wish2die
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Enraged over the recent spate of killings, a new generation is keeping the chant for azaadi alive. A friend from Kashmir, onthe rage within and how the government¡¯s dismissal of their anger and aspirations is only pushing more and more on to the streets.
Of the many life-sized billboards sponsored by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the one near the Palladium cinema in Srinagar¡¯s Budshah Chowk seems to be quite ironic as far as the CRPF¡¯s campaign to improve its image in Kashmirgoes.02 For, although the tagline sanctimoniously proclaims to protect the aspirations of the people, the hoarding overlooks a barbed CRPF bunker situated just some yards away from the place where a 16-year-old student, Inayat Khan, was shot by the CRPF on 8 January, this year.
Khan had just passed his Class X examinations and was returning home from a computer institute. Kashmir witnessed sporadic protests over the next few months as more and more boys lost their lives due to the police and CRPF action. On 31 January, a 13-year-old boy, Wamiq Farooq, was killed by the police in a stadium, where he had gone to play cricket. Farooq, eyewitnesses say, was watching some kids play carrom when a police vehicle approached the kids. A policeman fired a teargas shell at Wamiq¡¯shead, killing him on the spot.02 Though the police suspended an assistant sub-inspector for ¡°not having taken adequate precautions while firing asmoke shell towards protesters¡±, it backtracked by dubbing Wamiq ¡°a miscreant who attempted to murder a policeman¡± in its report filed before acourt on 20 February.
Within a week, the Border Security Force (BSF) men shot dead Zahid Farooq (16) not far from his residence in Nishat, on the city¡¯s outskirts. Though the BSF initially denied any role in the murder, it later suspended a commandant and a constable for the teenager¡¯s killing, and they are currently on trial.
While the Valley was seething with anger againstthe killings, on 13 April, Zubair Ahmed Bhat (17) drowned because of CRPF men in north Kashmir¡¯sSopore town. Zubair, along with his friends, was resting on the banks of Jehlum river.
When the CRPF troops chased them and forced them to jump into the river. Tufail Ahmad Matoo wasn¡¯t part of any protest. The 17-year-old student was returning home from tuitions when, on 11 June, policemen chasing protesters fired a teargas shell at his head, ironically in the same stadium where a police teargas shell had killed Wamiq in January.02 Again, the police issued contradictory statements. First, it said the teenager was killed by a stone, and then blamed two youth ¡°who dropped Tufail at the SMHS hospital (in Srinagar) before fleeing the spot¡± for his ¡°murder¡±.02 But a postmortem report later established a fire-arm injury as the cause of death.
A day after Tufail¡¯s death, Rafiq Bangroo (25) was severely thrashed by CRPF men outside his Safa Kadal residence in the old part of Srinagar city. Bangroo, a carpet weaver, died of critical head injuries after remaining in coma for a week. Anger turned into rage as some youth attacked a CRPF post the next day during Bangroo¡¯s funeral.
The killings of the teenage boys and the callous official response, or lack of it, only served to conflagrate the anger, especially amongst the young. On 13 April, the Army had claimed to havekilled the ¡°oldest militant¡±, aged 71, in an encounter in Handwara. However, a Lolab family identified the ¡®aged militant¡¯ as their father Habibullah, who was a beggar. The army modified its claim by saying that he might have been used as a guide or a human shield. The police registered a murder case against the army and started a probe. However, barely a week later, the army¡¯s Rashtriya Rifles killed another civilian, Ghulam Ahmed Kalas alias Khuda Bakhsh, along with two of his horses in Kellar area of Shopian. Massive protests followed, in which locals torched two army vehicles. Kalas was the father of eight.
The news of a fake encounter of three youth by the Indian army further intensified the anger. On 29 April, Muhammad Shafi Lone (23), Shehzad Ahmed (27) and Riyaz Ahmed (22), all residents ofNadihal Rafiabad, were lured by Ikhwanis or counter-insurgents to a camp of the army¡¯s Rashtriya Rifles in Kupwara. They were promised jobs, but were instead taken to the Machil sector near the Line of Control the following day, where men from the 4 Rajput Rifles unit killed them in an encounter.
But Tufail¡¯s killing propelled the protests out of control as thousands of youth across the Valley took to the streets, marking the beginning of an uprising by Kashmir¡¯s young generation for the third consecutive year. The government imposed curfew across most parts of Kashmir, but that proved to be little deterrent to the angry youngsters.
