCCI). said that KCCI had decided to boycott trade with Jammu in order to avoid future blockades
-On 50 years of the enactment of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the Jammu and Kashmir Peace Foundation, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons and some other forums Thursday launched a signature campaign to demand repeal of the Act.
-as per legal experts, the government is bound to compensate the families of the Kashmiris killed during the recent agitation in the region as per the United Nation charter and Maharaja Hari Singh's instrument of accession of Kashmir to India.
==============================================
10 September Wednesday
-Residents of Khunmoh in Pulwama district, Wednesday night protest against the "reign of terror" unleashed by the Rashtriya Rifles. residents inform Station House Officer, but SHO refuses to register FIR.
-Station House Officer (SHO) Batamaloo summon protesters of batmalloo. Police want to book civilians under 336 RPC for being involved in protests and alleged damages done to the public property and other activities.
-Israel's Army chief, Major General Avi Mizrahi has arrived in Kashmir on an unscheduled visit,
-Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (SAYSS), which spearheaded Jammu agitation and claimed to be apolitical group, has hinted at participating in the assembly elections in the State. Three SAYSS leaders including convenor, Leela Karan Sharma and spokesman Dr Jitender Singh were felicitated by the BJP and RSS
-Chadoora Hospital facing medical supplies shortage
-Muslim Youth Federation of Poonch has sked Jammu-based politicians,"particularly belonging to National Conference and Congress," not to enter the Muslim dominated region of Rajouri and Poonch in future, accusing them of maintaining a criminal silence over the attacks by fanatics on Jammu Muslims during the recent agitation by Sangarsh Samiti.
----Madan Lal Sharma who was voted by the Muslims of Poonch and Rajouri and sent to parliament as their representative played a criminal role during this agitation.
----younger brother, a former MLA of Akhnoor, Sham Lal Sharma was a member of the Sangarsh Samiti
-hundreds of people stage protest in sarnal accusing paramilitary CRPF of beating shopkeeper
-minor girl, Mahziba daughter of Sajad Ahmed Gojri of Palhallan, hit by fast moving Army vehicle on Srinagar-Varmul highway, triggering massive protests. top officials reached the spot and assured the protesters that the erring driver will be arrested.
==============================================
9 September Tuesday
-Ghulam Muhammad Sheikh critically injured when CRPF fire to disperse people protesting mid-night raids by ex-convict government gunmen.
-Zahoor Ahmad of Nowhatta critically wounded 18 others wounded when CRPF indiscrimately fire at unarmed protesers.
-Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Sofi of Sarnal critically wounded when CRPF indiscrimainately fire without provacation on KMD bus stand in Islamabad
-Resistance Ledaer Mirwaiz Qazi Yasir evades abduction
-14 Rashtriya Rifles (Hunter Company) has been using public address system of mosques to direct people in Bandipora to register their SIM cards in the army camps. Commanding Officer 14 RR, Col Khurana said, "We are registering SIM cards to prevent population from getting in trouble. This process also helps us to assist the people whenever they call us for help".
-CRPF claims it has not received any "authentic complaint" about excesses perpetrated by its troopers.
-Akali Dal Simran Jeet Singh supports right of self determination for Kashmiris.

65 more companies of paramilitaries deployed in Kashmir to prevent demonstrations

2008-09-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

Additional troops to stay put

Rising Kashmir Sept 13
‘Deployment will continue till normalcy returns’
Wasim Khalid
Srinagar, Sep 12: The authorities have deployed additional 65 companies of para-military personnel in Kashmir and, according to security officials, the heavy deployment of troopers will not be thinned until the assembly elections are held in the State.
Thousands of gun and baton wielding troopers have been deployed across the valley after the recent uprising and staging of massive pro-freedom rallies and marches. Almost every major intersection in city and other parts is being manned by large contingent of troopers.
In most places, CRPF and local police have been deployed to take on protestors. However, in some parts of Valley, BSF and Army have been deployed to prevent people from staging pro-freedom marches and rallies.

“The deployment would remain there until normalcy is restored in the Valley,” CRPF spokesman, Prabhakar Tripathi told Rising Kashmir.
“So far, there has been no relent in the protests and agitation. We have asked our men on the roads to remain extra alert to meet any eventuality,” he said.
Tripathi said that 50 companies of CRPF, which were deployed across the state for peaceful conduct of Amarnath yatra, have been deputed in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley to maintain law and order.
Each CRPF company comprises 135 personnel.
However, he claimed that no additional men have been rushed to Kashmir from outside State.
“Due to normalcy, we used to give longer period of rests to most of our men in the base camps. After the outbreak of agitation, we have deployed additional men on the already existing posts,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior official of Border Security Force (BSF) based at Sanat Nagar headquarters told Rising Kashmir they have been directed to continue with deployment of their men until elections.
“We have been strictly directed not to downsize the deployment of our personnel till elections are held,” the BSF official said, on condition of anonymity.
He said that keeping in view the present situation in Kashmir, the BSF personnel will continue to assist the police and civil administration in maintaining the law and order situation.
At present, 15 companies of BSF have been stationed in the outskirts of Srinagar. These companies, which were deployed for smooth conduct of yatra, were retained by the authorities after mass uprising in the Valley.
Some BSF companies were airlifted to Srinagar to help the para-military personnel stationed in Kashmir maintain law and order and tackle the situation.
The BSF official, however, said that conditions are not conducive for holding of assembly elections in the State.
The heavy deployment of troopers has met severe condemnation from various quarters.

PEACEFUL DEMOS CRUSHED, 2 KILLED

2008-09-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

PEACEFUL DEMOS CRUSHED, 2 KILLED

Greater Kashmir Sept 13

25 HIT BY BULLETS, SCORES WOUNDED; CURFEW IMPOSED IN VARMUL, SHOPIAN

GK NEWS NETWORK

"Making peaceful revolution impossible, violent revolution becomes inevitable"

Srinagar, Sep 12: Once again the CRPF and police used force to crush peaceful pro-independence demonstrations in every corner of the Valley, killing two persons and wounding scores of others, including 25 hit by bullets.
The call for the protests and a four-hour shutdown was given by the Coordination Committee spearheading the freedom struggle.
The most violent use of force by the CRPF and police was witnessed in south Kashmir's Shopian township. Several thousand people came out of different mosques after Friday prayers in Shopian and assembled outside the Jamia Masjid, shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. The protesters were asking India to quit Kashmir.
“We were marching peacefully and nobody was shouting any provocative slogans or pelting stones. But the troopers started beating us with long bamboo batons. They fired a number of tear smoke shells also. And then some of the protesters pelted stones at them because they don’t allow even peaceful demonstrations,” said Javed Ahmad, a protester.
Several protesters were wounded in the CRPF and police action. But when the protesters continued to shout slogans and refused to disperse. The police then fired at the unarmed, peaceful protesters killing Sajjad Ahmad and wounding more than 15 persons, many of them critically including Muhammad Salim Wani of Aliyal Pora and Abdul Ahad Sheikh of Wokay, Kulgam.
The side windows of the car in which 74-year old Abdul Ahad Sheikh was being ferried to Srinagar were smashed by the police and CRPF troopers.
Thirty two protesters were beaten up with bamboo batons.
Some of the wounded persons are: Bashir Ahmad Dhobi of Kulgam, Muhammad Saleem Dar of Lal Bazar Srinagar, Abdur Rahman Bhat of Lawayhind Shopian, Muhammad Rafiq Manhas of Karewa Manloo, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat of Kitapora Shopian, Aijaz Ahmad Bhat of Bongam Shopian, Muhammad Ayub Wani Narpora, Rafiq Ahmad Turray Sopian, and Reyaz Ahmad Sheikh, Muhammad Yousuf and Muhammad Abdullah Gundroo of Shopian.
The protesters brought the body of Sajjad Ahmad to the office of Deputy Commissioner and staged a demo. Police again resorted to lathicharge wounding 22 others.
The Jamia Masjid is pockmarked with hundreds of bullets fired at it by police and troopers.
Thousands of people offered Nimaz-e-Jinazah of Sajjad Ahmad at Shopian Eidgah.
The protesters said Sajjad was killed in police firing allegedly ordered by the SDPO Shopian.
The mourning protesters then tried to set ablaze the Shopian Police Station, but were prevented by the elders among the protesters.
Police also used force on lawyers who were demonstrating against the killing. Five lawyers were wounded in baton charge.

Varmul
In north Kashmir's Varmul district Manzoor Ahmad Sheikh son of Muhammad Afzal Sheikh of Kupwara, presently residing at Mohalla Syed Karim Varmul, was killedwhen police and CRPF fired at a massive demonstration at Cement Bridge Varmul. At least 15 other protesters were wounded. Two protesters referred to Srinagar hospitals were hit by bullets, and another by tear gas shell, were referred to Srinagar hospitals.
“They fired without any provocation. No one was even pelting stones till they killed Manzoor,” said Muhammad Ashraf.
Manzoor’s killing swelled the number of protesters who shouted pro-independence slogans.
After Friday prayers hundreds of people assembled in Varmul Chowk and shouted pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Police didn’t allow the peaceful march, triggering off clashes. Police fired tear gas shells and fired in air to disperse the protesters who didn’t relent. Police and CRPF then fired at the crowd killing Manzoor Ahmad.
His death triggered a massive wave of anger and thousands of protesters poured onto the streets shouting slogans against CRPF and police.
GK correspondent Altaf Baba who was on the spot said the troopers fired thousands of bullets in air to scare away the protesters, who after the killing of Afzal tried to attack Varmul Police Station.
The massive demonstrations continued till 8.30 PM when police announced curfew in the Old Town and imposed and undeclared curfew in the new town. The protesters refused to relent and sat on the roads.
In the evening the CRPF troopers and police clashed with each other when the CRPF men went berserk and beat up every civilian in sight. A senior police officer pacified the warring parties.

Bullet hit
Those hit by bullets include Abdul Ahad Sheikh son of Muhammad Abdullah of Kulgam (Critically injured), Muhammad Sidiq Dar son of Noor Muhammad of Lal Baazar, Muhammad Saleem Wani son of Muhammad Rafiq, Muhammad Rafiq Turray son of Muhammad Aman, Sajad Ganai son of Muhammad Yousf, Bashir Ahmad Dhobi son of Ghulam Muhammad, Shakeel Ahmad son of Muhammad Yousuf, Abdur Rashid Manhas, Muhammad Abdullah Gandroo, Abdur Rehman Bhat, Reyaz Ahmad and Sheikh Muhammad.
Ten critically wounded men from Shopian and Varmul have been referred to Srinagar hospitals.

Demos all across Srinagar; Ghanta Ghar focus of protests
People on Friday again thronged the historic Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) here in Srinagar city, seeking “Azadi” even as police use ruthless force on peaceful protesters, injuring several people including JKLF chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik.
Besides Malik, several pro-freedom leaders including Moulvi Showkat Ahmad, Javaid Ahmad Mir, Imtiyaz Ahmad, Showkat Bakshi, Sheikh Aslam and at least 40 protestors were injured in police and CRPF action.
People from different areas of the City had organised peaceful pro-freedom rallies after the Friday prayers in support of the call by Coordination Committee of the parallel factions of the Hurriyat Conference.
Heavy contingent of police and paramilitary CRPF troopers were deployed at many places and routes, leading to the Ghanta Ghar, to prevent people from carrying out the rallies. The paramilitary troops were also deployed in large numbers in sensitive areas including Ram Bagh, Maisuma, Nowhata, Saraibal and many areas of downtown in anticipation of pro-freedom rallies.
Hundreds of protesters led by Javaid Ahmad Mir and Showkat Bakshi shouting pro-independence slogans broke the police siege around the house of Yasin Malik in Maisuma, and along with Malik marched toward Ghanta Ghar. Malik was under house arrest since September 1. Moulvi Showkat Ahmad, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, and Malik addressed the people at Ghanta Ghar. The protestors bought the JKLF leader out from his house and started towards Ghanta Ghar. In his address the JKLF chairman urged people to continue with the peaceful pro-freedom protests.
The protestors thronged the historical place from different places including Maisuma, Abi Guzar, Bund, and various places from across the Lal Chowk and were shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. As the protestors swelled in number and slogans of Azadi roared in the atmosphere the CRPF troopers and police tried to disperse the protestors.
In the meantime another rally carried out by the Kashmir High Court Bar Association from the Kashmir High Court, in support of the CC program, reached near the Ghanta Ghar from Regal Chowk.
Amid continuous clapping and shouting of “Go, Go—India Go” and “Hum Kya Chahatay Azadi” (We want freedom), a group of protestors at Ghanta Ghar tried to join the lawyers, but police fired several teargas canisters and resorted to baton charging to disperse the protestors, resulting in injuries to four persons including Yasin Malik and two youths on the spot. One policeman was injured when a stone thrown by some protestors hit him on the forehead.
“He (Malik) has fallen unconscious,” shouted a policeman as his colleagues took Malik away in the police gypsy.
Later the protestors engaged the paramilitary troops in pitched battles for at least half an hour. The troops and policemen chased away the protestors on number of occasion from Amira Kadal and MA Road and nearby streets. However, the protestors turned up again and engaged the troops in street fights.
“We were holding peaceful protests but police and CRPF troopers used force and thrashed many youth. The Indian forces are resorting to firing and use of indiscriminate firing even on peaceful protests in Kashmir,” said Mushtaq Ahmad of Maisuma.
Senior JKLF leader Altaf Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that after the rally at Lal Chowk, CRPF personnel entered into the Maisuma locality here considered being the bastion of the JKLF. “The troopers thrashed everybody who was out on the roads including aged men and women,” Altaf said.
The troopers, Altaf said, barged into the house of Yasin Malik and damaged its windowpanes with batons. “They also harassed the family members and relatives of Malik, injuring his aunt,” Altaf said.
The troopers damaged the Malik’s car, he said. “Later they smashed the windowpanes of JKLF headquarter. They also caused damage to the houses in the surroundings of the headquarters,” Altaf said.
He said senior pro-freedom leaders Moulvi Showkat Ahmad, Imtiyaz Ahmad, Showkat Bakshi, Sheikh Aslam were also injured in the police action, besides at least a dozen activists.
At least four persons were injured when police baton charged the protestors near Ashai Bagh here. The protestors had earlier brought out Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq from his Nigeen residence where he was kept under house arrest by police and were heading towards Jamia mosque in a convoy of vehicles. The rally was led by Zaffar Akbar Bhat, reports said.
Reports said peaceful pro-freedom protests were also carried out by thousands of people led by Faz-ul-Haq Qureshi after Friday prayers at Jamia Mosque. However police used force and fired several teargas canisters to disperse the protestors injuring at least 11 protestors, reports said. They said at least 10 people were injured when police beat up with batons the protestors who were marching toward Nowhatta.
People also carried peaceful pro-freedom protest at Lal Bazaar, Zaina Kadal, Safa Kadal, Habba Kadal, Maharaj Gunj, Soura, Hyderpora, and hundreds of other places in Srinagar. Reports said police and CRPF used heavy force to disperse the protestors. Four people were injured in police action in Lal Bazaar, reports said.
People also hold peaceful pro-freedom rally in Hazratbal, Dargah after the Friday prayers.
Reports said Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (R) held a pro-freedom demonstration at Pathar Masjid in Shahr-e-Khaas.
Hundreds of people participated in the demonstration which was led by JKLF leaders including Muhammad Saleem Nanaji, Tahir Ahmad Mir and Bitta Karatay. The demonstrations marched through the streets of Shahr-e-Khaas, demanding freedom.
They were joined by people of many areas inlcluding Nawab Bazar, Dalal Mohalla, Zal Dagar and Fateh Kadal, the statement added.
A police spokesman has named some of injured protesters as: Tariq Ahmed Sofi s/o Ghulam Hassan of Khanmoh , Ghulam Muhammad Shah s/o Abdul Rashid of Barzulla , Jan Muhammad Dar s/o Abdul Rashid of Maisuma, Muhammad Amin Najar S/o Ab. Aziz of Batamaloo, Muhammad Latief Khan s/o Mohammad Sultan of Basant Bagh and Jameel Nazir Bhat s/o Nazir Ahmed of Nowhatta.

