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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.
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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
March 1, 1990: When 47 civilians were massacred for Azadi
Mir Faheem Aslam
(from greaterkashmir.com)
Srinagar, Feb 28: In the newly constructed market at Zakoora Crossing, 14 km northeast of Srinagar, it’s hard to find any trace of a carnage the Army soldiers carried out 17 years ago, killing about 30 unarmed civilians after firing indiscriminately on them. But the mayhem still haunts eyewitnesses and survivors of the incident.
It was the afternoon of March 1, 1990—those days entire Valley was up in arms demanding freedom from India and protesting against atrocities by the Jagmohan regime—when a group of about 2,000 people decided to rush to Srinagar office of the United Nation’s Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to submit a memorandum.
Comprising young and old, the protesters, many of them clad in shrouds, were immersed in the din of Azadi slogans, recalled a shopkeeper at the Zakoora Crossing. In the meantime, he said, a convoy of five Army vehicles led by three Junior Commissioned Officers was returning from Sonamarg to Srinagar but found the road blocked near the crossing.
Initially, the locals said, three policemen who were guarding the crossing told the soldiers to wait for sometime till the protesters pass. “This led to a heated argument between the policemen and the soldiers,” the locals said.
Unprovoked firing
“We still remember an Army official telling the cops ‘give way or we’ll shoot you’,” many eyewitnesses of the incident said. They said three Army vehicles were fitted with light machine guns (LMGs) and as the convoy turned towards the demonstration, the soldiers opened fire. “Soon bodies piled up. I myself counted 11, they had died on the spot,” the shopkeeper, who requested not to be named, told Greater Kashmir. “Later many more succumbed to their injuries. And when I removed some people to the SKIMS, Soura, the doctors said they were no more,” he said. “Army wanted to kill them all because very few people had bullets in legs.”
In all, 26 civilians fell to the soldiers bullets while 50 more were injured in the incident that later came to be known as the Zakoora massacre.
The mayhem continued for more than two hours, with the injured, helpless and hopeless, watching the bloodbath from a distance. None from the civil administration came to their rescue.
Only the locals rushed there ferrying the injured to hospitals, said Ali Muhammad, one of the eyewitnesses, insisting that the protesters had no clash or argument with the Army. “The firing was simply unprovoked,” he recounted.
‘Can I meet my son’
A shopkeeper at the Zakoora Crossing said a 50-year-old survivor of the carnage, a deaf, often visits the spot where his son, who also was among the protesters, died. “He only says, ‘can I meet my son’,” the shopkeeper said.
Another massacre
On the ill-fated day, 21 more Kashmiris were killed at about 5 pm by the Army soldiers who fired at a bus near Tengpora, Bye-Pass. They too were unarmed. The dead included five women.
Next day, global watchdog, Amnesty International issued a second appeal for urgent Action on Kashmir pertaining to Tengpora and Zakoora. A detailed account appeared in the March 31, 1990 issue of the Economic and Political Weekly of Bombay, which reproduced the text of “India’s Kashmir War” by a team of four members of the Committee for Initiative on Kashmir.
S. Mulgaokar quoted excerpts from the same report in the “Diary of a Recluse” in April 7, 1991 edition of The Indian Express.
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Tags: Freedom Struggle, Human Rights, India, Indian Army, Innocent Killings, Kashmir, Kilings, Massacre, News, Police, Terrorism, Terrorism in Kashmir
Tears, prayers mark Gaw Kadal massacre anniversary
Arif Shafi wani
(from greaterkashmir.com)
Srinagar, Jan 21: Aizi Begam, 72, of Maisuma whose son Shabir Ahmad was among 52 persons who were massacred by CRPF troopers this day on January, 21,1990 at Gaw Kadal remembered him with tears, as people offered prayers, and shouted pro-freedom slogans at the spot to mark the massacre’s 17th anniversary.
“I am proud of my son. Before achieving martyrdom he saved lives of many people in the procession,” said Aizi, holding Shabir’s photograph, sobbing as her son Zahoor Ahmad consolded her.
“Troops fired many bullets at Shabir who came in way of a trooper firing indiscriminately at hundreds of unarmed peaceful protesters,” Zahoor said.
Aizi Begum’s only regret is that she couldn’t see Shabir’s face before he was buried. “Government had imposed a curfew after the incident. I wanted to kiss his head; she made a proud mother,” she said.
Scores of people, including the relatives of the victims offered prayers at the spot. A memorial in the form of a big canvas with image of a soldier pumping bullets with a machine gun in the chest of a civilian was hung from a wall near the massacre site. A graphic narration of the massacre has been drawn on the canvas.
Muhammad Yaqoob who lost his father Haji Ali Muhammad in the massacre said, “The people who were massacred were demonstrating against the molestation of women at Chotta Bazar a day before. They had marched on many streets peacefully and were demanding action against the troops accused of the molestation of the women, but when they reached Gaw Kadal, they were killed like flies.”