Since Tufail¡¯s killing, more than 60 people, most of them in their teens and youth, have been shot dead as the police and the CRPF opened fire at funerals, inside homes, on streets, while boys as young as nine were beaten to death, shot at, or chased into rivers and streams.
The public rage continues to intensify. More than 500 young people have been treated, or are undergoing treatment at Srinagar¡¯s major hospitals; most of those injured or killed in the CRPF or police firing were hit above the waist. Dr Syed Amin Tabish, the medical superintendent of the SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Kashmir¡¯s premiere medical care facility, says, ¡°The maximum number of injuries we've treated in the last few weeks have been firearm injuries. Most patients sustained head and chest wounds.¡± The hospital has received nearly 150 injured civilians since July. ¡°Most have been youth, between the ages of 15 to 25 years. Some are even below 12,¡± he adds.
s 11 civilians fell to bullets in June alone, Home Minister P Chidambaram said the ¡°anti-national elements¡±, who he had earlier blamed for instigating violence in the Valley, were linked to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba. The home ministry¡¯s response to the unrest revolved around Pakistan, ISI and LeT, even as Kashmir¡¯s death toll mounted further over the next month ¡ª 30 were killed in the first week of August alone. ¡°Pakistan appears to have altered its strategy in influencing events in Jammu and Kashmir,¡± Chidambaram told the Parliament during a debate on the protests. ¡°It is possible that they believe that relying upon civilian unrestwill pay them better dividends. But, I am confident if we are able to win the hearts and minds of the people...those designs can be foiled.¡±
The use of live ammunition and teargas shells against stone throwing protesters, a nearly two-month-long stringent curfew and the deployment of the army and riot police hasn¡¯t won many ¡°hearts in Kashmir¡±,
The protest and street rage have taken a dimension of their own.02 It¡¯s not just about stones. The young are using graffiti to protest, with slogans like ¡®Go India Go¡¯ and ¡®We want freedom¡¯ appearing on the streets, roads and walls across the Valley. Some have used graffiti to imprint these slogans even on stray animals. Armed with mobile phones and internet connection, many young people have been storming popular video sites like YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook with videorecordings of protests, alleged human rights violation by forces¡¯, etc. In fact, when three teenagers were killed by the police in south Kashmir¡¯s Anantnag district on 29 June, an official statement claimed that they had been shot following ¡°arson and damage to public and private property by miscreants on the streets¡±. However, some local youth uploaded a mobile video showing images of a young boy ¨C lying dead in the lawn of one of the victim¡¯s house, even as locals tried to offer water to the boys cladin jeans and shirts drenched with blood, on YouTube and Facebook.
22-year-old Ghulam Ahmad* is recuperating at a hospital in Srinagar after a teargas shell hit him in the head during a protest. On 3 August, he says, the CRPF and police had killed his close friend, Anees Ahmad (19) in front of his eyes. ¡°He was just standing outside his home when the police and CRPF men opened indiscriminate fire. Iaccompanied him to the hospital, where he died.¡±Later that day, Ghulam says, he shouldered Anees¡¯coffin to the Martyrs¡¯ Graveyard in Eidgah. ¡°I couldn¡¯t control myself and went to pelt stones,¡± he adds.
Enraged over civilian killings, thousands of boys like Ghulam have been taking to the streets to fight pitched stone pelting battles against the forces on the streets of Srinagar, Pulwama, Kupwara, Sopore, Baramulla, Anantnag and other areas of the Valley, defying curfews, daring02 the forces¡¯ teargas shells and bullets.02 ¡°Our brothers are being killed. India says it is a democracy, but even before a peaceful protest is to begin, the CRPF men and police disperse it with bullets and teargas shells. What option is left with us other than to pelt stones?¡± says 25-year-old Shaban*, who lives on the outskirts of Srinagar.
This Bachelor of Arts graduate is livid that the state and central governments, instead of acknowledging the anger and aspirations, have been dubbing the young people as ¡°mobsters, gangsters and paid trouble-makers.¡± Shaban, who runs a readymade garment business in the city, says, ¡°I earn more than enough to feed myself and my family. Why would I risk my life for a few hundred rupees to face the police and troops¡¯ bullets?¡± he asks.