GMC students, medical employees hold pro-independence rally
Students of the Government Medical College Srinagar on Friday demonstrated against what they called the Indian occupation of Kashmir, urging the United Nations to hold plebiscite to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
Clad in aprons, scores of students and several hundred other medical employees marched from GMC to Kaka Sarai Chowk here where more than a hundred CRPF troopers were standing in full riot gears. Hundreds of people coming out of the nearby Gole Market mosque joined the students and demanded an end to “India’s illegal occupation of Kashmir.”
The students carried banners reading: “Stop state sponsored terrorism. Stop genocide of Kashmiris; Indian occupation of Kashmir: we reject, we reject; No election, no selection: We want freedom; Indian Army go back; go back; Making peaceful revolution impossible, violent revolution becomes inevitable; Biggest lie: India is democratic.”
Many student protesters, who spoke to Greater Kashmir, said that India must read the writing on the wall and quit Kashmir forthwith.
“India must understand that the sentiment of Azadi in Kashmir will never die,” said a Syed, requesting his first name should not be mentioned. “It must therefore quit Kashmir and end its occupation of the state. We reject the status quo and ask India to ensure that Kashmiris are given right to self determination,” he said.
Two girl students (names withheld) said that India must fulfill the demands of Kashmiris including demilitarization, revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and release of Kashmiri political detainees from various Indian jails.
The duo had a word of advice for the pro-freedom leaders. “The leadership needs to be institutionalized forthwith. The leaders should be focused and include people from varied backgrounds in the arena of leadership,” they said. “We want intellectually rich leaders who have the potential to sustain this movement through peaceful and varied means of protests.”
The leaders, they added, need not be defensive. “The leaders must also aware people about issues like independence and occupation. This will ensure maximum participation in pro-freedom marches and demonstrations,” the students said.
The marchers asserted that they would fully support the coordination committee’s programmes and follow them in letter and spirit. “We respect the committee members and would support them in all their endeavors. But it is essential for the members to respect the public sentiment and ensure that the movement sustains till India liberates us.”

Police restricts Geelani to his residence
Police didn’t allow the chairman of Hurriyat conference (G) Syed Ali Shah Geelani to come out of his house at Haiderpora, a Hurriyat spokesman said.
He said that Geelani was to address a Friday congregation at Sopur in north Kashmir this afternoon. “A police official told him that he cannot move out and he continues to be under house arrest,” the spokesman said.
Geelani, Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and the chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik have been under house arrest from September 1. They were released after nine day detention on the eve of holy month of Ramadhan.

Sopur
Massive demonstrations were held in the Apple Town Sopur in north Kashmir after the Friday prayers, with hundreds of people taking to streets shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans.
GK reporter for Sopur, Ghulam Muhammad, said the procession was led by two leaders of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Saifaullah and Moulvi Ghulam Hassan from Jamia Masjid to main Chowk at Sopur. No clashes were however reported.

Kulgam
More than a dozen people were injured here when the troopers resorted to baton charge and tear gas shelling to disperse the protesters who were demonstrating in south Kashmir's Kulgam district peacefully on the streets after Friday prayers in response to a call given by Coordination Committee.
Police and CRPF troopers deployed in strength fired tear gas shells and hundreds of rounds of fire in air when the protest march reached the main Chowk of the town police and CRPF deployed there fired several tear gas shells to quell the protesters injuring about a dozen two of them critically. The troopers chased and baton charged the protesters up to the Ziarat market where they arrested five youth. The protesters also retaliated by pelting stones and pitched battles continued till last reports came. Protest was also carried out in Yaripora. Pro-freedom leader G N Kashmiri led a march in Kulgam district.

Islamabad
Thousands of people marched on the streets in south Kashmir's Islamabad Town after the Friday prayers, shouting pro-independence slogans. The march ended at Lal-Chowk with the hoisting of green flag. The protests were peaceful.
In Dooru, however, several persons were injured as police went berserk and used force to quell the peaceful sit-down protest. Witnesses told Greater Kashmir that after offering Friday prayers, people organized a peaceful sit-down protest outside Jama Masjid. But when a local Hurriyat Conference activist was addressing the people, asking them to remain peaceful during protests, a police party led by Station House Officer of Dooru Police Station arrived and beat up the protesters injuring dozens of them.
Police along with CRPF then ransacked the shops, thrashed the shopkeepers, and pedestrians.
The protesters alleged the SHO Dooru has been harassing the people for participating in the pro-independence demonstrations.
A massive demonstration was held in the Chinar Town of Bijbhera. The lawyers associated with Bar Association Bijbhera, and Traders Federation, also participated in the demonstration.
The protesters pledged to boycott Jammu based products.

Chadoora
Protest marches led by JKLF held in Chadoora in central Kashmir district of Budgam on Friday.
“Thousands of protesters led by JKLF leader Ashraf-Ibn_Salam and Chadoora Bar president advocate Javid Iqbal marched on the streets of Chadoora after Friday prayers. They were shouting anti-India and pro-freedom slogans,” a statement of JKLF said.

Sheikh Nazir reports from Ganderbal
Police and paramilitary CRPF resorted to indiscriminate use of force on peaceful protestors who poured in good numbers onto the Ganderbal roads in north Kashmir after offering Friday prayers. The procession which started from Jamia Masjid, Kangan was intercepted by a huge contingent of police and the CRPF at Kangan Chowk and disallowed the people to proceed. The police and the CRPF resorting to the use of force invoked protestors’ wrath and it soon started a ding-dong battle. Hundreds of protestors broke the cordon and regrouped to march towards Kangan. Police reacted by arresting an 80-yr old Habibullah Lone and 45-yr Jaluddin Shah.
Despite a multi-tier security ring, large number of people raising pro freedom slogans took out rallies at Beehama, Tawheed Chowk and Dodurhama. Lar, Safapora and other adjacent villages observed complete shut down and the movement of vehicles was very thin in the district with shopkeepers downing their shutters before the Friday prayers.

Reporting by Mudasir Ali, Fahim Aslam, Ayub Javed (Shopian), Khalid Gul (Islamabad), Altaf Baba (Varmul)

"The faces of the father and the son haunt me”

2008-09-11T16:39:00.000-07:00

‘Sight of father protecting son numbed me, I didn’t feel the bullet wound’

Greater Kashmir Sept 12

TAHIR SAYEED

Srinagar, Sept 11: Fifty-year old Rafiq Ahmad felt nothing when a bullet fired by the CRPF troopers him in the shoulder, because, he says, he was numbed by the sight of the CRPF troopers savagely beating a man protecting his child from blows of the troopers.
Rafiq Ahmed was playing chess on August 25 in front of his home in Malbagh, Fateh Kadal when CRPF personnel trooped into the area and started beating up everyone who came in their way. Rafiq is diabetic and suffers from chronic back pain. Thus he was slow to respond to the onslaught of the troops.
“But when I tried to run I couldn’t move because I was moved when I saw that a man was protecting his child from their blows. Then CRPF men saw me and made a sign to his colleague who shot at me,” Rafiq said.
“Whenever I recall that moment, when that father was saving his child, I forget my pain. The faces of the father and the son haunt me,” Rafiq said.

Khunmoh residents allege harassment, stage midnight protest

2008-09-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

Khunmoh residents allege harassment, stage midnight protest
Greater Kashmir Sept 11
GK NEWS NETWORK

Updated at 0055 hours IST

Srinagar, Sep 11: Residents of Khunmoh in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district took to the roads, Wednesday night to protest against the “reign of terror” unleashed by the troopers.

“ Troopers of Rashtriya Riffles stopped the truck drivers and beat them up to pulp without any provocation,” a resident told Greater Kashmir over phone late in the night.

He said that residents informed the concerned Station House Officer, but he refused to register an FIR.

Later residents took to the roads and staged a protest, the caller said, adding, we called off the protest fearing that troopers may open fire. “We are living under constant fear and threat ,” he added.

Police issue summons to protestors to turn themselves in

2008-09-11T09:37:00.001-07:00

Police summons protesters

Greater Kashmir Sept 11
GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Sept 10: Police has devised a new strategy to end the protests by unarmed civilians in Kashmir by issuing mass summons to people living in different localities asking them to present themselves in concerned police stations.
The summons have been delivered by the police in the houses at Batamaloo and have also been delivered in nearest business establishments and Masjids asking the civilians to report to the police stations.
The Batamaloo residents told Greater Kashmir that the summons issued by Station House Officer (SHO) Batamaloo have been delivered at their homes.
“We have been asked to appear in the police station on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively,” say the residents on condition of anonymity.
“The summons have been received by persons residing at Kashi Mohalla, Dariwani, Banpora, New Colony, Tengpora, S D Colony, Danderkah and Bazaar Batmaloo,” the residents said.
They said the police have booked the civilians under 336 RPC for being involved in protests and alleged damages done to the public property and other activities.
“The civilians include students whose career would be marred if they get into police records,” the residents said.
The persons booked under the act termed the summons as unjustified and uncalled for.
“The issuance of such summons doesn’t mean anything as lakhs joined the massive rallies to Eidgah, TRC and Pampore and subsequent protests against the killing of unarmed protestors,” the residents said.
The residents say the police was provoking the youth to come on roads and lodge protest against these measures.
“If police didn’t retract these summons, the department will be responsible for the repercussions,” the residents said, while threatening to launch agitation against the summons.
No police official was available for comment on the issuance of the summons.

"the right of self-determination ... the only way forward"

2008-09-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE

At a public meeting organized in Delhi by Janahastakshep, PUCL and
PUDR on 9th September, speakers stressed that respecting the right of
self-determination was the only way forward. It was the opinion of
the speakers at the meeting that the agreement reached between the
Jammu based agitation and the Indian government, through its
Governor, is an appeasement of the Hindutva forces and singularly
fails to follow the recommendations of the Nitish Sengupta Committee
(1996) which had proposed curtailment of the Amarnath Yatra to 30
days and restricting the number of yatris to one lakh. This
appeasement was compounded by the blood-letting in valley resulting
in death of 50 and injury to more than 2000 persons. Moreover,
repression is back in vogue with security forces singling out local
leaders in the villages with arrests, beating, booking some under
preventive detention act of J&K, Public Safety Act, and filing of
more than 250 cases. In contrast, as part of the agreement with the
agitators in Jammu persons charged with various violent acts have
been allowed to go scot free and may in fact, as part of the deal
struck, be provided with compensation. It was the considered
opinion of almost all speakers that there was no basis to support
Indian state's approach of military suppression accompanied by
politics of manipulation and empty promises or though an election
process which severely lacks credibility.

The meeting was held against the background of over two month long
agitation and counter agitation in Kashmir and Jammu which brought
home Indian state's precarious hold over J&K. In just four days on
August 11-14 Indian security forces shot dead thirty two people in
Kashmir valley. The Valley saw lakhs of people coming out to protest
against the blockade and for their inalienable right to exercise the
right of self-determination. The people of the state groan under
draconian laws like AFSPA, Disturbed Areas Act, PSA etc and unarmed
people are fired upon. Despite the unprecedented violence against the
protestors in Kashmir their quest for 'azadi' from Indian Union
remained non-violent.

In contrast the agitation in Jammu, spearheaded by BJP and Congress,
conducted what is essentially an anti-Muslim agitation. There was
competition between the two leading parties in harnessing majority
Hindu chauvinism. Their top leaders in Jammu participated in
blockade while the Congress led UPA went into a denial mode on the
fact of blockade despite extensive proof of the same. The economic
blockade which severely affected the life in the valley imperiled the
right to life of people in the valley. The message conveyed was that
Indian State was unmindful of even the physical well-being of the
people in Kashmir.

Speakers at the meeting stressed that erosion of Article 370 along
with India and Pakistan resiling from their commitment to refer the
matter to the people of J&K has been a major reason for the
irresolution of the dispute for over 61 years. They also opined that
massive and peaceful outpouring on the streets of Srinagar and
elsewhere in Kashmir ought to be met with meaningful political
dialogue. For this dialogue to be meaningful it ought to revolve
around the right of self-determination of the people of J&K.

