You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Freedom Struggle' category.
‘Police refused vehicle and Sajad breathed his last on way to hospital’
Ishfaq Mir
(from Rising Kashmir)
Srinagar, Sep 13: “Sajad who fell to the bullets of SOG personnel at Shopian on Friday could have survived had a police officer allowed us to shift him to hospital in a police vehicle,” his friend Khalid said.
Sajad, 28, the only surviving son of his parents, was the youngest of all and used to run a tent house shop.
Three years back, his elder brother Gasha was killed in cross firing between militants and army. “Another of his brother suffered heart attack when he heard the news about his brother’s death. He died after few months,” said Khalid.
He said that lawyers had staged a protest demonstration near the Jamia Masjid after the Friday prayers. The police and CRPF personnel used force to quell the demonstrations.
“After finishing the prayers, the devotees came out on roads to stage peaceful protests,” said Khalid, adding, “Me and my friend were also part of the peaceful protests.
He said, “As we were moving ahead, the SOG personnel fired three bullets. Two of the bullet his the Jamia Masjid while the third one hit Sajjad in abdomen. Sajad fell into my lap after being hit by a bullet. I took him in my arms and two other people helped me to take Sajad up to a vehicle of DSP. We pleaded before him to give us the vehicle so that we could shift him to the hospital. He, however, refused and we had to drag him up to the hospital. Before we could admit him to the hospital, Sajad succumbed after reciting the Kalima Shahadat”.
Khalid said that had the police officer provided them vehicle, Sajad would have survived. “By the time we shifted him to hospital, he had lost blood,” he said, adding, “Sajad breathed his last breath in my lap after reciting “La Illaha-Illallah Muhammad-ur-Rasulallah (SAW)”.
“Sajad could complete his 10+2 only and could not continue his studies. The death of his two elder brothers forced him to quit the studies and earn livelihood for the family. He learnt the “electricity fitting” and started a shop where he used to rent the tent houses on marriage ceremonies,” said Khalid Hussain, a close friend of Sajad.
Sajad had no sister and his father Nazir Ahmad Ganaie, a farmer is a Muazzin (one who calls faithfuls for prayers) in Jamia Masjid Shopian.
While the body of his son was lying outside the mosque yard Nazir gave the Azan (call for namaz), then recited the Takbeer and offered the Maghrib (evening prayers) prayers in the Jamia Masjid.
After the prayers were over, Nazir addressed the mourners after offering Nimaz-e-Jinaza of Sajad. With tears rolling down his cheeks Nazir said, “India’s autocratic rule over Kashmir has to end at any cost. They (Indian troops) have to leave. Kashmiri’s won’t tolerate them”.
Courtesy and Copyright of Rising Kashmir (Link)
Copyright concern? email: media.kashmir [at] gmail.com
(from greaterkashmir)
Srinagar, Sept 11: Fifty-year old Rafiq Ahmad felt nothing when a bullet fired by the CRPF troopers him in the shoulder, because, he says, he was numbed by the sight of the CRPF troopers savagely beating a man protecting his child from blows of the troopers.
Rafiq Ahmed was playing chess on August 25 in front of his home in Malbagh, Fateh Kadal when CRPF personnel trooped into the area and started beating up everyone who came in their way. Rafiq is diabetic and suffers from chronic back pain. Thus he was slow to respond to the onslaught of the troops.
But when I tried to run I couldn’t move because I was moved when I saw that a man was protecting his child from their blows. Then CRPF men saw me and made a sign to his colleague who shot at me, Rafiq said.
Whenever I recall that moment, when that father was saving his child, I forget my pain. The faces of the father and the son haunt me, Rafiq said.
Courtesy and Copyright of Greater Kashmir. com [link]
Copyright concern? email: media.kashmir [at] gmail.com
Sister asked to show I-card
Arshad Me’raj
(from greaterkashmir.com)
Wagad, (Tral), Mar 11: “Show me your identity card and I will allow you to move forward,” an Army officer asked Parveena Akhter, sister of Majid Jehangir who was killed by troops at Aripal.
Parveena, wailing and weeping, was stopped by the troops at a barricade outside Aripal village. She had come from her husband’s home in Pampore to see the face of her brother for the last time. For an hour the troops did not allow her to enter the village.
Beseeching the Army officer with clasped hands, she said, “I want to see my brother.”
The officer however asked her to show that if she was carrying any identity card. “Don’t you know that it is obligatory to carry an I-Card with yourself in Kashmir,” he told Parveena.
“They have killed my brother and are now denying me to move,” Parveena told the reporters who were waiting near the barricade for army’s permission to enter the village.
On the persistent insistence of the media persons, the officer allowed Parveena and two of her family members to go ahead by foot.
The barricade was crowded with people who couldn’t make it to their homes last night due to the cordon maintained by the troops. “I went to relatives place and spent the night there,” a government employee wishing anonymity told Greater Kashmir adding the troops didn’t allowed to go yesterday.
Many women were seen waiting near the erected barricade and repeatedly urging the troops to allow them to go to their respective homes. “Our children are alone there, please allow us to go,” the women said.
