Kashmir Views

Foreigners are not a target in the Valley

2011-07-29T19:30:00.000+05:30

Germany amends adverse travel advisory for its citizens visiting the Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh

Baba Umar

Srinagar

In a move that will be a welcome shot in the arm to Jammu and Kashmir’s tourism sector, Germany has amended adverse travel advisory for its citizens visiting the Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh saying foreigners are not a “target”. The statement released by the German embassy in New Delhi, says the situation in the Valley has “calmed down considerably” and foreigners were not the direct target of clashes.

“I would like to inform you that further to the visit of Ambassador Thomas Matussek to Kashmir in June and his interaction with journalists, the travel advisory issued by the Federal Foreign Office for German nationals travelling to the region has been revised”, said Jens Urban, spokesman at German Embassy in New Delhi.

The significant revision in the advisory regarding Kashmir gave an overview of the security situation in the valley and clarified that the situation had now calmed down considerably and said, “Foreigners are generally not direct targets of clashes.”

With this, Germany has become the first foreign country to change its travel advisory on Kashmir after almost 16 years while most of the western countries still continue with their adverse advisories to their citizens, asking them not to visit Kashmir valley. The development has come following meeting of chief minister Omar Abdullah with the German ambassador on June 24 this year. The German ambassador had also met Governor NN Vohra, key trade body Kashmir Chamber of Commerce, Kashmiri Pandits and the pro-freedom leaders including the Hurriyat Conference (M) Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

“Kashmir is as peaceful and beautiful as I saw it when I first visited in 1982-83. If it’s as normal as peaceful as relaxed at it would be, I would see that we can possibly revise this travel advisory to encourage again German tourists into the Valley,” Matussek had said during his visit.

Targeting foreigners has been very rare in Kashmir except for the July 1995 episode when suspected militants of Al-Farhan group abducted six foreign tourists including a German, Dirik Hasert from a tourist spot at Pahalgam in South Kashmir. Other trekkers who were abducted included two British tourists, Keith Mangan and Paul Wells; two Americans, John Childs and Donald Hutchings and a Norwegian, Hans Christian Ostro. Four other tourists and two local guides were released. Of the six Ostro was beheaded, Childs escaped and the rest are presumed dead. Al Farhan, believed to be a front for the Harkat-ul Mujahideen, had demanded the release of almost 20 militants from India, including Masood Azhar who was later released in 1999 in exchange for the passengers of the hijacked IC 814 airliner.

Germany’s move is positive for the state where tourism contributes significantly to the state’s GDP. The foreign tourists visit to the Valley has remained appallingly low during the past twenty two years of dispute, drastically dwindling from 68,000 in 1989 to 22,000 in 2008, according to reports. Almost 25 per cent of foreigners who at the peak of tourism in 1989 travelled to Kashmir were German while the record of 7.22 lakh tourists (excluding Amarnath Yatris) set in the same year is yet to be broken.

In a bid to woo foreigners, the state government has been taking several measures. In 2010 the government decided to reopen 104 peaks for trekking and mountaineering situated at an altitude ranging from 9,842 feet to 7,800 meters 25,590 feet, mostly in the Eastern Karakoram mountain range of Ladakh. The German fresh travel advisory has also come for Jammu and Ladakh. Jammu is basically stable, though the situation might change and travelers are advised to obtain information regarding the security situation prior to their visit, the Embassy officials have cautioned. For Ladakh, the advisory’s reference to the 2010 flash floods and unsafe trek routes has been removed and the fresh advisory recommends trekkers to travel with trained local guides and to avoid border areas due to security considerations.

The development has been welcomed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who called it a "pragmatic decision” while Minister of State for Tourism, Nasir Aslam Wani, termed lifting of advisory by Germany as “great news” for Kashmir tourism industry. “Kudos to the German Ambassador in Delhi and his government for the pragmatic decision to revise the travel advisory related to Kashmir,” Omar tweeted immediately after the statement. Omar expressed hope that rest of the western countries too will be encouraged to reconsider their travel advisories on Kashmir.

Carin Jodha Fischer, a German-American who works on rural tourism development in Kashmir since 2007 says the modification of the travel advisory is a good start. “Hopefully, one day soon it will be completely withdrawn,” she told TEHELKA. She says there has never been the slightest security problem even during the controversial Baltal land row of 2008, and the clashes of 2009 through 2010.

“I work in the remotest of areas and also have never faced a threat of any kind. As my son always says ‘Kashmir may be inconvenient at times but it is 100% safe’. In fact, it is perhaps one of the safest places to visit anywhere, and comparative ten year statistics of tourists being harmed elsewhere would back up that claim.”

Fischer, however, warned of lack of health insurance for foreign adventure travelers and unnecessarily harassment of tourists by J & K state police agencies that impedes foreigners rush to Kashmir.

Baba Umar is a Correpsondent with Tehelka.

babaumar@tehelka.com

Kashmir erupts in anger after Kulgam 'rape', 'abduction'

2011-07-25T15:04:00.001+05:30

Still unable toovercome the tragic events of 2010 summer the edgy state government is again ontenterhooks following the alleged abduction and rape of a married tribeswomanby unidentified armymen in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. The incident thathas triggered violent protests in the district followed by strike call by theseparatist politician Syed Ali Shah Geelani is threatening the fragile peace asmany fear beginning of another bloody summer.

On July 21Rafiqa ( 25), name changed, of Manzgam village of Kulgam’s Damal Hanjipora tehsil allegedarmymen of abduction and rape before being released in an unconscious state.The news spread like a wildfire with thousands of people taking to streetsraising pro-freedom slogans and demanding stern action against the accused armymen. Sensing trouble the government quickly mobilized its machinery. Ministerof State Nasir Aslam Wani and Director General of police reaching the spot andassured people that action would be taken against the armymen. On Thursdayevening, the police registered a case of rape and abduction in FIR 66/2011under section 366,376 Ranbir Penal Code in Police Station Damhal Hanji Porawhile a special investigation team was announced too.

Police said thevictim was accompanied by her brother-in-law Shah Wali Bhat who told policethat the victim was forcibly taken by two men in “security force uniform” onJuly 19 evening when the victim was performing ablution in a nearby springclose to the family’s home. The police said the victims alleged she wasforcibly taken to the forests close to Gujjar dar village in the lofty PirPanchaal mountain range. “The duo kept her in a hutment (dhok) and raped her.There were some utensils and one of them would make tea in another dhok. Theywould take biscuits and didn’t give anything to her. Both of them were sportingbeard. They would talk to her in Gojri, and with each other they exchangeddifferent language. They left her today (Thursday) morning and she reached herhome and informed her brother in law the entire incident,” the police statementsaid.

Since thenprotests have failed to subside in Kulgam where protesters burned down arevenue official’s vehicle and damaged couple of private vehicles too on Fridayafternoon. The police and paramilitary CRPF personnel retaliated by firingbullets in air and tear gas canisters. They also cane charged hundreds ofprotesters who raised anti- India and pro-freedom slogans. The area continuesto remain tense.

Whileopposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mahbooba Mufti visited the areaand demanded a “impartial” probe by the police, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah,unlike 2009 Shopain double rape and murder allegation, appeared cautious. Heassured justice to the family and warned those responsible would not be let offon the micro-blogging website twitter. In a post on Twitter, he wrote, “Thesize of army unit in area is less than 20 strong, so identification paradewon’t be a problem. Guilty won’t be spared either AFSPA or no AFSPA.”The armywhich is in the line of fire convened an emergency press conference to clearits position.

Army’s GeneralOfficer Commanding (GOC) 15th Corps Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain warned of “strictaction” and extended full support to police investigations. Reacting to aquestion about Omar’s idea of holding identification parade, Hasnain said thearmy will check the legality of such option.“I’ll see if the identificationparade is legally acceptable. I would consult legal experts. If yes, I won’tforeclose the option.” The officer didn’t rule out possibility of theinvolvement of army personnel in the alleged rape and abduction.He said,“Possibility of chinks in our armour can’t be ruled out. All angles have to beconsidered at this stage and we’re assisting police in its investigation.” TheGOC, however, sounded a word of caution too. “It’s a criminal act and theoffender must be punished. But not only army, terrorists or militants too wearthe combat uniform and carry radio sets,” he said, adding “It’s impossible thattwo army men with weapons can remain missing from the camp for two days.” GOCsaid army has ordered a fast-track internal inquiry and “if need arises” theywill quiz the lady (Rafiqa).

On Friday whenmedia personnel reached the victims house, her husband Mohammad Latief Bhatpreferred to stay hushed about what his wife told him after being fetched in asemi-conscious state near a stream up in the Manzgam forests on Thursdaymorning.“She prays all times every day. She had gone for ablution and shedidn’t return. I don’t know anything what happened to her. But such incidentsshouldn’t happen,” 30-year-old Latief told reporters. Without accusingmilitants or army he said there is was no militant presence in the area.“It wasin 2009 when the last firing incident took place. Since then no militant wasseen in this area.”Latief further said his wife was forcibly taken from thestream to a hutment up in the forest and was not allowed to speak all thoroughthis.“She was fetched on Thursday morning by two of our relatives. She wascrying and complaining of chest pain,” Latief said. Latief, however, refused toshare more details about the incident saying “rest she can tell you.” The lady in question,meanwhile, continues to remain under the vigil of police at her home and no oneis allowed to speak to her. The police already took the victim to the placewhere she was allegedly raped by two “unknown” armymen and videographed thearea. Latief’s elder brother Muhammad Ismail Bhat said the family won’twithdraw the FIR against the army.

Locals said thearmy camp of 62 Rashtriya Rifles is almost two kilometers away from Manzgamarea and “the men-in-uniform aspect of the case should be thoroughlyinvestigated.”The preliminary medical examination report released late Fridayby police hasn’t shown any mark of violence or resistance on victim’s body,especially on her private parts. The victim’s vaginal smear, has, however, beensent for genetic analysis, the report said.

The incidenthas also triggered war of words between ruling National Conference andopposition PDP leaders. Both chose the occasion to hurl brick bats against eachother. People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, who visited thefamily, said the investigation into every such incident wouldn’t be viewed withsuspicion had the government not mishandled and covered up the crime againsttwo young women in 2009 in Shopian. Hitting back, the local National ConferenceMLA Sakina Itoo called the PDP leader’s comment “very unfortunate.” She saidMehooba is trying to whip up passions in a failed bid to provoke people toagitate and vitiate the atmosphere. Itoo said, “People need a healing balm andnot Mehbooba’s provocative political discourse.”

Hurriyat chiefSyed Ali Shah Geelani whose Saturday strike call is underway said the incident“has proved the situation in Kashmir hasn’t changed in anyway”.“This has onceagain proved that rape as a weapon of war in the state is being used. Thisincident, and hundreds of such other incidents, should be investigated by UNWar Crimes Tribunal,” he said the party won’t trust a government probe.Besidesseparatists politicians, key pandit body Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS)led by Sanjay K Tickoo have strongly condemned what they called as “heinousact” by some men in uniform.“The incident is deliberate one and is motivated tocreate uncertainty in the Valley,” KPSS said.

Police andparamilitary forces have been put on high alert to prevent the state slip in tomass protests and killings.

I Ate What My Mom Made

2011-07-12T20:28:00.005+05:30

When I was a kid I stole walnuts and figs from 'Colonel's Garden'now a ration depot and a police barrack, flew Kites at 'Baraie'--portion of what is now a martyr's graveyard, batted andwhacked bowlers in Thussu Nivas that later hosted a paramilitary CRPF camp andswam at a small water channel (now disappeared) at the Aluchi Bagh Bund. Backhome I ate what my mom made.

In school I made images of soldiers on wooden desk using Dad'sblue marker, played carom with my brother and word building with sister, prayedwhen Jale Sahib called for evening prayers, heard story of 'seven sisters'grandma told me after every dusk. And I ate what my mom cooked.

I still remember roaming with Zahid and Rafiq in Batmaloo lanes (Geitse Kouche- we would call them), thatenraged soldier who slapped me in face when I refused to lift my pheran up,skidding on the frozen surface of dirty Dooodh Ganga stream, destroying atnight the massive snowman in Fazal's courtyard, a wild hurry to break and eatmost of the icicles from the corroded roof edges near sajid's house, playing'King-Queen' near Shabir Lone's mud house. At home I listened to BBC, watchedPTV and DD with dad. And I ate what my mom made.

At maternal uncle’s place, I still remember running through thepaddy fields till the Alochi Bagh Bund where I collected juiciest of mulberriesand hanged by the tree branches. Ilearnt from cousin how to find earthworms under poplar trees that stood tall nearNale Kadal (a wooden bridge acrossthe Jhelum tributary that linked Alochi bagh with Barzullah). The dark-red creatures were perfect bait for Kaeshir Gaad (local fish) in the tributary.No matter the size of fish, the best place to cook it was in the fire we wouldignite in the large concrete pipes stashed in abandoned Khade (Urea) Mill. The evenings were always eventful. I likedwatching full moon hanging over the woods of Zabarwan Mountains. To make ussleep early we were told stories of ‘haunted’ flood channel and sound offalling trees coming from Amir Din’s vacant land every Thursday night. Backhome, I would share with my siblings all the horror stories I was told. Fatherwas unmindful of these activities but mother was always watchful. She wouldalways insist not to fish in the tributary. ‘You are a good boy,’ she wouldalways say. She would prepare Nun Chai(Salt tea) and home fries for me. And I ate what she gave me.

My father had a huge influence on my life and it is because of himthat I am what I am today. He had a distressed awakening when his father,mother and brother died much earlier when he was growing. All the comforts hehad when his parents and brother were alive quickly went away. The monetarystruggles and raising us all was tough. Yet my dad never lost faith. He worked veryhard to improve our quality of life. I have heard him many times telling hisstory to all of us when we were kids. His story makes me realize that there areno excuses for me not to achieve my dreams that too when I’ve moreopportunities than he had at my age. Listening to his stories was always funand encouraging. That too when he smoked Hukka or hubble-bubble and warmedhimself with Kanger (a firepot withwicker encasement and an earthen bowl-shaped pot called Kondul). Dad had a special silver Tsalan (a small wooden oar-shaped stick used to adjust charcoal in the firepot) attached to the pot by a white string. Mom was alwaysbusy cooking. In winters she prepared HokhSyun (sun-dried vegetables). I used to like luffa and lentils—an important Kashmiridiet for winters. And I ate whatever Mom cooked for us.

Unrest 2010: Dispatches from Kashmir

2011-05-09T23:50:00.000+05:30

Parveena Jan's life was one of middle class comfort in a suburb of Batpora, Hazratbal in Kashmir. There were pomegranate and apple trees on her lawn and a crystal clear lake just a few kilometers away to spend time with school friends during vacations. Jan’s seemingly normal life was shared with a caring father who sold jewelry in a small shop in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, a region disputed between India and Pakistan since 1947.

One morning in 1990, a year after the armed rebellion against New Delhi’s rule over the region had broken out in Kashmir, soldiers of the Border Security Force searching for militants around Jan’s house picked up her father, Ghulam Muhammad Bhat. When dusk fell, Jan’s family fetched his dead body from the street. Parveena (then just eight years old) was forced to join the army of orphans the conflict would create over the coming years.

Her cries remained unheard. She internalized the trauma of her father’s murder until she married Fayaz Ahmad Wani, a government employee in Gangbugh, Batamaloo, who lived with his parents in the western outskirts of this Kashmiri district.

Wani’s family was peaceful. In the early 1990s, Fayaz’s father Nazir Ahmad Wani had migrated from the congested market of central Maisuma that has endured the worst of the armed rebellion and stone pelting since 1989, to quiet area outside of the city. He bought 2,500 square feet of arable paddy land, and erected a small house close to a rivulet abundant with Himalayan trout. Away from the urban hustle and bustle, poplar trees and vegetable gardens added to other pleasures the family had never experienced in Maisuma.

Wani married Jan in the autumn of 2005. The family felt blessed when Jan first gave birth to a girl named Maryam, now three, and then Ayesha, who is now barely seven months old.

Their familial happiness, however, was short-lived.

In 2006, Jan’s doting father-in-law Nazir Ahmad Wani died a natural death. But on July 6, 2010, her husband Fayaz was shot dead by paramilitary members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) near their family’s house.

“What we know is Jan lived a disturbing life after her father’s killing. Now with my brother’s murder she is the image of distress, nostalgia, and unbearable pain. She hasn’t talked to anyone since [Wani’s murder],” Wani’s brother, Saqib Nazir, told Dispatches International.

Fayaz Wani was the fifteenth on the list of 111 people, mostly youths, who were killed this past summer. He is one of four who died in a series of events on July 6. These events began when the body of Muzaffar Ahmed Bhat, 17, was fished out of the stream running through Gangbugh that morning. Bhat lived in the same area as Wani and Jan. Locals allege he had been picked up during a patrol, tortured to death, and then dumped in the stream by the CRPF during the previous night.

When people gathered at the site where his body was found, the police and CRPF caned the protesters, lobbed tear-smoke canisters into the crowd, and opened live fire on the mourners who chanted “Azadi!” (“Freedom!”) against Indian rule in Kashmir.

In the ruckus, a bullet hit Fayaz in the neck. He worked in the Floriculture Department and was heading to his office when he passed the demonstration. The killing sparked protests across the city. In the afternoon, another young person, Fancy Jan, in the Lachmanpora Batmaloo, was shot dead by police while she was pulling down curtains on the first floor of her house. At sunset yet another Maisuma youth, Abrar Ahmad Khan, was shot dead. Along with hundreds of angry youths, he had protested the previous three deaths.

The current unrest is just a pinprick in the political turbulence Indian-administered Kashmir has witnessed since the partitioning of the sub-continent in 1947 that created India and Pakistan. Muslim-majority Kashmir triggered the first war between the newly born countries after its Hindu ruler, Hari Singh, conditionally acceded to India following a raid by tribes from Pakistan. The rules of the accession signed in October 1947 allowed India to control only defence, foreign affairs and telecommunications in Kashmir. But India eroded Kashmiri autonomy by imprisoning its admired leader, Sheikh Abdullah, and appointing unpopular puppet rulers who helped extend Indian authority in the region. By 1986, India and Pakistan had fought two of the three wars on Kashmir that saw a portion of Kashmir passing into the hands of Pakistan, which is now popularly called Azad Kashmir (“Liberated Kashmir”).

In 1987, the mass rigging of a local election by the government in Indian-administered Kashmir meant Kashmiris lost the remaining faith they had in New Delhi and thus an eventual outbreak of an armed rebellion followed with ample support from Pakistan.

In what seemed a quick success to end New Delhi’s rule in Kashmir during the early 1990s, the armed militants were confronted by a strong Indian military whose numbers eventually rose to more than half a million. After the pro-freedom Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) announced a ceasefire in 1994, the fight against New Delhi was dominated by pro-Pakistan militant groups. The 1999 Kargil War between India and Pakistan further exacerbated tensions between the two countries, only to be cooled by international efforts spearheaded by the United States. The ceasefire didn’t deter then-President Bill Clinton from calling Kashmir “the nuclear flashpoint of world.”

During the past 21 years, the conflict has consumed some 70,000 lives; hundreds of thousands were left injured while another 10,000 are believed to have gone missing after being arrested. To escape violence, nearly 30,000 people have migrated to Pakistani Kashmir, while over a hundred thousand Kashmiri Hindus have also left the valley for the Indian plains and Jammu region of Kashmir.