The prominent speakers who spoke in the meeting were:
Arundhati Roy, Prem Shankar Jha, Javeed Naqvi, Sanjay Kak, Dr. Aparna
- CPI(ML) New Democracy, G.N. Saibaba - Revolutionary Democratic
Front, Retd. Juctice Rajinder Sachar - People's Union for Civil
Liberties, Gautam Navlakha - People's Union for Democratic Rights,
S.A.R. Geelani - Commitee for Release of Political Prisoners

Janahastakshep, PUCL and PUDR (Delhi)
9th September, 2008

"CRPF yet to receive authentic complaint on excesses": PRO

2008-09-09T17:47:00.001-07:00

CRPF yet to receive authentic complaint on excesses: PRO
Greater Kashmir Sept 10

‘We carry most of our activities with police’

MUHAMMAD TASIM ZAHID

Srinagar, Sept 9: It seems the photos of wounded and battered people, and people moaning with pain on hospital beds are not a proof enough for the top brass of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to rein in its personnel who are beating men, women, and children and ransacking homes.
Shockingly, the CRPF on Monday claimed it has not received any “authentic complaint” about excesses perpetrated by its troopers.
The CRPF spokesperson, Prabhakar Tripathi said, “Most of the allegations which have been brought to our notice have turned out to be false. But even if one allegation is proved we will take strict action. We are a disciplined force”
“We do not get many complaints from the people but we confirm it from the local commandant and the local SHO as we carry out most of our activities with the police,” he said.
Reacting to the reports of CRPF personnel entering Mohallas and smashing window panes, he said, “Most of the people are protestors and make such allegations. There is no report of any CRPF personnel breaking any glasses.”
Tripathi also claimed that the CRPF was using “minimal force” while dealing with the protestors. “We throw stones back; that is the least we can do. Throw back the same stones as they throw at us,” he added.
“Our people get injured but can we make similar claims about people beating us. This morning protestors broke the windows of a CRPF bus,” Tripathi added.
The Deputy Inspector General of CRPF N Bhardwaj underplayed the beating of thousands of people in one liner, “We have taken cognizance of all the complaints.”

Akali Dal supports Kashmir plebiscite

2008-09-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

Akali Dal supports Kashmir plebiscite

Greater Kashmir Sept 10

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Sep 9: President Shiromani Akali Dal, prominent Sikh conglomerate of India, Simran Jeet Singh today said India should stop its ‘atrocities’ in Kashmir and grant Kashmiris right to self-determination.
“India should stop human rights violation in Kashmir and the Kashmiri people, who have been subjected to atrocities at the hands of troopers, should be given right to self-determination,” he said at a press conference here today.
“India has violated its own constitution by the use of force against the Kashmiri people who have been demanding the resolution of the Kashmir issue. Kashmiris in past couple of months have shown their stand against India but India is using military power to make its presence felt in Kashmir,” he said, adding India should refrain from using force against Kashmiris who have been peacefully demanding their right.
Stressing upon the need for United Nations to address the Kashmir issue, Simran Jeet said, “United Nations should pass a resolution on Kashmir and it should declare Kashmir a UN Trust Territory.”
He said, “An Army General in Jammu said that the soldiers in the Jammu region would go back to cantonments once the law and order is restored, but Kashmiris have been demanding the withdrawal of troops for years now, but their demands are being sidelined.”
He added that Muslims were targeted during the violence in Jammu, “Government didn’t take action against the rioters,” he said.
Simran Jeet said that India has been claiming that Kashmiris lack the representation that could negotiate with India. “However when Shabir Shah united two factions of Hurriyat Conference he solved the representation crisis yet he was put behind bars.”
He condemned booking of pro-freedom leaders under Public Safety Act (PSA).

Military rule: Bandipora residents required to register cell phones with army

2008-09-09T17:40:00.000-07:00

Army camps registering SIM cards

Rising Kashmir Sept 10

B’pora subscribers in a fix, army terms it a safety measure
Mir Tariq
Bandipora, Sep 09:
In fresh diktat, the army is directing Arin, Bandipora residents to register their SIM cards in the nearby camps. Army, however, maintains that the measure is being taken for the safety and security of masses.
Villagers in Arin, Bandipora alleged that 14 Rashtryia Rifles (RR) personnel are compelling the locals to register their SIM cards in the army camps. “From past 15 days, 14 RR (Hunter Company) has been using public address system of mosques to direct people to register their SIM cards in the army camps,” said the villagers.
“The 14 RR personnel are compelling our elders to announce through public address system of mosques to register SIM cards issued by Airtel, BSNL and Aircel,” said a local on condition of anonymity as he feared reprisals.
He said that the soldiers have threatened the population of dire consequences in case they fail to register their SIM cards with the army camp.
The army diktats have created panic among the mobile subscribers in the Bandipora. “People have started registering their SIM cards with army camps after threats to their lives,” said the locals.
Jameel Ahmad (name changed) said, “Troopers threatened to arrest us and seize our mobile phones in case we defy their diktats, which is nothing other than a novel type of psychological torture.”
Questioning the army diktats, the locals said that army is inventing new ways to unleash terror in the area. “It is known to everybody that mobile companies are issuing SIM cards to a costumer after proper verification. There is no justification in asking mobile subscribers to register their SIM cards with army camps,” they said.
All the mobile companies like BSNL, Airtel or Aircel are issuing SIM cards after following the rules and regulations issued by the telecommunications regulatory. The telecom companies are following the proper policy in respect to regulation and acquisition of SIM cards.
A Public Relations Officer (PRO) of a mobile company told Rising Kashmir that all the SIM cards are registered and issued the customer after proper verification. “A SIM pack usually comes with a registration form. The issuance of SIM cards is facilitated by the National Identity card after getting consultation from investigative agencies in the State about the subscriber, who wishes to get SIM card from any company.”
"A national ID is the main reference number that is pegged to a person and all the transactions can be traced through the reference number. It is easy to trace a person," said a representative of another mobile company.
He maintained that he is unable to understand as to why army is compelling subscribers to register SIM cards in their camps.
Commanding Officer 14 RR, Col Khurana said, “We are registering SIM cards to prevent population from getting in trouble. This process also helps us to assist the people whenever they call us for help”.
He said that people should not worry about it (registering of SIM cards with army camps) as it is “for their protection and safeguard”.
Incharge officer of the 14 RR camp at Arin, Bandipora Kevin Pietersen told Rising Kashmir that army was just carrying on the process of registering the SIM cards. “This process has been initiated by other companies like 57 RR and 23 Punjab. There is nothing to worry,” he added.

"Grounds of detention"

2008-09-09T03:18:00.000-07:00

For uniting Hurriyat, Govt slaps PSA on Shah
Greater Kashmir Sept 9

NASEER A GANAI

Srinagar, Sep 8: Is forging unity between two groups of APHC a crime? Yes, if State government is to be believed.
In one of the grounds of detention under Public Safety Act against Shabir Ahmad Shah, the district magistrate Srinagar has stated that Shah emerged as leading voice in “secessionist circles” and played a vital role in the unification of the two factions of Hurriyat conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani. The grounds say, “You got affiliated with APHC (M) but at the same time maintained your close contact with Syed Ali Shah Geelani as well.”
In June 2008, the grounds say, when agitation started in the Valley against the diversion of the land to SASB, Shah along with other associates were directly responsible for instigating the general public to resort to unlawful activities. “However, after the cancellation of the order regarding the land transfer people were satisfied and started normal activities but you along with your other secessionist associates exploited the situation and instigated the general public to agitate in support of the so called Azadi of Jammu and Kashmir State from union of India,” the detention grounds say. The grounds accuse Shah of chalking out a programme uniting “all secessionists under one umbrella and organising big rallies including Muzaffarabad Chalo, Pampore Chalo, Eidgah Chalo.”
The grounds say Shah played a very important role in instigating the general public to resort to unlawful activities.
“It is pertinent to mention that you yourself led Muzaffarabad Chalo from Sopore (sic) and instigated the general public to cross the LoC. At your instance the public resorted to violence resulting large-scale loss of human life and property. During these unlawful assemblies you delivered highly objectionable and inflammatory speeches exhorting people to join the secessionist movement and resort to unlawful activities which public did,” the grounds of detention say, adding that under compelling circumstances it has become imperative to detain him under PSA.
Later, in the detention order passed by the District Magistrate Srinagar against Shah, it has been stated that “all militant outfits of which some have political affiliations got merged with the APHC.” “The main aim and objective of the APHC is to assist and support militant organizations in liberating the State of Jammu and Kashmir from union of India by waging war through the armed organizations including HM, Al-Bader, Al-Jehad, AL-Umer, LeT etc,” the DC says, adding that to achieve this objective APHC has phased its programme in different stages including to give “political color to the activities which otherwise are secessionist in nature.”

"...a soldier with an AK-47 every 30 feet" - Interview with Sanjay Kak

2008-09-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

http://socialistworker.org/2008/09/08/anatomy-of-the-crisis
Anatomy of the Kashmir crisis
September 8, 2008

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Kashmir as Indian security forces impose a round-the-clock curfew across the valley.

More than 30 unarmed Kashmiri protesters have been killed by Indian forces in the last few weeks in an effort to stamp out mass demonstrations that have shaken the disputed region, which is partitioned by India and Pakistan, and where India has maintained a military occupation in the section it controls.

The demonstrations were sparked by the announcement of the transfer of 100 acres of public land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, but have since snowballed into a province-wide revolt. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have taken to the streets demanding "azadi" (freedom) and their right to self-determination. In response, Indian military and paramilitary forces imposed a curfew and media blackout, and have fired on large, unarmed rallies, killing dozens and injuring hundreds.

Sanjay Kak is a filmmaker whose recently completed documentary, Jashn-e-Azadi (How We Celebrate Freedom) was made over a period of several years in Kashmir. On August 16, days after the mass protests erupted, he spoke with Nagesh Rao.

Protesters demanding "azadi" confront riot police on the streets of Jammu in Kashmir

WHAT IS the significance of the Kashmiri uprising?

I THINK part of the problem is that in India, our attention always comes in at the tail end of the story. Here it comes in when there is an explosion of resentment against the granting of lands to the Amarnath Shrine Board, and then we all act mystified: "How can there be so much resentment against something so small?"

That's because no one paid attention to what's been happening in the year prior, or the five years prior or, indeed, 18 years prior to this event. So there's a kind of structured amnesia about what events bring us to this place.

And this is not an accident. Particularly when it comes to Kashmir, in India, it is a structured amnesia.

You've got more than 500,000 Indian soldiers in Kashmir. They are sitting in literally every street and village and by-lane and crossing and water-point, and then you begin thinking that peace has returned to Kashmir. But it hasn't. You're just sitting on top of people.

Then the media dutifully starts wheeling out the spin, and you're told, "Oh, tourists are returning to Kashmir, all is well, the militancy is gone." And everybody begins to believe it.

I once had a conversation with an army officer, and he said, "Things are very peaceful here now. As a Kashmiri, you should come and visit, as often as you like." "Peaceful" is not a word I would use to describe what was around us, even where were sitting, in the officers' mess, with a breathtaking view of the grand Wular Lake.

"But colonel, there's a soldier with an AK-47 every 30 feet," I said.

"No, no," he said, "we've got the situation under control."

"So when will you leave?" I said, "You know, troop reductions--cut by, say, 20 percent?"

"No, no, that's out of the question," he replied. "Everybody would be out on the streets, there would be an uprising."

On the ground, that colonel commanding a military unit in Kashmir knows the score. The Indian security apparatus has taken 18 years to build a stranglehold on Kashmir, to control every aspect of daily life over there. That is the kind of "peace" that they hammered onto Kashmir.

In the wake of the armed uprising of the 1990s, which was represented as "terrorism" and an "Islamic jihad," they managed to do what they had to do, because Indians--and the rest of the world--were a little confused about what was happening. But what are they going to do now, when there are no weapons in this uprising? There are just hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets. What are they going to do? Are they going to just start firing? And how many will they kill?

This is the real significance of what we are seeing. Until now, even ostensibly sympathetic Indians would throw the question at the Kashmiris: "Why did you take to the gun? You took to the gun, and you alienated the Indian people."

This time around, they haven't brought the gun out. They are coming out in vast numbers and demonstrating for what they believe in. They are coming out in the ways that Indian democracy ought to believe in. Only this time, the same liberal intelligentsia who wanted them to give up the gun are now calling these vast assemblies "violent mobs" of "extremists"!

In a sense, the Indian state is hoisted on its own petard, flummoxed. [Indian rulers] do not know how to react to this situation.

THE SPIN that the state and the media have been putting forward, how far back does that go? When did they begin to present Kashmir as a "pacified" province?

IT IS difficult to give a precise date, but I would say that by around 2000, the army, in a sense, had a handle on the situation, and that's when they came up with "Operation Sadbhavna" (Operation Goodwill).

Having caught the valley in a vice-like grip, the army was now going to be benevolent: they would come with sewing machines, and hold sewing classes for girls in the village; they would build computer centers, or a bridge, or a water pump somewhere.

It was a strategic thing, a good amount of money was being put out, and it was a bit mystifying. Why was the army doing what the civil administration ought to be doing? Obviously for a whitewash in the media, to paper over what was going on.

Now, for such a hot zone of conflict, Kashmir is a very interesting place. It's very strange that almost none of the mainstream channels or newspapers have non-Kashmiri reporters. Ordinarily one would say, how nice, they only have Kashmiris reporting on Kashmir! But look at the flip side, and think of how easy it is to put pressure on someone who's on the ground, and has family, relatives, children.

If you or I, out of Delhi (or New Jersey), were posted in Srinagar [the capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir], chances are that we would report what we see. We would probably survive only for a year, or two or three, and then get out of there.

But if you are a local journalist, you can't get out, can you? I know several very fine journalists in Kashmir, but eventually their output is totally choked. You can put tremendous pressure on people on the ground without having to kill them or beat them up too often (although even that does happen once in a while). They are always under scrutiny and pressure. The gatekeepers up in the news organizations are the people who finally control the news flows? This, of course, is not unique to Kashmir; it is true anywhere in the world.

This tight control of the media was well in place by about 2003, and that's when you begin to see this "opening up" being touted. S.K. Sinha, a retired army general, was appointed governor of Jammu and Kashmir in 2002. He threw himself passionately into the business of promoting the Amarnath yatra [an annual pilgrimage of Shaivite Hindus].

By 2003, there was a kind of self-assurance on the part of the security establishment. They thought they had it licked militarily. They had a grip on the armed militancy, which was the only thing they could see and worry about.

But if you go to Kashmir, and travel outside of Srinagar, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the resentment and the anger. The impact of having 500,000 soldiers is incredible. Whether or not people are passionate about azadi (freedom) and what form their notion of azadi takes, what they are extremely passionate about is getting the Indian army out of there.