Yaqoob said his father had locked them up in their house and himself joined the protesters. “He told us ‘you stay at home, I will go with the protesters’. At home we heard continous rattle of fire and several hours later I went to the spot and saw the bodies lying on the bloodied road,” he said.
Zulima Mukhtar, sister of Abdur Rauf who took 52 bullets on his chest said, “It is high time we take the cause for which Rauf and 51 others laid their lives to its conclusion. But for that we must all be sincere.”
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Also read:
Indian Forces Worst Massacres In Kashmir’s History
Tags: Freedom Struggle, Human Rights, India, Indian Army, Innocent Killings, Kashmir, Kilings, Massacre, News, Terrorism in Kashmir
Paradise on earth!
Is it really a piece of land which the Emperor had lavished all praise on, Naseer A Ganai comments on the other side of beauty and tourism which Kashmir is known for the worldover
(from greaterkashmir.com)
Crores of rupees are being spent on propaganda that the Kashmir is paradise on earth. That Dal is the World famous. That Lake Geneva is nothing before it. That Mughal Gardens have no parallel in the world. So the tourists should come here to have feel of paradise. This propaganda is going on for several years and it is gaining momentum with every passing day. To give credence to their claim that there is no place like Kashmir in the world, some verses of poets are being quoted. That Aghar Firdous Bar Rooye Zameen Ast, Hameen Ast-o-Hameen As-o-Astt. It might have been true some 300 years ago, but the Persian couplet is not reflection of today’s Kashmir. Today’s Kashmir is an insult to couplet itself and those who utter it.
Is Kashmir really a world class destination and tourism is only sector here which requires development. Or was Kashmir a world class tourist destination where lakhs of people were visiting before the inception of the present movement in 1990. In 1988-89 only 60,000 foreigners visited ‘paradise on earth’ and this is the highest number of foreigners who ever visited Kashmir in such a ‘huge’ number. Compare these figures with Bali, Vienna and other place where Governments never claimed of having places in their country, which resemble paradise. Over 1,247,867 tourists visited Bali from January to October 2005. 21 million tourists visited Prague since April 2005 until March 2006. Ironically, the Government’s of these places never claimed that they are in possession of paradise on earth.
An overview of the ‘paradise’
Last year in this paradise, officials figures say, 1620 incidents took place killing 911 civilians, injuring 1018 others. In six months of this year over 500 persons were booked under Public Safety Act. And there might be no record available of those who were picked up for questioning by police and other agencies and later released after seven, eight days or a month.
But ironically there are voices in Kashmir, which accuse media of blowing small incidents taking place in Kashmir out of proportion. The pro-India politicians including present and former chief minister have been on forefront to criticize media when it highlights incidents. Last year former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffer Hussein Baig while addressing tour and travel agents in Mumbai cited an incident, which took place in Pahalgam and said media presented the incident in such a manner as if whole Kashmir was burning.
But is not Kashmir burning? Are not 1620 incidents and killings of 911 civilians or killing of 576 militants and 175 police and force personnel indication that Kashmir is burning. That situation in Kashmir is not normal. Last year tourism and tour operators invited journalists asking them they were projecting violence in Kashmir, which affects tourism. And asked journalists to present actual view of what is happening in the State. The actual view to them is not to highlight when someone gets killed or injured. They forget Kashmir is internationally recognized dispute and office of United Nations Militarily Observers Group at Sonwar is small example of it. So any incident howsoever small should have space in BBC, CNN, Newyork Times, The Guardian, Le Monde and all other media organizations of the world. It should have favored everyone and it could have brought pressure on parties of the dispute to solve Kashmir issue once and forever. These people who come up with these facile arguments should understand that ignorance by media leads the State into complacency and people into desperation and it benefits no one. Here media does not project or report five per cent of what is happening in Jammu and Kashmir and by telling it ignore this five per cent could bring disaster. A mere look at Doordarshan gives impression to viewers that Kashmir is a fairyland where every youth is bothered about why his or her beloved is unhappy with her or him. Though Kashmir is burning, the ‘singers,’ ‘poets’ and ‘artists’ here never came out of Zulfi Shamar and Chasmi Badam.
How to attract tourists?
Instead of persisting with paradise rhetoric, showing tourists wandering in Shikars in polluted waters infamous Dal Lake and projecting number of visiting tourists as sign of normalcy, Government could act honestly and portray the right picture. Because portrayal of visit of tourists as sign of normalcy is more of a political statement indicating Kashmir no longer is the dispute. That is the reason that pro-India parties accuse each other of sexing up figures of tourists to show Kashmir was normal in their regimes.
