After North Kashmir, Telecom Crisis Moves Down South

Sheikh Hilal

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

After north Kashmir, telecom operators have reportedly started winding up their services in many parts of south Kashmir after “some men barged in many mobile recharge outlets” and warned the retailers of “dire consequences” if they won’t wind up their services immediately.

After restive Sopore in north Kashmir, fresh spate of threats have started coming from Kulgam district, where reportedly many mobile recharge retail shops have been closed down in view of threats. “Some men showed up at my shop and sternly warned me of consequences if I wouldn’t wind up my services,” one frightened mobile recharge retailer said.

On face of threats, several towers and telecom offices have been shut in the town. “We are not able to contact with our family members and relatives due to weak signals,” said one Kulgam local working in Srinagar. The weak signals have apparently set off an impression that many cellular towers in the area have been rendered defunct.

Similar threats have also been reported from Shopian where locals say only BSNL and Aircel networks are working. “Even the signal in both these networks is very weak,” said one local in Shopian. Though the retailers are still recharging mobile phones, but the threat, many said, is looming large over the town.

From Keller belt of Pulwama, similar threats have been reported—“warning telecom operators to wind up their services or face consequences!”

In Islamabad district, reports say, the distributors have stopped recharging their retail vendors’ main recharging Sim-card (or Lapus)—thereby triggering a sense of unease in public and forcing many telecom offices to close their service operations.

Notably, earlier panic spread in north Kashmir’s Sopore town when spate of threats were issued to telecom operators, offices and tower owners, asking them “to wind up the services”.

Later the threats turned deadly when two men associated with telecom services in the town were killed by suspected militants. In fact, the state’s top cop, DGP K Rajendra said Hizb was behind the attacks on mobile service providers in the valley. Though the Hizb supremo Syed Salahudin termed the act “handiwork of Indian agencies”, separatist leaders like Muhammad Yasin Malik and Syed Ali Geelani asked Hizb chief to unmask the assailants.

Amid all this, J-K Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said “threat won’t deter peace”.

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A Weary Traveller

From once lively literary meetings where he rubbed shoulders with the who-is-who of his times to a small dark room in Srinagar, 90-year-old Ghulam Nabi Baba wants to relive his life. Sehar Qazi meets the writer and gets him talking about his life and times  

For 90-year-old Ghulam Nabi Baba, author of Sathseder (Seven Seas) and Yate Na Bakaya Haba (Nothing in this world will last forever), being bed ridden is like a curse. But what irks him more is his falling memory. His weak lean body has lost its strength, his ears have lost their hearing ability, his eyes have lost their vision, yet he believes immortality of a person or a place lies in its language and literature.

Born at his ancestral house in Nowhatta in Srinagar’s down town area Baba Sir, as he is fondly known by people, has just one last wish – good health, so that he can walk through the lanes of Nowhatta area, the place where he is born and where he spent his childhood.

Most of the events related to Baba’s life are lost to old age. But he still recalls one major event that changed his life to a great extent: divorce from his wife after one year of their marriage. Since then he lived mostly alone in his small house. Presently he lives with his niece and Danish, his adopted son.

He also recalls his childhood days spent at his ancestral house in Nowhatta. “I had four siblings, one of my sisters and the two brothers died long back. I was the only son left. Khaneh Majar Osum (was the pampered one),” Baba says.

Sitting morosely contemplating in a corner of his small house Baba tries to piece together his fragmented memory. Finally after a long pause, he recalls Ghulam Ali Baba, his father, who was well versed with languages like Farsi (Persian), Urdu, Kashmiri. “My father is my inspiration. He used to narrate us the stories in wintery nights. I also wanted to be a story-teller and I started writing. He would gather all the children in the family and tell us stories,” says Baba. “I and my cousins would often fall asleep while listening to his stories. Nun chai (salt tea) in the Samavor with katlam and bikerkheni were relished by all,” recalls Baba.

In 1949, after completing his honours in Urdu, Baba joined Radio Kashmir. “I had heard that Radio Kashmir was appointing people who were related with art and literature. I was interviewed and appointed there. I was selected by Sanaullah Kalandar as an artist,” Baba remembers.