What we are seeing today is the fact that, spontaneously and simultaneously, people are coming out in the hundreds of thousands from all across the valley. They are responding to the everyday humiliation, the everyday beatings and checkings, and just the continuous presence of security forces in their backyard. Just having [those forces] there constitutes such an enormous pressure on the people. They just exploded.

TALK ABOUT the Amarnath yatra and the protests in Hindu-dominated Jammu for the acquisition of land in Muslim-majority Kashmir.

I SEE these protests as the last act of a fairly well-planned strategy of provocation.

In 2003, I traveled through Kashmir. Governor Sinha had already taken over as chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board. I was shocked at the militarization of the yatra (pilgrimage), and the fact that all along the way there were banners of the Indian paramilitary forces, the [Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)] and [Border Security Force (BSF)], welcoming the pilgrims.

When I did the yatra myself in 1989, there were no more than 20,000 pilgrims, but through design, and an elaborately constructed political economy, this pilgrimage has been transformed into something that drew 500,000 people this year! Governor Sinha extended the period of the pilgrimage too, from its traditional 15 days, to a month, and now, three months. He had even talked of making it an all-year pilgrimage.

To me, this is not just some hair-brained idea of an ex-army general. The area that the pilgrimage goes through is an area where there are currently no military cantonments. The pilgrimage already gives them a natural excuse to cordon off these areas for months at a time. The governor and the Amarnath Shrine Board, and their enthusiasm, have helped gradually make this yatra central to Hindu sentiment. People are going in busloads to Amarnath, from places where people had never heard of Amarnath.

New gods, new shrines, new pilgrimages emerge all the time in India, but not so rapidly, and not with the full collusion of the state. There are buses from Jammu, there's security organized, free food for the pilgrims. In the years that the [Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP)] was in power, north India saw an explosion of tax-exempt trusts, whose sole job was to take people to Amarnath. They received large amounts of money from rich traders in north India. These trusts set up free kitchens along the route. So, if you wanted to do the pilgrimage, all you had to do was get to Jammu. Once you get there, there are subsidized buses and there's free food.

The BJP thinks it has timed this very well. In the run-up to the next [general] elections, they don't really have an emotive issue to galvanize the "Hindu" vote. Now they have created one: "It is our Amarnath. How can these Muslims stop us?"

The keepers of the shrine have actually been Kashmiris--and those credited with discovering it, Kashmiri Muslims, in fact. But there's already some debate generated about whether the "discovery" ought to be credited to Muslims at all, and whether the shrine is 150 years old or 3,000 years old.

In India, everything has antiquity. Whether this cave existed 3,000 years ago or not, it had certainly fallen into disuse, and was discovered by a Muslim shepherd and his family 150 years ago, and they reported it. They became the custodians of the shrine, and a share of the offerings went to them. A Hindu mahant (priest) was responsible for the religious part of it. Of course, under Governor Sinha, even the mahant has been cut out of the Amarnath Shrine Board, and is one of its most trenchant critics.

Meanwhile, the yatra has become a travesty. If you're rich, you don't even have to walk up the route. You can stay at the lake-front Palace Hotel in Srinagar, and take a commercial helicopter–taking off from the governor's estate–to the shrine and back.

Two years ago, a well-known Hindu preacher held a special camp for his rich disciples. For about a week, these people were being ferried by choppers to and from the shrine. Sixty or 70 helicopters taking off and landing barely 200 meters from the shrine. The ice formation that is at the heart of the pilgrimage, the Shiv Ling, melted before the walking pilgrims even got to the cave!

Meanwhile Kashmiri Muslims, separatists and others alike, have been going blue in the face saying that they have never obstructed the yatra, but that isn't heard. For all of them, the aggressive pushing of the yatra by the governor was like driving a shaft into the heart of Kashmir. [Author and activist] Gautam Navlakha refers to it as an attempt to annex land. It seems like Palestine and the Israeli settlements.

You could come to that [comparison] just by looking at Kashmir, but believe me, it's no coincidence. The Indian security establishment's fascination with Israel is very strong. It has not just to do with military equipment, but with how [the Israelis] operate. The Indian army, which is one of the most experienced in the world in counter-insurgency and dealing with the suppression of civilian populations, is rivaled only by Israel. When India and Israel are locking arms in this loving embrace initiated by the earlier BJP government, you can be sure that all kinds of ideas are going back and forth. It's not just conjecture anymore--it is bubbling through. You can see it.

In fact, one of the key proposals put forward by the [Hindu right-wing] Panun Kashmir (Our Kashmir) organization is for a homeland that is a fortified enclave. Their discussion lists are full of talk about Israel--they are fascinated by that model.

THE FACT that it has taken the form of mass protests--does this come from the sense that armed militancy hasn't gone anywhere? How have the protests in Jammu influenced the mass character of this explosion?

LET'S BE clear. What you are seeing today isn't really about 100 acres of land for the Amarnath yatra. That just happens to be the last straw. In Jammu, while they can go blue in their face saying that there is no political party involved, that this is totally spontaneous and so on, there is no doubt that it is totally and tightly guided by the Hindu right, in particular the BJP.

The first thing people did in Jammu was to come out onto the streets carrying Indian national flags. Immediately a polarity was established between the "anti-national" Kashmiris of the valley, and the nationalistic protesters of Jammu.

The second thing they did was to announce an economic blockade of the valley. The valley is connected only by a slender highway that goes through Jammu and across the Banihal Pass. Once the outrage about the blockade began to be reflected in the Indian media, suddenly there were all these planted stories, asking whether there ever was a blockade, or not. There was even a newspaper report claiming that this was a plot by the Pakistani [Inter-Services Intelligence].

In a few days, the army secured the highway within the state of Jammu and Kashmir, but the trucks were still not making it through to the markets of Delhi. They were being attacked in Punjab, which is where the BJP came in. Even Kashmiri Sikh bus drivers were beaten up. What is significant about this economic blockade is that the one tenuous link that connects the everyday life of a Kashmiri to India is trade.

Kashmiris are very good traders. Having sealed the borders on the Muzaffarabad side, having put a cap on the natural flows of trade and commerce in the Kashmir Valley, which was all on towards the Pakistani side of the border, blockading this highway was like choking its windpipe. That's what has made this as powerful as it is.

"Muzaffarabad chalo" ("March to Muzaffarabad" in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir): the slogan is very significant. If we are being held for ransom every time, people seemed to be saying, with threats to choke off supplies to the valley, then we'll find a way out of it. There was unanimity in the valley. There was no confusion. The confusion was only on the editorial pages of the Indian newspapers. The media held complicated debates about the origins of the Amarnath shrine, but every time they generate this sort of fluff, you know that they are afraid to talk nuts and bolts. So we get stuck in the details, and lose any sense of what people are really thinking and feeling.

It's not a coincidence that, even as we speak, another march to Muzaffarabad has been announced. Of course, they don't imagine that tomorrow the borders will open and the trucks will roll in to Muzaffarabad. But, if we are talking about a tangible element of azadi, along with getting the army out, this--trade across the border--is the other issue on which nobody will disagree.

In the absence of any one clear leader or political party, you have to watch and see: What's the consensus? The consensus seems to be that people want to be on the streets, and that they are not asking for an armed struggle. That seems to be quite obvious. There have been no statements by the militant groups, whereas normally they comment on everything. They also have seen that the people are not asking for them. Even the so-called hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani said a few months ago that the armed militancy needs to pull back. No one's saying that they haven't served an important function, but a different phase has begun now.

If you are interested in democracy, then what has been happening in Kashmir is extremely interesting. A population that has been beaten and battered over the last 20 years has seen a consensus that seems to be coming through, throbbing through, the crowd. Three months ago, even the "separatist" leaders seemed quite resigned to the status quo. There was this debate about whether or not to participate in the coming elections. It was a lukewarm, tired time, a kind of defeated time. But now, suddenly, even those separatist leaders have been pulled back into the thick of it. It's a different world now, a different atmosphere.

Last month, during the agitation around the Amarnath shrine, people took over the clock tower in Lal Chowk, in the center of Srinagar. This clock tower has become symbolic of the presence of Indian security forces, because the BSF and CRPF hoist the Indian flag there on Independence Day, and the Indian flag flies there.

That flag was brought down, in front of the CRPF forces. The flag of the Awami Action Committee, a green flag with a crescent and star (often mistaken by the media for a Pakistani flag) was hoisted in its place.

Yesterday, August 15, there was a complete hartal (strike). There was no one on the streets until 2 p.m. Then, at 2:30, thousands of people showed up in Lal Chowk. Once again, the CRPF had to move back. The Indian flag was brought down again.

This, to me, is a sign of great self-confidence. The security forces are all around. They say they've been given an order to "go soft." But what else can they do in this situation? I can't believe that, at a time when India is proclaiming itself a world power and a great democracy, that they are willing to kill 500 people a day. And that's what they'll have to do to regain control of the situation. Even the incredible ability of Indian state to ride out crises will be tested in the months to come.

Since August 11, we've seen mobilizations in the tens of thousands, and even higher.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a senior separatist leader and a former militant, was shot and killed at point-blank range during the protests a few days ago. Today was his chehrum, his memorial service. Close to 200,000 people showed up for that, and they've announced another march to Muzaffarabad. It would be foolish to imagine that this is a just a bit of pressure cooker letting off a little steam. That's happened in the past, but this is different. Everybody has agreed that they have not seen such numbers since 1990-91. One reason for this, of course is because of the crackdown that ensued then. But now everything has changed.

THE BJP has launched a nationwide agitation, so has the [Vishwa Hindu Parishad]. They have the capacity to organize, and they are organized. Let's talk about the response of the left. It seems so imbalanced.

HOW THE Hindu right is going to use this situation is quite apparent. The BJP isn't publicly involved right now in Jammu, because they don't want to put it on a boil right now. The elections are still months away, remember.

So let's talk about the liberal left. I think this is a very important question. After a long period of amnesia about Kashmir, in the last three or four years, because of so-called "normalization" and because Kashmir seemed to begin to appear less "threatening," with calls for azadi seeming to have dissipated, everyone began tut-tutting about human rights in Kashmir and today, Kashmir is flooded with Indian do-gooders, all talking about brotherhood and peace and love.

NON-GOVERNMENTAL organizations (NGOs)?

THERE ARE thousands of them. There are some 3,300 NGOs registered with the government in the valley now, and there is even an official ban on registering NGOs because there are too many of them. They don't want to talk politics, because in this context that would mean a separatist agenda. But they can talk about human rights and occasionally critique this or that aspect of the army. So I am very curious to see how this bunch is going to respond now

IN THE early 1990s, Indian society found it easy to turn its back on Kashmir. It was possible for them to say this was an armed Islamist upsurge, and they couldn't possibly have truck with it. How are they going to respond now? Already I can hear some of them saying, "Is it surprising that the CRPF opened fire when crowds are demolishing their bunkers?"

YES, CROWDS have come out and demolished CRPF bunkers, but what have they demolished them with? Not with bazookas, but with their bare hands. What else are they to do? And the panic! The panic the moment that they see a Pakistan flag. So long as you are a sobbing widow, or an orphan, or someone who's been tortured, a charity case, Indian civil society has found a place for you.

Now there are people who have had a very good line on Kashmir, a consistent line, and one respects them. People like Gautam Navlakha, and civil rights groups in Andhra Pradesh. But broadly speaking, this is not the case--and the people who will be most found wanting will be the orthodox left. They will come out on a humanitarian basis, but when it comes to nationalism, when it comes to the flag, when it comes to the territorial integrity of India, there is no one more passionate than the left in India. It's not a coincidence that the only people who have publicly and officially come out in favor of self-determination are those in the extreme left, the Maoists. As you move toward the fringe of the left, you find some openness, but not among the mainstream liberal lot.

WHAT SHOULD we be doing? Whom can we look to in the valley, and how should Indian progressives orient themselves?

IT'S NOT very easy. Kashmir does not make it easy for us to simply say, "Here are the nice guys and I'm with them."

Personally, that's been an important journey for me. At a time when the world is being consumed with Islamophobia, here is an uprising in a Muslim-majority province that is mobilized on the basis of a religious metaphor, and yet what they are asking for has a historical and moral validity.

So that's what makes it so challenging. In that sense, it's a very good opportunity for us to confront our own prejudices, and it makes for an interesting problem for progressives. Progressives are very anxious about messing around with anything that is religious, aren't they?

I went to make a film in Kashmir five years ago. I am a Kashmiri pandit from Delhi, and yet I was met with nothing but decency in the course of making the film, because I went nihattha (unarmed), with a curiosity and an openness to hear what they are saying. Just by going in and listening and learning about it, people can do a lot.

But there's more. If India is indeed on its way to becoming a superpower and the great democratic hope and so on, then it is time to call its bluff. There must be a political solution to this. The military solution, as we know, stands exposed. It hasn't worked in 18 years. These last two months have shown that it simply did not change people's minds.

The last two months have also exploded the canard that the common people are not involved in this. Well, right now, the militants' guns are invisible, and the people are clearly in the forefront. If you are seriously committed to democracy, as I think we all should be, then Kashmir is becoming a more and more an interesting place--because it is posing new, urgent questions that need answers.

So far, the debate on Kashmir has been tightly controlled by Pakistan and India. What Kashmiris are actually thinking and saying hasn't been heard, and that's the challenge for all of us today. It's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity for all of us.