The honest way is that Kashmir be declared fit for adventure tourism. The State should advertise outside that it is unique paradise where facelift is being given to bunkers, though bunker is bunker even if it gets facelift from the best of the painters. In advertisement should read that in Kashmir you have look at ruined buildings, gutted houses, encounter sites, jails where youth of Kashmir are rotting. The place, where Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Disturbed Areas Act, and scores of other acts in vogue. It should welcome people to this human zoo and in Western countries there are lakhs of people who love human zoos.
Is tourism indispensable for economy
Just have look at a newspaper report (Greater Kashmir Dec 31): “The valley received 4,84,000 poultry birds from December 29 to December 31. The highest number of poultry imported to valley was on December 29. The valley received a record number of 3.72 lakh birds through 120 vehicles on the day and 3 lakh broiler were carried in 100 vehicles while as 15 vehicles carried 37,500 layer birds. The estimated cost of the imported poultry was put by the report as Rs 24200000.” Here eggs, poultry, sheep, and everything goes from Srinagar to villages, which are being imported from Punjab, Haryana, Rajisthan and other States. Earlier in 2006, when the State Government banned the import of poultry, there was strong reaction from Punjab. They forced the Government to revoke the ban. In Kashmir, Rs 700 crore is poultry consumption only and all this is coming from Punjab and Haryana. Economist here say the State of Jammu and Kashmir is feeding six States. Still Kashmiris have notion that Government of India is feeding them. The State suffer loss of Rs 6000 crore on account of Indus Water Treaty. The loss is neither compensated by India nor by Pakistan. The people who deserve free electricity because their resources are exploited are being taxed.
The agriculture and the horticulture were two important pillars of Kashmir economy and no one talks about them. The decreasing of agriculture land and problems of those people dealing with horticulture sectors were never addressed by the mainstream politicians. Tourism remained always on their agenda because it was New Delhi’s agenda.
Roads
The Doda-Kapran road has not been completed for last 30 years, which could have, reduced distance between Doda district and Kashmir Valley to few hours. The road requires only 46 crores. Mughal road always remained a slogan and it has been never allowed to complete. It requires only Rs 150 crore and it is only 84 kms long reducing distance between Poonch, Rajouri to Kashmir valley to few hours.
But Gondola project could be completed within few years. And work on 350 kms railwayline, which would join Kashmir valley to the Indian Railways Network is a Rs 10,000 crore project (Indian Express December 31). And work on the project is going on. Why New Delhi is prompt on these projects and why it is slow on the road projects for last 50 years. Any answers.
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Kashmir remembers Rauf who took 32 bullets on chest
Exiled Journalist Mir Abdul Aziz Declared National Hero
Arshad Me’raj
(from greaterkashmir.com)
Srinagar, Nov 23: Abdur Rauf Wani is the heroic young man who took nearly 32 bullets fired from a light machine gun by a paramilitary trooper on his chest, saving scores of lives at Gaw Kadal, Srinagar on January 21, 1990 during a protest march in which 52 people were massacred.
Before he could slip into obscurity as a statistic of the ongoing struggle, the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) awarded him posthumously the annual Robert Thorpe Award. Besides, Khawaja Mir Abdul Aziz, an exiled Kashmiri journalist and resistance leader, was declared as one of the National Heroes of Kashmir.
To award Rauf and commemorate Mir Aziz, a function was organised at a local hotel here on Thursday.
Zulehuma Banday, sister of Rauf, received the award: a trophy and a shawl. In a tearful brief address, she thanked JKCCS for giving recognition to Rauf. She said, “The sacrifice of Rauf is for a bigger cause and Kashmiris have been sacrificing for the past hundreds of years; we should not forget those who sacrificed their lives for that bigger cause.”
Rauf, 24, did his schooling from prestigious Tyndale Biscoe School. As 18-year old boy in 1984 when Sikhs were massacred in Delhi and when riots erupted in the Valley, he jumped the window in second story of his home and saved the life of a labourer who was trying laces of his shoe and was shot at in his head. Rauf had responded to the cries of the labourer when people closed their doors and windows in wake of police firing, said his sister Zulehuma. Rauf was jailed for a month during 1987 for his support to Muslim United Front in the elections that were rigged in favor of National Conference.
On January 21, 1991, thousands of people took out a huge protest march against molestation of women by the troops in Chotta Bazaar locality by paramilitary CRPF troops. The then government headed by Governor Jagmohan allowed the march to proceed for nearly two kilometers, but when it reached Gaw Kadal, the peaceful protesters without any provocation were fired at indiscriminately by paramilitary troopers and police led by DSP Allah Baksh. Fifty-two people including women died and nearly 250 were wounded.
“Rauf rushed towards a trooper who was mowing down unarmed people with a light machine gun and faced the barrel, took all the bullets in the magazine,” said Zahir-ud-Din, one of the protesters and eyewitness of the massacre.
At the award giving ceremony many speakers said the government of India and the state government was projecting “collaborators of occupation” as the real heroes of Kashmir.