There is clearly no one person or party leading the protests. Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq says that Kashmir¡¯s young are disillusioned. ¡°They are a part of the society. Theycan't remain spectators to the killings taking place all over the Valley. India¡¯s massive human rights violations have only pushed the young generation of Kashmir, which has run out of patience, to come out on the streets ¨C infuriated, defiant and ready to die.¡± Even Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, after repeatedly blaming the separatist leaders for the violence, admitted that most of the protests ¡°look leaderless¡±
In a bid to woo the ¡°disenchanted¡± Kashmiri youth, on 13 August, Abdullah announced an employment package, which would give jobs to 50,000 young people within the next few months. ¡°While no economic or employment packages can heal the wounds, economic development is also an essential component of the wellbeing of the state and its people, and cannot be ignored,¡± he said. The announcement came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted an expert committee, headed by former RBI governor Dr C Rangarajan, to devise a jobs scheme for the Kashmiri youth. Abdullah, who has been under fire for a lackadaisical and indifferent attitude to the current crisis, is apparently banking on the employment package for cooling the temper amongst Kashmir¡¯s angry, young generation.
In a bid to woo the ¡°disenchanted¡± Kashmiri youth, on 13 August, Abdullah announced an employment package, which would give jobs to 50,000 young people within the next few months. ¡°While no economic or employment packages can heal the wounds, economic development is also an essential component of the wellbeing of the state and its people, and cannot be ignored,¡± he said. The announcement came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted an expert committee, headed by former RBI governor Dr C Rangarajan, to devise a jobs scheme for the Kashmiri youth. Abdullah, who has been under fire for a lackadaisical and indifferent attitude to the current crisis, is apparently banking on the employment package for cooling the temper amongst Kashmir¡¯s angry, young generation.
Not everyone is impressed. Farooq says, "Instead of understanding the reason for young Kashmiris,who are coming on to the streets, the government is repeating its traditional policy of employment and economic packages. Kashmir's young are not coming onto the streets for jobs, economic development,02 governance, or integration into the mainstream. They are demanding a political solution to the dispute.¡± According to Abdul Rashid, an independent member of the legislative assembly from north Kashmir¡¯s Langate constituency, blaming the separatist leaders and militant outfits for the anger is like mistaking the trees for the woods. The young feel that there has been a systematic denial of justice on the part of the state and the central governments when it comes to human rights violations. ¡°Unfortunately, the centre is acting deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to the aspirations of the Kashmiri youth. They want an end to the human rights violations by men in uniform, and a solution to the political problem that consumed generation after generation in Kashmir.¡±
Of the many life-sized billboards sponsored by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the one near the Palladium cinema in Srinagar¡¯s Budshah Chowk seems to be quite ironic as far as the CRPF¡¯s campaign to improve its image in Kashmirgoes.02 For, although the tagline sanctimoniously proclaims to protect the aspirations of the people, the hoarding overlooks a barbed CRPF bunker situated just some yards away from the place where a 16-year-old student, Inayat Khan, was shot by the CRPF on 8 January, this year.
Khan had just passed his Class X examinations and was returning home from a computer institute. Kashmir witnessed sporadic protests over the next few months as more and more boys lost their lives due to the police and CRPF action. On 31 January, a 13-year-old boy, Wamiq Farooq, was killed by the police in a stadium, where he had gone to play cricket. Farooq, eyewitnesses say, was watching some kids play carrom when a police vehicle approached the kids. A policeman fired a teargas shell at Wamiq¡¯shead, killing him on the spot.02 Though the police suspended an assistant sub-inspector for ¡°not having taken adequate precautions while firing asmoke shell towards protesters¡±, it backtracked by dubbing Wamiq ¡°a miscreant who attempted to murder a policeman¡± in its report filed before acourt on 20 February.
Within a week, the Border Security Force (BSF) men shot dead Zahid Farooq (16) not far from his residence in Nishat, on the city¡¯s outskirts. Though the BSF initially denied any role in the murder, it later suspended a commandant and a constable for the teenager¡¯s killing, and they are currently on trial.
While the Valley was seething with anger againstthe killings, on 13 April, Zubair Ahmed Bhat (17) drowned because of CRPF men in north Kashmir¡¯sSopore town. Zubair, along with his friends, was resting on the banks of Jehlum river.
When the CRPF troops chased them and forced them to jump into the river. Tufail Ahmad Matoo wasn¡¯t part of any protest. The 17-year-old student was returning home from tuitions when, on 11 June, policemen chasing protesters fired a teargas shell at his head, ironically in the same stadium where a police teargas shell had killed Wamiq in January.02 Again, the police issued contradictory statements. First, it said the teenager was killed by a stone, and then blamed two youth ¡°who dropped Tufail at the SMHS hospital (in Srinagar) before fleeing the spot¡± for his ¡°murder¡±.02 But a postmortem report later established a fire-arm injury as the cause of death.