In between the conversation Baba abruptly asks, “Did you write about my school and about my house at Nowhatta? Have you seen the government school at Nowhatta? My house was exactly at the same place.”

After 11 years, in 1960, Baba left Radio Kashmir. “During that time there was no pension scheme. I joined Department of Information (J&K). Because of my hard work, I was promoted as a producer within few months of my service. I was told by Bakaya Sahab, who was the director at that time to go to Kargil and join as an Assistant Information Officer. I refused because of my sister’s health conditions,” Baba says. “Later she died after her prolonged illness,” he adds with a change of voice.

The memories that Baba could recalls without much effort are from his days at the Radio Kashmir. “Initially I was a news reader and later I started writing. I was the part of gaomi program (program that is written about the life and issue in the rural areas). I wrote plays. I often would act in those plays. My name was Jaffar Bhat in one of the plays. My father was…I don’t remember his name. He was a Pandit,” he says with a smile.

“From 1949 onwards, we used to have meeting, literary meetings. In those meetings takreer (speech), nazam (poem), short stories, plays and the parts of drama (plays) were discussed. As dramas were long in their format, so only a small portion was narrated by the writer,” says Baba. “The topics that were discussed in the meetings were called literary topics. Ghulam Nabi Feraq, Late Ghulam Ahamd Abid, Ghulam Ahmad Ghash, Late Nazir Ahmad Mir, Late Abdul Gani Qazi and some more poets, short story writers used to be part of those literary meets. Writers from the city as well as from the other part of Kashmir used to participate. There was an exchange of thoughts and ideas. On Sundays we used to have these meetings”.

Trying to recall more about the meetings he says, “We used to discuss about the language and the literature written in our own language. I started writing since 1949, and from there onwards my literary period started. I have read Haqani, Mehjoor, Azad, Prem Chand, Momin Khan Momin, Mirza Ghalib and Allama Iqbal and many others. Among all I often read Allama Iqbal,” says Baba in an effortless tone that defies his age.  “We had daily programmes in Radio Kashmir. I wrote for programmes like Kath Bath and Zoneh Dab. I was Zeneh Kak in one of the programmes of Zoneh Dab,” he recalls.

Ghulam Nabi Baba in his hey days.

Being a writer Baba is concerned about the changes that took place over the years in language and literature of Kashmir. “Our society got developed in such a way, totally a different way far away from its culture. In the past, everybody was the admirer of our native language. But today we read English literature. Their issues are not our issues. We have our own issues to write about in our own language. We have just abandoned our native language,” feels Baba.

Talking about his love for the Kashmiri language, Baba says, “We used to feel our language while writing and singing Kashmiri songs. The feeling has now disappeared from the society. We have lost our essence of being Koshur (Kashmiri), just because many people have lost that love for their own language”.

Baba believes that we should write about our issues in our own language, so that it may influence the world.

In the past, writers used to write prose and poems in Kashmiri, Akh jazbat tahat (out of love and respect for our own language), but now I feel most of us have lost our way and our real issues that we need to write about, feels Baba.

While talking about the words and the structure given to the language, “Many people have tried to give Zann (structure) to the language like Amil Kamil, Rahman Rahi, Ghulam Nabi Feraq, Aziz Hajini, Margob Banhali and many others. People from city as well as from the other parts of Kashmir have come forward to contribute to their language,” Baba says.

“We should not forget our own language. Parents should teach their children Keasheer Zaban (Kashmiri language), so that they can contribute to their society and make it better in every possible way,” he says.

Talking about his books, he says, “My first book was sathseder. It is the collection of seven short stories. I wrote about different issues and evils including dowry and corruption of our society. My second book, Yateneya bakaya haba is the collection of eighteen short stories. I thought of writing about life and death and how one day everything has to end, so I wrote it. In one of the short story I wrote what people do if someone dies in our society, they arrange a Wazwaan (traditional feast prepared on marriages mostly) for that also, even if they can’t afford. And how everything has become expensive especially our marriages. I received letters from my pandit friends regarding my books. They have appreciated my efforts”.

Ghulam Nabi Baba has completely forgotten about the three awards that he has received. When asked about them he refused and replied with a smile, “es che serie musafir, chena?”(We are all travelers, aren’t we?).