The people waiting for the go ahead expressed apprehensions saying that army might harm their family. “The troops have been harassing us for long and this time they might harm our families,” they said.
Copyright and courtesy of Greater Kashmir. com [link]
Copyright concern? email: media.kashmir [at] gmail.com
Tags: Freedom Struggle, Human Rights, Indian Army, Innocent Killings, Kashmir, Kilings, News, Police, Terrorism, Terrorism in Kashmir
Army’s killing spree continues–Murder two more youth at Tral
(from kashmirobserver.com)
SRINAGAR, MARCH 10 (KONS) |50 RR personnel posted at Aripal village in Tral shot dead two cililians after they failed to trace out a youth they were looking for on Saturday evening. The deceased have been identified as Jehangir Ahmad Khan and Ghulam Mohammad Mir, both government employees.
Eyewitnesses said that people urged the army men to release them but instead they pumped bullets into their bodies killing them instantly. After killing them in cold blood, the fleeing jawans fired several rounds into the air to disperese the angry mob. The bodies lied at the spot for several hours. People assembled again carrying the bodies while chanting of slogans against the army. The army blocked all points leading to the main road. It is learnt that army has made it mandatory for the people particularly the youth of Aripal village to attend the camp daily for forced labour. “They (Army Personnel) come to our houses if we fail to turn up for the labour,” said a youth who looked terrified.
The defence spokesperson however said that the civilians were killed in militant firing.The Tral town and its adjoining areas are shut under a protest strike over the civilian killings.
Copyright and courtesy of Greater Kashmir. com [link]
Copyright concern? email: media.kashmir [at] gmail.com
Tags: Freedom Struggle, Human Rights, India, Indian Army, Innocent Killings, Kashmir, Kilings, Massacre, News, Police, Terrorism, Terrorism in Kashmir
Bollywood film to focus on rights abuse in Kashmir
Krittivas Mukherjee
(from reuters.com)
MUMBAI, March 6 (Reuters) – A well-known Bollywood filmmaker hopes to prick the conscience of viewers about human right abuses in Indian Kashmir with a movie on police killings of innocent people in staged gunbattles to win rewards.
“Dhoka”, or Betrayal, is the latest offering from a Hindi film industry — the world’s largest by number of tickets sold — that has been forced by a maturing audience to diversify from its formulaic song-and-dance fare into more realistic themes.
Mahesh Bhatt, known as much for his fluffy musicals as for handling controversial subjects such as Hindu-Muslim riots, says “Dhoka” will turn the spotlight on “state atrocities” in the insurgency-torn Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“There is a need to speak about the misdeeds of the state, the betrayal of police in each of those regions where human rights are trampled upon everyday,” Bhatt, who is producing the movie and helping daughter Pooja direct it, told Reuters.
“Dhoka” will be partly shot around Kashmir’s verdant valleys and snow-capped peaks but Bhatt did not give a release date.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed or have disappeared in mainly Hindu India’s only Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir during a 17-year-old separatist revolt.
Kashmiris say some of those who have disappeared are innocent people killed by police in fake gunbattles to claim rewards and earn promotions meant for eliminating militants.
In late January and February, protests erupted in the Kashmir Valley following the alleged killing of five innocent Kashmiris in staged gunbattles by Indian forces, who then passed off the dead men as militants.
Seven policemen have been charged with the killing of one of the men — a carpenter and father of five. Police said they were also investigating the four other cases.
SLEEPING CONSCIENCE?
“The conscience of the country hasn’t been questioned on these gross violation of rights of the people of Kashmir,” said Bhatt.
The filmmaker is also completing a movie that delves into the mind of a potential suicide bomber in a story set against the backdrop of the 2005 London train and bus bombings.
In the past, Bollywood’s offerings on Kashmir have generally been populist, patriotic fare which cast neighbouring Pakistan and menacing Muslim extremists as the villains, and the Indian security forces as heroes.
But films like “Mission Kashmir” have generally failed to impress critics.
In contrast, “Dhoka” is the story of a young Kashmiri man grappling with the staged killing of someone close to him and aims to highlight the plight of Kashmiris whose lives have been touched by violence.
The conflict has officially killed more than 40,000 people. Human rights groups put the toll at about 60,000 dead or missing.
“Custodial deaths and fake gunbattles of police are a menace in Kashmir,” said Bhatt, who is also known as an activist for creative freedom and religious harmony.
Authorities deny allegations that security forces regularly pick up people in Kashmir and kill them in fake gunbattles.
Bhatt has chosen a Kashmiri newcomer to play the lead in Dhoka, hoping the actor can inject some realism into the film.
Copyright and courtesy of Greater Kashmir. com [link]
Copyright concern? email: media.kashmir [at] gmail.com
Tags: Bollywood, Freedom Struggle, Human Rights, Hurriyat, India, Indian Army, Innocent Killings, Jammu and Kashmir Police, Kashmir, Kilings, Mahesh Bhat, Massacre, Militants, News, Police, Terrorism, Terrorism in Kashmir