Even though violence plummeted with the number of militants dropping from several thousand to a few hundred in recent years, more than 500,000 Indian troops remain in Kashmir. The Guinness Book of World Records in 2009 termed Kashmir “the most militarized place in the world.” India and Pakistan came close to another war after the Parliament attacks in 2001 and Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008.

After the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the militancy of Kashmir slowly subsided. From several thousand the in early 90s, the number of active militants plunged to 500 in 2010. Many believe the year 2008 set the stage for a non-violent movement. In that year, Kashmir witnessed some of the biggest peace marches. In these demonstrations, men formed human chains around forces’ bunkers to cushion any provocation from demonstrators.

The Octogenarian separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani asked youths not to pelt stones at soldiers and to march calmly in the streets. Three huge rallies were called by separatists, in which millions of Kashmiris demanded freedom; all three rallies went smoothly. The Indian authorities in Kashmir, however, scuttled the fourth rally with force. For several days the area remained under curfew. The media was gagged. Hospitals, schools, government offices, banks and markets were closed. The only signs of life on the streets were stray animals struggling to move through loops of razor wire blocking main roads, and lanes. Edgy soldiers and stone-pelting youngsters also occasionally peeked at each other.

In 2008, more than 65 people, mostly youths, were shot dead in protests. Over 2,500 sustained injuries, with 1,200 bearing bullet wounds above the waist. The 2009 Shopian double-rape and murder (allegedly by soldiers) prompted a new eruption of anger in Kashmir. In that year dozens of youth were shot dead by police and paramilitary CRPF. In 2010, troops continued to be pelted with stones, while the killings also continued unabated.

When I entered Fayaz Wani’s house, I found his mother Misra Begum sitting in a corner of the patio. She wore a traditional floral cloak and a loose white scarf. When she saw me, the old woman wiped tears from her eyes. Before she could say anything, a meek lady, who I later learned was Parveena Jan, emerged to invite me inside the modest structure.

Jan opened the wooden door of a room where Saqib, Farooq and Zaitun were playing with the fatherless children. I introduced myself and like other victims’ families which I had visited so far, I was immediately welcomed by the family members. While Saqib asked his sister Zaitun to fetch me a glass of juice, I let out a sigh in the neatly furnished room where the focal point was a large framed photograph of a gentle-faced, dark young man. The picture of Fayaz Wani, with a shyly smiling Jan, had been taken after their wedding.

Zaitun tried hard to hold the old woman’s arms but couldn’t stop her mother from beating her chest and wailing loudly. Through her sobs, her white scarf soaked in tears, Misra Begum described how during the morning that Wani was murdered, she had experienced instincts only a mother can have that had made her restless.

“It was after long time that Wani got up early,” she said. That morning, Wani, she said, had ablution, offered morning prayers, ironed his clothes and had tea.

“He hurriedly had his breakfast before heading off to work at 8:15. Fifteen minutes later he was shot in the neck and in the back. In four places. As if he knew where he had to get killed,” she said sobbing.

My conversation with the old woman ended when she was ushered into another room to grieve privately while Saqib and Zaitun talked to me. Why didn’t the troops and police restrain themselves from shooting innocent people and mourners?

Their questions were genuine. But they knew I wasn’t the right person to seek answers from.

While the bodies of both Wani and Muzaffar were being taken to Eidgah (“Martyrs Graveyard”) in the inner city for burial, police and CRPF acted as normal. Yet again, they intercepted thousands of mourners with bamboo sticks, tear gas canisters, and live ammunition.

Photographers, many of whom were also roughed up, captured the moment on film. An image which became popular showed a wooden cot in the middle of the street holding the body of a youth killed by the troops as they went about devastating the protests. Behind the corpse, irate soldiers and policemen batter the pall-bearers and mourners with sticks and batons. The mourners run for cover, except for an old man – the father of the youth – trying to save his son’s corpse from desecration, covering the boy with his arms stretched in a defensive semicircle.

In the afternoon, Wani’s picture, a short sturdy man with a blunt square face lying on the road in a blood-drenched blue shirt and black trousers, was already up on Facebook evoking sharp pledges: “Blood for blood”.

After seizing corpses from the mourners, police handed the bodies over to the families with a stipulation that the victims could only be buried in a local graveyard.

Days later, local minister Nasir Aslam Sogami visited the family with blood money totaling $100,000.00 INR (approximately $2,250.00 USD).

“But we refused to accept it. Sensing trouble, the minister left the area in hurry,” Wani’s brother tells me. The family also refused to accept another compensation package of $500,000.00 INR (approximately $11,300.00 USD) announced by politicians in New Delhi, saying “No one will ever accept money for their brother’s blood!”

After the killings, the area saw dozens more demonstrations, many spearheaded by women and children. During these protests, two things were very common.

First, police and CRPF personnel would chase away protesters and break the windowpanes of all the vehicles parked on roadsides and houses to express their frustration and fracture the will of protesters, who often pelted stones at the advancing troops.

Second, all the protests, in which women and children joined and hurled rocks, were led by Zaitun, Wani’s elder sister. Zaitun, however, says that she wasn’t such an aggressive person until her brother was murdered.

In her college days, she would join only peaceful protests. But the killing in her family turned her violent. She became a staunch critic of those who had been advocating peaceful protests.

“Where are we heading? How will you win this war? Through press statements! Ha!” she told me in a veiled reference to several pro-independence political parties, who she said have so far failed to secure Kashmir’s freedom from New Delhi’s rule.

“We have lost more than 110 people. Are we serious in getting Azadi (Freedom)? Do we have any other option left?” Zaitun says when I ask if she supports protests in which stones are hurled at soldiers and police.

I ask the same question of the mother of Wamiq Farooq, 14 at the time of his death, who was killed when a tear gas shell fired by the troops exploded on his head, shattering the youngster’s skull and scattering his brains in the lane where he was playing games with his school friends. Her reply was to open a brown suitcase. She showed me the boy’s belongings: a red tie, crimson school belt, white shirt, grey trousers, more than a dozen trophies, certificates of appreciation, academic report cards that show him topping all exams, his birth certificate and a crisp, recently-laminated death certificate.

“Do you think my son who loved watching the Tom and Jerry cartoon show was a miscreant or militant? He was shot with an intention. Until I get the culprit booked, I and my husband will continue to join demonstrations, demand freedom and hurl rocks,” Farooq’s mother says.

The police report mentions Farooq as a “miscreant who was part of an unlawful assembly” at which police had fired tear gas shells. Very few – including his relatives, neighbours, lawyers and journalists – believe this about the playful youth.

The current unrest, which caught both India and Pakistan off guard, actually stems from a series of similar killings at the beginning of 2010, including Farooq’s. These were followed by falsified encounters in the mountains near the Line of Control, where the Indian army claimed to have killed Pakistani infiltrators. These later turned out to be civilians. Then came a cycle of killings in the past summer months of over a hundred people at the hands of the CRPF and police.

It was the killing of a 17-year-old which transformed the low-intensity tension into fully-fledged demands for freedom. Tufail Ahmad Matoo, caught between stone-hurling protesters and police, was also killed by officials when a tear gas shell fractured his head. The police statement was typical. It termed the student’s death “a mysterious murder,” possibly committed by those who ferried the victim to the hospital. However, the autopsy established that the student, who was returning from school, was killed by a tear gas shell.

It took some 36 days and two court directions until the police registered an First Information Report (FIR) on July 17 and began investigating the death, but by then many more, including Muzaffar and Wani, were already dead, and the “2010 Summer Uprising” was well under way. With the government throwing separatist leaders in jail and putting some under house arrest, those who made the political statements on the streets were the rock-hurling youth.

But why would young people risk their lives to throw stones?

One youth, 20-year-old identified only as Sahil, had never hurled a stone until Rainawari, an area in the old city, received the dead body of Tufail Ahmad Matoo. Two days after his death, Sahil found himself at the front of a protest group.

“Tufail’s death shocked everyone in the area. Students like me felt helpless. What is the option left when even pallbearers are tear gassed and fired at?” he asks.

The first day of stone-pelting scared him. The next day, with other boys, he says he felt like “buffalo soldiers at the front.”

Other youths like Sahil were inspired by the violence to practice violence. Owais War, 17, of North Kashmir’s Kupwara, was ready to throw caution to the wind and get back on the streets to chase his dreams of Kashmiri freedom, even after being hit by bullets in the torso, hours of an interrupted ambulance drive to hospital, a couple of perforations in his intestines and three hour-long surgeries. “I’ve weathered the worst,” he says. Nothing is going to scare me now.”

On the afternoon of August 2, 2009, the student was rushed to Srinagar’s main hospital after police and paramilitary CRPF shot his uncle Khursheed Ahmad War, a driver by profession, and pumped a bullet in War’s abdomen, barely half a kilometer from their house in Shumnag in Kupwara district.

The pair had gone to attend a marriage ceremony in a nearby village, not knowing a cavalcade of troops and police cruising down the road would target them.

During surgery, doctors partially removed the victim's colon. The feeling of a hot bullet entering his soft skin solidified War’s stance on the conflict in Kashmir.

“Kashmir was a separate entity before 1947. The United Nations became the arbitrator of the conflict that ensued later. If India denies this, we have every right to protest,” he says. “And if they shower bullets, what option do we have? We can pelt them with stones only,” War adds. He mentions that his father allows him to join protests.

I met another youth who was “baptized” in the fire on the same day. For him too, bullets are no deterrent to protesting.

21-year-old Hilal Ahmad, son of labourer Abdul Majeed, was hit by a bullet in the abdomen in southern Kashmir’s Bijbehara when police and the CRPF intercepted hundreds of peaceful protesters coming from Jablipora village to the main road.

Ahmad, who is studying science, participated in the August 2, 2009, procession to offer funeral prayers for a youth killed in a neighbouring village.

“Police tear gassed the mourners first. As we retreated, they along with CRPF charged in. They went berserk and broke window panes and doors. They also beat up many people with bamboo sticks and gun butts,” he recalls.

Later, around 9:00 in the morning, Ahmad heard loudspeakers from mosques announcing another phase of peaceful protests.

“Some 300 or 400 people gathered this time,” he says.

But as soon as the procession drew close, the troops and police again halted the gathering crowd with tear gas shells. Those leading the crowd retaliated with stones.

“Then they fired at us,” Ahmad says, “and the result was this.” He shows me a large bullet wound on his abdomen and a mark left by a bullet that brushed his right arm.

Ahmad felt the heat of the bullet and blood continued to gush out but he ran back into the retreating crowd knowing fully that falling down in front of the troops would mean no immediate hospitalization.

“I ran back towards the crowd till I hit the ground,” he recalls.

The incident has strengthened his will. Ahmad says he will start joining protests and shouting slogans against India and its troops as soon as he can.

“But I’ll not hurl stones. I almost got myself killed,” Ahmad says. He is, however, quick to add that many of his colleagues may not continue with peaceful protests if they are cane-charged, tear gassed or fired upon.

“I guess Indian responses to out-of-control crowds is milder than countries like Pakistan, the United States, or China,” Inspector General of the Kashmiri Police S. M. Sahai says.

But he is quick to add that the police are looking into the aspects of faulty training that may have led to deaths.

“Mistakes happen. But laws in every country allow reciprocal violence to the extent of taking lives,” the police official says. “What I think is this: Separatists didn’t incite the youth. But they were unable to control them. And you can imagine what can happen when more than 60% of the population comprised of youth aged between 15 to 30 come on the streets to protest.”

The police action couldn’t stop youths from taking the battle into cyberspace. Thousands of youngsters who choose to stay off the streets are waging a virtual war against New Delhi and the state government. In one case, supporters of separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani replaced the photo of Mahatma Gandhi on bank note with that of Geelani, added the slogan “Go India! Go Back!” and renamed the Reserve Bank of India the “Reserve Bank of Kashmir.”

As witnessed during and after Iran’s presidential elections, the Internet and social networking sites are proving an effective battlefield for political struggle and information warfare. In 2008, a video uploaded by a group of young men in Kashmir went viral amongst Internet users sympathetic to Kashmir’s movement across the world. The video featured a collage of photos depicting “violence against civilians by troops” set to Chris de Burgh’s song “The Revolution.” Hundreds of similar videos flooded YouTube and Facebook.

Recently a video showing three bodies lying in a pool of blood on the lawn of one of the victims’ houses drew condemnation and “revenge” remarks against police. The cops had earlier dubbed the victims “arsonists and miscreants” who were killed while damaging public property.

In an email interview, Nasir Patigaru, the first person to upload this video onto Facebook, discussed the ordeal he had to undergo and how he learned about the video that was to counter police discourse on the killings.

“I remember a strict curfew was in place. I got a call from a close friend about a video that would prove the three youth were not pelting stones and shot in cold blood,” he says. His friend tried to upload the video on YouTube but struggled to change its format.

“We shared it. And after changing its format I immediately uploaded it on my Facebook wall without thinking about the repercussions,” Patigaru says. Seven days later, a caller identifying himself as a Facebook friend complimented him on the video’s popularity and wanted to meet him immediately.

“I wanted to meet him after the phase of curfews ended. But he insisted I see him that day. At the end of our conversation he identified himself as Deputy Superintendent of Police of the area. Then I got another call from a person identifying himself as the area’s [police official],” says Patigaru, who works as a psychosocial counselor with a non-governmental organization in Kashmir. “I agreed to meet them. I had no choice.”

The net-savvy student called a policeman friend to tell him the entire story. Patigaru’s friend suggested he should not visit the police station, fearing “torture” and charges from the infamous Public Safety Act. It offers extraordinary powers to police to arrest and detain a suspect without charge or trial for as long as one year.

Patigaru followed his instructions and didn’t visit the police. Instead he fled the valley for the plains of Jammu in the southern parts of the state. Police raided his house several times, but stopped chasing him after a few weeks.

While New Delhi has tried to engage Kashmiris through its three-member group of interlocutors, the move has received a cold response from pro-freedom and pro-Pakistani leaders who claim that political negotiating is a futile exercise designed to “buy time”.

“India wants a temporary peace but we want a permanent solution,” said Umar Farooq, Chief Cleric at one of the valley’s largest mosques and leader of a faction of separatist the group Mirwaiz.

In a recent statement, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani said, “Without any ambiguity, the people of Kashmir demand Azadi.” He was reacting to the statement of Radha Kumar, one of three interlocutors for Kashmir, in which she said the roadmap for Kashmiri independence will be ready in six to nine months.

“If there is genuinely a need to prepare a roadmap regarding Kashmir, it should be a schedule for the withdrawal of the Indian Army,” Geelani added.

Geelani, who sees the appointment of interlocutors as an “attempt to pass time” said, “As far as the roadmap for resolution of this issue is concerned, it has been made way back,” he said, referring to the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir. “It has been made by India and Pakistan together with the international community”.

Castigating New Delhi for crushing non-violent protests in Kashmir with force, the Chairman of the pro-freedom group the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Mohammad Yasin Malik, warned that state repression would push Kashmiri youth towards militancy.

“Till 2007, our movement had the gun as its reference point. In 2008, Kashmiris adopted non-violent means, as urged by the world community. We stood to our commitment, but, in return, we received more than 70 dead bodies of our young ones in 2008 while more than 110 Kashmiris were killed during the last five months.”

He said the world and India should have respected “our transformation” but instead “our young ones are being killed, chased, arrested and hence pushed to the wall.”

India has always maintained that Kashmir is an “integral part” of the country, while Pakistan’s sees the entire state as its “jugular vein” and the “unfinished business of the 1947 partition.” According to the experts, both countries have lost the support of Kashmiris.

“The view that the secession of Kashmir will trigger a process of dismemberment of India is not well-founded. If Pakistan could survive and compete with India after the creation of Bangladesh then why can’t India survive and prosper once relieved of the Kashmir headache?” asks Sheikh Showkat Hussain, who teaches international humanitarian law at the University of Kashmir. “Indian nationhood is not too fragile to not be tied to the association with Kashmir.”

Author's Note: This article was written during the 2010 Summer of Unrest in Kashmir and is being published for the first time in Canadian portal 'Dispatches International' here :

http://www.dispatchesinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119%3Adispatches-from-kashmir&catid=52%3Aindia&Itemid=58

Kashmir: A long burning issue

2010-09-23T13:53:00.001+05:30

To the outer world, everything may seem hunky-dory in Kashmir. But inside the picturesque valley, situations these days are appalling. A single killing turns hundreds into mourners, and excesses on mourners push thousands to mutiny. The cycle of deaths repeats itself when soldiers and the local police kill another mourner with impunity.

The current strife, led by teenagers and youth that has caught both India and Pakistan off-guard, stems from a series of killings in the beginning of this year, followed by a couple of what are locally known as “fake encounters” up in the mountains where the Indian army claimed to have killed Pakistani infiltrators who later turned out to be civilians, and then a cyclic killing of some 60 people, mostly youth, by the Indian paramilitary CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) and local police, all within two months.

A paramilitary CRPF personnel on an intersection in Srinagar. Photo : Reuters

The city of Srinagar looks as what most journalists call “Groznied”, as they compare streets here to those of Chechnya’s capital. It continues to remain garrisoned ever since the teenager, Tufail Ahmad Matoo, was caught between stone-hurling protesters and the police, and was killed by cops when a teargas shell fired from a close range busted his skull.

Initially, the police statement was routine. It termed the student’s death “a mysterious murder.” However, autopsy established that the student, who was returning from tuition, was killed by a firearm pellet. It took some 36 days and two court orders for the police to register an FIR (First Information Report) on July 17, and began investigating the death. But by then, many more young, including Matoo’s cousin and a friend, were already shot dead, and the year’s summer uprising had well begun.

Every year, New Delhi and the state government mention normalcy with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of tourists to Srinagar and its hinterland picnic spots. However, the existing realities tell different tales.

The Kashmir Valley looks like a ghostly settlement. Its major towns, including Srinagar, continue to remain under curfew, evoking the memories of the early 1990s when soldiers would cordon towns, villages and hamlets, together for days, in search of militants and their sympathizers. Today, the only symbols of life are cantankerous soldiers patrolling streets and manning checkpoints, houses with broken windowpanes overlooking deserted roads, ambulances ferrying the injured to hospitals, and stray dogs and cows attracted to mounds of uncollected garbage.

As one drives from the airport and uptown, graffiti scream “We want freedom” and “Go India Go Back” till one leaves behind the infamous Dogra rulers’ crematories. In the twitchy downtown, youth gather on parapets of narrow lanes and boo the soldiers who watch the alien and hostile crowd from their pigeonholes and mobile bunkers. And as stone projectiles hit the soldiers, symbolic of the disagreement over the Indian rule in Kashmir, teargas shells and bullets are fired in response, many times directly on the youth, who form close to 70% of population in the Muslim-majority state. A new casualty feeds the next phase of protests and demonstrations, coupled with the soldiers’ onslaught.

Bereft of any idea as to how to control the civilian population, Delhi initially chose to remain silent, suggesting the wave of anger to be handled by the state government only. After the state’s Chief Minister shuttled between Srinagar and Delhi, a Home Ministry report was aired by Delhi-based media that protests were instigated from beyond the LoC (Line of Control) by the Pakistan-based and banned Lashkar-e-Toiba. However, it failed to develop a consensus among the various political parties and people who thought that a frustrated Delhi sidelined the common anger and tried to hoodwink the world.