Events log Sept 2-8

2008-09-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

8 September Monday
-at least 25 injured, 10 criticaly when indian security forces open fire on protesters. Protesters try to lodge FIR btu DC-Islamabad dismisses the FIR terming the charges as concocted.
-CRPF troopers smash windows of masjis at Asr time and then resort to firing when questioned by unarmed Kashmiris.Tariq Ahmed Shah critically injured and 3 others severely injured when CRPF open fire to disperse demonstrators in Nowhatta, Srinagar.
-Ashraf Ahmad critically injured and 3 others severely injured when CRPF open fire to disperse demonstrators in Machu, Srinagar.
-Complete shutdown against the killing of Javaid Ahmad by Indian Security personnel
-Hundreds of people stage pro-freedom demonstration in Bandipore
-Two injured when CRPF fire rubber bullets in Varmul district
-protests and clashes between unarmed Kashmiris and CRPF in various parts of srinagar
-Two wounded in Safa Kadal when Personal Security Officers (PSO) of Dr. Jalaluddin, Head Cardiology SKIMS open fire to disperse protesters
-CRPF ransack X-Ray lant of district hospital Varmul.
-CRPF severely beat innocent bysteanders in Safa Kadal including Bilal Ahmad Najar who received 5 stitches to his head, 70 year old Ali Muhammad Mir, 50 year olf Ghulam Nabi Najar, Majid Ali, ratio house munshi Muhammad Yousuf, 80 year old Abdul Aziz. these people were waiting outside a depot to get rice and flour, when CRPF beat them up with gun butts and bamboo sticks. CRPF PRO Prabhakar Tripathi states that he will inquire with concerned commandant.
-Thousands of people protest at mid-night in Islamabad when ex-convict Kashmiri gunmen aligned with India barge into house of Sajad Ahmad, a youth who participated in pro-freedom rallies. Sajad has been abducted and his whereabouts are unknown.
-Indian Security forces hunting for youngsters who protested both in Downtown and also in uptown civil lines.
-Kashmir High Court stays government attempt to shift abducted Resistance Leaders habir Ahmad Shah, Aasiya Andrabi, Meraj Din Kawal and Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai to prisons outside Kashmir. If Shabir Shah is shifted to Kathua, his life would be in danger from fanatic elements.
-Charges on Resistance Leader Shabir Shah is unification of Resistance Leaders, mobilisation of public to end economic embargo of Kashmir
-farooq Abdullah (NC) wants early elections under the constitution of India
-Indian Security forces looking for Resistance Leader mirwaiz Qazi Yasir
-Lists have been made to arrest youth in Varmul, Sopur, Gandarbal, Bandipora, Kangan, Pulwama, Srinagar
-Indian Governor of Kashmir directs engineers and officials to make Mughal Road motorable before Eid-ul-Fitr and a two-lane road in 2010

7 September Sunday
-Unarmed Kashmiri protesters clash with paramilitary CRPF troopers who resort to baton charge and fire teargas protesting death of Shaheed Javid Ahmad bhat
-Undeclared curfew in downtown Srinagar
-Aftab Akhter (13), daughter of Sammad Joo of Surankote martyred when army mortar shell misses target and hits her in the field she was playing in. Imran Ahmad, 7, Zameer Ahmed, 10, both sons of Abdul Shakoor and Muhammad Asif, 9, son of Mushtaq Ahmed injured by the mortar shell
-Resistance Leaders appeal to NC, PDP and Congress Kashmiri politicians not to participate in elections as they are sons and daughters of the soil.
-US-based Kashmiris hold rally infront of INdian HIgh COmmission in New York. Indian high commissions calle police and ask people to stop rally. Protesers disperse peacefully.

6 September Saturday
-22-year-old Javaid Iqbal Bhat of Nowhatta martyred when Indian CRPF open fire on unarmed Kashmiri protester. Javaid was hit by a rubber bullet which was larger than the size of the regular bullet causing larger wound.
-Clashes between unarmed Kashmiri protesters and Indian CRPF in Bandipora, Baramulla, downtown Srinagar
-Curfew in Islamabad
-Complete shutdown of Srinagar inline with Kashmiri resistance call
-Ikhwanis(kashmiri ex-convicts) in close collaboration with Indian Security forces harassing inhabitants of Islamabad
-“Bring them to the police station or we won’t let you live!” is what Indian Security forces in Nowhatta and other areas of downtown srinagar when searching for protesters during the night
-Omar Abdullah (NC) --> Freedom for Kashmir is not an option

5 September Friday
-IMtiyaz Ahmad of Uranhall and Jugnu of Kotwall Mohalla critically injured when indian security forces resort to tear gas shelling, rubber bullets and batons to quell peaceful protests
-At least 5 injured in Hyderpora outside residence of resistance leader Sysed Ali Shah Geelani when indian security forces fire tear gas and thrash protesters
-Massive procession from Central Jama Masjid Gaw Kadal led by Resistance leader Maulana Showkat, Javaid Ahmad Mir, Showkat bakshi, Shahid-ul-Islam,Bashir Bhat
-High Court Bar association stage protest march from High court to Lal Chowk
-Thousands of protesters march towards Varmul raising pro-freedom slogans
-Procession taken out from Jamia Masjid Sopur to main chowk, from Jamia Masjid Pulwama, Jamia Masjid Chatapora, Khankah Faiz Panah Tral, Bongam Shopian and Jamia Masjid Kakapora.
-Pakistan proposes Pak-Indian meeting to make LOC intra-Kashmir trade operational. It appears that India had proposed cross LoC intra-LKashmir trade baded on lists of items proposed by each side for import and export. Pakistan suspicious that n the guise of the cross LoC trade, New Delhi was trying to send in Indian goods not necessarily the Kashmiri items., hence pakistan presented fresh list. pakistan ready to reconsider terms so that trade might proceed on basis of earlier agreement. No reaction from new delhi on pakistan's latest proposal.
-Indian security forces smash window panes of shops, houses , masjid and parked vehicles in Islamabad
-200 houses in Malakh Nag and Cheeni Chowk of Islamabad damanged by INdian Security forces in past few days. Indian Security forces damange windscreens and side panes of nearly 100 vehicles including school buses of Radiant Public School. CRPF threaten to turn the area into “Jalian Wala Bagh.” As per Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, Ghazanfar Ahmad, “A team of officials comprising Assistant Commissioner Revenue and Additional SP Islamabad has been constituted to assess the damage caused to the houses by the CRPF troopers.”

4 September Thursday
-Resistance Leader Masrat Alam abducted By Indian Security forces and shifted to unknown destination.
-J&K HC directs army to produce Colonel Kishore Malhotra responsible for the abduction of chemist Manzoor Ahmad Dar, son of Haji Ali Muhammad on 19 January 2002. Army has been told to prodcue Colonel Kishore within two weeks. Colonel Kishore was at the time of abduction, Major with 35 Rashtriya Rifles

3 September Wednesday
-Massive demonstration in Ladoora Rafiabad by peaceful protesters against the harassment of people participating in peaceful protests.
-Resistance leaders Yasin Malik & Mirwaiz Umar farooq under house arrest
-Resistance Leader Ayaz Akbar abucted and detained by Indian Security forces with criminals in Sumbal Police Station.
-Indian Security forces harrassing people of Chinnigund, Kanilwan, Chandpora, Teilbal, Gutchpora, Sadkipora and Bandipora to name protesters. As per army spokesman Lt.col AK Mathur, these allegations are not true, picture from GK 04 September reveals some details.
-Jet Airways airlifts emergency relief (medicines and baby milk powder) free of cost from Delhi to Srinagar on its flight 3 SEP 08 following a request from an NGO.
-Inhabitants of Ladoora harassed by 32 Rashtriya Rifles. Senor army officer. RR32 are forcing people to replace shp-signs with Jai Hind, vande mataram.., and are being forced to say Indian national anthem at time of aftaar. people protest on Baramulla-Kupwara highway for 4 hours. Indian Army officer Rangathan denies allegations.
-Inhabitants of Kanwelwon Bijbehara harassed by Rashtriya Rifles 3 camped at banderpora
-State Task force and CRPF personnel loot and destroy shops in Lidder. harass people of Lidder. PRO CRPF, Prabhakar Tripathi denies allegations.
-SHO Manjakote and Hayatpura stages a "gunfight" as a pretext for arresting locals on charges of helping millitants. Residents have to leave Namaz-e-Taraweeh midway because of fake encounter.

2 September Tuesday
-Indian Security forces raid Nowhatta looking for protesters and beat many residents including a polio patient
-Union Minister Shiv Raj Patil voices India's keenness to reopen Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road. As per Patil INdia-Pakistan talking about opening of road.
-CRPF lay seige to Resistance leader Yasin Malik's house
-Resistance leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani recuperating in SKIMS
----Curfew diary----
-At least 35 martyred
-1053 injured in police action
-640 operated
-6 amputated

Thousands stage midnight pro-freedom demonstration in Islamabad

2008-09-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Thousands stage midnight pro-freedom demonstration in Islamabad

KHALID GUL
Greater Kashmir September 9
Updated at 0010 hours IST
Islamabad, Sep 9: Thousands of people took to the roads in this south Kashmir township, Monday night after former government gunmen barged into a house of a youth who had participated in recently held pro-freedom rallies.
Residents of Lazibal Islamabad told Greater Kashmir, “A group of former government gunmen barged into the house of Sajad Ahmed son of Mushtaq Ahmed and after dragging him out took him along.”
Locals said that former government gunmen have been barging into the houses during nights and taking away youth for past few days.
After Sajad was taken by the them, his family members raised an alarm and announcement was made in a local Masjid.
Within no time announcements were made in other Masjids and people raising pro-freedom slogans came out on the roads.
Thousands of people had assembled in Islamabad town and were staging massive pro-freedom demos when this report was filed.

TROOPS GO BERSERK, OVER 100 WOUNDED; PROTESTS THROUGHOUT VALLEY

2008-09-08T18:52:00.001-07:00

19 INJURED IN CRPF FIRING

Greater Kashmir September 9

TROOPS GO BERSERK, OVER 100 WOUNDED; PROTESTS THROUGHOUT VALLEY

ARIF SHAFI WANI /GOWHAR BHAT

Srinagar, Sep 8: The protests against a youth’s killing were responded with brute force on Monday when troopers of paramilitary CRPF thrashed people irrespective of age and fired indiscriminately on people at Nowhatta, Safa Kadal, Bagh-e-Mehtab and Varmul, wounding over hundred persons. At least 19 persons sustained bullet injuries. The incidents triggered massive demonstrations in various parts of the city with people demanding action against the accused troopers.

NOWHATTA MAYHEM
At least 30 persons, four of them critically, were injured when the troopers of CRPF went berserk and opened fire on a group of people at Nowhatta Monday evening.
“We were offering Asar prayers when cops smashed the window panes of the masjid. We rushed out and asked the cops reason for attacking the masjid. However, the cops asked the CRPF men accompanying them to open fire. They aimed their guns towards us and opened fire. There were screams and blood all around…,” the witnesses said.
They said four persons, one of them identified as Tariq Ahmad Shah son of Muhammad Sidiq Shah of Saidapora sustained bullet injuries in the shootout.
“As Tariq, who was hit by a bullet on his neck, was writhing in pain, the troopers continued to hit him with rifles butts. They tried to drag his body towards the police station,” witnesses said.
Earlier, Nowhatta turned into a battleground when hundreds of youth shouting pro-freedom slogans attacked the police station there with stones. Demanding action against the police officer who killed Javid Ahmad Bhat yesterday, the protesters engaged the troopers in ding dong battles throughout the day.
However, when the protesters reached near the police station, the CRPF troopers went on rampage firing dozens of rounds to disperse the mob. Eyewitness said after the protests, the troopers caught hold of many youth including kids and severely thrashed them. The pitched battles were going on in the area when reports last came in.

BATTLEGROUND SAFA KADAL
Two persons were injured when the security guards of Dr Jalaluddin, who heads the cardiology department of SK Institute of Medical Sciences, opened fire to disperse the protesters who intercepted his vehicle near Sekidafar Chowk. “On seeing a huge mob approaching towards the vehicle. Dr Jalal’s PSOs opened fire injuring two persons,” eye witnesses said.
Meanwhile, violent clashes took place between protesters and police at Safa Kadal and its adjoining areas, including Zampa Kadal, Chattabal, Kak Sarai and Karan Nagar. However when a large contingent of CRPF reached the spot they resorted to firing and fired several tear smoke shells to disperse the protesters. Dozens of people were injured in the incident.
The inhabitants of Sekidafar in Safa Kadal locality accused that the CRPF troopers of beat many people without any provocation. “Soon after the morning prayers, the troopers barged into our houses and smashed the window panes,” the locals alleged.
They said the CRPF troopers barged into a masjid in the area and ruthlessly beat up the Imam, Ajaz Ahmad. He sustained head injuries and was later shifted to SKIMS.
Soon after the incident, angry youth took to streets to protests the troopers’ atrocities. Shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, they staged protest demonstration and blocked the roads and fought pitched battles with the CRPF troopers. The troopers opened fire injuring one youth, Abid Ahmad, who received a bullet in his left arm.
The troopers thrashed many locals when they were collecting food grains from a ration depot in the area. In the onslaught, the store in charge of the Safa Kadal ration depot, Muhammad Yousuf and a shopkeeper Imtiyaz Ahmad were also injured.
Reports said later in the evening, the troopers of CRPF barged into several house at Ganderpora, Zadi Masjid and Nowpora areas of Seki Dafar and thrashed the inmates.

FIRING AT BAGH-E-MEHTAB
At least four persons were injured, one of them critically, after CRPF troopers opened fire on protestors at Bagh-e-Mehtab on city outskirts Monday evening. Witnesses said that some protestors pelted stones on a CRPF gypsy near the railway bridge in the area after which the troopers opened fire on the protestors. The injured were later shifted to hospital. One of the injured was identified as Ashraf Ahmed son of Ghulam Muhammad of Machow.

DISTRICTS TOO ON BOIL
Altaf Baba reports from Varmul: At least 25 persons were injured, 10 of them critically, when police and paramilitary forces opened fire on protestors in Varmul chowk. Five of the critically injured have been shifted to Srinagar.
In Varmul chowk, police baton charged youth and fire teargas canisters to disperse the protesters. Ten persons sustained bullet injuries when troopers opened fire on protesters near Cement Bridge here.
Rampaging CRPF personnel also ransacked the X-ray plant of district hospital, Varmul, which led the hospital authorities to lock the plant. Meanwhile, scores of people were injured by police throughout the day.
Khalid Gul reports from Islamabad: At least seven persons were seriously injured after police used force on protestors. More than 150 persons have been arrested by the police. Injured include the Imam of the Ahlihadees Masjid at Jogiyara. One Bashir Ahmed Teli son of Abdul Salam Teli was shifted to the hospital after grievous injuries. Locals alleged that the SHO has been threatening the people and arresting people who participated in freedom marches and provided vehicles and water to the marchers.
An undeclared curfew was one again clamped here in the interiors of the town on Monday following the violent clashes between the troopers and protesters on Sunday even as complete shutdown was observed in the district.
A huge contingent of Police and CRPF troopers was deployed in sensitive areas of the town including Malakh-Nag, Cheeni Chowk, Mattan Chowk and Kadipora till late evening and the movement of the people was curtailed. Most of the people were not even allowed to offer Zuhar and Asar prayers.
Even the patients were not allowed to go to the hospitals.
“My son was suffering from dehydration but I wasn’t allowed to take him to the hospital and had to rely on local medication,” said one Muhammad Yusuf.
The town witnessed massive protests following the alleged atrocities of the troops who on Friday had barged into several houses in Malakh Nag and Cheeni-Chowk and smashed the window panes of more than 200 houses and 100 vehicles.
The situation turned ugly after the Deputy-Commissioner Islamabad termed the story of the protesters as concocted saying that people have themselves broken the window panes of their houses and vehicles thus refusing to lodge an FIR against the erring troopers.
Three more youth were arrested on the intervening night from Malakhnag area with the residents saying that the troopers are carrying the snaps of the people involved in the protests and then raiding their houses during night.
Later in the evening here as soon as the curfew was relaxed women and children took to streets demanding immediate release of the arrested youth. Protesters also pelted stones at CRPF vehicles at Laizbal.

