Amanjeet Singh
On the Bagh-i-Mehtab road, the pieces of bricks were strewn and the plumes of smoke from the burnt tyre filled the air. The youth didn’t allow the vehicles to pass by and the rage was visible on their faces. It was a day after the army killed two youth in Kupwara following the alleged molestation bid on a school-going girl.
On Friday, there was no call by the separatists to shut down the shops, but markets across Srinagar wore deserted look. Kashmir had erupted to protest the way army handled the molestation incident and everyone had expressed rage. Spools of barbed wire blocked the entry of people into Lal Chowk.
The peace in Kashmir region that had seen a good tourist season was broken after the deaths. When entire Valley was observing shutdown on the call of pro-freedom leaders against harassment of Kashmiri students at various institutes outside, the news that army personnel have killed two young men while containing the protests which had erupted after locals alleged a molestation of teenage student by army personnel of 21 Rashtriya Riffles (RR) drew the rage.
Eyewitnesses said a student of government girl’s higher secondary school entered a public lavatory at around 4 pm, when she was allegedly molested by the army personnel. On the opposite side of lavatory lies an army bunker from which the personnel followed the student. To mention here, the bunker is standing witness to many tragedies and sordid sagas in last over 26 years of conflict ridden history of valley. Many of the times in past the demands were made by the locals for its removal but failed to convince authorities like a demand of AFSPA removal.
However, sensing danger, the victim girl raised a commotion triggering instant protests against accused armed forces personnel.
As per the eyewitness, account policemen arrived at the spot and tried to pacify the protestors, but the people refused to lift the protests and sought action against the army.
The police had to resort to aerial firing to quell the protests, which irked the locals who pelted stones on the army bunker and in retaliation, the forces directly fired on the protestors leaving twenty-five people injured. Later, two youths, identified as Kupwara’s Mohammad Iqbal (21) and Nayeem Qadir (23) of Handwara, succumbed to their injuries. On Friday, army shot dead another youth in North Kashmir’s Nutnussa area.
Reports and witnesses said that army opened fire when protests erupted in Nutnussa after Friday prayers, which resulted into injuries to five persons out of whom three were referred to Srinagar’s SKIMS. Out of them, one teenager died who was later identified as Arif Ahmad Dar (18) of Awoora Kupwara. He succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. The death toll was taken to five in the action by armed forces on unarmed protesting civilians.
However, police have registered a case, but it appears that the case was filed only to harass the local people. A large number of youth reportedly were detained and the armed forces continue to get impunity under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
But more pathetic was the way the armed forces handled the situation. They released the video of the girl who had denied that she was molested which raised the furore as the case was still under police investigation.
The incidents have triggered the outrage with the two factions of Hurriyat conference and the other separatist leaders including Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and even the mainstream political parties condemning the incident. On the call of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (G) Chairperson Syed Ali Geelani, Kashmir witnessed shutdown on Saturday even as government resorted to the drastic step of shutting down the internet services.
Few days after incident on Saturday when the girl was kept in preventive ‘custody’ by police triggering uproar from the social and political quarters, the civil society group managed to get access to victim’s mother in curfew bound Kupwara. They brought her Srinagar to disclose the real sequence of events to the press.
The poses of police laid the cordon around its office at Lal Chowk, however, and restricted their access to media men.
The coalition of Civil Society later recorded the video of girl’s mother and released on social media besides sent to various television channels in which she accused police for pressurizing her daughter to change the statement.
On Sunday the police produced the girl in front of chief judicial magistrate Handwara and recorded her statement. In a twisted turn of events here the girl according to police had accused, in fact two boys for confronting and assaulting her.
“Her statement was recorded in case FIR Number 130/2016 under section 354, 341, 509 RPC of Police Station Handwara,” said the police spokesman.
“In her statement before the Judicial Magistrate she revealed that on April 12 after school hours while proceeding to her home with her friend she entered in a public lavatory near main chowk Handwara for answering the call of nature.
“As soon as she came out of lavatory she was confronted, assaulted and dragged by two boys and her bag was snatched. One of the boys was in school uniform,” she told the magistrate, according to the spokesman.
Belied with the police version, the CCS immediately reacted and pricked the police balloon after they claimed that the statements recorded were under pressure.
Meanwhile, the legal experts believe that recording and circulating the video of girl in public domain amounts a conspiracy to defame her.
“Video is tantamount to defaming the girl. We do not know who the girl is. It can be cooked up story. If she had to make a statement the army would have brought her before the magistrate concerned or in Srinagar not necessary in Kupwara. They (army) cannot do it (release the video) even if her face is blurred,” Zaffar Ahmad Qureshi, senior advocate at Jammu and Kashmir high told media.
The army, however, defended the release of video with its authenticity.
“Video has been released after verification. It has been verified and released that is all I can say,” Colonel NN Joshi, defence spokesman at Srinagar said.
Earlier army had assured that anybody found guilty will be dealt as per law.
“Army deeply regret the unfortunate loss of lives. Matter will be investigated and anybody found guilty will be dealt under law,” the army statement read after two killings took place.
The army’s assurance to probe into the killings could not defuse the seething anger on ground with protests spreading to other parts of the frontier district.
Interestingly, in last 26 years of insurgency as many as 178 commissions of inquiries have been set to probe the civilian killings and other human rights violations. Very few have been completed while only in one Machil fake encounter inquiry the troops have been substantiated guilty.
The chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti who was recently sworn faced even tough opposition from National Conference after it deputed a team of senior members to boiling Handwara to meet the victim girl and her family. But police stopped them on way.
National Conference Secretary General, Ali Mohammad Sagar, slammed the PDP-BJP government for not allowing them to move to Handwara and Kupwara, where the situation had remained tense due to civilian killings.
Addressing media at Party headquarters in Nawa-e-Subuh complex, Sagar said that a delegation led by him, including Mohammad Akbar Lone, Mir Saifullah and Provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani were on way to Handwara and Langate when they were stopped in Sangrama.
However, he said, after speaking with IGP they were allowed to proceed. “We took the Sopore route but on way were again intercepted by a police party led by SP Harmeet Singh and were brought back to Sopore police station and kept there for half an hour.”
Later, Sagar said, they were sent back to Srinagar and were prevented from visiting the proposed places.
He said that on Thursday they had tried to go to Handwara, but were denied police protection and were promised that they will be allowed to go on Friday.
The opposition leader, here took a dig on the PDP-BJP government and said that when such incidents would happen during the NC rule they would facilitate other parties’ travel to those places so that they would reach there. “Mehboobaji would roam around everywhere; whenever and wherever there were any unfortunate killings in our time.”
“Our sources and the family of the slain confirmed that no minister from the government visited them. Rather they are sitting in the tourist Bungalow, two kilometres away from Handwara.”
The youth killed by the army were showered with rains of bullets and videos went viral on social networking sites of armed forces making gleeful faces. Medical superintendent of district hospital, Handwara, Dr Rouf, said: “We received two bodies of youth riddled with bullet injuries. One was brought dead and the other died at the hospital.’’ He added that while one youth had received a bullet in his head “the other one had received bullets injuries on his face and body”
On next day, a woman Raja Begam wife of Abdul Jamal Mir who was injured in firing by security forces succumbed to her injuries at SKIMS, Soura taking the death toll to three. Raja Begum of Langate was in her farmland in Kargam village, 2-km from Handwara town, when a stray bullet hit her skull as protests were going on in Handwara town against the killing of two youths who were protesting the alleged molestation of a girl by an army man.
After the third death, heavy clashes broke out between protestors and government forces in Dragmulla area that is in neighbourhood of Handwara in frontier Kupwara district. Police fired teargas canisters to quell the stone-throwing crowds and one of these hit a protester identified as Jehangir Ahmed Wani in the head, resulting in his death.
Four Civilians were killed in two days for protesting against security forces. But the handling of the security situation not only drew the condemnation locally but also at the international level as well. The London based human rights body Amnesty International (AI) issued a statement saying killings of four people by the security forces is a case of “excessive forces” and forces must exercise restraint.
“Security forces should refrain from excessive use of force against civilians. Authorities must conduct a full and independent criminal investigation into the killing of protesters in firing by Indian Army personnel in Handwara, Jammu and Kashmir. Those responsible must be prosecuted in a civilian court of law. An incident of alleged sexual assault against a teenage girl by a soldier, which is believed to have led to the protests, must also be promptly investigated,” read the AI statement.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in a meeting with Union Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, on April 13, in New Delhi discussed the unfortunate firing incident at Handwara. “During the meeting, the Chief Minister called for a time-bound enquiry into the incident so that those responsible for the deaths are handed exemplary punishment,” official spokesperson said.
While Additional Deputy Commissioner Handwara has been appointed as the inquiry officer, but the earlier probes have proved to be sham. Even as the probes have highlighted the excessive use of force and the violation of standard operating procedure (SOP) there has been no end to the excesses committed by government forces. There were questions also raised over the probe as the police issued a statement, which had already revealed the circumstances under which the youth were killed.
“Today afternoon an alleged incident of misbehaviour, molestation of a girl by an army man took place in Handwara town. Within minutes, public in large numbers gathered there and attacked the army bunker in Handwara Chowk. They assaulted the personnel deployed there, ransacked the bunker and attempted to set fire the installation. In retaliation the security forces deployed used force to disperse the violent rampaging mob. In the process, two individuals namely Mohammad Iqbal of Bomhama, Kupwara and Nayeem Qadir Bhat son of Ghulam Qadir Bhat of Banday Mohalla, Handwara, sustained firearm injuries. They were evacuated to hospital where they, unfortunately, succumbed to their injuries.” “J&K Police deeply regrets the loss of life. A criminal case has been registered in Police Station Handwara and investigation launched to ascertain the facts,” it added.
Earlier incidents have shown that how criminal justice system has failed in the wake of impunity provided to the forces under the AFSPA. In February this year Danish Farooq Mir, a student of bachelor of technology (B-Tech) at the Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) in Awantipora, and Shaista Hameed, who was pursuing her Master’s degree after completing her Bachelors in Education (B.Ed) were killed in firing by security forces during encounter with militants.
“In 2015, the graph of killings witnessed upswing with 219 deaths, which belies the drop-in-violence claims by the government. The month long Kupwara siege by the army to catch or kill trapped militants again points to the tightening noose of militarisation which continues to be responsible for widespread violence in Jammu and Kashmir,” states a report of the JKCCS.
Of the 219 deaths in 2015, at least 55 were civilian killings while 106 were killings of militants and 58 of armed forces “Due to AFSPA immunity provisions, authorities did not hold the armed forces responsible for the deaths of civilians killed in Jammu and Kashmir in previous years.” the report reads.
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The story first appeared in print edition of April 20.