And public outrage has doubled with the state government arresting hundreds of youth for rock hurling and detaining all the separatist leaders, including the popular Syed Ali Shah Geelani, under the notorious Public Safety Act (PSA), which also swept lawyers who fight their cases, and imposing an embargo on news by banning SMS service, prohibiting local journalists’ movement and scuttling the airtime of local cable news. Kashmir was soon reported on by reporters who are locally called “chopper journalists” who flew from Delhi only to be reacted sharply against by youth both in the streets and in the cyber world.

On such social networking sites as Facebook and YouTube, savvy youngsters gave their versions of the events. In South Kashmir’s Islamabad, when police claimed to have killed three protesters for arson and damage to public property in the streets, an amateur video shot from a mobile phone was uploaded on YouTube that showed images of youngsters killed on the lawn of one of the victims’ house.

In another case, an eight-year-old boy, Sameer Ahmad Rah, became and still remains the youngest victim of this year’s phase of violence. While the police maintained that the boy died in a stampede, locals as well as his fruit-vendor father insisted that he was beaten and tossed out of the retreating forces’ vehicle and died in a hospital ventilator. His image still draws condemnation, and remarks of vengeance are made on the social networking sites.

India’s and its media’s sincerity is always questioned here, and their credibility is so low in the Valley that nobody wants to believe their version of events.

Today, one can draw parallels between the existing situations and what happened immediately after 1989 when armed rebellion broke out against New Delhi’s rule in the state. There is the same amount of defiance – this time with stones – anti-India sentiment, pro-Azadi (freedom from India) slogans, and thousands of demonstrators in the streets. This time, in addition, the participation of children and women in these protests has been overwhelming.

Under treatment in a city hospital, 16-year-old Owais War was shot in the abdomen in his village in north Kashmir and survived by a hair’s breadth. The bullet escaped his body from his right buttock. However, his uncle Khursheed Ahmad died on the spot when the duo walking to a marriage ceremony was fired at.

The killing has hardened his stand on the Kashmir conflict, which he thinks can be won by youths with stones only. “We can’t stop pelting stone. This is the only way left to confront the troops,” he told me.

I talked to Zaitun Begum of Gungbugh on the city’s outskirts. Years ago, in her college days, she would join peaceful protests. But these days, she spearheads protests in her area after her government employee brother, Fayaz Ahmad, was shot dead by soldiers.

Others have built small war memorials in their homes.

The mother of Tanveer Ahmad Handoo – killed in the summer of 2008 – keeps her son’s poster-size picture by her spinning wheel. It reminds her of the entire journey of Tanveer’s, from his birth to being shot dead. She has also seen a YouTube video that shows images of her dying son hit by bullets and succumbing on the way to hospital, which she says is her proud possession.

In another house, the mother of Wamiq Farooq keeps her 14-year-old son’s belongings – a red tie, a crimson belt, a white shirt, laminated birth and death certificates – in a brown suitcase. Wamiq was killed when a teargas shell fired by the police exploded on his head, shattering his skull and brains.

“This war is now a war against forgetfulness. They (authorities) want us to forget our pain. But we’ll come out in the streets to demand freedom for those who survive,” she says.

The current anger against India is so intense that separatists, too, have to face public wrath. The youths’ outrage meted out to the Pakistan-administered Kashmir-based United Jehad Council chief Syed Salahuddin and senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani reflects this.

When Salahuddin suggested to the youth to adopt more flexible approach, go slow on hartal (shutdowns) and allow people to buy food and let children study, his effigies were burnt in his traditional bastion of Sopore in north Kashmir. He swiftly changed his statement and issued a clarification.

Similarly, Geelani’s suggestion not to burn down police stations and government vehicles, too, was not taken well by the protesting youth who consider all state symbols as “tools of tyranny.”

Not only separatists, even pro-India politicians have avoided meeting youth or mourners, fearing backlash and even lynching.

“The situation has reached such a level where we’re being termed as Indian dogs,” opposition leader Mahbooba Mufti told a news channel recently.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his advisor Mubarak Gul had to cut short their visits to city hospitals after facing angry attendants and hostile crowds.

While Pakistan presently remains occupied with its flood situation, India seems to stretch time as usual, and does nothing substantial to address the youth’s demand and resolve Kashmir’s vexing conflict.

However, that strategy seems to be failing, keeping in view the current unrest which both the police and soldiers are finding it hard to deal with.

“It’s easy to kill 10,000 militants on the roads but really difficult to handle kids who are carrying only stones to hurl,” a senior police official, while observing his colleagues battle stone-pelting uptown youth, recently told me.

Baba Umar is a 27-year-old journalist associated with Rising Kashmir from 2008. He previously worked with Indian Express and Kashmir News. He also freelances for several local magazines and international wire services.

The opinion expressed here are the views of the writer and do not reflect the views and opinions of The Week

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=22372

Are bullets baptizing Kashmir youth?

2010-09-23T13:42:00.000+05:30

Close shave with death only hardened their resolve to fight to the finish

Baba Umar

Srinagar, Aug 16:

Hit by bullets in the abdomen, hours of interrupted ambulance drive to hospital, couple of small and big perforations, three-hour long surgeries and now over two weeks in hospital, they are ready to throw caution to the winds and get back on the streets to chase their dreams of freedom.

Owais War under treatment in SMHS hospital.

“I’ve weathered the worst. Nothing is going to scare me now,” says 17-year-old Owais War proudly.

In the afternoon of August 2, this Class X student was rushed to Srinagar’s SMHS hospital after police and paramilitary CRPF shot dead his uncle Khursheed Ahmad War, a driver by profession, and pumped a bullet in Owais’ abdomen, barely half-a-km from their house in Shumnag in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

The duo had gone to attend a marriage ceremony in a nearby village, not knowing a cavalcade of troops and police were cruising on the road and getting closer.

“When we saw the vehicles approaching, we didn’t make any movement. We stood on the roadside,” Owais, on Bed no 16 at Ward 16, recalls.

They were then shot at. Owais’ uncle died on the spot while Owais, who tried to save his uncle, was fired next.

Doctors who operated upon the boy consider him lucky. They say the incident occurred at around 2:45 pm and the patient was brought to hospital at 7 in the evening.

“He is alive because he has met the golden hour,” says a senior surgeon who operated upon the boy.

In trauma care, the doctor informs, golden hour is the time between the incident and the time the injured is on the operation table which, if met, offers the best chances for survival.

During the surgery doctors removed the victim's colon partially; however, the strange feeling of hot bullet entering his soft skin has solidified the boy’s take on Kashmir conflict and hardened his stance on protests and stone-pelting.

“Kashmir was a separate entity before 1947. The UN became the arbitrator of the conflict that ensued later. If India denies this, we have every right to protest,” says Owais, whose father Nissar War is a spice trader.

“And if they shower bullets, what option do we have. We can pelt them with stones only,” he says, adding his father will allow him to join protests.

This year Owais watched his favorite World Cup football team Argentina play in South Africa but was saddened to see them lose in semis, with Paul Octopus choosing Spain for the title. “I do wish to see Paul Octopus choosing Kashmir as the winner in this game of conflict,” he says.

Aware of the lingering unrest here, Owais says he joined peaceful protests several times in his village, but once he nurses back to health, he might hurl rocks on troops and police “if provoked”.

“I may die in their firing. But wasn’t I close to death last time itself,” he asks.

Like Owais, there is another youth getting "baptized" in the fire on the same day. For him too, bullets are no deterrent to protesting youth.

Hilah Ahmad Rather under treatment in Srinagar's SMHS hospital.

The 21-year-old Hilal Ahmad, son of a labourer Abdul Majeed, was hit by a bullet in the abdomen in South Kashmir’s Bijbehara when police and paramilitary CRPF intercepted hundreds of peaceful protesters coming from Jablipora village to the main road.

Hilal, who is pursuing graduation in science, participated in the August 2 procession early morning that was on way to offer funeral prayers of a youth killed in a neighbouring village.

“Police teargassed the mourners first…And as we retreated, they charged in along with CRPF personnel and barged in some houses. They were on rampage. They broke window panes and doors and beat up many people with bamboo sticks and gun butts,” he recalls.

Later at around 9 am, Hilal heard Masjid loudspeakers announcing another phase of peaceful protests. “Some 300-400 people gathered this time,” he says.

However, as soon as the procession drew closer, troops and police again halted the gathering with teargas shells. Those leading the crowd retaliated with stones.

“Then they fired at us,” Hilal says "and the result was this". He shows a 2x2 cm-wide bullet wound on abdomen and a mark left by a bullet that brushed his right arm.

Hilal felt the heat of the bullet and blood continued to gush out but he ran back into the retreating crowd knowing fully that falling down in front of the troops would mean certain death, with no immediate hospitalization. “I ran back towards the crowd till I hit the ground,” he narrates.

Hilal was later ferried in a Maruti car by his close friend Rizwan along with Hilal’s mother Jana Begum towards the town hospital. Heavily armed troops throughout the road and countless razor wire barricades were, however, the key hurdles.

Hilal could have missed the ‘Golden Hour’ but his friends managed to get him to SMHS hospital in Srinagar before two in the afternoon.

Hilal, according to doctors, was operated for small and big perforations in the intestines and some 2 pints of blood (app 1 litre) were injected to compensate the blood loss. “If he were a kid or an old man, he would have died on the way,” said a senior doctor, refusing to be named.

On the thirteenth day of his stay in the hospital, Hilal says he hadn’t thought he will be shot for hurling stones. “I tossed only one rock and I was shot for it. They could have allowed us to move peacefully. But they aimed our bodies,” he says.

Like Owais, the incident has strengthened Hilal’s battle for freedom. He says he will restart joining protests and shout slogans against India and troops. “But I’ll not hurl stones. I had almost killed myself,” Hilal says. He is however quick to add that many of his colleagues may not continue with peaceful protests if they are cane-charged, teargassed or fired upon.

During the stay in hospital, Hilal penned down a 34-verse poem ‘All The Pain’ that paints a vivid picture of how it is like to protest in Kashmir. The poem describes the journey of a young protester till the victory is claimed.

On being insisted, Hilal reads out couple of stanzas:

Facing the weapon bare hands

Who’ll listen?

Facing the bullet, oozing the blood

Who’ll listen?

And the poem ends with,

Victory is ours

Hope we get it.

Past two months of protests by youths and firing by heavily armed troops have left 58, mostly teenagers, dead and thousands injured, many of them critically.

And experts say that things are looking depressing than ever before.

“See, this is an unresolved anger against the injustice. Till the sense of justice is not perceived by these kids, the anger will either express in one form or other; or get repressed momentarily to surface again,” infers a psychiatrist.

He believes it is always good for the victims to share or document their anger and frustration without internalizing it.

“Yes if it is in safe and secure internal and external environment, it is catharsis and therapeutic,” he says.

Expert on disaster psychiatry, Dr Mushtaq A Margoob, warns of harms deliberately caused by others that can lead to shifts in societal conventions and processes.

“This may include an increased sense of rage and entitlement to revenge when mourning loss or reversal of feelings of helplessness and humiliation,” he said.

In an interview to TOI recently, Dr Margoob said the developments of defying troops could also be a manifestation of the ever-increasing indescribable levels of frustration and anger among this 'trauma generation', who have hardly seen a minute of complete peace or tranquility in their lives.

In fact, separatists have already expressed their desire “not to let the popular rage get dissipated”.

“Youth of the valley don’t want temporary peace but a permanent solution. They have already taken the baton of freedom struggle and no amount of repression or army can control it now,” said Hurriyat (M) Chairman and the Chief cleric at Srinagar’s largest mosque in a recent interview.

Kashmiris, he said, are “willing to confront death”.

Masrat Alam, who is rising as the new face of rage on the streets, says the struggle has entered a “decisive phase. And in this struggle every house has become our office and every individual our worker and colleague”.

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/are-bullets-baptizing-kashmir-youth-344.aspx

Graffiti removal didn’t help as lawmakers witness anti-India slogans in Kashmir hospital

2010-09-23T13:30:00.000+05:30

Baba Umar

Srinagar, Sept 21: The members of all-party delegation from New Delhi couldn’t spot anti-India graffiti ‘Go India Go’ on Monday, which the authorities managed to hide with a white wash on the walls and speed breakers right from the airport to SK International Convention Centre (SKICC), patients and attendants at the city’s SMHS hospital, however, made it sure that the lawmakers don’t miss the newly-coined slogans.

At least 11 lawmakers led by BJP leader Sushma Sawaraj, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and another CPI leader in Lok Sabha, Gurudas Des Gupta had to cut short their visit when patients and attendants in SMHS raised pro-freedom and anti-India slogans at Ward no 16 A.

According to sources, the leaders could meet only two injured in the hospital when mother of an injured boy stopped Sushma Swaraj from keeping her hand on the boy’s head.

“The BJP leader tried again but the angry attendant didn’t allow her,” hospital sources witness to the happening told Rising Kashmir.

The visit of the delegation members was kept out of bounds for the journalists and media crews as a large number of police and paramilitary CRPF deployed around the hospital and adjoining localities enforced severe restrictions.

Hospital sources said that as soon as the lawmakers tried to visit another patient on the adjacent bed, a patient of Sopore in North Kashmir, who is under treatment for bullet injuries in another ward, rushed to say the BJP leader that “India has only two options left. Give us freedom or kill all of us.”

Sources said within minutes dozens of attendants and patients gathered to raise ‘Go India Go Back’ and pro-freedom slogans forcing the visiting lawmakers to cut short their visit to mere 12 minutes.

Earlier members of the all-party delegation were also planned to visit the Bone and Joint Hospital (B&J) at Barzulla where Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo, SSP Security, Kifayat Haider, SSP CID, Javed Riyaz Bedar, SP South Srinagar, Irshad Ahmad, GMC Principal Dr Shahida Mir besides several other officials and a huge contingent of troops and police were waiting for the lawmakers’ arrival.

However, an attendant identified as Mehmooda of Humhama whose kin is under treatment at the hospital, raised slogans in favour of Azadi (Freedom). She was soon joined by many attendants and patients who protested the scheduled visit of APD members and demanded freedom for Kashmir.

Fearing trouble, authorities decided to reschedule the visit to SHMS hospital and SKIMS hospital.

Swaraj and Yechury were also scheduled to visit the injured at the SKIMS hospital at Soura but the visit had to be cancelled after local authorities feared repeat of B&J and SMHS incident.

To mention almost 40 lawmakers from Delhi are in Srinagar to assess the ground situation and help end the current unrest in which almost 108 people have been killed and over 1600 injured, mostly in JK police and paramilitary CRPF firing and beatings.

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/graffiti-removal-didn%E2%80%99t-help-as-lawmakers-witness-anti-india-slogans-in-kashmir-hospital-1639.aspx

APD: Non-political entities hang around Geelani’s 5-point formula

2010-09-23T13:28:00.000+05:30

KPSS denied permission to meet P Chidambaram

Baba Umar

Srinagar, Sept 20: The civil society members that also included representations from trade, transport and tourism-related bodies Monday rejected to accept incentives and economic package from New Delhi saying the government should instead work towards the permanent solution of Kashmir conflict.

In a meeting with all-party delegation being led by Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram at SK International Convention Centre (SKICC) here, the civil society groups proposed Geelani’s five-point formula to diffuse tension, however, they said no commitment was made by the delegation members over the statements made.

The meet also saw boycotts from several agencies while Kashmir Minority Front (KMF)—an amalgam of valley-based Christians, Sikhs and Pandits- was denied permission by the government to meet the all-party delegation.

In his short speech, President of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI), Nazir Ahmad Dar said New Delhi can diffuse the ongoing tension if it solves Kashmir problem in its historic perspective and not with the symptomatic treatment. KCCI demanded impartial investigation into the killings of over hundred people during past several month and severe punishment to guilty armed forces personnel.

“We also sought de-militarization of State, revocation of black laws like AFPSA, Disturbed Area Act and Public Safety Act and upholding human rights of Kashmiris,” he said.

KCCI, in the beginning of its observation, rejected to accept economic packages from New Delhi to compensate the losses incurred by traders.

Nearly 40 lawmakers from all major national parties are in the city to find ways to diffuse the current unrest that has claimed over 100 lives of people besides business losses worth crores of rupees.

Making a demand for a result-oriented dialogue to solve Kashmir conflict, President of Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK), Shakeel Qalander added to the demands made by KCCI by saying that investigation into custodial deaths and disappearances during past 22 years by authorities should be probed thoroughly and guilty punished. The FCIK president said the truth and reconciliation commission should be ordered by New Delhi to probe all killings which could pave way for the lasting solution of Kashmir.

“We also demanded release of all political prisoners and youth who have been arrested recently and sustained result-oriented talks with relevant leadership,” he said.

GM Dugg who represented Tourism Alliance told Rising Kashmir that there was no immediate response from the delegation members on the presentation made by the alliance.

“Their reaction wasn’t satisfactory. They just heard us till our time was over. There was no commitment on whether our demands, before Kashmir conflict is finally settled, are met or not,” he said.

Kashmir Hoteliers and Restaurant Owners Federation (KHAROF), Houseboat Owners Association, Travel Agents Society of Kashmir (TASK), Travel Agents Association of Kashmir boycotted the meet. JK Yateem Trust and JK Yateem Foundation also boycotted the event.

In his 15-minute-long statement, President of another hotelier’s body, Kashmir Hotels and Restaurant Owners Association (KHARA), Siraj Ahmad told the delegation to stop linking Kashmir unrest with Pakistan or any outside state agency. He said, the current unrest is purely indigenous “and it is a people’s reaction to long pending unresolved Kashmir dispute and killings.”

Ahmad, who represented Kashmir Economic Alliance comprising representation from Kashmir Manufacturers and Traders Association (KMTF), several transporters’ association, flour mills owners’ union demanded from the delegation members that “the occupational troops should be called back, prisoners should be released and end of demeaning Kashmiri youth by linking stone pelting as a Pakistan-sponsored activity.”

Siraj, however, said the delegation members that include Home Minister P Chidambaram, gave a dictatorial listening to his statement. “They reduced our time from 30 minutes to 15 minutes and there was no reaction or commitment over addressing issues which I raised,” he said.

Kashmir University Teachers Association (KUTA) Vice President, Ehtisham Ahmad told Rising Kashmir that KUTA had boycotted the meeting and the teachers who were present in the SKICC were stage-managed by the state government.“Those who were there were not among us,” he said.

A similar accusation was also made by Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPPS) President Sanjay Tickoo who was to lead KMF but was denied permission by the Divisional Commissioner’s office.He said, “National Conference and Congress members didn’t want me to expose what has been happening to Kashmiri’s from past several months. That’s why they refused to entertain our request.”

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/apd-non-political-entities-hang-around-geelani%E2%80%99s-5-point-formula-1610.aspx

APD: Boycotts, indecisions before meet

2010-09-23T13:24:00.000+05:30

Govt makes mess of invitations

Baba Umar

Srinagar, Sept 19: The government’s invitation to civil society members for today’s all-party meeting may not come up to New Delhi’s expectations as several invitees that include members of trade bodies, tourism alliances, newspaper guilds are either undecided about their participation or have declared to boycott the meeting.

The 38-member all-party delegation will arrive today to "assess the ground situation in Kashmir” and is being led by Home Minister P Chidambaram.

In a meeting here, Kashmir Editors Guild decided to boycott the event reasoning media gag, use of violence against journalists and interference in paper distribution during past several months as main cause.