SHUTDOWN IN VALLEY
Life was crippled in Kashmir valley due to general strike call given by the Hurriyat-led Coordination Committee (CC), spearheading the present agitation, against the excessive use of force and killing of youth in Nowhatta on Saturday. The strike had been also called in protest against the Election Commission meeting in New Delhi to discuss elections in J&K.
All the shops, business establishments, schools, colleges and government offices remained closed for the third consecutive day while the private and the public transport also remained off the roads. Shutdown was also observed in almost all the towns and district head quarters,
In Sopur, youth took out a peaceful rally and marched in the town amid a complete shutdown. Shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans on the rooftops of buses and taxis, they later dispersed off peacefully. Shutdown was also observed in other districts including Budgam, Islamabad, Pulwama and Shopian.

Sept 4 - CRPF terrorizes Qazigund village

2008-09-07T05:46:00.000-07:00

Qazigund village ‘terrorized’

Greater Kashmir Sept 5

Women Beaten, Kids Thrashed, Youth Paraded Naked; SHO Refuses To File FIR Against CRPF

FAHEEM ASLAM/KHALID GUL

Wangud, Qazigund (Kulgam), Sep 4: The CRPF troopers beat up and wounded several women and more than 12 teenagers in this small hamlet in south Kashmir, during the strict curfew last week after the villagers refused to sing “Jai Mata Di (Long live Mata (Indian goddess)” “Vanday Mataram (I bow before thee o motherland),” and the Indian national anthem.
Not to be quoted by their names was the first request of the villagers, as they feared further reprisals. The villagers said they are “being terrorized” for participating in pro-independence marches.
The villagers said on August 26 the troopers of 154 Bn CRPF caught hold of a group of youth outside a Darasgah and asked them to sing Indian national anthem.
“One of the youth, Muhammad Ishaq Wani, refused to sing it saying he didn’t know anything about it and even if the Indian prime minister forced him to sing it he would not. This was not liked by the troopers and they tore off his clothes, leaving him naked,” the villagers said. Ishaq is a 12th pass student and working as a salesman.
After parading Ishaq naked, the troopers barged into dozens of houses and beat up the inmates to pulp, the villagers said. “They threw stones on window panes of the houses and damaged several vehicles,” the villagers said. The troopers had brought stones in a gunnysack, the villagers said.
Women who tried to intervene were also beaten severely. According to villagers, 40-year-old Hafeeza wife of Abdul Majeed Wani was brutally beaten by the troopers with bamboo sticks and gun buts inside a cow shed where she bled for nearly half an hour before her neighbours took her to hospital. She has six stitches in her head, and the bandage was blood stained.
Hafeeza’s daughter Mehbooba too was not spared when she attempted to rescue her mother. “The troopers threatened Hafeeza of dire consequences if she told the villagers or the media how she was injured,” the villagers said.
Mahtaba Bano, 70, wife of Abdul Majeed Wani has multiple bruises and haematoma. “She was asking them to stop atrocities, but she was thrashed severely,” the villagers added.
A pregnant woman Nayeema Akhtar wife of Fayaz Ahmad Wani was hit with bamboo sticks on her back.
The residents said a woman named Chashmeeda was walking on the road carrying her three-month-old baby when the troopers snatched the baby from her and beat her up severely. Chashmeeda has multiple injuries on arm.
“The troopers entered the house of a mentally challenged person and beat up his son Zakir Hussain Kuttay so savagely that he has 14 stitches in his head and arm,” the villagers said adding the troopers smashed the Dish TV antenna of one Muhammad Yousuf Rather while the vehicle of his fellow villager Abdul Hameed Wani was partially damaged.
“More than 200 glass panes were smashed with stones,” the villagers said.
They said the troopers tried to set ablaze the house of a villager Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh by spraying it with kerosene but his neighbor Muhammad Yousuf Rather snatched the kerosene can from the troopers. “Following this, the troopers broke Rather’s legs by ruthlessly beating him with gun butts,” the villagers said. Rather has fracture in his right leg.
A 10-year-old boy, Abrar Ahmad, was severely beaten. “The troopers asked him about his favourite cricket player. He named Shoaib Akhtar. Hearing this, the troopers started beating him,” the villagers said. They said Ahmad was rescued by his father who told the troopers that Abarar’s favourite player was Sachin Tendulkar and not Shoaib Akhtar.
The villagers said after the “collective punishment” the troopers left the area at 4 pm, but returned again to sing “Jana Gana Mana” and “Vanday Mataram” in the village. “More than 200 troopers in a frenzy celebrated in the village Allah knows what. They raised anti-Islam and anti-Azadi slogans,” the villagers said.
They said the Station House Officer of Dooru Police Station refused to file an FIR against the troopers.
“Please don’t name any of the victims in your story. The CRPF troopers will simply kill us. There is nobody here to listen to us, not even the police and district administration,” the villagers said.
The CRPF officials, however, deny having any information about the incident. “I don’t know anything about it. But I will certainly talk to the concerned commandant and ask him to inquire the matter,” said the CRPF’s Srinagar-based spokesman, Prabhakar Tripathi. “If the allegations are proved right, we will be taking action against the erring troopers. We won’t tolerate indiscipline at any cost.”

Pulwama
Residents of Litter Pulwama today alleged that the CRPF and troops posted in the area are not allowing them to open their shops.
A caller from Litter Pulwama told Greater Kashmir, “Since the land transfer agitation, the troopers are continuously harassing us and are not allowing us to open our shops.” The villagers said the troopers are beating the people who participated in peaceful pro-freedom marches

YOUTH KILLED IN NOWHATTA - Shot by forces at point-blank range

2008-09-07T05:34:00.000-07:00

YOUTH KILLED IN NOWHATTA

HE WAS FIRED FROM POINT-BLANK RANGE:EYEWITNESS

ARIF SHAFI WANI/GOWHAR BHAT

Srinagar, Sept 6: A youth was killed and several others were injured when police opened fire to quell a pro-freedom demonstration in the city’s Nowhatta area on Saturday. The incident triggered violent clashes across the city as protesters fought pitched battles with police and paramilitary troopers and also attacked Nowhatta police station with stones.
The trouble started when a group of youth, shouting pro-freedom slogans, staged demonstrations at Nowhatta Chowk. A large contingent of police reached the spot and fired dozens of tear smoke shells to disperse them.
Eyewitnesses told Greater Kashmir that a police official fired upon Javaid Ahmad Bhat, 23, son of Abdul Majid Bhat from point blank range outside his house. “Javaid was coming out of his house when the official directly fired upon him. He received a bullet on his chest, which left him injured severely,” they said. Hoping against hope that Javaid might survive, some youth rushed him to SMHS hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
When the news of the killing spread in the area, hundreds of angry youth assembled at Nowhatta and fought pitched battles with cops and troopers of paramilitary CRPF.
A pall of gloom descended upon the area when Javaid’s body was bought from the hospital. People in large numbers swarmed his residence at Nowhatta Chowk and tried to console his family. Wailing and beating their chest, women showered flower petals and candies on Javaid’s body while it was being taken for funeral prayers.
Shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, thousands of people carried Javaid’s body in a procession to the Martyr’s Graveyard at Eidgah. “Asalam Ae Shaheed Asalam (praise on you Oh! Martyr).
“Javaid’s killing is a cold blooded murder. He was innocent and never took part in protests,” the protesters said.
“We will continue to protest till action against the accused official is taken,” they said as Javaid’s body was being buried. After the burial, the procession marched towards Nowhatta. However, police intercepted the procession at Safa Kadal and cane-charged the protesters. The killing also fuelled massive protests in other parts of the city, including Karan Nagar, Maisuma, Sonwar, Rambagh. Youth took to streets and fought pitched battles with the police and CRPF troopers. Police had to resort to repeated baton charge and fired teargas shells to disperse them.
However, the senior superintendent of police, Syed Ahfadul Mujtaba, said police was compelled by the protesters to fire. “The protesters fired petrol bombs on the cops forcing them to fire rubber pellets which unfortunately hit vital organ of a youth and caused his death,” he said. However the SSP’s statement was contradicted by protesters and eyewitnesses who said youth were protesting peacefully and it were the police who provoked them by using force. They denied throwing of petrol bombs. “Petrol bombs are used in Jammu, not here. But the partisan cops won’t admit that,” said a youth.
“Cops fire teargas shells on peaceful protesters and provoke them to stone-pelting. Then the police has only one answer- bullets. This is the limit of oppression and the partisan officers are always ready to defend their trigger-happy cops,” the youth said.

Quit Kashmir: Nothing more, nothing less

2008-09-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Quit Kashmir: Nothing more, nothing less

Greater Kashmir Sept 5
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=2_9_2008&ItemID=21&cat=12

Let there be no distractions at all. Just one point. India must quit the land they have been occupying for so long, comments Fatima Syed

Today Kashmir burns with an increasing fierceness. Incessantly fueled by not just the political will of an anointed few, but by the common people who are feeding and stoking the fire as far as it will go.
Indian government has been taken by surprise, as has been the skeptical lot (from within and without) who were poised to argue that Kashmir’s will for freedom and independence was fast becoming a myth that could be debunked over evening drinks with friends from Delhi.
Now those friends from the capital should take the cue from Arundhati Roy, Jug Suraiya, Swaminathan Aiyar, and last but not least Vir Sanghvi. Even by minimal standards, if we take the CNN-IBN poll, 59% of Indians think Kashmir must be freed from occupation. This very moment India is face to face with a Kashmiri people’s revolution.
As Arundhati Roy put it “they are representing themselves”. Their verve is not letting up. You have to see to believe the grainy news videos on the Youtube where young Kashmiri boys march fearlessly as they are being fired upon. It reminiscent of Intifada and Intifada it is – against the Indian oppression.
There is no fear or reluctance to combat the gun wielding army, their frail chests thrust forward, bursting with passionate slogans. In some ways India can understand this passion for freedom better if only they could ever take off their biased lenses and see it through the eyes of their independence icon Bhagat Singh. Anyways.
The passion of Kashmiris for freedom from India is inspirational. This passion is as passion should be – fierce, persuasive, impulsive, avid, unlike the wont of the few, whose calculated strategy has been to keep the turmoil simmering in order to cook their daily bread and earn public accolades.
For some time now, a glaring misconception was being fashioned into an internationally accepted reality that Kashmir like Punjab was returning to normalcy. There was a push towards projecting that the “wrong” in kashmir was not an intrinsic affliction dogging it since its inception as a modern state, but a malady that came from outside.
As the normalcy card was touted, a huge merit was seen in things as trivial as sipping a insipid latte at a coffee shop, hosting friends from outside the valley, buying cell-phones (only to get the SMS axed), Ipods, upcoming trips abroad or the ultimate epitome of “religio-socio-political “freedom” of having a direct Hajj flight.(And hey, the tourism website is smash too)..
The whimpers of over 1 lakh deaths and counting were forced to drown in the cacophonic onslaught of the so-called economic development manifested in burgeoning real estate, jam-packed cars, increasing literacy rates - some universal variables which in some insane way were projected as if to offset the spate of killings, sex scandals, cultural oppression, rampant psycho-somatic illnesses and rising drug abuse. (What do you say, 10 killed but look at that new building being constructed). The situation is like someone cutting off a limb to gift a sophisticated prosthesis.
Everything was being done by the Indian government and by implication the puppet governments of Kashmir to project normalcy aka economic progress. It was rampantly insinuated, that the masses were weaned off their “dream” of azaadi as they scurried towards a drugged haze of consumerism. And sorry to digress, for all the progress touted, it boils to brazen consumerism - for what is happening in the valley is just a cosmetic development, when compared to real variables of progress - but that is another story.
BBC even managed to do a story in the initial days of Amarnath-kaand on how Kashmiri youth were growing up with different choices [Changing priorities, Geeta Pandey – June 26 2008]. The article stated that “the word “azaadi” was still a part of some people’s lexicon”; “some” implying that something otherwise was happening relevant with the majority. As per a young male student in the report, the primary topic for Kashmiri youth was “the issue is personal life. Students talk about their boyfriends and girlfriends, their love trouble…the number two topic of discussion is education, career, and employment opportunities. Then we share our concern for the environment. The fight for Kashmir ‘s freedom or where the separatist movement is headed is last on the list.”
However it did not take long for the real preference list to be manifested. The tragic killing of the 16 year protestor Asif Meraj amply answers the questions raised in the article about the priorities of Kashmiri youth, as they are emerging in the past few months.
In the wake of Amarnath land transfer, people of Kashmir have unceasingly protested. They are up in arms (unarmed no doubt) and relentless in their pursuit of an answer to the years of Indian occupation and the injustices committed by them.
Kashmiris have witnessed apparent and non-apparent destruction of their lives, culture and identity, and this brazen land transfer was a spark that burnt down the entire hoax Indian government has been constructing to wipe off Kashmir as an issue of freedom and independence from the collective international memory.
But now thanks to their glaring arrogant miscalculation, the wrong that is in Kashmir is not being plied by the handful few (who they time and again control as per their greater political strategies) but they have unleashed the giant of Kashmiri people’s collective will. The fight is no longer between “unknown faces” whom they can bill under aliases, tag them as foreigners, but every noon and cranny is teeming with the sons of the Kashmir rising in unison with Kashmiri air and Kashmiri soil to combat their illegitimate occupation.
Kashmiri rage is geared not only to address the injustices that are being committed by Indian occupation but it also questions the forces that tore it asunder in 1947. Mind you, it’s not only the rotting fruit that pushes the Kashmiris to the LOC. It’s the hearts and minds of those forced into submission decades ago that seek to overcome the lines of control and dream of a unified and independent Kashmir .
Treating Amarnath yatra as a tool of wielding territorial control, and handling the events following the land transfer has opened Pandora’s box for India . It can safely be counted as the Indian occupation’s biggest miscalculation in managing the turmoil in the valley. The ensuing facilitation of a checkered retaliation in Jammu which is also targeted towards the increasing Muslim demographic in Jammu has undone years of Indian Chanakya-neeti.
The discrimination between Jammu and valley is glaring. The kid-glove treatment received by the Jammu rioters who a la Gujrat sanghis did not hesitate from harassing Muslims or burning Kashmiri traders. Protestors in the valley are routinely fired upon and dispersed with brute force, using not only ordinary tear gar but expired Rudra shells. The entire Chanakyaneeti of the Indian intelligence while managing Kashmir issue and making it plausible for international community overlooked the human element. The events of the past couple of months have rejuvenated the Kashmiri appetite for struggle; reinforced by the oppression brazenly in their face for almost twenty years now. The cause of Kashmir , that was in the danger of being relegated as a passion of allegedly “some/few” has risen to surface - as well, alive, throbbing and kicking in every Kashmiri heart.
India mired in the hubris and sleaze of power, has done what it would not have wanted to do in a million years. They have made sure that the story of Kashmiri will and suffering is handed down to our future generation; that they receive this legacy of struggle reinforced and strengthened by the blood of new martyrs.
As I write this, our children are soaking this narrative of struggle, ensuring that the Kashmiri struggle against the occupation will not cease with this generation. As they do their part in inheriting this sad and strong legacy, we must do our bit in making sure that the single-mindedness with which we have risen together in the past months is not frittered away. The first step towards will be to consolidate the entire uprising of the past months under one aegis. No doubt cries for freedom and human rights are ricocheting, the mourning and lamenting is traversing the valley; but an overarching context has to be provided in order to simplify this agitation for the international community, at least for those who are taking notice and also for historic documentation.
We owe our children that we don’t fail this time while we are charting our way to their free and Independent future. Two simple words for India : QUIT KASHMIR.