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News Notes

‘Seditious’ Flag

Since armed insurgency broke out in Kashmir there have been many instances when Pakistani flags were unfurled in city. Not only males but females too were waving green flags in city’s main centre Lal Chowk. But nobody knows what went wrong now that people are getting booked for such act!

First it was Masarat Alam who was booked for waving green flag when senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani returned home after spending at least three months in India’s capital. And then another flag was unfurled in Old City’s Jamia Masjid on last Friday and since then state police is using all their sources to track those boy who did the “crime”.

As per police sources, “Around 200 stone pelters are on the radar.”

Union home minister Rajnath Singh who visited Jammu this week has described the raising of pro-Pakistan slogans in Kashmir as “un-islamic”, saying “it goes against the tenets of Islam… to praise another country while living in one country”. “Islam and even Hinduism do not accept this,” he said for the Kashmiri youth who raise pro-Pak slogans and wave Pakistani flags.

Meanwhile MLA Langate Er Rashid, who is often dubbed as a ‘pro freedom’ mainstream politician directly hit at the Singh by saying, “Who is Rajnath Singh to Issue Fatawas.”

While reacting to Home Minister’s revelations he said Singh may not be able to speak out the truth for obvious reasons, but none other than him knows the history better and there is no dispute about J&K not being disputed.

He was adamant to add, “Rather than crying over the hoisting of Pakistani flags in Kashmir, Singh and all those who matter should introspect that why GOI has not been able to defeat the love and sympathy for Pakistan in Kashmir.”

“It is not Geelani or Masarat Alam but the common Kashmiris who raise Pakistani flags and they don’t seek permission to do so from Geelani or someone else. It clearly indicates that despite its entire military and political efforts GOI has not been able to change the mindset of Kashmiris,” he said.

 Costly Towers!

One mobile service tower means at least a job, uninterrupted 24×7 power supply, generator and unlimited diesel supply. But in North Kashmir’s Sopore and Pattan areas, having these towers in your courtyard could be costly, especially after killing of two civilians associated with mobile companies in Sopore and an attack on a cell tower landlord in Pattan.

Locals in these areas have requested the concerned mobile tower owner to stop their services after some posters were made public by a ‘militant’ group ‘Laskar-e-Islam’ about the consequences of being associated with cellular companies.

Many people have already shut their shops dealing with the e-recharging and almost all of them have removed their sign boards.

As per state police the trouble started when a high tech communication device installed by ‘militants’ to avoid their detection by state agencies on the top of a mobile tower went missing. Soon after the device went missing, a group of militants raided the three cellular outlets on May 1 this month accusing employees of stealing the device. The militants according to police threatened the employees of dire consequences and soon after the raid, mysterious posters in the town appeared directing telecom operators to wind up their business. The posters that carried the name of unknown militant group ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ hold telecom companies responsible for the killing and arrest of militant commanders in the town and threatened them of dire consequences in case they did not close their business with in a week’s time.

After the attack both mainstream as well as separatists came out with their statements condemning the act. Syed Salahudin, head Hizbul Mujhadeen while refuting the claims that militants are involved with cellular controversy termed the attack as ‘handiwork of agencies’.

In a statement to a local news gathering agency, United Jihad Council spokesperson Syed Sadaqat Hussain quoting UJC Chief said that Syed Sallahudin said that ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ militant organization has no existence and this fictitious name is being used to defame freedom struggle and Mujhadeen.

While the blame game is on between mainstream and separatist leader, locals are suffering as their mobiles have stopped functioning, either because of no balance or of no service.

As per reports there are 37 mobile towers that fall in the jurisdiction of Police Station Sopore. Besides these 37 towers there are many more which are not functional. Aircel has maximum of 12 towers followed by Airtel (11), Relaince (5), Vodafone (4), Tata Indicom and Idea 2 each and Government owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has one tower that is located in Model Town-B, Sopore.

While analyzing the statements of both sides, it seems both groups are investigating the matter. Only time will decide who will be held responsible and who will come out ‘clean’.

Still Clueless!

Every year International week of the disappeared is being observed in the last week of May. Here in this part of world, more than 8000 people have been subject to enforced disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989, besides that there are 7000 plus unmarked and mass graves in Jammu and Kashmir, claims a civil society group.

Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) led by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) says Indian state has remained in denial of the ongoing international movement against enforced disappearances.

“This week provides an opportunity to remember the disappeared, and acknowledge the struggle of their families,” said Tahira Begum, APDP spokesperson. “It is also an occasion to recommit to the fundamental right not to be subjected to enforced disappearances, the right to know the truth and the right to justice and reparation. It is an occasion to continue to demand that governments sign, ratify and implement the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.”

“The Convention presently has 94 signatories and 46 State parties and it came into force on 23 December 2010. The number of fully documented cases today in Jammu and Kashmir stands at 1519. Govt of Jammu and Kashmir is also culpable for both aiding the State in the crimes and in the ongoing cover-up,” says Tahira adding, “Despite a consistent campaign in Jammu and Kashmir against enforced disappearances for 26 years, no action whatsoever has been taken.”

The connected issue of unmarked and mass graves in Jammu and Kashmir, which was recognized by the State Human Rights Commission [SHRC] in 2011 [2156 graves in three districts of North Kashmir], and the European Parliament in its resolution in July 2008, has not been addressed by the government. The SHRC has been made defunct and ongoing complaints by APDP of 3844 unmarked and mass graves in Poonch and Rajouri districts, and 507 cases of enforced disappearances from Baramulla and Bandipora, and 132 cases of enforced disappearance from Banihal, remain pending.

As APDP and families of disappeared began to approach the SHRC, the government chose to make it defunct, claims the victim families. “Despite APDP providing evidence of the involvement of police personnel such as present ADGP SM Sahai, ex-DGP Kuldeep Khoda, and army personnel such as Brigadier VK Sharma of the Dogra Regiment, and CO RK Singh of the 9 Para commandoes, in crimes of enforced disappearances the government has not ensured an alternative independent investigative mechanism and has instead chosen to subject them to the same criminal police system which has ensured impunity.”

With regard to unmarked graves, in September 2011 the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that families would need to indicate in which graveyard their relatives may be buried, and following this the government would do the needful. On August 13, 2012, the government of Jammu and Kashmir refused to accept the recommendations of the SHRC, including on DNA tests.

On March 26, 2015, APDP has submitted its demands on the issue of enforced disappearances to the present Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. But the families claim so far there is no response from the government which is adding to the plight of these families. Nobody knows for how long they have to wait for their dear ones or if their wait, will come to an end ever.

Playing Beautifully!

Srinagar, the business hub of Kashmir should have been most beautiful part of the state considering its tourist value. It is the main city and capital of attractive tourist destination Jammu and Kashmir. But once tourists enter city, who are directly flown through the airport, their smiles change into frowns seeing the condition of roads.

Considering the importance of city, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) recently changed the walls of flyover into murals to attract a tourist’s eye towards the old Kashmiri traditions. But once one reaches near Radio Kashmir office, everybody get astonished to see the name of a hospitality group, Hotel Grand Mumtaz, on a fountain, maintained by it.

The history of municipal administration in the Kashmir dates back to the second half of the 19th century. In 1886, Dogra rulers established a department to look after the civic affairs of the Srinagar City. But after so many decades of its history, it can be said it was not able to maintain a fountain and its maintenance was handed over to a private group.

If sources are to be believed, “SMC has deliberately leased this prime spot to this hotelier so that he can put his advertisements on the fountain. Placing a signboard at such a location otherwise would have cost the hotelier dearly. It is a win-win situation for Mushtaq Chaya, chairman of the Hotel Grand Mumtaz group.”

He adds, “He must be having friends at the highest level in the corporation.”

Pertinently this private group, Mushtaq Group is the same whose name flourished in the list of hotels, who have occupied land in the tourist destination Pahalgam, illegally. In last one decade, sensing opportunity in huge tourist rush, land mafia has vandalized Pahalgam’s scenic spot by constructing huge concrete hotels in eco-sensitive areas.

Despite a ban on the construction in tourist destinations, new concrete hotels have come up from time to time.