“We’ve decided to boycott the APD meeting. At the same time KEG also condemns use of force against journalists which has now become a routine here,” General Secretary and Chief Editor of an Urdu daily, Tahir Mohiuddin said.

Similarly, Kashmir Hoteliers and Restaurant Owners Federation (KHAROF) too has decided to boycott the APG meeting.

“We recently held a discussion in which all tourism-related bodies agreed to boycott this meeting. We are not participating,” KHAROF President, Mushtaq Burza told Rising Kashmir over phone.

In a statement issued to press, student’s union of the University of Kashmir (KUSU) said they are boycotting the event.

“Any student meeting the delegation is clearly sponsored by the state and not among us,” said KUSU which was recently banned by the KU Vice Chancellor Prof Riyaz Punjabi.

Even students invited from the Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora (IUST) have refused to attend the meeting.

“We won’t participate in the meeting. Last time kin of BJP State Vice-President Sofi Yousuf who was claimed to be a student of Kashmir University said something in a Delhi meeting and it was wrongly attributed to all of us. There was no participation from KU students yet he was declared as the student of varsity. IUST students spoke unequivocally that majority of the people in Kashmir want India to keep its promise of holding plebiscite in Kashmir,” said IUST students who wished not to be named.

There are, however, many who are yet to decide about their participation. While most of them received invitations over phone, many of these groups said they couldn’t consult their decision-making core committee members “because of strict restrictions and continuous killings.”

“Today we received the invitation. But we couldn’t assemble and discuss it because of curfews and restrictions. We are undecided about it,” President of another hotelier’s body, Kashmir Hotels and Restaurant Owners Association (KHARA), Siraj Ahmad said.

While a key trade body, Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) received invitation couple of days ago from Divisional Commissioner’s office, its president said they couldn’t meet and discuss whether the chamber is participating or not.

“Frankly speaking our core group couldn’t meet. Troops stationed in streets have enforced the never-seen before clampdown of the entire Kashmir. But we are meeting on Monday morning and any decision agreed upon by members will be informed to you,” President of KCCI, Nazir Ahmad Dar said.

Senior members of Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir FCIK couldn’t be reached for their comments despite repeated attempts.

There are also many who said the invitations to them haven’t been formal which could result in boycotting the meeting.

“Just an hour ago I was invited on phone for the meeting. I don’t think you invite people this way. If the formal invitation comes then only I’ll attend the all-party meeting,” civil society member and noted Child Specialist of the Valley Dr Altaf Hussein said.

Meanwhile, sources told Rising Kashmir that Youth Congress President Shoiab Lone had sought time to meet the delegation members but was denied by the government.

Likewise, Urdu Academy Jammu and Kashmir and Adbi Markaz Kamraz too were denied permission to meet the all-party delegation

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/apd-boycotts-indecisions-before-meet-1593.aspx

Who killed Batamaloo’s 8-yr-old Sameer?

2010-08-05T12:58:00.002+05:30

· CRPF men beat him to death: Family

Police claims boy died in stampede

Baba Umar

Srinagar, Aug 03: When eight-year-old Sameer Ahmad Rah sought his friend’s company to visit a provision store situated across the deserted street of Batamaloo’s SD Colony on Monday afternoon, the kid had no idea that he will be the youngest victim in the list of 27 killings since Friday (July 30) in the Valley.

According to family members of the class 2 student, Sameer was beaten to death by half-a-dozen men from the paramilitary CRPF after both the kids were called by troopers stationed on the lane edge - an allegation that both police and CRPF denied.

“My son moved ahead. But the other kid ran away sensing danger,” said father of Sameer, Fayaz Ahmad Rah.

Rah, a fruit vendor, said he got to know all these details from the people who watched the kid being beaten. He said the troops thrashed Sameer, a student at Turning Point Institute, with batons and bamboo sticks for more than 10 minutes till the teenager lost consciousness and fell on the road.

“Then they hurled him in dense bushes of Soi (slashing grass traditionally used for corporal punishment to children),” Rah said sobbing.

After 20 minutes, the family members said, the kid was dragged into a vehicle and tossed away on the road smashing his head while the troops fled from the spot.

An eyewitness told Rising Kashmir over phone that the teenager had a bat-and-ball in hand and had raised slogans of Azadi (freedom), not knowing that the troops were around. “They (troops) caught hold of him and started beating him. They trampled him and kicked him several times till he fainted. He was later thrown in the weed and then dragged into a vehicle. The troops escaped after hurling out the kid on road,” he said.

Family members said they got to know about the death of a kid when a woman in the neighbourhood informed that a small boy had been dropped dead outside. “I was at home when I heard a boy has been killed. I rushed out and it was my son Sameer,” Rah said.

He said as soon as the crowd gathered to pick up the body, a contingent of police backed by CRPF fired in air and teargassed the crowd. “I wanted my son to be taken to the hospital. We, however, called the Police Control Room for ambulance.” The ambulance took away the kid to Control Room from where “we were rushed to SMHS Hospital”.

Abdul Rashid Rah, uncle of Sameer, who also accompanied the victim to the hospital, said the doctors gave electric shocks to the kid in a bid to make the heart function. “But they were not sure whether the kid would survive head injuries. Sameer was put under a ventilator till he was declared dead,” Rashid said.

Doctors at SMHS said, “We put him on ventilator because he was in a state of shock. But he couldn’t survive,” adding the boy was brought to SMHS from the Police Hospital.

Sameer’s parents are now haunted by "if only's" which they say they would be never able to resolve. Rashid said Sameer’s mother cries and repeats thoughts of her son’s ambition of becoming a doctor, and she also repeats "If only I hadn't allowed him to go outside, if only he had run away like his friend, if only I had sent him to his uncle’s house, would I ever come to know about my son’s murderers”.

Sameer’s uncle also accused police of “cooking up" fabricated stories about his nephew’s death. "We are being told that the kid died of stampede. This is disgusting. On what reasons have they’ve concluded it. We are not ready to accept the fabricated version,” he said.

Police, however, maintained that the kid died in a stampede triggered by police and CRPF action on the crowd. “There was a huge crowd ready for protests. The boy was run over by the crowd when it was being dispersed,” a police official of PS Batamaloo said.

In Kashmir, current situation nothing new for ‘conflict surgeons’

2010-08-05T12:55:00.002+05:30

Baba Umar

Srinagar, Aug 02: In a valley mired in chaos since fresh wave of protests that began on Friday and armed forces turning their guns on angry protesters in streets, medicos who have been operating an unusual flux of injured in hospitals term the current phase as “one of the most dangerous situation they have seen for civilians.”

Since Friday about 22 protesters, mostly teenagers, have been killed even as almost 500 people have received injuries, many of them with bullets.

“We are in tune to such situations. Past 20 years of conflict have taught us how to be ready for conditions like this,” a senior doctor at Srinagar’s Bone and Joint (B&J) Hospital told Rising Kashmir.

The official said the hospital administrations have been told not to speak to journalists and “even doctors have been threatened with action if they do so.”

In B&J hospital, the doctor said almost 20 patients with gunshot injuries have been admitted “and luckily all of them are out of danger.”

The 200-bedded hospital has seen a sharp plunge in normal patient rush owing to strict curfews and strikes, however, despite all odds, its six ambulances remain busy in ferrying patients whenever called.

In the city’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS), till Monday afternoon, only two patients were admitted for injuries received in clashes between protesters and troops.

However, it was not the case before Monday.

On Friday, when the fresh protests began, almost 22 wounded, many of them hit with bullets, were brought for treatment of which the hospital returned bodies of two victims after declaring them “brought dead”.

The eyewitness of the firing episode in Amargarh Sopore had said the victims who were brought to hospital and declared “brought dead” by hospital administration could have survived “had the ambulances reached the institute without being frequently stopped by troops on the 55-km long route to Srinagar”.

This was also admitted by medicos at SMHS who tried to save Showkat Choupan (20) hit on chest with a bullet and Muhammad Esham (55) shot on legs and died of blood loss, but declared the victims “brought dead” at 4:45 pm despite the shooting occurred on worshippers at around 2:00 pm during the Friday prayers.

“There was a long delay. The patients should have been brought here without delay,” a surgeon said.

CMO SMHS, Dr Maqbool who was on duty recalled Friday as one of the most “shocking” and “hectic” day he has ever witnessed.

“While we assessed a victim’s injury, in came the next patient followed by others more,” he explained his Friday’s work.

Since then the hospital continues to present the scene of bloody footprints tracking down the dark long corridors echoing with screams and anti-India slogans.

“So far we have seen more than 50 patients. Most of them have received bullet and teargas injuries,” an official at the casualty section said.

The official said that they also felt shortage of blood during these days, “but we were able to immediately manage the supply.”

The hospital organised a blood donation camp in which hundreds of youth turned up amid curfews and restrictions from the nearby localities.

“In few hours we managed around 75 pints of blood. Right now we have enough supplies of both blood and medicine,” he added.

In SK Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) Soura, doctors say they have been going through an “undeclared war zone” where they confront victims, most of who have been shot on torsos.

“We receive patients who are shifted from SMHS. Obviously, such victims are critically injured,” a senior surgeon told Rising Kashmir.

He recalled a teenager Iqbal Khan of Channapora who was shot on head by troops on Friday morning and was immediately ferried to SMHS where he was bandaged and shifted to SKIMS. The youth still lies on ventilator at Bed no 11 in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.

Past 53 days of unrest that began on June 11, when a teenager was killed after a teargas shell hit his head, saw the breakdown of healthcare in all hospitals.

In SMHS and SKIMS where more than 5000-7000 patients visit daily, the wards and OPDs look deserted.

Many times ambulances and staff carrying vehicles of these hospitals have come under fire or stones from troops and protesters even as paramilitary CRPF and police too have been raiding the institutes.

On July 8, CRPF men, angry at being pelted with stones by youths, barged into the emergency room of the SKIMS and allegedly assaulted doctors, paramedics and attendants.

Next day in SMHS, a paramedic of the trauma unit, was beaten up by CRPF men when he was waiting for an ambulance to take him to work. He was admitted with multiple injuries.

The hospital administration, in the same week, had to call the divisional administration after learning that their ambulances were not allowed to ply on roads by CRPF.

Srinagar’s lone Chest Disease Hospital in Dalgate too bore the brunt of current unrest when some members of the emergency staff were beaten up by police after coming under attack by stone pelters last month.

All this, doctors say, come with a package in Kashmir.

“You never know what would happen here. Doctors in Kashmir always keep themselves ready for these situations,” doctors at SMHS and SKIMS both agree.

Kashmir erupts in anger

2010-08-05T12:53:00.000+05:30

2 killed, 0ver 100 injured in police, troops action

•Protesters storm Kreeri SOG Camp, set Sopore Railway Station on fire

•2 IAF vehicles burnt at Pampore, Sgr-Jmu Highway blocked at Awantipora

•Demos rock Uri, Baramulla, Bijbehara, Pampore

• Srinagar calm, hospitals flooded with injured, many critical

Baba Umar/ Ishfaq Mir

Srinagar, July 31: Two people were killed in police and troopers’ firing across the valley amid stringent curfew and violent demonstrations on Saturday that also left over 100 people wounded with many of them receiving bullet injuries.The fresh wave of protests, in which two youths fell to police and paramilitary CRPF bullets at Naidkhai village of Bandipora and Baramulla districts of North Kashmir took the death toll to six since Friday and 23 since June 11.

North Kashmir

The entire North Kashmir erupted in anger since morning after four people were killed on Friday during anti-India demonstrations.In North Kashmir people defied curfew at dozens of places triggering clashes that left two more youth dead and around 40 injured in teargas and firing episodes.

Amargarh, Sopore

Seething with anger over the death of two villagers, people from Amargarh and other adjoining localities of Sopore town Saturday morning attacked the nearby Sopore Railway Station and set it ablaze.Baramulla-Srinagar railway line passes through Amargarh village, where a young boy and a 55-year-old were killed by troops on Friday.Earlier, police and security forces fired on the protestors to stop them from marching towards the railway station. At least four persons sustained bullet injuries in this incident. One of the injured was identified as Iqbal Ahmad Rather who shifted to SKIMS Soura, where his condition was stated to be critical by the hospital authorities.

Kreeri

Kreeri tehsil of Baramulla remained on boil for the second consecutive day Saturday. Defying curfew and taking to roads, thousands of people in Kreeri village and its adjoining areas clashed with police and troops. The demonstrators were demanding whereabouts of a local youth Farooq Basher Bukhari, who went missing on Wednesday.In the morning, people in hordes, including men, women, and children converged in the streets and shouted pro-freedom, anti-India and anti-police slogans. While the peaceful protest march reached near the Special Operation Group (SOG) camp, they were stopped by personnel of SOG and J&K Police.“This infuriated people, who attacked the local SOG camp with stones and later on set it on fire. The police and the SOG men opened fire on the protestors, injuring at least 20, including two women,” eyewitness told Rising Kashmir.Hospital sources at Kreeri said that at least 20 injured were received at Sub District Hospital Kreeri, however, three critically injured, including a woman were later shifted to SKIMS Soura, where the condition of the women Haneefa and Mohammad Ashraf is stated to be critical.

Uri

Hundreds of people held protest demonstration in the main chowk of Uri—a highly militarized zone close to Line of Control, 115 kms from Srinagar.According to reports, protesters raised anti-India slogans and demanded immediate end to killings. The protesters dispersed peacefully while personnel of army who stood around allowed the demonstrations without interference.

Naidkhai, Sumbal

A 17-year-old boy Mudasir Ahmad Lone was killed and seven others injured at Naidkhai village that falls under Hajin Block of District Bandipora, when troops opened fire on the protestors this afternoon.The incident happened at Poshwari Naidkhai when locals took to streets protesting the alleged beating of two youth early in the morning by paramilitary forces stationed at the local camp.“This triggered massive demonstrations in the area. Youths pelted stones on the troops who retaliated with indiscriminate firing claiming a boy of Naidkhai,” eyewitness said.Though the boy was later buried in the afternoon, the situation, however, continued to remain tense. People also took to streets, in Sumbal, Safa pora, Hajin and other villages of Bandipora district. The main town of Bandipora continued to be engulfed with uneasy calm due to strict curfew clamped by the authorities.

Baramulla

Though Baramulla town remained peaceful on Friday, the news of four deaths, however, was enough to fuel anger among youngsters who took to streets and clashed with police and troops. The incident left a 20-year-old youth dead and dozens injured.Eyewitness said that hundreds of angry youth took to streets and pelted stones on troops in the main town square called Tashkent Chowk. The stone pelting then spread to Cement Bridge and other localities of the town.In the afternoon, a youngster identified as Javed Ahmad Teli, son of Ghulam Mohammad Teli, hailing from Bunglow Bagh locality of the town received bullets in his head when police allegedly opened fire to quell the protestors.“He died on the spot. The bullet left his brain strewn on the spot,” eyewitnesses said.The youngster was, however, taken to SKIMS Srinagar where he succumbed to his injuries in the evening.As the news about the death of boy spread in the town, hundreds of youth, with sticks and stones in hands flooded the roads and defied the restrictions.When the reports last came in, announcements were being made on Masjid loudspeakers in old town asking people to come out and prepare for the funeral of the dead youth.In Delina, hundreds of people camped at the Baramulla-Srinagar Highway and prevented any movement on the road. The demonstrators were protesting the latest wave of killings in the valley.The authorities at SKIMS Hospital Soura told Rising Kashmir that they received five injured persons in the institute for treatment.“Today we received five injuries in our institute. One is from Sanagrama area, two from Kreeri Pattan, and one from Bijbehara area,” Medical Superintendent of SKIMS Dr Syed Amin Tabish confirmed.Confirming the death of Javed Ahmad Teli, he said, “The boy had received firearm injury in his head.” Dr Tabish also termed the condition of the injured lady from Kreeri as “critical” while the condition of a youth injured at Natipora area of Srinagar on Friday, according to hospital officials, has not improved much. Police said it observed maximum restraint in North Kashmir while dealing with the violent protestors despite “rampage on public property and police force by unruly mobs”.“Unruly and often violent mobs caused severe damage to police and state property besides injuring several police and paramilitary men,” a statement said here.

South Kashmir

Despite strict curfew, people in many parts of the South Kashmir took to streets triggering violent clashes between police and paramilitary CRPF personnel.At least 35 people including some police and paramilitary CRPF personnel were injured in demonstrations and clashes.

Sangam

At least 13 persons were injured when police and paramilitary CRPF troopers opened fire on peaceful protesters at Sangam Bridge near Bijbehara on Saturday.According to eyewitnesses, people defied curfew and reached the famous Sangam Bridge on Srinagar-Jammu Highway at around 9 am. Raising pro-freedom and anti-India slogans the protesters blocked vehicular movement.Police and paramilitary CRPF troops first made extensive use of tear gas shells to disperse them and later opened fire on the protesters. Seven people sustained bullet injuries while six protesters were injured in tear gas shelling.The injured were rushed to the Sub-district Hospital, Islamabad and other Srinagar hospitals. Condition of one of the injured was stated to be critical.

Bijbehara

In Bijbehara and Awantipora townships more than 20 persons were injured when troops fired tear smoke canisters to quell the protesters who were demonstrating against the wave of killing since June 11.As the news of firing on protesters at Sangam spread, people in nearby Bijbehara town made announcements in masjids and asked people to come out of their houses.At 10:30 am, at least 3000 people started protesting against police and CRPF troopers at Bijbehara town and gathered on the highway to march towards Islamabad. The troops intercepted them and fired dozens of tear gas shells to quell the gathering in which 13 protesters were injured, one of them Sheikh Tariq Ahmad (28) of Bijbehara critically.Eyewitness said, “A tear gas shell hit him on face and then a police Rakshak vehicle ran over him.”Tariq was referred to SKIMS Soura in a critical condition.“His condition is critical and we have put him on ventilator,” doctors at SKIMS Soura told Rising Kashmir. Others who were injured in tear gas shelling were admitted in sub-district hospital Bijbehara. “Seven injured persons were brought here from Bijbehara. One of them named Tariq Ahmad was shifted to Srinagar for treatment,” said a senior doctor at the SDH Bijbehara.Soon after clashes, troopers went berserk and ransacked at least 150 houses in Bijbehara. Locals alleged that troopers broke window panes of houses and beat up inmates at Baba Mohalla, Dini Masjid, Goriwan and Sheikh Mohalla.Even though the authorities called in additional contingents of troops, people showed tough resistance and did not allow troops to re-impose curfew. Fierce clashes were going on till last reports dropped in.

Awantipora

Reports of teargas shelling and aerial firing on the protesters were also received from Awantipora where hundreds of people defied curfew.Eyewitnesses said that ten people sustained injuries in the clashes when at least 8000 people blocked the highway and raised pro-freedom slogans.However, seeing the number of people, police exercised restraint and only ten persons sustained minor injuries in the cane charging.Strict curfew was enforced in rest of the South Kashmir. Islamabad, Kulgam, Qaimoh, Pulwama, Tral, Kakpora and Shopian continued to face restrictions and siege.Reports said massive demonstrations were on in Qazigund in Kulgam district on the Srinagar-Jammu National highway. Police said it was attacked at a number of places in these areas in which many cops received injuries.“The unruly mob also cut trees along the highway to block traffic movement,” police said in an official statement here.