(Fatima Syed can be contacted at fatimasyed@rocketmail.com)

Troops continue to terrorize villages

2008-09-04T23:20:00.000-07:00

Women Beaten, Kids Thrashed, Youth Paraded Naked; SHO Refuses To File FIR Against CRPF
GK Sept 5
FAHEEM ASLAM/KHALID GUL

Wangud, Qazigund (Kulgam), Sep 4: The CRPF troopers beat up and wounded several women and more than 12 teenagers in this small hamlet in south Kashmir, during the strict curfew last week after the villagers refused to sing “Jai Mata Di (Long live Mata (Indian goddess)” “Vanday Mataram (I bow before thee o motherland),” and the Indian national anthem.
Not to be quoted by their names was the first request of the villagers, as they feared further reprisals. The villagers said they are “being terrorized” for participating in pro-independence marches.
The villagers said on August 26 the troopers of 154 Bn CRPF caught hold of a group of youth outside a Darasgah and asked them to sing Indian national anthem.
“One of the youth, Muhammad Ishaq Wani, refused to sing it saying he didn’t know anything about it and even if the Indian prime minister forced him to sing it he would not. This was not liked by the troopers and they tore off his clothes, leaving him naked,” the villagers said. Ishaq is a 12th pass student and working as a salesman.
After parading Ishaq naked, the troopers barged into dozens of houses and beat up the inmates to pulp, the villagers said. “They threw stones on window panes of the houses and damaged several vehicles,” the villagers said. The troopers had brought stones in a gunnysack, the villagers said.
Women who tried to intervene were also beaten severely. According to villagers, 40-year-old Hafeeza wife of Abdul Majeed Wani was brutally beaten by the troopers with bamboo sticks and gun buts inside a cow shed where she bled for nearly half an hour before her neighbours took her to hospital. She has six stitches in her head, and the bandage was blood stained.
Hafeeza’s daughter Mehbooba too was not spared when she attempted to rescue her mother. “The troopers threatened Hafeeza of dire consequences if she told the villagers or the media how she was injured,” the villagers said.
Mahtaba Bano, 70, wife of Abdul Majeed Wani has multiple bruises and haematoma. “She was asking them to stop atrocities, but she was thrashed severely,” the villagers added.
A pregnant woman Nayeema Akhtar wife of Fayaz Ahmad Wani was hit with bamboo sticks on her back.
The residents said a woman named Chashmeeda was walking on the road carrying her three-month-old baby when the troopers snatched the baby from her and beat her up severely. Chashmeeda has multiple injuries on arm.
“The troopers entered the house of a mentally challenged person and beat up his son Zakir Hussain Kuttay so savagely that he has 14 stitches in his head and arm,” the villagers said adding the troopers smashed the Dish TV antenna of one Muhammad Yousuf Rather while the vehicle of his fellow villager Abdul Hameed Wani was partially damaged.
“More than 200 glass panes were smashed with stones,” the villagers said.
They said the troopers tried to set ablaze the house of a villager Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh by spraying it with kerosene but his neighbor Muhammad Yousuf Rather snatched the kerosene can from the troopers. “Following this, the troopers broke Rather’s legs by ruthlessly beating him with gun butts,” the villagers said. Rather has fracture in his right leg.
A 10-year-old boy, Abrar Ahmad, was severely beaten. “The troopers asked him about his favourite cricket player. He named Shoaib Akhtar. Hearing this, the troopers started beating him,” the villagers said. They said Ahmad was rescued by his father who told the troopers that Abarar’s favourite player was Sachin Tendulkar and not Shoaib Akhtar.
The villagers said after the “collective punishment” the troopers left the area at 4 pm, but returned again to sing “Jana Gana Mana” and “Vanday Mataram” in the village. “More than 200 troopers in a frenzy celebrated in the village Allah knows what. They raised anti-Islam and anti-Azadi slogans,” the villagers said.
They said the Station House Officer of Dooru Police Station refused to file an FIR against the troopers.
“Please don’t name any of the victims in your story. The CRPF troopers will simply kill us. There is nobody here to listen to us, not even the police and district administration,” the villagers said.
The CRPF officials, however, deny having any information about the incident. “I don’t know anything about it. But I will certainly talk to the concerned commandant and ask him to inquire the matter,” said the CRPF’s Srinagar-based spokesman, Prabhakar Tripathi. “If the allegations are proved right, we will be taking action against the erring troopers. We won’t tolerate indiscipline at any cost.”

Pulwama
Residents of Litter Pulwama today alleged that the CRPF and troops posted in the area are not allowing them to open their shops.
A caller from Litter Pulwama told Greater Kashmir, “Since the land transfer agitation, the troopers are continuously harassing us and are not allowing us to open our shops.” The villagers said the troopers are beating the people who participated in peaceful pro-freedom marches.

Fake encounters with imaginary militants a pretext for extortion

2008-09-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

Manjakote residents reject police claim of gunfight
GK Sept 5

SHAFIQ MIR

Rajouri, Sept 4: The residents of Manjakote and Hayatrpura villages of border district Rajouri couldn’t offer Namaz-e-Taraweeh on Wednesday evening, as according to them, the local Station House Officer of Police staged a fake gunfight and created an atmosphere of fear. The residents said the SHO wanted to make the “gunfight” as a pretext for arresting locals on charges of helping militants and extort money from them. Police, however, said that militants attacked a police party which had laid an ambush.
The residents said the firing which started around 9 PM when people of these two villages were offering prayers. They said they didn’t offer the full prayers and left the mosque for cover midway.
The village head, Talib Hussain Khan, said the “drama of firing was staged by local SHO with an intention to pick the local people and collect money from them.” Talib Hussain urged senior police officers to investigate the facts of this “so called gunfight, otherwise the issue would have serious consequences.”
He said the people of the area would come on streets on Friday to protest against “this drama.”
The deputy superintendent of police Rajouri K S Jasrotia, however, said the militants taking advantage of darkness and the cover of maize crop fled from the scene after attacking the ambush party.

Disappearances - Army refuses to produce accused colonel in court

2008-09-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

HC directs army to produce Colonel in 2 weeks

GK sept 5
Custodial disappearance

MUHAMMAD YOUSUF

Srinagar, Sept 4: The High Court on Thursday directed the army to ensure presence of colonel Kishore Malhotra involved in alleged disappearance of chemist before the investigating team in Srinagar within two weeks.
The Court rejected the application of the Army, which stated that the Colonel Malhotra couldn’t come to Kashmir from his present posting in Drass sector of Kargil.
The single bench of the High Court passed directions in a case of enforced disappearance of chemist Manzoor Ahmad Dar son Haji Ali Muhammad. Army on the evening of January 19, 2002 picked up Manzoor during a raid and subsequently subjected him to enforced disappearance.
The CJM Budgam who conducted inquiry into the case held Colonel Kishore Malhotra responsible for subjecting Manzoor to disappearance.
The Colonel was then Major with 35RR and he was regularly assuring the family members of Manzoor that he would be released. Later he denied his arrest.
Meanwhile, the family members filed petition in the Court seeking whereabouts of Manzoor. Pleading the case of petitioner’s family, Mian Abdul Qayoom said colonel Kishore Malhotra has failed to present himself before the investigating team of police and for last so many years army was resorting delay delaying tactics.
In response, the assistant solicitor general Anil Bhan said that the concerned colonel Kishore Malhotra has to remain present in the Drass sector of Kargil and he couldn’t be moved from there. He said due to infiltration attempts in the State, the officer couldn’t be come to Srinagar. He said the army colonel was not using delaying tactics to avoid the investigation by police.
However, the senior additional advocate general Muhammad Amin Rathore opposed the argument of the army counsel and said the Court has constituted a team under the SSP Srinagar to investigate the case.
He said the colonel should be brought to Srinagar to face investigation. The Court after hearing arguments of lawyers and the Army counsel rejected the Army application.
The Court directed the army to present Colonel Kishore Malhotra before the SSP Srinagar in two weeks. The Colonel Kishore Malhotra is also wanted in enforced disappearance case of Manzoor Ahmad of Qamarwari. The crime branch of the State police is investigating the case.

“We say freedom and they shoot”

2008-09-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

During siege we faced atrocities: Varmul residents

Greater Kashmir Sept 4

HILAL AHMAD/ARSHAD HUSSAIN

Varmul, Sep 3: Women of old Varmul town released their pent up anger on Tuesday morning against the crushing curfew and atrocities by armed forces by throwing grotesque barricades on the old Varmul Bridge into the Jhelum. The barricades—made of blocks of welded angled steel topped with one or two rows of concertina wire— had been put at the two ends of the bridge connecting old town with the district headquarters.
“We say freedom and they shoot,” said Muhammad Ramzan, standing on the bridge, “For the past fortnight we were like Palestinians facing siege and cruelty. Across they were aiming guns at us after having cut us off from the highway and other areas, and on this side we were like caged birds constantly threatened, beaten, and humiliated.” He said the signs of violence by the troops can be found on the bodies of scores of civilians.
Almost every civilian we spoke with accused the police, CRPF, and army of committing atrocities, including violence on children, women, and handicapped people. They said the troops aimed the tear smoke shells directly at the protesters.

Disfigured
Aijaz Ahmad Dar lost sight in the left eye when a tear smoke shell fired by police hit him. His right eye is sparkling brown. His damaged eye is the scary colour of a crushed grape. The two eyes make a horrifying contrast. At SMHS the doctors operated on him twice. Hesitantly he says, “Doctors have told my family that I won’t see with that eye again.” His uncle Muhammad Ashraf Dar said they try to console Aijaz by telling him that he would regain the sight. Javed used to sell fruits on a pushcart. He had dropped out of school because of poverty. The treatment so far has cost him Rs 10, 000. He would be operated again for a fractured nasal bone. With the impact of the tear smoke shell the upper set of teeth has loosened a bit. Multiple traumas are likely to keep him out of job for a long time to come. Javed was wearing dark goggles, which doesn’t match up with his shabby attire. Anybody could have mistaken him for a street urchin who is trying to show off. Before the tragedy he had never worn goggles.
“I don’t know how it will affect my life. For the time being I only know that mother weeps all the time and I am no more the same person,” he said.

Family ‘shelled’
Tear gas shells fired by the CRPF troopers and Police hit the cousins Khurshid Ahmad Malla and Tanveer Ahmad Malla of Mohalla Mir Sahib. Khurshid, a graduate student of arts, is bed ridden with a wounded thigh. His mother Raja Begum, 47, had gone to the district hospital for treatment. A tear smoke shell had hit her knee during the demonstrations last Sunday. Tanveer Ahmad, 22, a tailor, has 14 stitches in his upper lip.
“They were aiming tear gas shells directly at people. No warning shots were fired,” the Malla cousins said.

‘No respect for age’
Sonaullah Hajam, 65, said he was not among the protesters but the forces, CRPF and Police, fired a tear gas shell which hit him on the right arm. He said, “After the protests the troops have started to terrorise people. They have been so frustrated by the peaceful demonstrations that they want to stop them at all costs.”

Child protester spends
3 days in jail
“I was the youngest among many adults who were detained in the police station,” said Aqib Majeed Halwai, 13, son of Abdul Majid Halwai of Jalal Sahib Mohalla. Aqib was arrested during a demonstration a fortnight ago, and released three days later. “When his grandfather Ghulam Rasool Halwai went to the police station to seek Arif’s release he too was arrested and released four days later,” said Aqib’s mother Afroza. She said the troopers had ransacked her house.
“On the first day they beat me up and everybody else they had arrested,” Aqib said, showing his bruised left arm.
Aqib’s uncle Shabir Ahmad, with a humpback and deformed leg, was hospitalised for back injuries. He said, “I can’t even stand properly on my legs and they said I was throwing stones at police and CRPF.”
“When the troopers came to collectively punish the entire locality for pro-freedom demonstrations, they entered their house and dragged Shabir out of the house. Several women tried to save him but they took him away, dragging him all along on this rough lane. How can they be so cruel with a handicapped man,” said Maimoona, a neighbour, who said she sustained knee injuries when a trooper hit her with a bamboo stick. Her ankle was wrapped in crepe bandage.