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Briefing

 JAMMU

Summer capital is waiting for its new star: Mohit Dutta, a young man whom destiny helped from being Mithun Chakrabortys fan to an actor in the Chakraborty Productions film Ishqedarriyaan. Playing a singer Arjun’s role, he has already sung a number Das ve Rabba das bi in the film. Dutta has studied acting from Anupam Kher Institute of Film and Drama in Mumbai. Mahaakshay Chakraborty and Evelyn Sharma are other actors of the film. Dutta has earlier acted in Apoorva Lakhia’s Hide & Seek, besides, some advertisements of OCM, Airtel, Canon, Eno, Colgate, Link Locks, and Hercules Cycle. Interestingly his family in Jammu has requested people to turn up in good numbers to watch their ward become Jammu’s new star.

DODA

Last week the residents in Paneen village were enraged after Mohammed Javed was accused of raping a seventh standard girl. Father refused to go to police and instead asked the local Panchayat to get him justice. Local Panchayat offered him two options: pay Rs 5 lakh to the family or get ready for the punishment. Javed opted for the latter. So the Panchayat dragged him out of his home, shaved his head off and took him out on a donkey and paraded him in the entire tehsil of Bagwah wearing a garland of sandals and shoes. People spit on him and humiliated him for his crime. Finally, Panchayat married him to the victim. Javed has already married twice and his second wife has deserted him. Did the Panchayat deliver justice or committed another crime?

DESSA

Amid the fierce debate over the teacher-student ratio and the rented, owned premises of schools in Jammu and Srinagar, there is a tad shocker. The school in Gai village of Doda’s Dessa established in 1970s has teachers and students but no space. For the last 10 years, it operates in open which makes it weather dependent. It has five teachers 135 students and sixty percent of them, girl students. Interesting part is the District Education Officer operating from 35 kms from Dessa is unaware of it. Does Naeem Akhter know?

MUMBAI

Reel life starts have compulsions to stay away from their fans, especially in Kashmir. But there are small crowds they oblige. Salman Khan did many things in Kashmir to stay in news. And Kareena Kapoor who later joined him on the sets of Bajrangi Baijaan could not stay away. During shooting, some Bollywood-special sites reported, when the lead actress was informed that a group of girls have bunked their classes and wanted to see her, she took some time off and invited them to her vanity van. They saw her wardrobe and were excited. It was to this group of unknown college goers, the actress has promised to “gift” (and not donate as earlier reported) her official dresses in the film.

URI

Shabir Ahmad lives in Chukar village in the other Kashmir and he came driving to Uri to meet his cousins in Uri. After spending many days in the town, he finally decided to visit Atta Mohammad Chalko in Silikote, an Uri village that lives between LoC and the fence. As Shabir’s family reached the gate of the fence, they were sent back. Reason: No guest can get into the fenced villages without prior clearance. Police say  they will settle the issue and Shabir cannot go home without meeting his relatives, one and all!

LEH

Come spring and Leh gets ambitious. Tourism apart, the new target that Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) has set for itself is a Ladakhi women Army battalion. The argument is that area is strategic and women of the area are sturdy, well adapted to the harshness of the high-altitude environs and will follow the Ladakh Scouts in defending the region’s border with China and Pakistan. They made a formal demand before India’s defence minister saying it will address region’s unemployment issues. Leh is home to a special core that came up after 1999 Kargil war.

SRINAGAR

Strictly following the example that it set for the “rescue” during September 2014 floods, the army is going for “rehabilitation” now. It has contributed items worth Rs 25 lakh including 25 computers, two buses, laboratory items, furnishing of a hostel building, 2500 blankets, 100 camping tents, luggage bags and some furniture to the University of Kashmir, an institution that was not even remotely touched by floods. Ignoring the debate that should the University of Kashmir have resorted to this begging when Kashmir had many institutions literally decimated by the floods, the real issue is that if army’s 2014 “rescue” cost J&K Rs 500 crore, how much the 2015 “rehabilitation” could cost?

J&K’s education ministry has served mid-day meal to school children on 153 days a year against the approval of 176 days. Where has the rest of it gone?