Central Kashmir

Angry youth torched two Indian Air Force (IAF) vehicles at Samboora Pampore, attacked a police station even as police and troops continued their confrontation with angry youth at many places in Srinagar on Saturday.

Pampore

According to reports, at around 4.45 pm, a bus and a truck of Indian Air Force were torched by the angry youth at Samboora Pampore.Eyewitnesses said the drivers of the two vehicles were asked to stop but they accelerated their vehicles and tried to escape. However, the barricades on the road compelled them to stop.“All the passengers in the bus and their belongings were kept in the compound of J&K Bank Pampore and the two vehicles were torched by the youth on spot,” eyewitnesses said.In a statement police said Pampore Police Station was attacked by “violent mob” while two IAF vehicles were also torched by the agitators.

Srinagar

Troops established a firm grip on Srinagar city where no reports of demonstrations came till late evening. However police and paramilitary CRPF beat up and smashed window panes at Batamaloo, Natipora, and Rawalpora while movement of media persons was also curbed.People who were not even allowed to come out of their gates by the troops told Rising Kashmir that they had little food to eat as the curfew was imposed on Friday evening.“We have got no food and eatables. The curfew posed strict restrictions on our movement. We couldn’t get milk and bread for the breakfast,” said Amir Malik, of Khanyar.The troops had placed concertina wires on the roads and blocked all the streets in old city.Malik said troops barred people to come out from houses even stones were pelted on those houses whose inmates tried to open windows.Strict restrictions were also in place in Natipora, Rambagh, Channapora, Solina, and other major localities in Srinagar to prevent people from coming out on streets.Although troops left as early as 7.30 pm from areas like Jawahar Nagar, Rajbagh, Kursoo, Radio Colony and Ikhrajpora in civil lines, the restrictions continued till late in the evening in old city and some uptown parts.Curfew passes given to media persons that expired today were not honoured by the troops. This is the second time this month that curfew passes were not entertained.According to reports Chief Editor of a local Urdu daily newspaper - Srinagar News – Mehraj-ud-Din Wani, along with his son Iqbal Wani, were detained by police Saturday morning when they were travelling from their residence at Saida Kadal to office at Lal Chowk. Personnel of paramilitary CRPF broke window panes of several houses and a roadside Masjid in Sidiqabad Batamaloo.Eyewitnesses said troops barged in the houses and broke open windows and doors even as youth sloganeered inside narrow lanes to protest the ongoing killings in the valley.“Who’ll repair these windows? Who is going to pay for the losses,” an old lady wailed outside her house when troops left the locality at 7:00 pm.

When Kashmir hospitals witnessed human cost of troops’ excesses

2010-08-05T12:51:00.000+05:30

Baba Umar

Srinagar, July 30:

Wailing mother looking for her injured son in the hospital, desperate brother crying for his wounded sibling, broken father shouldering the body of his dead son, frenzied relatives seeking information whether their kin have survived and unfamiliar persons offering water and drinks to the incoming attendants.

This was the scene at city’s key hospitals where Friday brought nothing but patients and deaths.

It all started with Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital Casualty section where hundreds of people brought the bullet-injured youth Iqbal Ahmad Khan who, according to eyewitness, was hit by troopers’ bullet.

The entire staff of the section remained on toes as scores of more relatives and friends marched in the hospital premises vowing to spill blood for blood.

The medicos at SMHS hospital treated the youth for bullet injury which they adjudged had entered form the left side of neck and escaped from the left eye.

To stop blood loss the youth was bandaged and shifted immediately to tertiary-level SK Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at Soura where the youth was put on ventilator at Bed no 11 in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.

According to SKIMS administration, the youth had received a firearm injury near left eye breaking his mastoid bone and rupturing his nerves.

“The patient is very critical and he has been put on the ventilator,” Medical Superintendent, SKIMS, Syed Amin Tabish told Rising Kashmir.

A doctor said the youth is being treated for damaged eye damage and while the patient’s brain remains intact “the scan has shown raptured nerves.”

At least seven more youths hit with bullets were brought to SKIMS for immediate treatment.

In Bone and Joint Hospital (B&J), massive rush of patients and attendants was witnessed who had come from across the valley for bone fractures and other similar injuries received in troops’ action against protesters.

“At least 10 patients were brought here for treatment,” an official at the registration section confirmed.

Back in SMHS, after Friday prayers, about 22 victims of bullets, teargas and bamboo beating were received by SMHS authorities.

CMO SMHS, Dr Maqbool called Friday as one of the most “shocking” and “hectic” day, he has ever witnessed.

“While we assessed a victim’s injury, in came the next patient followed by others more,” he explained his Friday’s work.

Of all the 22 patients, the official said, seven are undergoing treatment and rest were shifted to other hospitals.

Among those brought to SMHS included:

· Iqbal Ahmad Khan of Channapora for bullet injury on head.

· Sajid Farooq of Channapora for teargas shell injury on the left side of chest.

· Aamir of Nowgam for bullet injury in right side of buttocks.

· Jibran of Batmaloo who was hit by a slingshot ball bearing on forehead fired by troops.

· Showkat Choupan of Amargarh who died of blood loss after being hit by bullets on thighs.

· Mohammad Asim of Amargarh who also died on way to hospital after being hit by bullets on right side of chest.

· Farooq Ahmed Ganai of Amargarh for bullet injury below ribs on left side of abdomen.

· Muhammad Younis for teargas shell injury on face.

· Shabir Ahmed of Pattan for bullet injury on right leg.

· Umer Rashid of Pattan for bullet injury on Scrotum.

· Abdul Qayoom of Pattan for bullet injury on right leg.

· Muhammad Ashraf of Pattan for bullet injury on leg.

· Zahoor Ahmad of Pattan for injury on left arm.

(Hakim Irfan contributed in the compilation of data)

Kashmir highway checkpoints delayed first aid to injured

2010-08-05T12:49:00.000+05:30

Showkat died of blood loss, reached SMHS at 4:45 pm

Baba Umar / Hakeem Irfan

Srinagar, July 30: Eyewitnesses of Sopore firing who also accompanied victims to SMHS hospital Friday said the two of the victims who were declared brought dead could have survived “had police and paramilitary CRPF not stopped them multiple times en route”.

“We were stopped at many check points on way to SMHS,” said Ghulam Muhammad of Amargarh, Sopore whose brother Farooq Ahmad Ganai, 36, was allegedly shot on the left side of abdomen.

Although Ganai’s condition is stable, his brother said the victims who were brought to hospital and declared “brought dead” by hospital administration could have survived “had the ambulances reached the institute without being frequently stopped by troops on the 55-km long route to Srinagar”.

This was also admitted by medicos at SMHS who tried to save Showkat Choupan, 20, son of Abdul Majeed Choupan and Muhammad Asim, 55, son of Abdul Aziz Ganie of Amargarh but declared the victims “brought dead” at 4:45 pm.

“Asim died of bullet injuries on right side of the chest but Choupan died of blood loss. He was hit on the thighs. They were brought dead to the hospital at 4:45 pm,” said an official at the Casualty section.

Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Ganai of Amargarh, who was offering prayers at Jamia Masjid and was one of the eyewitnesses of the firing episode, said around 300 worshippers were fired at by the personnel of STF, CRPF and Railway Police when “we were offering the second Rakah of Friday prayers”.

“We were offering Friday prayers when we heard gunshots from outside and suddenly everything turned black for us," said Ganai.

He said when the frightened worshipers abandoned Nimaz and tried to rush out of the Masjid “it was locked by police from outside”.

Ganai, who is also the president of Mustafa Masjid and had come to offer Friday prayers at Jamia Masjid Amargadh said: “We were rescued by youngsters who protested from outside.”

Ganai also alleged that personnel of STF, CRPF and Railway Police molested womenfolk in the area.

He said scores of youth had received injuries on legs that could not be brought to Srinagar immediately.

“The area has turned into a war zone where I feel nobody is safe,” said Ganai.

Development can’t divorce political solution of Kashmir

2010-08-05T12:46:00.000+05:30

Dr Syeda Saiyidain Hameed, who is a Member of Planning Commission, Government of India has done exhaustive research on women’s and children’s issues. Daughter of eminent educationist, Khawaja Ghulam Saiyidain, who laid the foundation for educational system in J&K, she was a member of the National Commission for Women, is a founder member of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), and part of Prime Minister’s think-tank on Kashmir. Her famous book ‘They Hang’ is based on the cases related to women that came before her. During her recent visit o Kashmir she answers some questions Rising Kashmir staffers Baba Umar and Abid Bashir put to her:

You arrived here amid protests and clashes. How did you feel?

Well, the tour started on Sunday. For first two days we weren’t able to do anything because of protests and restrictions. So we decided to imbibe the situation and to move around without doing any work. Coming here means to learn a lot, especially in Srinagar. Sitting in New Delhi or for that matter in any other State doesn’t give us the inside picture of the situation in Kashmir. The reality strikes us when we land in Kashmir. First of all one wants to find out where he or she can go.

And what is the purpose of visit?

As a member of Planning Commission, we want to see things through the prism of development. What and how things can be done in terms of development. We recently had a detailed discussion with the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in New Delhi. But on the ground, what and how it can be done is decided once we visit the place. When we reached here, we realised that people have really big issues. Development is something which is of great concern to them. More than that, there are issues related to security forces. Children are involved in the stone-throwing, they don’t go to school, and shops remain shut. There is depression and we only got a small sample of it.

You must have seen Kashmir changing ever since you went out for studies and career. Could you describe it our readers?

I am a born Kashmiri and I’ve been coming here often. My family lived here in 1940s-the year I was born. I would regularly come here and I‘ve been observing how things have changed in Kashmir. We want to do something to heal the wounds because now I am in the position to do it as I’m the part of Prime Minister’s think-tank.

Earlier, I was a part of Women’s Initiative for Peace for South Asia (WIPSA). In 2001, we came here as part of WIPSA to see the connectivity which is a big thing. Earlier we had launched peace buses to and from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In my capacity, one of the sectors I look after is health. We’ve completed the mid-term appraisal of 11th plan in which stress was laid to have something for the places where people are facing any kind of tension whether because of militancy or something else. We’ve emphasised on women in the States like North-East, Manipur and Nagaland. In the 12th plan, we have to take up the mental health on priority basis. I am shocked to hear that more than 50 lakh people are suffering from PTSD and millions are suffering from mental ailments. These things will be in the plan.

You have met many ministers during your visit. What did you discuss with them?

Well, many things were raised and commission’s help was sought in those issues. I was told that the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had come to Kashmir to inaugurate Qazigund-Baramulla rail link, and she had promised crèche scheme for 500 children. These schemes fall under the Ministry for Women and Childhood. It was also urged to help implement the scheme. I discussed these things with the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah. And I will definitely raise the issue with the concerned ministry. However, the state government has to constitute a board in this regard; otherwise, such a scheme will not be implemented.

Stone pelting is emerging as a biggest challenge to government. Is GoI mulling some kind of economic offensive to rehabilitate or counter youth, who throw rocks on troops?

There is a Prime Minister’s Skill Training Mission which actually is directed at youth under which they are trained and linked to livelihood. One has to find out what can be the livelihood avenues in the State. This is a mission where funds are available. The State has to constitute a committee to identify the places where youth have to go. For example, it has to think whether it can bring IT in a big way. Children here are good in education and they have excellent communication skills. But again the situation is quite unpredictable. The government has to see that if it brings IT companies, they shouldn’t open one day and close their offices on the other day because of the uncertainty around. But one thing is sure that we have to provide avenues to the children. I went to Bag-e-Ali Mardan and I was amazed to see the institution like Craft Development Institute (CDI). But it has a limited ability. I think institutes like CDI are very important for the entire State because if we are able to showcase the craft of Kashmir, it is definitely going to provide employment to lot of youth. This is a drop in the ocean but it needs to be promoted in a big way. If pinjra-kari of Kashmir is promoted, it’ll set up an example in the entire world.

So there isn’t any specific scheme for the Kashmiri youth? Is it so?

These schemes are for all children including those who throw stones. The scheme will be for the children above nine years of age and onwards till they become employable. Stone pelting has become a big phenomenon here. We didn’t have a clear idea of stone pelting in New Delhi. We have got a wider picture of it. This has become a phenomenon across the globe. See the children of Gaza, and elsewhere in Palestine.

Do you think GoI is concerned about what is going on in Kashmir?

It is a very difficult question. Saying yes will be a cliché. Planning Commission gave a huge plan (Rs 6000 Cr) to Kashmir. If you look at the spending and absorbing capacity of the State, I think the plan is a reflection of the commitment in terms of finance. The areas where people are suffering and facing problems become the priority for the GoI.

At least 100 youth were rounded up for throwing stones. Last year, a teenager was slapped with Public Safety Act. Isn’t it in contrast with the economic package meant for Kashmiri children?

This has been happening since past 19 years. Children have been picked up and detained without trial. There is also Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Disturbed Area Act. I think all this needs a political solution. I think this has been the concern of prime minister too. One way to address the situation is to offer development to take the minds off from negative attitude. We are the part of PM’s think-tank which lays more stress on development. But that does not mean development will divorce the political angle of the situation. We’ll try to see the situation through the developmental angle. Development and political angle is inter-linked. My effort has always been whether it is Kashmir, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Tripura that women and children tread the path of development.

There are compensation schemes for kin of those killed or injured in militancy related incidents. But compensation to kin of slain militants have been neglected since two decades. What’s your take on this issue?

Children are children and widows are widows without making any comparison. The children who have lost their fathers are entitled for compensation. The scheme was launched in 2004 and it applies to the kin of militants also. The same scheme applies for their widows. But it’s being implemented on the ground unfortunately.

In Kashmir, collateral damage is an old term in which house owners lose their houses during encounters between militants and troops. The entire family loses both roof and dwelling place but they are not compensated. How do you see this trend?

They have to be compensated. I am for it and there is a law for it. But I don’t know how much it is applicable on ground. For any kind of damage to life or property, the responsibility of the GoI and the State is very much there. So much is happening around. I know people who lose everything have to move from pillar to post. We saw it in 2005 earthquake. The victims were unhappy in Kashmir. However, government took over the responsibility and removed the grudges of people.

Planning commission provides funds to states and J&K is one of the top-most corrupt states. Doesn’t the commission hold states accountable for misusing commission’s funds?

We can’t do much. In federal affairs, commission doesn’t poke nose in States’ affairs. They don’t like it. No State likes to answer many questions from the GoI. Instead internal accounting of the State should be strong. In the 12th plan, our focus will be on the governance in the States.

Due to 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT) both mainstream politicians and separatists say that J&K suffered huge losses. Will GoI compensate the losses?

It’s a good question. I am not sure. This is something planning commission has not reviewed as yet. The GoI’s job is to review and to compensate. However, I am not sure about this issue.

You have been the member of National Commission for Women. We have two women organisations in Kashmir, Women Development Corporation and State Commission for Women. What do you think has to be done to empower Kashmiri women?

We can’t impose commissions on you (J&K) because of the special status. Most of the commissions working in India are by virtue of the Parliament. These commissions have the power of civil court. I wrote a book ‘They Hang’ in which I wrote about 12 classic cases of women. What I found was that Commissions are so helpless to help women. Women have to fight for the justice. The commissions need to be allowed to use its powers. There should be proper infrastructure and the State Commission for Women should be empowered.

There was no case of Kashmiri women in your book. They also have been at the forefront of sufferings since 1989?

(Smiles) Yes, there wasn’t any case from Kashmir in my book. I had focused on the other states of India.

Old games erupt as city reels on the edge of despair

2010-08-05T12:41:00.000+05:30

Baba Umar

Srinagar, July 26: In the city, month-long curfews and severe restrictions might have put curbs on the games involving physical endurance; however, killing time has become quite easy for youths who can be seen hugging carrom boards on the shady portions of lane edges.

“There is nothing else we can play,” says Muhammad Idrees, an ice cream vendor at Barbarshah.

His shop has remained closed since June 23 when the cycle of strikes, curfews and bamboo beatings began.

Youths of his locality couldn’t play football or cricket in leisure time as police and troops prevented movement of people for most of the days in the area. However, Idrees and his friends were soon finding themselves on streets playing carrom on the road fringes.

South of Srinagar in a posh colony of Rajbagh, shattered business and economy over a month now, has also paved way to cheap recreational activities. Youth who would go to billiards after tuition are now turning towards chess and carrom.

“The (Billiards) club remains closed. Even my pocket money has not remained the same it was months ago. That’s why we kill our time on carrom boards,” says Adil Bhat of Rajbagh.

But killing time has also paved way to betting at many places. Beyond the aim of sinking Queen in the pot, young Saleem’s goal is to win quick bucks.

“When I started playing carrom, I thought it was just a game. But betting made it more serious and exciting,” the Rainawari youngster says.

Saleem’s luck hasn’t been bad today. He says he has won six of the nine games on which bet ranged from Rs 50 to Rs 300.

Historians believe that killing spare time with ‘betting activities’ has always been a part of Kashmir’s culture.

“Every culture has its own way of managing leisure time which is determined by the economic position, geo-climatic conditions and religion,” Historian, Farooq Fayaz says.

Given the ample leisure time, he says, people could alter the games they play to make them more interesting.

The historian also says that many of Kashmir’s indigenous games have given way to new ones “with the change in people’s economic status.”

“Not only are we playing cricket and football, we also see that billiards and snooker has intruded into our choice of games,” he says.

“Betting apart we’ve also seen many things getting rectified with time in past two decades of conflict,” he adds.

Police misusing Red Cross symbol

2010-08-05T12:39:00.000+05:30

ICRC Kashmir to take up the issue with IRCS, Police

Baba Umar
Srinagar, July 25: In a show of misuse of Red Cross symbol, personnel of Jammu and Kashmir Police are wearing riot gear upon which are inscribed the distinct emblem—a matter termed “serious” and “misbehavior ” by International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials here.
In one such case, a policeman was seen chasing away protesters at Hyderpora on Friday while wearing a green helmet pasted with a Red Cross emblem.
ICRC State In charge, David Hurmann told Rising Kashmir the issue will be taken with Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) and relevant authorities immediately.
“Using the symbol on helmet definitely amounts to misbehavior. We’ll take up the issue through confidential dialogue with authorities,” he said.
Under the Geneva conventions, only the ICRC is allowed to use its distinct Red Cross emblem and in India the use of Red Cross is regulated by the Indian law (Geneva Convention) Act 1961) and its misuse is an offence.
To mention, the Red Cross emblem was adopted in 1864 to facilitate access to the wounded soldiers and other victims of war so that the much-needed assistance could reach them. The emblem is used by those belonging to the Red Cross movement and army medical services involved in humanitarian work, mainly armed conflicts and natural disasters.
Any violation of the relevant Act under chapter IV, section 12-13, the offender is punishable with the imposition of fine of Rs 500 besides the forfeiture of articles on which the symbol is used.
The ICRC official said the Committee doesn’t have a mandate to punish offenders; however “we can urge authorities through dialogue to recall or impeach the violator.”
“We’ll be talking to police through our interlocutors so that the misuse is put on halt,” Hurmann added.
General Secretary, JK State Branch, IRCS, Feroze Ahmad couldn’t be reached for his comments.
However the branch has been regularly warning through seminars and press statements the agencies and individuals over misuse of Red Cross logo.