Women face violence
Bilquees, 32, was attending to her brother Muhammad Rafiq Malla, a fruit vendor, in her home. Malla too has been hit by a tear smoke shell. Due to the injuries he has developed fever and looks quite weak. Bilquees said while his older brother is lying in bed at home, her younger brother Zahoor is living under constant fear of being arrested and beaten by an army officer “Captain Gaurav Sharma” of 46 Rashtriya Rifles battalion.
“Before the fresh agitation Sharma called Zahoor to the camp and beat him up ruthlessly,” Bilquees said, adding, “three days back the CRPF and police entered our homes and beat up several women, but we chased them away and pelted stones at them.” Sometimes he says he is a Muslim, but we don’t know what his real name is.
The residents said the captain always carries with him a camera. “He would sling a gun from the shoulders of children and then shoot their pictures. We don’t know the reason why he does this,” said Fatima of Jalal Sahib.
Shahzada of Mir Mohalla said, “They smashed glass panes of our windows and the shards fell over my pregnant sister Mehbooba sitting beneath the window. While leaving they struck a blow on her belly.”
Noora, 90, said, “They are real terrorists. One of them pointed a gun at me.” Her daughter in law Amina said, “My son (named Javed Ahmad) was caught on the road and his hands were burnt.”
The women of the area said the troopers come into their houses in the absence of men.

Police hunt for protesters

2008-09-03T03:53:00.000-07:00

Police hunt for protesters

Greater Kashmir Sept 3 2008
M HYDERI

Srinagar, Sep 2: It was return of fear of the troops of early ’90s on Monday night when police and paramilitary troopers raided Nowhatta area -the nerve center of downtown Srinagar- hunting for the local youth while the troopers beat many residents including a polio patient.
The residents said at around 11 PM, the troopers zoomed into the area in Gypsies, Scorpios and mini-trucks and cordoned the area of Rang Hamam, Nowhatta.
In no time, the troopers barged into the residential houses in the densely populated area and started inquiring about the locality youth.
Fearing raids due to past days of reported atrocities in the city, many youth had migrated to safer areas.
“But as the troopers couldn’t find their catch, they started thrashing us,” said the residents.
Some of the male family members, the complainants said, were even asked to report to the police station.
They said as the houses were being raided, cries could be heard from a Gypsy where a youth was being beaten. “None of them (youth) is here. You have misguided us and we wont leave you,” the residents quoted the troopers as saying while they kept beating the youth.
The locals believe the youth was arrested by police during daytime protests in a nearby area and was being tortured to identify other protesters.
“They are now forcing innocent people to work as informers. This will won’t ever tolerate,” shouted the people.
After the Rang Hamam episode, the troopers raided the adjoining area of Baba-ud-Din Sahib and made similar efforts in the area, reports said.
Police denies it. When contacted the superintendent of police, North City said: “ We have no such reports.”

Two stories in the Washington Post

2008-09-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

Rage in Kashmir meets India's brute force

By Alistair Scrutton
Reuters
Tuesday, September 2, 2008; 2:27 AM

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - The world's largest democracy locks up protest leaders without charge, shoots dozens of demonstrators dead, beats and intimidates ordinary citizens and raids homes without warrants.

Welcome to Indian Kashmir, where the biggest separatist protests in two decades have clashed with the might of the state.

"They are ruthless, trigger happy," said Ghulam Rasool Bhat, a laborer who says he was beaten by federal police after he tried to buy milk for his two nephews under a curfew in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir.

He lay in a bed, both legs bandaged where a soldier, shouting "Get your milk from Pakistan" had smashed a rifle into his shins. His legs felt, he said, as if in a continuous cramp.

Police have shot dead at least 35 Muslim protesters in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley after a row over land for a Hindu shrine spiraled into marches and strikes against Indian rule.

More than 1,000 people have been wounded in clashes over three weeks, hospital officials and police say, with the Kashmir Valley often under curfew. Hundreds of people have suffered police baton beatings and bullet wounds, doctors say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/02/AR2008090200130.html

In Kashmir, Conflict's Psychological Legacy
Mental Health Cases Swell in Two Decades

By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 1, 2008; Page A09

SRINAGAR, India

Suraya Qadeem's brother was one of the Kashmir Valley's brightest students. Handsome and disciplined, he had been accepted into a prestigious medical school in Mumbai. But just weeks before Tahir Hussain was to pack his bags, the 20-year-old was shot dead by Indian forces as he participated in a peaceful demonstration calling for Kashmir's independence.

At his funeral, Suraya Qadeem, also a medical student, wept so hard she thought she might stop breathing. Seventeen years later, she spends her days counseling patients in Indian-controlled Kashmir who have painfully similar stories.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/31/AR2008083102088.html

The crackdown continues...3 old men, herdsman "disappeard" by Indian army

2008-09-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

3 old men disappear in custody

Army, Police trade blames

Hakeem Irfan
Srinagar, Sep 01: Troopers of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) Army camp Gargarpora allegedly arrested three elderly persons from Kawoosa village near Narbal on the city outskirts on August 27. The trio is untraceable since.
The trio was arrested on charges of organising protests during the agitation in Kashmir, said Bilal Ahmed son Abdul Rehman Mir, 60, who is one among the three arrested.
Narrating the woeful tale of his aged father’s disappearance, Bilal Ahmed told Rising Kashmir that Abdul Rehman Mir along with his neighbours Abdul Majid Khan, 55 and Muhammad Ramzan Malik, 63, were arrested by RR men on August 27.

Denying any arrests, PRO army A K Mathur said: “The army is not supposed to arrest people involved in rioting. Besides, army cannot retain people for long.”
“Army deals with militancy related cases only. Local police handles all such cases of rioting,” Mathur said.
However, Superintendent of Police Budgam denied any such information but assured of tracking the case if any.
“I have no such information but age is no bar if people are involved in crime or rioting,” said SP Budgam.
Meanwhile, reports are pouring in from different districts where army is picking up the youth and after beating them ruthlessly for a day or two handover them to police.
SSP Islamabad Nitesh Kumar earlier confirmed the arrests of one dozen youth in his area.
“They are mostly teenagers involved in stone pelting on CRPF bunkers and police, we will not spoil their career by lodging cases against the minor incidents however any body involved heavily will have to face the law,” he said.
However reports from Islamabad said nearly 50 youth were detained. Most of them were released immediately in a day or two after their detention.
Scores of youth were detained in Bandipora, Kupwara and other areas but most of them were released later.
Earlier, the spree of detention started throughout the Valley immediately after protests against land transfer and then massive rallies against the Indian rule in the State.
Police started detaining people who had participated in protests.

Herdsman missing
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Wasim Khalid
Srinagar, Sep 01: Zahoor Ahmad, 15, a cattle herder was arrested by army at Poshwari area of north Kashmir Kupwara district’s Machil sector on August 23, after which his whereabouts are untraced, family members said.
“Zahoor was rearing cattle in the nearby forests when army troopers took him along,” said Zahoor’s father Ghulam Hassan Shah. “That day a fierce gun battle had started between militants and army on the Line of Control.”

Around 17 people were killed during the gunfight including a colonel rank officer.
Shah said after his son was apprehended, the army said he is lying with them and they were investigating him about certain things.
“From then onwards, he has not returned home,” Shah said.
“We approached the concerned army authorities frequently but they denied that he had been arrested by them.”
Afterwards, the family members said they registered an FIR in the concerned police station about his missing.
“But till date police has not traced Zahoor,” Shah said.
Zahoor is the youngest among four sibling whose mother passed away when he was a child. His three elder brothers Abdur Rashid, Abdul Majeed and Bashir Ahmad are waiting for their younger brother to return home.
“My brother is a very poor man. He used to earn by rearing cattle of the people,” said Zahoor’s brother Abdul Rashid.
“But now there is nobody to save the family. Neither there is anybody who would follow his case to trace him. The family is left on the mercy of God.”
The family members are now demanding that if the authorities could not provide his whereabouts, they should then give them his body.
Army spokesman, Lt Colonel A K Mathur said the 45 RR was engaged in the encounter the day Zahoor was arrested.
“So if there is any other unit we would inquire and try to locate provided he has been picked by the army,” Mathur said.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Kupwara, Uttam Chand said if the case has been registered with the police then “a proper legal action would be taken”.
About the arrest, he said he would ascertain the complaint and then would be able to comment on the subject.

Events log August 30 - September 1

2008-09-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

1 September Monday
-Resistance leader Shabir Shah detained under PSA and shifted to Srinagar Central Jail.
-Resistance leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik released from captivity.
-Resistance Leader Syed Ali shhah Geelani has been shifted to SKIMS Hospital
-CRPF troopers beat up and fire live ammunition and tear gas at protesters in Batmalloo
-No relaxation in curfew in Sopore, Varmul, Kupwara, Handwara,Nowhata, Rajouri Kadal, Nallahmar Road, Bohri Kadal
-Legal luminary A.G. Noorani: Govt-Samiti land settlement worse than May cabinet order
-Jammu Kashmir Peoples League condemns the statement of National Security Advisor regarding the cause of the martyrdom of Shaheed Sheikh Abduil Aziz.
-Curfew continues for 9th day

31 August Sunday
-Two youth injured in Rajouri Kadal when CRPF troopers fire live ammunition and smoke canisters
-Several people injured in Nowhatta when CRPF troopers fire on people buying vegetables. Amir Ahangar, Irshad Ahmad Keena and Nisar Ahmad serious.
-Ashwini of Special Operations Group (SOG) of Police throws grenade in room while intimidating the household of Ghulam Mohiuddin Wani. Following are injured: Ghulam Mohiudin his wife Naseema Bano, Abdul Qayoom Khanday, Ruby Jan and Jan Muhammad and Ashwini. Ashwini has been placed under suspension. Contradicting his suspension,Sp Shopian, Javaid Iqbal said: “Grenade was thrown from outside to kill Ashwani. Had the device been exploded by the constable himself he would have died."
-3 truckers Shoukat Ahmad of Pulwama, Mushtaq Ahmad Wani driving truck number (JK13 9828), Muhammad Ayoub KHan driving truck number (JK13 6970) attacked by Jammu mobsters in Kathua.Attack took place after the appeasement of rightwing Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti by the INdian government.
-Bandipora Students federation demands release of youths abducted in connection with demonstrations
-Nomads of Batawaley, Grathpatri and Radha are surviving by taking bread for lunch and dinner since rice supplies are not reaching them.
-Governer Narender Nath Vohra pleads ignorance as to attacks on journalists by CRPF troopers
-Pro-freedom demonstrations in Rajouri Kadal, Nowhatta, Malaratta, Saraf Kadal, Nawab Bazar, Zaldager, Nallah Mar, Habba Kadal and Tankipora
-Non-Kashmiri "Kashmir committee" reaches agreement with non-Kashmiri "Amarnath Samiti" over transfer of Kashmiri land. Samiti convener Leela Karan Sharma "e have suspended the agitation for the time being and not called it off, as some of our demands are yet to be met." "The exclusive use of the land has been given to the board without charging any money. This has been agreed upon"
--Jammu mobsters and extremist elements from India celebrate agreement between INdian government and non-Kashmir Amarnath Samiti for transfer of Kashmir land by holding Victory march. INdian trooopers resort to teargas and baton charging but mobsetrs coverge onto M.A.M. stadium
-Srinagar-Muzaffarabad trade route may be opened as "gesture of goodwill" to people of Kashmir, as per Saifuddin Soz
-Massive peaceful demonstration in Habba Kadal following the beating of Abdul Rauf who was going to pray. DSP Zulfiqar promises to look into the matter. CRPF officer apologises when crowd refuses to disperse.
-demonstration in Varmul
-Resistance Leader Muhammad Baqir Malik abducted by INdian Security forces
-Kashmiri Resistance (Co-ordination committee) rejects agreement between Indian government and Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti
-Kashmiri Resistance announces course of action: 01/09 people to hold peaceful demonstrations, 02/08-04/08 Complete shutdown to be observed
- National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah terms Amarnath accord "a very good sign" which has reached an "amicable end"
-PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti said " "The decision has been taken unilaterally by the Central Government, which has not taken care of the sensitivity of the majority community"
-Lal Chowk Chalo has NOT been canceled and next date to be announced.
-Indian govt. acquiring six feet wide and seven feet high barricades for use on Srinagar streets to stop demonstrations.
-Work on Mughal road stopped connecting Kashmir with Poonch and Rajouri has been stopped. As per HCC Assistant Project Manager Rajiv Kumar : "We stopped work at kilometre 25 as forest officials have denied permission to us to fell a dozen pine trees" Mughal Road Action Committee (MRAC), formed by the residents of the Poonch and Rajoui, threatens that in case the work on Mughal road is not resumed in a week’s time, they will launch “Kashmir Chalo Movement”.
-Curfew continues for 8th day

30 August Saturday
-Imam of Jamia Masjid Reshipora, Abdul Majid Wani abducted by troops fom Batpora cap. Father Abdul Khaliq tries to register FIR but police refuse to register case.
-ABdul Ahad kashmiri and 4 others abducted by Indian Security forces in Handwara
-Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) rejects UN enquiry into killings in Kashmir. As per Mehbooba killing is an internal matter of India
-Group "Concerned young citizens of india" group oraganising silent march to express solidarity with peple of kashmir-Daily Newspaper Etalaat stops publication due to unprecedented curfew restrictions. Journalists have been barred even the manhandles and abused by Indian Security forces.
-Resistance Leader Ayaz Akbar hidden by abductors in Sumbal police station
-Resistance Leader masrat Alam abducted by Indian Security Forces
People Union of Civil Liberties, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) and Janhastakshep (People's Intervention Group, Delhi), CPI(M), left and civil rights organisations sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, Delhi extending full support to Kashmiris and demanding that Kashmiris be given freedom.
-Pro-Kashmiri protest by Concerned Young Citizens of Mumbai (CYCM) derailed when Hindu chauvinist led by filmmaker Ashok Pandit (film Sheen) intimidate demonstrators and detain them in police station. Police later released them all on the condition that there won’t be any protest in support of Kashmir.
-Curfew continues for 7th day