 

  

In the 10th standard results, Kashmir recorded a pass percentage of 71.85% as compared to 62.27% in Jammu. Of Kashmir’s 50535 students and Jammu’s 51442, only 36308 and 27626 passed, respectively

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Re-positioning Resistance

Muhammad Tahir

When political closure gave rise to the Kashmiri armed militancy in the late 1980s, the autonomous political process was suspended momentarily by the complexities of the militant phase; yet in January 1993 a common forum was founded in the shape of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). APHC was a broad alliance of some 30 political and socio-religious organizations represented in a General Council while the main seven political groups formed an Executive Council.

How these leaders “re-positioned” the political process was to make the Kashmiri pro-resistance groups eschew their differing ideological projections and instead present a common minimum program in terms of maintaining a united stand on the right to self-determination.

APHC, however, faced a split in the year 2003 when Hurriyat patriarch Syed Geelani accused that some APHC members had had fielded “proxy candidates” in assembly elections (election boycott was an accepted principle among all the members). Syed Ali Geelani, who represented Jama’at-e-Islami at that time, started working independent of what forms Hurriyat (M) now; he later on formed a separate political forum called Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH). Masarat Alam (ideologically closer to Geelani) joined it in 2007.

Over the years Tehreek-e-Hurriyat emerged as a relatively credible group in the eyes of general public in Kashmir because of the ‘steadfastness’ of its patron on the position of right to self-determination and its apparent Islamist orientation; and on the other side, APHC’s (M) pragmatist approach and the secret parleys with the state come to be seen with increasing suspicion.

Thus, as John Cockell argues, “there is significant flux in the dynamics of nationalist mobilization, with political formations first gaining popular legitimacy and then losing it to new formations as they become compromised by their engagement with the state and its dominant discourses”.

That is why Sajjad Lone, son of late Abdul Gani Lone, was accused of harming the “freedom struggle” when he decided to contest elections.

Then there are leaders like Azam Inquilabi, Shakeel Bakhshi, Shabir Shah, Nayeem Khan, Ghulam Qadir Wani et al who remained entrenched in the mainstream of the ethno-political strain of the Kashmiri resistance movement both ideologically as well as in their political positions, allowing them to retain some credibility among the people and be able to represent politically on the basis of their long association and contributions to Tehreek. As early as 1994, Shabir Shah had appealed for the “dissolution of all political parties” to have a common stand. Interestingly, in 2014 Shabir Shah along with some other members came up with the third Hurriyat and called it the true one.

Therefore, we can say these developments marked the elements of “discontinuities” in Kashmiri national movement in terms of faction splits, political repositions, and ideological clashes. What weakens the position and credibility of political formations is the growing perception among the people that the movement ‘suffers’ from dissensions and cannot effectively represent us and in extension, has fewer chances to negotiate successfully with the state on their behalf (Cockell). This is what ultimately transpired in the case of Kashmir national movement. People grew wary of APHC leaders and lost confidence in them.

However, 2008 -2010 mass protests allowed the pro-resistance leaders to re-establish themselves as the ‘guardians’ of Kashmiri national movement.  The scene and intensity of the protests and discontentment between 2008 and 2010 changed the political discourse about Kashmir so much so that pro-India parties in Kashmir were forced to emphasize that elections had nothing to do with the Kashmir conflict and they even appropriated the resistance discourse to stay relevant in Kashmiri politics and be seen as ‘pro-Kashmir’.

(The author is a research scholar at Dublin City University, Ireland.)

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Festive Longings

With the dawn of May 26 each year, Kashmiri Pandits massively date Kashmir by turning up for annual Kheerbhavani Mela. Of late as the day has become an occasion of reliving past without actually reviving the same, Bilal Handoo reports longings harboured by elderly KPs about Kashmir

Three elderly Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) sitting on a bench inside the yard of Tulmulla’s Kheerbhavani temple are talking about Kashmir. “So, it was fake picture Delhi media was feeding us all these years,” says Rakesh Koul, a man who has visited Kashmir after 29 years. Another KP quickly responds: “Yes, they always broadcast the bad image of the place and its people.” Amid the talk, the trio relive their past by recalling bygone moments spent in Kashmir and the difference it had brought in their lives.

“We landed here on a day before yesterday,” says Koul, a greying man, probably in late fifties, “and the first thing we did was to visit Amira Kadal to refresh our memories.”