Kashmir Dispute's Fourth Party

2010-06-28T22:41:00.001+05:30

While India discussed Mumbai attacks and Pakistan Kashmir dispute in the ongoing talks between both the countries at Pakistan, here in the valley, army’s statement on AFSPA (an act that allows army to fire upon and even cause death, arrest any person without warrant but will have to hand over the same to police within 48 hours, and no prosecution suit or legal proceedings without the sanction of the New Delhi that rarely happens) after fake encounter incidents, and over half-a-dozen killings (mostly of youths) at the hands of both police and paramilitary CRPF pushes for a more frank truth that undermines the traditional stance of Kashmiris, Indians and Pakistanis that they are the only party of the K-dispute.

I guess the most powerful party of the dispute is the Indian army who number around 700,000 and are officially fighting 245 militants (Read IGP’s recent statement) inside valley plus 600-800 militants (Army’s recent statement) waiting to enter the Valley from Pakistan Administered Kashmir.

With such a huge militarization and no other alternative offered to civilians to express dissent, human rights violations and killings are bound to occur. Not only this, just recently we saw how a 70-year-old Kashmiri was killed and labeled as Pakistani infiltrator for promotions and medals triggering fears that more than 10,000 youths who disappeared during past 22 years of dispute might have met the same fate and are sleeping under six feets up in the mountains in several mass graves (nearly 2600 bodies have been found in several mass graves in one district only by International People’s Tribunal in Kashmir).

Adding to the insult are ministers and bureaucrats who are either enjoying holidays at picnic spots or are participating in music programmes on the lake-side when the rest of city and major towns (10 districts) were curfewed past 11 days that also saw eight youths being killed. These things could only push youth to the wall who are seeking justice but are fired at on heads, abdomens and torsos. In 2008, almost 1200 youth had received injuries above waist, meaning that armed forces are directly trying to aim at bodies instead of thinning demonstrations, which a top cop, who was sacked after couple of youth were killed in a firing, also acknowledged to media as well. He said protests should have been allowed.

The real fear is that if armed forces try to corner cat (Kashmiri youth) it will try to pounce upon them. It is exactly what we have been seeing. The peaceful protests of 2008 were forced to become violent which led to killings of 65 youth and injury to more than 2500 people.

In city and elsewhere armed forces have continued this trend and in the mountains where media hardly reaches and villagers choose to remain silent, fake encounters continue to happen which makes Kashmir a fitting case of UN intervention in forcing India to repeal draconian laws that protects its soldiers and push for a plebiscite to decide the fate of more than 10 million Kashmiris.

While I write this post, newspaper headlines scream that two more youth have been shot dead adding past five days’ toll to four that include a 22-year-old footballer, Bilal Ahmad Wani and a nine-year-old Asif Hassan.

More terrible is the state government’s reaction and central government’s counterpunto.

The ruling NC's leader and Law minister Ali Muhammad Sagar of Kashmir accuses the paramilitary CRPF of "going out of control” and “berserk” and promises (the only thing state government has been doing) probes into the killings, his statement is contradicted by the New Delhi Home Secretary, G K Pillai who believes the "unruly mobs" were behind the violence and asserts the government would not cow down to the separatists' tactics.

All this when more than “always-to-be-feared” 100 stone pelters are behind bars and almost 40 separatists leaders detained or house arrested.

Letters from Kashmir

2010-05-07T12:37:00.001+05:30

On October 30, 2009 when Indian Home Ministry banned pre-paid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir citing security reasons, Alana Victoria Hunt sat quietly in her apartment in Delhi contemplating the possible alternative for the affected Kashmiri subscribers.

For some days, the 25-year-old Arts student couldn’t figure out what to do even as she continuously found the fate of 40, 00,000 mobile phone subscribers in the State go almost unnoticed in the ‘national’ media. Then one morning a novel idea struck her mind.

Hunt soon found herself devising a paper text message leaf that would emerge as a kind of light hearted gesture and mockery of the situation.

“I hoped it would ease the feeling of dejection felt by pre-paid phone subscribers of Kashmir while also facilitating a different kind of space for further discussion in a positive way,” says Hunt, who is trained in conceptual and experimental media art practices in Australia.

Currently pursuing Masters at the School of Arts and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, Hunt was increasingly worried about Kashmiri mobile phone users – people conducting business, college students, families, and distanced lovers – all left without means of telecommunication virtually overnight.

“When the actual pre-paid ban took place I was in Delhi. I suppose I noticed it from a distance and from the receiving end that suddenly my friends couldn’t call or message and their numbers had to change. They had to go through the long bureaucratic procedures of getting new numbers or retrieve previous ones. That was shocking to me,” she says.

The 4x4 paper text cards were soon prepared and distributed in thousands across India and Kashmir. And every card read: “Since the prepaid mobile phone connections in Kashmir have been banned, perhaps it is the right time now for us to use our imagination and generate different kinds of commutative tools ourselves. The card offers space to write a different kind of paper text message to anyone—real or imagined— anywhere in the world about anything one would like to write in a text message.”

Earlier when the cards were being readied for distribution, Hunt made it sure that she got back all the filled cards that she would display in an exhibition, which is going on at Sarai CSDS Delhi—an independent social science and humanities research centre.

“Close to 1000 paper text messages were originally distributed throughout Kashmir in December 2009. But only 150 found their way back to Delhi and are now a part of the current exhibition,” she says.

“Out of curiosity,” Hunt says, “I kept on imagining how the remaining paper cards that never came back would have been used and exchanged between individuals.”

Hunt says most of the cards from Kashmir appealed Indian Home Minister, P Chidambaram to withdraw the ban. Some even dared him to try the decree in New Delhi and elsewhere in India while others addressed “paper SMSes” to God. “Some even wrote to the United States President Barrack Obama and UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon to revoke the ban,” says Hunt.

“No doubt I live in the 21st century wherein globalization is the buzzword. But I am among the 4 million mobile phone subscribers in Kashmir whose phones don’t work at all just because India is fighting 700 rebels in the Valley.

I hope you act. I am living in a stone age. Sorry I couldn’t find a pigeon to send you this paper card,” a paper card addressed to US President reads.

“Some of the letters were very touching. I remember a kashmiri student named Azhar in his letter had asked God: ‘When’ll Kashmir become free?”’ says Hunt.

A German photojournalist, Dominic who was in Srinagar and couldn’t wish his girlfriend on her birthday wrote to his girl friend from a coffee shop here: “Happy birthday Olivia…Sorry I couldn’t text you because SMSing has been banned in Kashmir where I am travelling these days.”

There were short paper messages written to United Nations, religious clerics, relatives, friends.

In all the cards Hunt received from Kashmir and elsewhere, she says, she was pleased to see the real diversity of responses that ranged from the overtly political to the personal; from Obama and Chidambaram to Agha Shahid Ali and ‘Mum and Dad’.

Subsequently, on January 21, 2010, the central government lifted the ban on prepaid mobile phones, though, with stringent identification measures for verification of existing or new subscribers. The decision to lift the ban was taken after several rounds of talks between the home ministry, telecom ministry, the state government and mobile telephone service providers.

The matter was even taken to the Supreme Court. The talks had mostly focused on some of the SIM cards that militants were using to stay in touch with each other and also trigger landmines. However, the ban had stalled the communication needs of almost 85 per cent of the mobile subscribers in the State.

In the meantime, Hunt kept on receiving more paper text messages full of emotions— from despair and determination to distanced love and hope.

“But it was the predominance of humor in these cards, as a means to tackle the situation, which was probably the most wonderful aspect for me,” she says.

The current exhibition that began on Aril 16 has seen an overwhelming response from writers, rights activist, students and critics. However, no politician has dropped in so far.
Hunt has also offered ‘Reply cards’ that people are invited to use to respond to the paper text messages from Kashmir.

She says, “We’ll see what the end result is when the time comes, but at the end of the exhibition there may have formed an interesting kind of paper text message dialogue.”

Although she is not sure about the replies, she hopes that it would be possible to put the cards together into some kind of publication or book in future.

The young student would be returning to Australia later this year where she is to undertake an artist residency program.

“I’ll continue to reflect upon my personal experiences in India and Kashmir,” she winds up.

(Baba Umar)

Kashmir: Exploring Thrill

2010-04-23T10:08:00.004+05:30

In his favourite green ski gear, atop one of the steepest white slopes of Gulmarg, 25-year-old Anthony Bonelo—an Australian skier, fixes his goggles, confirms if there is enough water in the plastic bottle, rest assures if the ski pair is okay. Then he drops his right hand in the sack, comes out with a small video camera, kisses it, switches it ON and glues it on his helmet to record the event.

Over the velvet cushioned mountains, Bonelo is going to imitate a downhill run, similar to what he first saw in a movie ‘The Tangerine Dream’—a 700-hour-long compilation on skiing and snowboarding, shot on the white rugs of Kashmir, Turkey, Alaska, Switzerland and France.

Released in 2005, the film was the only information available to the backpacker who after years of indecision finally landed up in Kashmir.

When he comes down from Khilanmarg, he unlocks his skis, stares at a huge crack on the receding snow mound few meters next to cable car base, imagining if he could jump-off once again.

He says, “This part of Kashmir is exactly what I saw in the movie.”

Bonelo is curly haired and rosy cheeked. The steely sparkle in his eyes tells me that he is hungry to rule alpine-dotted mountains. He is strongly built, tall with smooth face while his crimped hair partially cloaked with white skull cap are tilted enough to fall on his ears. His appearance doesn’t address his origin. His looks are alike of an average Kashmiri boy. This, I tell him twice.

Few weeks ago, when Bonelo was in Australia, he tried his best to find out if there was any update over the ski resort Gulmarg and if Kashmir was safe to travel; however, there was only scattered information on couple of reliable websites where he could lay his hands on. He also tried Kashmir government’s tourism website, but it didn’t help.

“Besides watching this film, whatever I learnt about Gulmarg was only from couple of web portals. But why I am here is more because of word of mouth,” Bonelo says as he rests his right hand on the shoulder of his Canadian travel-mate, Simon Thomson.

Thomson, a student who has been instrumental in convincing another Canadian Steve Braw (third member of the group) to visit Kashmir for winter sports adventure is an ardent skier. Gulmarg is his favourite ski resort. And his next destination is K2 in neighbouring Pakistan.

“Gulmarg is beautiful but the information on such a beautiful place is equally insufficient. Almost all skiers check with the people who have traveled to Kashmir for skiing. It is only ‘word of mouth’ we rely on,” says Thomson.

Brawn also believes that Gulmarg is under-promoted.

“You must know that there is no promotion going on for this place. It is really hard to get hold of information about Kashmir from the tourism authorities here,” says Brawn.

And when I tell them that the administration has fixed only Rs 1 crore budget on endorsement activities, the backpackers feel sad.

The trio, however, speak lot about the hospitality of locals and how much they relish Kashmiri Kehwa. The group also discusses with me fate of a Swedish skier whose Muslim wife had suggested him to get verses of the holy Quran inscribed on his skiing gear to “avoid accidents”, a year ago.

But instead he had landed up in a police station.

The news of Quranic verses inscribed on the foreign tourist’s ski gear had spread like a wild fire triggering massive protests in the picturesque Gulmarg. The skier was beaten by a couple of men before handing over him to police.

Later it was learnt that the Swedish skier whose Iranian wife had called him up from Qatar, where she worked, had insisted him to etch on the ski gear some verses to evade risk and bad luck.

The skier had been staying in a private hut and was a part of a group brought to Gulmarg by the Israeli travel agency, EDOO, which has been operating Gulmarg tours for the past several years.

For few more minutes we talk more on whether people who raised anti-Israel and anti-Swedish slogans across the scenic area were justifiable. And then the conflict in Kashmir.

It is Taliban, Pakistan, India we all discuss. They don’t know much about how conflict began in Kashmir. But it is sure that they don’t like troops around. Right from the airport when their plane landed.

“It’s green barracks there (airport). And elsewhere it’s only ‘monkey with guns’,” they refer to the patrolling men in combat costume.

Meanwhile, the sky clears itself. The threesome again decided to get on Apharwat peak (14000 ft above sea level) from gondola cable car for a bluebird day and copious soft powder.

The 15-minute ropeway takes them to famous slopes of Apharwat, from where, they come down negotiating slopes, snaking white blanket and recording the descend.

For half-an-hour I wait for them near the cable car base. And then it is Bonelo who leads the sliders.

“Gulmarg has revealed itself to me far beyond my expectations. I will be posting this video on my blog…And it will serve as a promotional advertisement for Gulmarg and Kashmir,” Bonelo says as he gasps for breath while the rest of skiers thud towards us only to halt with a powerful jerk.

The steep chutes in Gulmarg are ‘Line of No Control’ for these back packers. They have come defying travel advisories from their respective countries against traveling to Kashmir.

Earlier Brawn explained me that Canadian travel guidance too marks Kashmir a dangerous place to travel “which is not true”.

“I think it is a safer place,” Brawn says wishing the Canadian foreign ministry to review the travel advisory.

And talking about Lonely Planet—a travel guide foreigners mostly rely on, Thomson believes “the book misguides.”

“All tourists consult it and end up enjoying at only one place. … South Africa,” he says.

As we talk, we are joined by another skier, a Russian adventurer Alaxander Yurtse.

Talk skiing to him and one can’t help but be startled at his data of the intricacies of skiing, details of the Gulmarg slopes that sometimes even local guides may not know.

Yurtse is about 5.11 feet tall, slim, clean-shaven, has long auburn hair and is proud to possess a light weight jacket, grungy multi-pocket jeans, toil boots. And he doesn’t mind posing for my camera.

Yurtse has been a regular visitor of Gulmarg, and this year he is accompanied by dozens of Russians, all new to this place for the winter adventure sports.

“When they heard about Gulmarg and stories from travelers, they readily joined me,” he says.

He is also for an investigation over why travel advisories are still in place when Kashmir is calm.

Amid these conversations, the sun makes a grand fall, shedding some of the most incredible light over the white mountains as it sets while Bonelo and his friends decide to call it a day.

“Standing on the top is something that perhaps makes us the happiest,” the group members say as they descend from the cable car base to their hotel. They wave at me before disappearing humbly beyond alpine trees in the snow-carpeted bowl-shaped Gulmarg while Yurtse and I decide to have a cup of coffee in a café nearby.

(Baba Umar in Gulmarg where skiing season waned in February—the best time to catch the least crowds and copious snow)

The 'Haunted' and The 'Raped'

2010-03-06T12:01:00.001+05:30

Raheema’s old timber house supported by mud and bricks stands desolate under the gray sky of Kunan-poshpora, a small village in North Kashmir’s Kupwara. It overlooks the dusty road with a view of snowcapped mountains all around. Behind its decaying door, a narrow dark corridor leads to a room where heaps of scrap wood and tattered straw mats lay scattered. Hanging by the ceiling are some amulets while spider webs and dangling insects fill all the corners.

Almost eighteen years back, on a chilly night intervening February 23/24, this room was lively. A neighboring woman Sara Begum (35 then), her daughters and Raheema (22 then) with a son in her lap guffawed quietly on a joke till the clock struck 9:30 pm. In a flash, jackboots were kicking the door. Armed with guns and knives, troopers of 4-Rajputana Rifles roared with thunder. Begum hid both of her daughters in the dry grass stacked in attic. ¬The gun nozzles welcomed Raheema’s husband Qadir who opened the door. He was immediately dragged to a nearby bus stand where hundreds of village men were assembled for nocturnal identification parade. And both women, who stayed back, were gang raped in the small room.

Though the actual number of the affected women is not known, the number of women gang raped as calculated by a team led by the then Chief Justice Mufti Baha-ud-Din Farooqi is 53, An Indian civil rights activist Amiya Rao calculated the number to be 42. The operation continued till February 24 morning but no militants or ammunition was recovered.

In the morning, when the village men found most of the women raped, Qadir couldn’t hold back his tears. He mourned for a week hiding his face between his legs. Youngmen like him vowed to take revenge. Leaving their mud hutments for the thickly-wooded area where Pir Panjal and Himalayan mountain ranges collide, almost 35 youngsters crossed over to Pakistani Kashmir to get arms training in next few months. Qadir stayed back for his old father, wife and the newly born baby.

However, he had something different running in his mind.

“Those days he would never utter a word. I thought he will also join militant ranks,” Raheema recalls as her eyes begin soaking.

Instead she was soon hearing her husband talk about abandoning the inherited house forever.

“Every household in the village mourned for months. But we were busy in deciding when to vacate our house. Then one day we collected our family belongings and shifting to a new place,” Raheema recalls.

The family left the quaint but depressing house for ever to live at Begum’s house for some time. The ancestral house of Latief where he would play on its veranda, steal walnuts from a carton, and write on its walls, when he was a kid, was labelled as ‘a structure that brought shame and curse’, ‘bad omen’ and ‘haunted’ by none other than Qadir himself,

“But he also blocked his father’s attempts to sell it,” says Raheema.

Qadir who was possessive about his wife and wooden house both, however, decided to sell a piece of his paddy land to construct a new brick house just adjacent to the ancestral house which he still calls as a “ghost habitat.”

“It’s haunted. It’s a ghost house,” he says. He even curses all youngsters, even the grown up baby Adil who attend scribes or researchers in Kunan-Poshpora villages.

“Don’t bring them here. Go away,” he shouts from the window.

For Adil, however, the house is as good as other houses in the village. He says he enters the house quite often mostly for dumping scrap wood or storing gunny sacks containing cow fodder, but he never feels that the house is haunted.

“For my father,” he says, “the house is like a pandit property. Haunted and cursed. But I never felt a presence there.”

Adil has heard the woeful tale of that February night from his father several times. Adil, now 19, says his father always talk about what he hears every night in the old house: The strange occurrences in and around the house, including mysterious cries, rattling door knobs, the sounds of jackboots banging the door, and inanimate objects falling from the almirah tucked into a wall inside the room where the two women were gang raped.

“But I don’t believe in all these things,” Adil says confidently.

His priorities and troubles, however, lie somewhere else.

“I am rather perturbed by what my classmates say about me,” says he.

Adil like many other children of Kunan-Poshpora face provocative and sarcastic remarks ‘Oh he is from the raped village’ almost daily in the school or college. The children of this raped village say that they always keep a small friend circle. And all friends carry the same baggage of inheritance of being born in a family where women were raped by troops.

“The subject is not taboo in our school. Students discuss it. And it’s people like me who end up being ostracized for the crime which Indian troops committed,” Adil who studies in 12 standard says, adding that he wishes to have been 18 in the year 1991, so that he also could have gone up in the mountains for arms training.

“But then I wouldn’t be alive to talk to you. Because all the 35 youngmen were martyred when they came back,” Adil says.

The raped women of Kunan-poshpora never got justice.

The Press Council of India (PCI) with veteran Indian journalist B.S. Verghese was asked to write a report on the incident. The PCI report, amid local and global controversy, completely denied that any crime occurred at all during the event at Konan-Poshpora calling it a “massive hoax.”

Verghese in his book “First Draft” outlined his assessment of the situation: “Apart from the glaring gaps and contradictions in the evidence, the video recording carefully staged two to three months after the alleged event, had obviously been made for propaganda purposes. Our committee concluded that the reports of human rights excesses investigated by it had been grossly exaggerated or invented,” he said. According to reports, in an interview about his writings he explained the book was a collection of stories he had written “at that time,” sharing that the report was “a worm’s eye-view of history as an individual saw it.”