A day after Tufail¡¯s death, Rafiq Bangroo (25) was severely thrashed by CRPF men outside his Safa Kadal residence in the old part of Srinagar city. Bangroo, a carpet weaver, died of critical head injuries after remaining in coma for a week. Anger turned into rage as some youth attacked a CRPF post the next day during Bangroo¡¯s funeral.
The killings of the teenage boys and the callous official response, or lack of it, only served to conflagrate the anger, especially amongst the young. On 13 April, the Army had claimed to havekilled the ¡°oldest militant¡±, aged 71, in an encounter in Handwara. However, a Lolab family identified the ¡®aged militant¡¯ as their father Habibullah, who was a beggar. The army modified its claim by saying that he might have been used as a guide or a human shield. The police registered a murder case against the army and started a probe. However, barely a week later, the army¡¯s Rashtriya Rifles killed another civilian, Ghulam Ahmed Kalas alias Khuda Bakhsh, along with two of his horses in Kellar area of Shopian. Massive protests followed, in which locals torched two army vehicles. Kalas was the father of eight.
The news of a fake encounter of three youth by the Indian army further intensified the anger. On 29 April, Muhammad Shafi Lone (23), Shehzad Ahmed (27) and Riyaz Ahmed (22), all residents ofNadihal Rafiabad, were lured by Ikhwanis or counter-insurgents to a camp of the army¡¯s Rashtriya Rifles in Kupwara. They were promised jobs, but were instead taken to the Machil sector near the Line of Control the following day, where men from the 4 Rajput Rifles unit killed them in an encounter.
But Tufail¡¯s killing propelled the protests out of control as thousands of youth across the Valley took to the streets, marking the beginning of an uprising by Kashmir¡¯s young generation for the third consecutive year. The government imposed curfew across most parts of Kashmir, but that proved to be little deterrent to the angry youngsters.
Since Tufail¡¯s killing, more than 60 people, most of them in their teens and youth, have been shot dead as the police and the CRPF opened fire at funerals, inside homes, on streets, while boys as young as nine were beaten to death, shot at, or chased into rivers and streams.
The public rage continues to intensify. More than 500 young people have been treated, or are undergoing treatment at Srinagar¡¯s major hospitals; most of those injured or killed in the CRPF or police firing were hit above the waist. Dr Syed Amin Tabish, the medical superintendent of the SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Kashmir¡¯s premiere medical care facility, says, ¡°The maximum number of injuries we've treated in the last few weeks have been firearm injuries. Most patients sustained head and chest wounds.¡± The hospital has received nearly 150 injured civilians since July. ¡°Most have been youth, between the ages of 15 to 25 years. Some are even below 12,¡± he adds.
s 11 civilians fell to bullets in June alone, Home Minister P Chidambaram said the ¡°anti-national elements¡±, who he had earlier blamed for instigating violence in the Valley, were linked to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba. The home ministry¡¯s response to the unrest revolved around Pakistan, ISI and LeT, even as Kashmir¡¯s death toll mounted further over the next month ¡ª 30 were killed in the first week of August alone. ¡°Pakistan appears to have altered its strategy in influencing events in Jammu and Kashmir,¡± Chidambaram told the Parliament during a debate on the protests. ¡°It is possible that they believe that relying upon civilian unrestwill pay them better dividends. But, I am confident if we are able to win the hearts and minds of the people...those designs can be foiled.¡±
The use of live ammunition and teargas shells against stone throwing protesters, a nearly two-month-long stringent curfew and the deployment of the army and riot police hasn¡¯t won many ¡°hearts in Kashmir¡±,
The protest and street rage have taken a dimension of their own.02 It¡¯s not just about stones. The young are using graffiti to protest, with slogans like ¡®Go India Go¡¯ and ¡®We want freedom¡¯ appearing on the streets, roads and walls across the Valley. Some have used graffiti to imprint these slogans even on stray animals. Armed with mobile phones and internet connection, many young people have been storming popular video sites like YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook with videorecordings of protests, alleged human rights violation by forces¡¯, etc. In fact, when three teenagers were killed by the police in south Kashmir¡¯s Anantnag district on 29 June, an official statement claimed that they had been shot following ¡°arson and damage to public and private property by miscreants on the streets¡±. However, some local youth uploaded a mobile video showing images of a young boy ¨C lying dead in the lawn of one of the victim¡¯s house, even as locals tried to offer water to the boys cladin jeans and shirts drenched with blood, on YouTube and Facebook.