Manoj Koul, one among the trio sitting on a bench, says: “We are staying in a houseboat. And the moment houseboat owner came to know that we are KPs, he directed his staff to charge us less: ‘Take  good care of them. They are our own brothers and sisters.’ That gesture was very heartening. One can’t find such compassion and hospitality in Delhi or elsewhere. We miss this thing about Kashmir.”

A lady among them, probably in her early fifties, gets nostalgic. “I was born here, got educated, made friends, worked here, got married and then had to flee the place in the most unfortunate manner. I take lot of pride about Kashmiri roots. But sadly, everything is just reduced to memories now.”

Footfall of visiting KPs is picking up sluggishly inside the temple yard on this damp day. Setting temple bells tolling at entrance, many pandits with saffron marked foreheads are stepping inside barefoot — whispering prayers, carrying Puja trays in their hands. A non-native priest is leading prayers inside the temple. His loud-speaker airing prayers are apparently competing with audios being played at scores of community kitchens at periphery. Huddled inside the temple are scores of KP women, hymning religious tunes, setting off marital-type celebrations around. Amid cheer and chant, they occasionally rise up to dance. Their smiling faces spread an apparent wave of delight inside. In the yard though, drenched day has squeezed scope for signature floral patterns and earthen lamps typically placed on the ground for the occasion.

In the same yard, Jaykrishan Raina, a man probably in his mid-fifties, seems visibly detached from a mild festivity going on around. He has arrived in valley a day before from Jammu — his new residence since last 25 years, with his wife. His son and daughter, he says, refused to be the part of the annual religious festival citing an eleventh hour busy schedule.

“They (new generation) aren’t identifying themselves with all this,” says a sober looking Raina, a native of Magam in Budgam district. “But our attachment with the place is still intact. We grew up and spent some lovely time of life here.”

For this erstwhile teacher, life in Jammu has always been hellish. “Those who would dread earthworms in Kashmir had to live with snakes in Jammu,” he says. “Heat strokes make life further miserable there.”

Apart from weather factor, Raina says, shifting base was a social setback to him and his ilk. “Here in Kashmir, I would freely approach Muslim grocer, buy stock without bothering to pay him on time. This would help us sustain in times of penury. But back in Jammu, we couldn’t continue such things. As a result, we had to pass through tough times.”

Raina says his religion makes him believe in rebirth. “And if given a choice, I would like to take rebirth in my mud house in Magam, where I continue to play in my dreams,” he says before walking away to join his wife, waiting for him, inside a nearby tent.

For a moment, sun rays passing through leaves and branches of mighty Chinar trees have visibly faded a weather gloom inside. But some KPs present on the occasion appear too reluctant to take off their gloomy faces.

“We used to have a Class and Status in Kashmir,” says Hridanath Bhan, a frail man, sitting inside a tent. “But after we left valley, everything got messed up. Though we have successfully rebuilt our lives, but that respect, aura and time we spent in Kashmir are too tough to recreate.” Bhan lived in Habba Kadal area of Srinagar, he describes as “the cradle of culture”.

“It doesn’t matter how high one flies in one’s life,” he says, apparently sounding philosophical, “at the end of the day, everyone has to return to their resting places. But we people are unlucky  to lose the same.”

Jaykrishan Raina

But amid this homesickness, many scribes present keep asking KPs: Your longing is understandable, but what prevents you to return to valley and relive your past?

“Look, it is not that easy for us to return amid this threatening political uncertainly in valley,” Bhan says. “Besides, young KPs will never consider homecoming. I mean what is there in Kashmir for them? Why should they leave their lucrative jobs outside to end up returning in the place mired in unemployment?”

Perhaps Bhan isn’t wrong. With Gen-next KPs making their least presence felt at Kheerbhavani, it appears ‘move on’ is indeed a new mantra they follow.

But even then, Kheerbhavani seems to be the only remaining social gathering place for KPs in Kashmir now where they pray, socialise a bit and return with a “heavy heart” to their new homes protected under “harsh sun”.

Like many, Sarla Ganjoo,  in her mid forties, originally from Budgam, is now returning to Delhi after paying her obeisance at the temple. “Today, KPs are suffering from scattered-root syndrome,” says Ganjoo, a banker, who has turned up for the festival with her mother and husband.