Lambasting the PCI report, Teresa Joseph of South Asia Forum for Human Rights described the PCI conclusion as “another instance of the Indian press’ selective reporting on Kashmir” in a detailed analysis of India’s media coverage of atrocities.

Whatever the experts' conclusion, every year, the month of February and the snowfall keeps villagers of Kunan and Poshpora reminding over what had happened to them and what it had led the younger generation for.

In the meantime, Adil erects a wooden ladder against a wall of the ‘haunted’ house, whose plinth is nearly swallowed by weeds and dry leaves, to get a bundle of dry grass for cows while a squad of five - six children assembles around me waiting to get photographed.

(Some names have been changed to protect identity)

Baba Umar in Kunan-Poshpora, Kupwara

32 bullets, he took 'em all, to shield others from unrelenting guns

2010-02-07T19:34:00.001+05:30

KASHMIR'S FIRST BLOOD

Baba Umar (Rising Kashmir, 2010)

It was the morning of January 21, 1990. The sun came up without much sparkle but it shone on young Rauf’s face for the last time. For, by noon, he was lying on the ground in his favourite blue jacket and green shoes, his body pierced by a hail of troopers’ bullets.

Abdur Rauf Wani

And, two decades later, his family and those who saw him getting killed along with 52 other peaceful protesters in Kashmir’s first massacre since the armed rebellion broke out in 1989 against the Indian rule, try to look back on the event that gave birth to a generation of angry young men. A violent uprising and a separatist sentiment never seen before in Kashmir.
On that fateful morning, Abdur Rauf Wani (24) and his father G A Wani, a government employee, watched from the window a huge but peaceful procession passing through Maharaja Bazar, trigerred by the news of molestation of women in the old city, strict curfews and restrictions.
It was also just a day after New Delhi appointed Jagmohan Malhotra as J-K Governor in a bid to control mass protests by Kashmiris.
In the street below, men in thousands raised their fists, with slogans ‘Hum Kya Chahte... Azadi’ (We Want Freedom) renting the air. Nothing unusual, as people had grown used to these reminders. But Rauf, unable to contain the surge of emotions within, turned to his father and what followed was a little "more unusual".
“Bauji, this’ll be now begairti (disgrace), should we not join now,” Zulehama Banday, Rauf’s older sister recalls his brother’s conversation with dad.
The senior Wani looked back, waited for a moment and then nodded his head. “Should I go,” Rauf again insisted. “Yes,” his father replied.
Zulehama says it was the first time that the family had okayed Rouf's request to join the peaceful protests. Rauf was soon away, smashing a flower vase in hurry. He stumbled but got up immediately. He performed ablutions, fixed the shoe laces, adjusted his jeans and slid both arms in the blue jacket that he had slung on his right shoulder till then.
Onto the road. “A neighbour tried to stop him but he wouldn’t,” recalls Zulehama, who by now had joined her father at the window to see Rauf disappear in a swarm of youngmen.
The long strip of rally that begun from Jawahar Nagar and Ikhrajpora, Rajbagh to reach Budshah Chowk. Earlier proposed to stopover outside UNO at Sonawar, people in the front decided to drum up more support from inner city. The crowd swerved towards Maisuma that would lead demonstrators to inner city till it reached Gaw Kadal Bridge over the Jhelum.
When the front-liners of crowd was halfway across the Gaw Kadal, the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) opened fire with automatic machine guns from three directions. In the next few minutes, the bridge with littered with corpses and blood. The first day of Governor Jagmohan’s rule would pass in the bloodshed.
Muhammad Altaf Qureshi (50) remembers how the march was stopped with automatic machine guns and how a fearless youngman braved bullets from an unremitting gun nozzle.
“Without any provocation and warning, they fired on us,” he recalls. Qureshi, who was in the third row, says the sounds of unrelenting gunfire triggered astampede on the wooden bridge. The charge pushed him on the deck and soon blood-stained bodies were dotting the spot. Whosoever tried to stand on his legs would be fired upon.
In this melee of bullets and screams, Qureshi noticed a youngman getting up, pushing aside with his hands both the dead and alive. “A trooper was showering bullets from a short distance and this youngman shielded people by blocking troopers’ view,” Qureshi recalls. “He took all the bullets on his chest.”
The youngster was none other than Rauf. Troopers with faces masked had emptied their carbines by puncturing Rauf’s abdomen and chest. The act of bravery saved scores from getting killed. Rauf finally collapsed, his face upwards; blood painting his blue jacket and green shoes with red.
Qureshi watched silently. He was motionless. The crowd had dispersed. "Mayhem, Massacre, God" were the cries he heard from the receding crowd. While on the bridge, troops were leaping on the corpses, kicking survivors and finishing them off. Qureshi pretended dead, hiding his face under someone’s blood-splattered torso.
“I preferred to lie with the bodies, knowing for sure I will be shot if I stirred. I closed my eyes and remembered Allah and recited Kalima without letting a sound come out,” he recalls. Then the image of his three-month-old daughter flashed in his mind. He soon heard policemen speak in Kashmiri, shouting loud if someone was alive.
“For a while I pretended dead,” he says.
As if mere sack of flesh, blood and bones, the scene had deadened his body. He was picked up by a cop of J&K Police who inquired if he was alright. He saw policemen heave the bodies into a truck, over a tarpaulin and disappear from the spot.
“I was taken to a nearby fire station, from where I called up my home. They were waiting for my corpse after a friend and survivor told them about the massacre,” recalls Qureshi.
The news travelled to home faster than the body of Rauf. Zulehama, the other siblings and father panicked. Rauf had wished martyrdom when a funeral procession passed by the family’s house months back. Zulehama watched their elder brother Parvez Wani readying for Police Control Room (PCR), Batamaloo, where the injured and dead were taken.
At PCR gate Parvez struggled hard to enter the premises, as relatives of victims had already started to pour in. Back home, Rauf’s father was restless. He had allowed his son join the peaceful march. A sense of guilt had overtaken him. Others in the family were crying and consoling each other, assuming Rauf might have swum the river below the wooden bridge. Or he must have stayed at someone’s house.
“We were not sure, however,” Zulehama says.
But at PCR, Parvez was face-to-face with reality: he was handed the bullet-ridden body of his brother. Thirtytwo holes, he counted, had punctured Rauf - the highest number of bullets fired on anyone in the rally. “And when the body reached our home…everyone……” Zulehama is unable to continue.
It was not for the first time that he had risked his life to save others. In 1984, Rauf risked his life to save a Sikh laborer who was shot on head while he was lacing his shoes in the street. Family members say that the labourer had cried for help, and when others in the neighbourhood shut their doors and windows, Rauf rushed out and took him to the nearby hospital.
“He was 18 then,” Zulehama says. Three years later, in 1987, Rauf along with hundreds of youth was dragged to jail for supporting a political party Muslim United Front (MUF). Rauf was bundled into the notorious PAPA-2 interrogation chamber for 21 days.
Zulehama also remembers how young Rauf would shift a mound of sand outside a neighbour’s house making way for guests during a marriage.
Rauf was laid to rest at a graveyard in Sarai Bala, besides Dastageer Sahib Shrine. Soon after, the family sold their property and moved to another locality. And in 2006, Rauf was posthumously honoured with Robert Thorpe award.
Zulehama knows police had registered a case which was, however, closed in 2005 and those involved in Kashmir’s first massacre were declared untraceable.
But when I ask her what does she think and if she wants the case reopened, her silence is coupled with soaked eyes. For a moment she speaks nothing. Then she says: "Yes. It must be.
“When I think of my brother,” she says, “the thoughts are not just of the wonderful time we shared. It is of the brutal way in which he was killed, the irrationality of the act, and ultimately, the offenders and the Indian justice system."

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20118&Itemid=29

In Kashmir fear is a constant comrade

2010-02-07T19:33:00.001+05:30

Baba Umar

Every moment I travel in Lal Chowk, I do not know what’ll happen out here. But past several years have taught me to expect that people are always vulnerable on this street.

I was on-duty and had gone to withdraw money from an ATM at Koker Bazaar which is few metres away from the paramilitary CRPF bunker that was targeted by gunmen.

I arrived at J&K Bank’s ATM and I checked by mobile phone for time. It showed 1:40 PM. At the beginning I was the last one standing in a six-man long queue. But after couple of minutes a lady and her daughter stood behind me. The guard outside the entrance passed a gentle smile probably suggesting that the ladies should have come forward and taken out money before everyone else in the queue.

As usual the market famous for dry fruits and Kashmir arts was abuzz with customers. On my right, I saw three CRPF men standing outside the sandbag bunker that shields their camp at now the burnt Palladium Theatre in Lal Chowk.

It must have been 1:45 PM now. All of a sudden I saw CRPF men started running towards us. We all panicked. And then it was a big bang. A grenade was flung, I understood. Within a fraction of seconds gun shots cracked the air. A wave of crowd came running towards us. The queue broke up. I don’t know who went where. I pulled myself back towards the roadside. I ducked while I hurried my feet continuously. I know a trooper usually keeps eye on the lane edge from a pigeon hole and a finger ready to pull trigger if attacked. And if he fires aimlessly in panic, it would be a massacre at Koker Bazaar. That was the only thing I kept in my mind while running.

Meanwhile gunshots punctuated the air till the sound graduated into a permanent mêlée.

I followed an old man, probably a pedestrian, through a narrow corridor into a shop that stored electronic goods. It is few paces away from the ATM stand. Following me was a youngster who later told me that he was from Jammu and had visited Lal Chowk for the first time. And then two more escapees joined us.

Except for the elderly, who stood silent on a stair step, we all began calling our relatives. I called my brother. It was 2:10 PM now. I told him I am alive but holed up along with five others.

He asked me for my location. I didn’t tell him I was in a shop placed under a building somewhere behind Hotel Peak View.

But from the gunshots he could gauge that I was very near to the battle site.

“Stay safe. Don’t come out till anyone comes for rescue,” he suggested.

With fear writ large on the youngster’s face, he told me that he had visited the Lal Chowk for the first time and never expected that attacks like this would occur randomly and quickly.

“It is also for the first time that I had run so fast. How do you live in this city?” he said.

He was barely twenty, tall, young and clean shaved. He wore a long black jacket, leather shoes and blue jeans.

However, he was accompanying his friend who had decided to stay in the car that they had parked in front of Hotel Peak View. This building faces the traffic circle which saw troops and militants engaged fiercely on either sides.

Minutes before the assault he had parked his car under the hotel.

“Just few steps in the lane, I heard sound of gunshots, blasts and people in dozens running away from the bunker,” he told me, adding that his friend was in the car waiting for him when the gunshots rang.

After five minutes he got a call. He picked up the phone on the first ring only.

“Thank God,” he said and smiled at me before he disconnected the gadget.

“My friend is all right. He is also hiding in some shop,” he said.

Between our short conversations, I saw him fret with horror as blasts and gunfire augmented.

The he asked me a barrage of questions.

“Why did they attack Lal Chowk? What will happen next? Are we holed up till night? Is this the first attack on the bunker outside,” he asked in one breath.

I could only encourage him not to panic. But he was a stranger in the town. A volley of bullets fired close by further scared him. He must have been invaded by countless thoughts of death and destruction.

But I was equally sure that we all would be rescued. If not now but within hours before dusk.

Before I could say him anything he made a promise never to visit Lal Chowk again.

“If I survived today, I would never come to this place again. I swear,” he said.

Between our conversation and barrage of bullets, someone shouted outside the road to come out. I saw some shopkeepers were downing their shutters while couple of police vehicle stood fixed on the edge of the lane.

I was the first to come out. And then came out the youngster. I didn’t see him again. All of us leapt as fast as we could towards Amira Kadal. I took the Maharaja Bazaar and reached my office at 3:30 PM.

The fresh gun battle had come three days after militants made an abortive attempt to blow up the bunker with a hand grenade and after two years when a Fidayeen squad stormed a building close by.

In Lal Chowk fear is a constant comrade. That is what I have learnt once again. Here attacks could come as swiftly as they do randomly elsewhere. So how quick you react determines your survival chances.

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19778&Itemid=38

Collective efforts needed to stop suicides among Kashmiris: Nandita Das

2010-02-07T19:30:00.002+05:30

Moved by the growing number of youngsters who have developed suicidal tendencies, Actress turned Filmmaker and Social Activist, Nandita Das on Thursday called for an immediate action on curbing the menace.

Das was speaking before a huge gathering during a function on ‘Campaign Against Suicides among Kashmiri Youngsters’ and Kashmir Women Leadership awards organized by Space Communications.

“We have to be open about things and address all the issues immediately that have given rise to the number of such youngsters in Valley,” she said.

Nanidta Das of Fire, 1947 The Earth, Lal Salaam, Aks, Bawander, Hazaar Chaurasiya Ki Maa, Ram Chand Pakistani and Firaaq said that curbing such tendencies needs collective efforts of all.

“All of us, the government and individuals have to work hard to bring about that change,” she said.

On Kashmir conflict, which was concluded as the main cause of growing incidences of suicides in the valley, she said, Kashmiri artists has to work more in highlighting the Kashmir conflict.

“I tell you Bollywood, like any other cinema, does the stereotyping of which Kashmir has been the victim for decades,” she said.

She said that media and Bollywood highlights events in a massive way when the place of event are big cities like Mumbai and New York, but little coverage is given to events that happen at small places like Kashmir.

“There is a lot of material that goes unheard. We were told about 26/11 and 9/11 events both of which occurred in big cities, but in Kashmir I am sure such things happen daily,” she added.

, “Cinema often does stereotyping. It is writers of Kashmir who have to work more to remove that stereotyping by coming out with stories that are related to whatever happened to Kashmir for past twenty years.”

Asked what type of cinema should come out of Kashmir, she said, “Zulmatu Key Dour Mein Kya Geet Gaye Jayengey, Zulmatu Key Dour Mein Zulmaton Key Geet Gaye Jaiyegey.”

Other guests who were present on the occasion included MoS, Tourism Nasir Aslam Wani, Dr Arshad Hussain of psychiatric hospital Srinagar, Child Psychiatrist and Mental Health Officer, MSF, Dr Kerstin Jacobs.

In his speech Dr Arshad revealed the current scenario of the mental health in Kashmir.

He said, “The psychiatric hospital has been visited by 1700 patients in 1989 with mental disorder and suicidal behavior but the figure increased to 00,000 in the year 2008 which should be a cause of concern.”

SSP CID-Jammu Syed Afadul Mujtaba who also spoke on the occasion said that suicide like other crimes have to be controlled and instead of police action it demands societal control and counseling.

He said, “Community policing, and association of police with clinical psychologists can help devise a strategy to stop this crime,” he said.

Dr Kerstin, in her power point presentation, described how the victim is attracted with the idea of committing suicide and what can be the remedial measures.

MoS, Tourism Nasir Aslam Wani, during the question answer session assured full government help in curbing the menace of suicide.

He also said, “There are many reasons of why people commit suicide. But it is we people who have to address all issues leading to this tendency.”

In his speech, Owner Eaton Laboratories and Space Communications, Amit Wanchoo, said that the function was organized to brainstorm on what could be strategy on stopping the crime of suicide in the valley.

He said, “It can’t happen overnight but all of us can try to curb this menace slowly and effectively.”

Others who took part in the interaction included, Senior Journalist Muzamil Jaleel, Head Operation, Eaton Laboratories, Sheikh Muneer, Owner Eaton Laboratories and Space Communications, Amit Wanchoo, Dr Basharat of MSF, PRO Kashmir University, Showkat Shafi, Social Activist, Nighat Shafi, besides number of students and other academicians.

The function was conducted by Raja Muneeb, while a skit presented by a group of artists was greeted with huge applause.

Meanwhile, Kashmir Women Leadership awards were also given in which six women were honored for their exceptional work in their fields of work.

These included Commissioner Secretary Tourism, Tanveer Jehan, social activist Nighat Shafi Pandit, Poet Naseem Shafaie, late Dr Jagat Mohini (posthumously), businesswomen Shahala Sheikh and florist Nusrat Jehan.

Baba Umar

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16261&Itemid=43

In 2008, 1 lakh registered for PTSD in Kashmir

2010-02-07T19:28:00.002+05:30

At least 1 lakh patients suffering from conflict-induced trauma as also suicidal tendencies in Kashmir have visited psychiatric consultancy centre in Government Psychiatric Hospital during 2008. Only 1700 patients had visited the hospital in 1989.

Revealing these alarming figures during an awareness show ‘Sukoon – Campaign Against Suicides among Kashmiri Youngsters’ organized by Space Communications at SKICC on Thursday, noted psychiatrist Dr Arshad Hussain said: “The patients visiting the Government Psychiatric Hospital in year 2008 reached to an overwhelming 1 lakh,” he said. “In 1989 only 1700 such patients visited the hospital for treatment.”

Quoting his study ‘Mental Health Kashmir Scenario’, Dr Arshad said during the pre-conflict (pre-1989) scenario, suicide rate among 90 per cent Muslim population was only 0.5 among every 10000 person, which was lowest in India.

However, he said that in the post-conflict scenario the figures of patients with suicidal behavior visiting the psychiatric hospital shot up from 1700 in 1989 to 35000 in 1996.

“In 2000, the number of such patients rose to 50,000 which went further up to 65,000 in 2004 and 1 lakh in 2008.”

The function was attended by Bollywood actress, filmmaker and social activist Nandita Das, SSP City Jammu Syed Afadul Mujtaba and a galaxy of intellectuals, journalists, students and social activists.

Quoting his study ‘Muslim Suicide-Kashmir Experience’, Dr Arshad revealed that at least three suicides or attempted suicide cases are reported at SMHS hospital every day.

“War in known to decrease suicide rates but the conflict of low intensity has an inward reaction which results in the breakage of culture, internal migration and decrease in social bonding and networking,” he said.

According to the study, the most tried attempts of ending one’s life include using organic phosphorus, burns and throat cutting.

“The patients who have suicidal behavior consist of 60 per cent women while rest are children and young men,” he said. “Such patients always suffer from Major Depressive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Substance Use Disorder, Anxiety Disorder and Midnight Knock Syndrome.”

The study has carried interviews of 1271 drug users studied at nine urban sites, which show 70 per cent of sample using Opioids, 20 per cent have fallen to Cannabis and 30 per cent of the studied group using Benzo as common drugs.

However, the rural survey shows that 17 per cent of the sample had lifetime prevalence that was between the age group of 18 to 35 years.

“Seventy per cent of them had at least studied upto 10th standard while the traumatic stress was 50 per cent. Unemployment was significant but not always,” he said.

SSP CID Jammu Syed Afadul Mujtaba in his speech said suicide or an attempt to suicide is a crime in the eyes of law but most of the cases when investigated by police add to the mental stress of victim’s relatives.

“It is all because of social stigma attached to the crime,” he said.

He said that for suicide there is no special deterrent and added that it demands societal approach to solve the issue.

“Community policing, friendly atmosphere and association of police with clinical psychologists can help devise a strategy to stop this crime,” he said.

Baba Umar

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16238&Itemid=55

‘Film makers failed to realize essence of Kashmir’

2010-02-07T19:26:00.002+05:30

Shah averse to Valley’s over-exposure to bollywood

Dissuading people from expecting bollywood films to be shot in Kashmir the way they used to be, veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah on Monday said that more bollywood could eventually tell upon the identity of the valley.

“I would suggest you not to ask for it. Let it (film industry) not touch Kashmir which has its own identity,” Shah said while interacting with media here.