22-year-old Ghulam Ahmad* is recuperating at a hospital in Srinagar after a teargas shell hit him in the head during a protest. On 3 August, he says, the CRPF and police had killed his close friend, Anees Ahmad (19) in front of his eyes. ¡°He was just standing outside his home when the police and CRPF men opened indiscriminate fire. Iaccompanied him to the hospital, where he died.¡±Later that day, Ghulam says, he shouldered Anees¡¯coffin to the Martyrs¡¯ Graveyard in Eidgah. ¡°I couldn¡¯t control myself and went to pelt stones,¡± he adds.
Enraged over civilian killings, thousands of boys like Ghulam have been taking to the streets to fight pitched stone pelting battles against the forces on the streets of Srinagar, Pulwama, Kupwara, Sopore, Baramulla, Anantnag and other areas of the Valley, defying curfews, daring02 the forces¡¯ teargas shells and bullets.02 ¡°Our brothers are being killed. India says it is a democracy, but even before a peaceful protest is to begin, the CRPF men and police disperse it with bullets and teargas shells. What option is left with us other than to pelt stones?¡± says 25-year-old Shaban*, who lives on the outskirts of Srinagar.
This Bachelor of Arts graduate is livid that the state and central governments, instead of acknowledging the anger and aspirations, have been dubbing the young people as ¡°mobsters, gangsters and paid trouble-makers.¡± Shaban, who runs a readymade garment business in the city, says, ¡°I earn more than enough to feed myself and my family. Why would I risk my life for a few hundred rupees to face the police and troops¡¯ bullets?¡± he asks.
There is clearly no one person or party leading the protests. Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq says that Kashmir¡¯s young are disillusioned. ¡°They are a part of the society. Theycan't remain spectators to the killings taking place all over the Valley. India¡¯s massive human rights violations have only pushed the young generation of Kashmir, which has run out of patience, to come out on the streets ¨C infuriated, defiant and ready to die.¡± Even Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, after repeatedly blaming the separatist leaders for the violence, admitted that most of the protests ¡°look leaderless¡±
In a bid to woo the ¡°disenchanted¡± Kashmiri youth, on 13 August, Abdullah announced an employment package, which would give jobs to 50,000 young people within the next few months. ¡°While no economic or employment packages can heal the wounds, economic development is also an essential component of the wellbeing of the state and its people, and cannot be ignored,¡± he said. The announcement came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted an expert committee, headed by former RBI governor Dr C Rangarajan, to devise a jobs scheme for the Kashmiri youth. Abdullah, who has been under fire for a lackadaisical and indifferent attitude to the current crisis, is apparently banking on the employment package for cooling the temper amongst Kashmir¡¯s angry, young generation.
In a bid to woo the ¡°disenchanted¡± Kashmiri youth, on 13 August, Abdullah announced an employment package, which would give jobs to 50,000 young people within the next few months. ¡°While no economic or employment packages can heal the wounds, economic development is also an essential component of the wellbeing of the state and its people, and cannot be ignored,¡± he said. The announcement came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted an expert committee, headed by former RBI governor Dr C Rangarajan, to devise a jobs scheme for the Kashmiri youth. Abdullah, who has been under fire for a lackadaisical and indifferent attitude to the current crisis, is apparently banking on the employment package for cooling the temper amongst Kashmir¡¯s angry, young generation.
Not everyone is impressed. Farooq says, "Instead of understanding the reason for young Kashmiris,who are coming on to the streets, the government is repeating its traditional policy of employment and economic packages. Kashmir's young are not coming onto the streets for jobs, economic development,02 governance, or integration into the mainstream. They are demanding a political solution to the dispute.¡± According to Abdul Rashid, an independent member of the legislative assembly from north Kashmir¡¯s Langate constituency, blaming the separatist leaders and militant outfits for the anger is like mistaking the trees for the woods. The young feel that there has been a systematic denial of justice on the part of the state and the central governments when it comes to human rights violations. ¡°Unfortunately, the centre is acting deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to the aspirations of the Kashmiri youth. They want an end to the human rights violations by men in uniform, and a solution to the political problem that consumed generation after generation in Kashmir.¡±