“They haven’t projected any person who offered resistance during the resistance movements and didn’t compromise,” said the JKCCS president Pervez Imroz. “The state has been honoring the brutal Dogra rulers who massacred the people of Kashmir; they have established Gulab Singh and Zorawar Singh chairs in Universities, but haven’t done anything for the unsung heroes of Kashmir.”
Imroz said, “The civil society was trying to bring out the lives of heroes from the oblivion and introduce them to the younger generation who don’t know anything about them.”
Peer Ghulam Rasool who deliberated on “Concept of National Hero” said the government of India and the state government have been projecting the collaborators as real heroes for the past 50 years.
“They have also been dehumanizing and denigrating people, like they did to Kabailis. Many of the people who were resisting against the rule of Dogra Maharaja and later the Indian rule and communal Indian parties have been clubbed together with Kabailis,” Rasool said. He said among the internationally renowned leftist thinker and writer Eqbal Ahmad was one of those who have been “denigrated” as Kabaili raiders.
Noted academician Dr Hamida Nayeem while speaking during the function said the enslaved nations have no histories, their histories are written by the occupation and colonial forces. “When a nation becomes free only then can it write its own history and decide who is the hero. Today’s hero can become tomorrow’s devil. During his early life, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah was a hero, but see how we look at him today,” Dr Hamida said.
She said the Kashmir history was being shaped by a huge dominating nation and there was clear demarcation between stooges and those people fighting for the rights of people. “The state machinery has manufactured and concocted our history,” Dr Hamida said, adding the Kashmiris have not been able to write their own history.
“We have produced great scholars and intellectuals who can be designated as national heroes,” she further said while referring to the names of Lallitaditya, Sheikh-ul-Alam (RA), Lalla Ded, Kalhana and others. Dr Hamida said, “Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah succeeded in weakening the autocratic set-up but committed historical and monumental blunders after which he was designated as the collaborator of India.” According to Dr Hamida, Maqbool Bhatt who challenged the Indian domination didn’t compromise despite being tortured severely. “Dr Aga Shahid Ali despite being an apolitical person had become an international hero and a symbol of Kashmir by writing about anguish of people of Kashmir in his book A country Without Post Office’.”
She further said the academia was in the hands of dominant powers and that is why the Kashmir history wasn’t made the part of curriculum. “We are taught world history, Indian history, but our children know nothing about their own history.” She added that the politicians are misinterpreting the saints and poets of our valley.
Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, an academic, said the best way to remember heroes is not through awards but to carry forward the mission for which they tried and died. “Mir Khawaja Abdul Aziz proceeded against the tide and led a miserable life. He didn’t cash on his sacrifices, which has become a trend with present leaders,” he said. Dr Showkat said Pakistani authorities had jailed Mir Abdul Aziz for his critique of “erroneous Kashmir policies after the failure of Operation Gibraltar”. Mir Abdul Aziz and Ghulam Nabi Gilkar were each offered 35 acres of land in Islamabad after their release, but they declined saying that they have to go their homeland when the issue would be resolved.
Trade Union Centre leader Sampat Prakash while speaking on the occasion said, the trade union has played a pivotal role in the ongoing freedom struggle. “We have raised the Kashmir issue at various forums and recently at Indian Social Forum and had been able to highlight it as a disputed territory,” he further said. He said the state is involved in sponsoring the terrorism. “SOG personnel are targeting the tourists and the attempt on the life of High Court Bar Association (HCBA) chairman was also made by these personnel,” he further said. Noted civil rights activist from New Delhi, Gautam Naulakha while delivering his presidential address said, “The history of oppressed and occupied is not written by their own people but is provided by the occupiers and collaborators.”
“National heroes are needed during the struggle as they support and inspire the people during the movement when the chips are down,” he said, “51,288 militants were arrested and tortured; they are also the heroes whom we don’t know and they did not surrender. Only 3800 surrendered.” He said freedom movement was because of the people as they aspired for it.
Greater Kashmir Executive Editor Zahir-ud-Din while speaking on the occasion termed the January 21, 1990 incident as a turning point the history of freedom struggle. While quoting the then governor Jagmohan’s statement, Zahir-ud-Din said the Gaw Kadal massacre was a planned one. “The day Farooq Abdullah resigned, Jagmohan issued a statement saying ‘if any one tried to disturb law and order the card of peace will slip out of my hand’. After Jagmohan’s statement people were expecting that something bad was in the offing. The Gaw Kadal occurred after his statement and turned the struggle into mass movement,” he said adding that from that day the youngsters starting going across the Line of Control.
Zarief Ahmad Zarief, Dr Mubarik Ahmed and Dr Altaf Hussain also paid glowing tributes to Khawaja Abdul Aziz Mir and Rauf Wani for their bravery and valour.
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