Apparently angry with the film industry, the internationally acclaimed actor said that it has also failed to notice Kashmir while as it chooses shooting in European countries that resemble Kashmir in beauty.

“They (film makers) have failed to realise the essence of Kashmir. That’s why they go to Europe and other countries,” Shah said.

Shah is here to guide Kashmir’s 30 theatre actors and actresses in a ten-day long workshop. The workshop is organised by an NGO Anhad and Jharkhand-based Social Education, Training and Research Institute, JUDAV both of which recently organised a theater festival and competition to select artists for the ongoing workshop.

“The common thing between the period when I started learning drama and now is that no one teaches the aspiring artists,” he said. However, he was quick to add that he would do everything to help Kashmir’s artists in the workshop.

“I am sad to learn that Kashmiri theater has suffered a lot during the past two decades, but I assure you that I would help the youth in whatever way I can during this workshop,” Shah who is known for his theater performances said.

Shah who came to the valley after a gap of 25 years promised to visit the place again and share his expertise with the budding local theater artists.

Insisting that more people should come forward in this field, he said, theater can work as a best tool to highlight one’s sufferings.

“But people have to revive theater,” he said, adding that history will decide how much theater helped to highlight problems of Kashmiris.

Refusing to take more questions on film industry, Shah said the industry is run by money which exploits all.

“But I exploit it. I don’t have friends in the industry and no one has ever visited me,” he said in jest.

(Baba Umar)

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15725&Itemid=43

APDP terms state guest house as Kashmir’s Abu Gharaib

2010-02-07T19:25:00.001+05:30

Terming the Hari Niwas complex as ‘Kashmir’s Abu Gharaib’, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) has condemned the government decision to convert it into a state guest house alleging that the evidences of custodial torture and killings carried at the place will be destroyed in the process.

“Converting Hari Nivas for hospitality of diplomats and ambassadors is State’s new policy to camouflage these structures where our sons were tortured to death,” members of APDP said on the sidelines of the association’s monthly sit-in at Sheri Kashmir Municipal Park here on Sunday.

The complex was once considered as one of the most infamous torture centers in Kashmir.

APDP members said they would soon start a campaign of addressing letters to diplomatic missions in India asking them that the place deserves an international probe rather then being turned into a state guest house.

“We will send letters to diplomats informing them about the place where hundreds of people have disappeared in custody,” the members said.

The complex built by Maharaja Hari Singh was recently transferred from Estates Department to Hospitality and Protocol Department through a cabinet decision.

"The complex shall be properly maintained and managed by the H&P Department as a valuable property of the State. It shall essentially be utilized as a VVIP State Guest House and also for holding high level selective banquets, receptions and conferences," the government order reads.

APDP members said the construction on such a site would destroy vital evidence resulting in obstruction of a just conclusion about the phenomenon of disappearances in Kashmir.

“In other countries torture centers have been preserved and probes have been conducted on them. But here the government’s policy has been to the contrary,” spokesman of APDP Ghulam Nabi Mir said.

He said there are scores of testimonies of detainees who were lodged in these “death chambers” for months and years after which they had disappeared.

“It is still a mystery whether disappeared persons have been buried in the lawns of interrogation chambers or were taken to other places for burial,” Mir added.

He said the move was aimed to wipe out vital evidences which would have surfaced in future probes.

Hari Niwas, which was a Joint Interrogation Centre in the early days of militancy and later housed the office of the Counter-Insurgency Kashmir (CIK) was during the previous coalition regime converted into official residence of former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

(Baba Umar)

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14416&Itemid=43

Medical Tourism in Kashmir- ‘Troopers should move to borders to let it happen’

2010-02-07T19:23:00.001+05:30

‘Though Karnataka and Maharashtra lead in patient care, people will prefer Kashmir if better facilities are provided Chairman of National Board of Quality Promotion, Associate Vice President, Head - Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai, member International Society for Quality Assurance in Health Care (ISQA) Dr Ravindra Karanjekar in conversation with Baba Umar says Kashmir is ideal for medical tourism as climate, hospitality, environment are all there.

Q: What is the status of health sector in India?

A: In India healthcare infrastructure is not supportive in terms of number of hospitals, beds, man power management. Also people don’t have quality perspective in vital area like health. They don’t understand quality as important driver for standardization of health sector. In USA patient stay is only 3-4 days and in UK it is floating. For quality we need five beds per medical students. But today in India, on an average, patient stays in a hospital for 9 to 10 days on an average. If the stay is reduced say by only one day using proper pre-operative investigation in OPDs, transfer in time, and investigation by the doctors on time, it will give India 96,000 more beds a day and if it is lowered by two beds that means an increase of 1,80,000 beds. Right now there are 9 lakh beds in India and by just the quality care, 20 percent of beds can be increased.

Q: And which State meets best standards in terms of patient care?

A: Well Kerala is having about 230 nursing colleges, Karnataka has 210 and in Maharashtra we have 50 such colleges. So these are the States which are doing well in maintaining the best patient care. But again if we look at all India level, we have only 17 percent of Doctors, 28 percent Nurses, Ayurvedic doctors are 17 percent, but skilled technicians in the higher areas doesn’t even make up to 1percent. These people have to be created for a better patient care. And you need colleges to produce them. Overall we are witnessing poor administration but again if we delve further our existing infrastructure can bear the load of 40percent more staff but then the infrastructure needs to be upgraded. And unequal distribution of the resources in the health sector has to be taken care of too.

Q: And where does Kashmir stand in this ladder?

A: Kashmir is just above the middle rung. It has the appropriate environment available but proper training is missing. Infrastructure is not good in Kashmir but there is scope for improvement. Moving near the first five positions should be the aim. Though Karnataka and Maharashtra are in lead, people will prefer Kashmir if better facilities are provided to patients. Scenic beauty will do rest of the job. It is very poor as of now. There is a need of regulating and improving the private sector. There are prospective plans for areas in Singapore and USA. A particular area is marked and a limited number of medical institutes are constructed with all facilities. Then they regularly have to comply and report on certain parameters. If any setup is below normal, then all the privileges are withdrawn and they are not allowed to operate. Kashmir has the chance to come in the first five as it is a tiny state. Over all education is the key for such an attempt.

Q: What would be average bed revenue and annual earnings?

A: A 300 bed private hospital should earn around Rs 150 crore a year in any State within three years of its start. It must be, however, Joint Commission International (JCI) or National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare providers (NABH) accredited. It is possible. At cent percent capacity utilization it can grow to Rs 850 crores. Knee joint problems and back ache is common in Kashmir. Knee joint replacement will cost around Rs 2.5 lakh in Delhi or Mumbai. If government negotiates with the concerned authorities and subsidy is provided for patients, this sector will boom here. Besides, doctors who want to specialize in a particular area should get a scholarship. Exchange of doctors should take place which will help in the overall improvement in the system.

Q: Which according to you are high revenue generating fields?

A: Joints are the most lucrative, next to that is heart, eyes and obstetrics and gynecology. My chairman will tell me why you are telling secrets. Single bed revenue in a secondary level hospital can be Rs 20-25 lakh a year. In a tertiary level hospital it is Rs 50-60 lakh a year. You can possibly concentrate on the patients who move outside the State and pay lakhs for treatment. Out of 60 lakh population of the Valley, you will manage to get several hundred patients.

Q: What is the investment needed for a tertiary or secondary level hospital?

A: The minimum viable hospital has 300 to 400 beds. See there are two ratios in which a hospital is divided. Manpower ratio and space ratio. Both are like 60:40. But revenue-wise it will be 60:40. Without land, Rs 100 crores are required for a tertiary level hospital and some Rs 40 to 50 crore for the secondary level hospital. The profitability is around 10-15 percent. I can tell you that an ICU bed can earn you around Rs 40 lakh a year while as a Ward bed can generate you Rs 4 lakh a year. It is a good revenue earning area.

Q: And employment potential?

A: For every patient you need to offer 4 – 4.5 employees. Again it may depend on what sort of ICU or wards you are offering. I feel that setting up of ICU’s is also lucrative. Kashmir has negligible quality ICU’s. In Kashmir, critical care is commercially very viable and even trauma centre has much greater requirements. But investment is very high. Areas like Cosmetic surgery, breast augmentation in a multi stage procedure is feasible for the State. Ophthalmic, Cosmetic surgery in bone and joints, fat removal and other areas are also very feasible to start in the State. But one needs to follow the short term and long term goals that are to be set for the change in the overall system.

Q: Can government play any role in meeting these requirements?

Government has a big role to play. See in the urban areas you have 10 beds against 1 bed in rural areas. Likewise the medical facility is available after every 16 kilometers while as it is only 1 km in cities. Government should offer incentives and encourage privatization in this area.

Q: What is the status of Wockhardt Hospitals? And what is your USP?

A: Wockhardt started its hospital chain in 2001-2002 which I head presently. After two years in 2004-05 the group started hospitals in Bombay central, Goa, Nasik, Surat, Rajkot, five hospitals at Bangalore, two in Hyderabad and two at Nagpur. The group has almost 1500 beds with a yearly turn over of about Rs 300 to 400 crore. We have all specialties. In Mumbai, we have an advanced hospital in the group as it has pediatric, cardiac surgery facility available. We do liver, kidney heart transplants and since we are also Harvard associated hospitals we are evaluated by the Harvard people regularly. Every three months there are exchange programs to update ourselves and we are also planning to start intestine, pancreas and lung transplant soon. It will be best in Asia.

Q: What are your pricing policies? Are they uniform or differential?

A: We have different pricing policies which are governed by the local prices. Addition and subtraction standard depends on how strong we are in that area. We can be leader in some areas where we provide the best services and others follow, however, in some other areas where we lag we got to follow others. It is a geography-dependent thing. Again it is a choice of customers what they want. We have varying rates for international clients and local customers.

Q: What is the overall scope in this sector?

A: There is an immediate need of 100 to 200 big hospitals in India. State-wise it may go to again 100 and 200 beds. Health sector needs a combined effort from the private and public sector. And the private and public partnership has to go on at various levels of training, evaluating, running to solve the health care problems. Government must declare incentive for the people who have the expertise. We have seen how Modi got the Nano project in Gujrat. He just satisfied the criteria and TATA had no other choice but to shift the plant to Gujrat.

Q: How can Kashmir emerge as a preferred healthcare zone?

A: I feel special and deliberate attempts have to be taken by the government to make this State a medical tourist destination. Except borders, troopers should leave other areas. Government can always monitor the situation and when ever there is any problem they can intervene again. But troops should withdraw and the army should give a larger role to people. They should give peace a chance. The situation cannot be normal within. There will be small problems but they have to give space to the peace. If we talk about medical tourism you cannot compromise on the medical facility. It has to be the best. Then only the visitors can enjoy the environment of the place. Per se it is the medical thing and climate, hospitality, environment that play a role in that. And if all these sectors work in tandem, it will make a lethal combo. If anybody comes for bye pass surgery he or she should get the best of that and then there comes the environment. Kashmir is the best place for medical tourism and it can get 95 points out of hundred for its viability. Unfortunately it lacks the peace and effective communication with inside and outside world.

‘Indian media turns blind eye to HR abuses in Kashmir’

2010-02-07T19:19:00.001+05:30

Stating that New Delhi based media holds its reportage back when troopers are involved in human rights violation in Kashmir, prominent journalist Siddharth Varadarajan said scant coverage given to Shopian incident is ‘unfortunate’.

“There is general tendency of Indian media not to be sympathetic with the human rights violation in Kashmir when compared to similar HR violations anywhere in the rest of India. And wherever the security forces are involved in Kashmir national media has always held itself back,” said the Strategic Affairs editor of ‘The Hindu’ while talking to Rising Kashmir over phone from New Delhi.

Varadarajan said that New Delhi media does not react to situation in which troopers are involved. During the interaction with the editor of ‘Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy,’ journalists said that the local media was at the forefront in its coverage while as Delhi-based media “played safe” reacting only after the New Delhi’s reaction.

Reacting on it journalist of local newspaper Naseer Ganai said: “When Govt of India decided to sent its Home Minister to Kashmir, then only these media outlets realized the seriousness of the issue. They never react to such issues when it comes to Kashmir. This time however, they were second to react after New Delhi.”

“In India,” local journalists said, “Trial by media has assumed significant magnitude that involves cases scattered across India, however, many think the overall impact for the betterment of the society stops immediately as soon as the boundaries of Kashmir begin.”

“When it comes to covering such issues in Kashmir, the media based in New Delhi has always closed its eyes,” senior journalist Sheikh Mushtaq said.

He commending the local media, saying that it is playing national media in its coverage and is helping put up pressure in getting the issue properly investigated.

Ganai while echoing senior journalist said that the Kashmir is yet to witness any ‘media trail’ by Delhi-based television channels that have come in some famous criminal cases where the culprits would have gone unpunished. Citing examples of cases like Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Nitish Katara murder and Bijal Joshi rape case he said, “In these cases, I remember, signboards and public opinion polls were initiated to build utmost pressure.”

(Baba Umar)

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13783&Itemid=29

Kashmir traders echo fear of brand Kashmir hijack

2010-02-07T19:18:00.001+05:30

Demand GI status for Wazwaan, Red Chilli and Honey

Claiming that hotelier in Mumbai is offering Wazwaan and simultaneously training the would-be chefs on how to prepare the world famous Kashmiri cuisine, food processing unit holders are seeking Geographical Indication (GI) status for the cuisine.

“We have reports that in Mumbai’s Andheri West, a Kashmir-born migrant Pandit has been training people about the preparations of Wazwaan. That too from the past five years,” Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK), Secretary Ovees Qadir Jamie said.

Jamie said that trend is dangerous and demands immediate GI Status, because the fear of Wazwaan imitation is real and equally of disturbing nature.

“There is a fear that the art of cookery could be imitated,as has already been done. And if it ever happened at large scale, the indigenous Wazaan’s future would be at stake,” he said.

Relishing world famous Kashmiri cuisine, Wazwaan has been one of the major attractions for anyone visiting the Valley; however, the fear of imitation is increasingly pushing industrialists involved with the food processing to seek the GI status.

“Wazwaan is a product of Kashmir. It needs GI status. Because otherwise there are chances that someone will claim that the product was invented by him,” said FCIK President Shakeel Qalander.

Qalander said that anyone can come up with Rs 500-600 crore processing unit and start preparation of what is basically Kashmir’s creation.

Another item that is facing imitation under Kashmir label is Kashmir Chilli which, according to the FCIK, has been faked by some ‘miscreants’ in Karnataka.

“Some traders are selling chilli on the name of Kashmir chilli. We must stop it. Or else from a local grower to processor, everyone will be at loss,” said Director, Sales and Marketing, Kanwal Food and Spices, Farooq Amin.

Amin said that without buying Kashmir’s chilli, exporters in Karnataka are selling their product, Bydagi chilli under the tag ‘Kashmir’ which has not only eaten up Kashmir’s market at international level but has also brought a bad reputation to Kashmiri chilies that have otherwise stunning properties than any of its counterpart.

To mention, Bydagi chilli, a variety of chilli mainly grown in northern districts of Karnataka, is reported to get its own geographical indication (GI) certification soon.

“Here you can see the irony. Our administration and government is sitting idle while people are using the name Kashmir on their product and getting away with GI status on their own products,” he added.

He said that the same fate has been meted out to the Kashmir’s honey which an agency in Amritsar is faking by exporting Punjabi honey under the tag ‘Kashmir’ on it.

Meanwhile, realizing the time taken to reach for the status, FCIK has suggested that ‘Exclusive Marketing Rights’ be given to industrialists, until GI certification is issued on these products.

“It is happening in USA and elsewhere. There they have Food and Drug Authority (FDA) that gives exclusive marketing rights to industries until GI certification on the product that they deal with is reached out,” FCIK, Secretary Ovees Qadir Jamie said.

The authorities, however, are presenting a different picture.

“Wazwaan is an unorganized sector and it may need more industries to come up so that we can proceed with the issue of GI status,” said Director Industries and Commerce Farooq Ahmad.

Ahmad, however, said that the department is at its level making plans of getting the cuisine GI certified.

On the issue of Karnataka grown chilli being exported on the name of Kashmir, he said the department has no reports about it.

“Had it been so, the industrialists concerned with processing of the spice should have visited the department over the issue,” he said.

(Baba Umar)

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12116&Itemid=41

50 houseboats sink in 15 years

2010-02-07T19:16:00.000+05:30

Lack of dry dockyard costing us our floating hotels: Houseboat owners

I can comment on it only after three days: LAWDA Vice Chairman

Kashmir tourism’s unique selling proposition (USP) —houseboats, seem to be dying a strange death, as houseboat owners claim that about 50 floating hotels have sunk since past ten years owing to lack of dry dockyard where these could be repaired.

“We had demanded setting up of a dockyard where we can repair our boats; but all the ruling governments didn’t take any note,” said Azim Tuman, Chairman of Houseboat Owners Association (HBOA).

Tuman said that in the year 2008 alone, some five houseboats sank in the lake as the owners couldn’t repair their vessels while most of the 1,200 floating hotels on the waters of Nigeen and Dal Lakes have exhausted their shelf life and could sink “if repairs aren't carried out immediately.”

According to HBOA members, there is no facility to repair the bottom of a houseboat, which if left unattended might jeopardize their own as well as tourists’ safety.

“Decades have passed since we repaired our vessels. They need immediate repairing,” said Bashir Ahmad, owner of up market Gemini and New Manila.

House boat owners, having the reputation of luring tourist across the globe and contributing considerably towards tourism promotion during two decades of conflict, said the demise of houseboats would impel serious results on Kashmir's just revitalizing tourism sector.

“It is our efforts that tourists kept on visiting the valley. Otherwise see the tourism department, what is its contribution in promoting Kashmir’s tourism,” said another houseboat owner.

"The houseboats are the heart of the tourism industry. If they stop functioning, the tourist trade will die its own death," says, the owner of the up market Claremont Houseboats on Dal Lake.

Bhat believes the houseboat is the flag bearer of Kashmiri tourism and the main attraction for foreigners who like to stay in them for their tranquil - and, of course, romantic - ambience.

"There are no houseboats elsewhere in the world and foreigners are simply crazy about staying in them. They simply love the artistic make of our boats," adds Bhat.

The 1200 houseboats floating on the Dal and Nigeen Lakes contribute around 4000 rooms to the state's hospitality sector. Unfortunately, the bureaucratic policies are leading to the strange death of these floating hotels.

“The bureaucratic policies are much to be blamed,” said the HBOA members.

The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had earmarked Rs 10 crore for the houseboat segment. Later the then CM of the State, DR Farooq Abdullah too had announced a rehabilitation package.

“But the situation is same. Nothing has changed,” Houseboat owners said.

They said that even the former chief minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayed had announced in his speech that a dockyard would be set up.

“Even he allotted money for dockyard, about Rs 1.2 crores, but it was never set up,” HOAB members said.

Meanwhile, sources in the LAWDA said that the area has been identified where the department is planning to establish a dockyard.

“It will require Rs 1 crore and the tenders are already out,” sources said.

Vice Chairman LAWDA, Irfan Shah, refused to comment on the issue saying that he will be available only after three days.

“Right now we are busy with the demolition drive inside Dal Lake and regarding why dockyard wasn’t set up so far, I can talk on it only after three days,” the LAWDA Vice Chairman told Rising Kashmir.

(Baba Umar)

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11009&Itemid=41