“When I say ‘syndrome’ — I mean, ‘a growing realisation of homelessness.’ After we left Kashmir, we lost our identity in new places. For the sake of survival, we had to adapt a new culture, but I tell you something; it was never a nicest feeling. We terribly miss our time in Kashmir. We miss everything we knew about it. Sense of belonging is something one can never forget, no matter what…”

She pauses to recollect herself. “Our irony is,” she resumes, “we aren’t able to return home. People tell us many things like the dogmatic political situation prevailing over Kashmir. They stop us saying, ‘Are you going to get uprooted once again?’ You see, such words do stop one’s stride. I mean, we have lived through one nightmare. How on this earth we will ever wish the same thing for our kids? But in this lingering uncertainly, we continue to suffer, away from our home, for the home.” She gets up and steps inside the temple.

Meanwhile, rush has started picking up inside. Other than KPs, army men and non-Kashmiri are pouring in to pay obeisance. Staring all these activities quietly, Roshan Lal Mattoo — sitting on the raised platform around a Chinar tree, cuts a ‘despondent image’ for himself.  This retired teacher from Ganderbal is nowadays living a self-professed life of an “alien” in Jammu.

“There are always good and bad people in every community, who want to keep pot boiling for their own vested interests,” says Mattoo, sounding ‘politically correct’. “I am saying this because I know how some handful people are derailing peace process between two communities in Kashmir. They don’t want to restore Kashmir’s lost glory. Let me tell you, such people are on both sides. But in this damn politicking, only a peace-loving commoner is bearing the brunt. People like me who have been put inside a living dungeon in Jammu are suffering. This dungeon is too vicious to set us free! In that dungeon, I crave for my roots in Kashmir!”

Still talking Kashmir on a bench inside the temple yard, three KPs are now planning their sojourn in valley. “It is so peaceful here,” blurts Rakesh Koul. “But I regret the manner Kashmir is being broadcasted across India. But I believe, lies and myths are bound to explode, sooner or later. Oh, did I sound political? I don’t wish to be one! But anyway, we would love to revisit the places before returning to Delhi.”

After this candid confirmation, can one actually consider a word of mouth: Neighbours of yore have now become ‘religious tourists’? You see, some imaginations, do run riot!

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Pellet Blinds

Skipping the raging debate over lethality of the non-lethal weaponry – in vogue for six years now, Saima Bhat meets pellet blinds in their colourless tunnels to understand how hunter gunning in Kashmir is changing the lives of the victims otherwise living on the margins

CT Scan image of BiIlal Rehman, a pashmina shawl weaver who was hit by pellets on 17th April 2015.
Pic: Saima Bhat

In February 2014, Mehbooba Mufti, then leading the opposition staged walkout from the state legislative assembly over the use of pellet guns and pepper gas on Kashmiris. She demanded a blanket ban on the use of ‘non-lethal’ weaponry and shifting of injured youth outside the state for advanced treatment. Non-lethal weapons were part of her campaigning armoury as well.

A year later, as her party led PDP-BJP coalition is governing J&K, pellet guns are back in focus for their lethal use and government’s apparent indifference towards victims.

On May 22, eighteen-year-old Arman (name changed), a twelfth standard student, who earns as a medical agent to fund his studies, was hit by pellets in Rajouri Kadal when he was on his way to distribute new hand sanitizer samples to chemists.

“I was riding my office bike and my medical bag was in front of me. I did not see any tensions around. When I reached near the Chowk, out of blue I was shot with pellets. Instantly, I moved my face to the other side to save it,” says Arman. But one pellet had stuck his left eye, others to the left side of his neck, arm and skull. “It was a direct hit. A targeted one you can say as there was no mob around.”

The next thing that Arman recalls is that he was in Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) Bemina, where he was admitted and asked to undergo an emergency surgery. But to avoid police case, that usually follows in such cases, he left the hospital and preferred to stay home.

One week later, Arman is restricted to his room. The only source of light, a small window, located on the eastern side of the room is covered with thick curtains. “I cannot bear light,” he explains while pointing towards his left eye that still gives bloodied look. “It is blood! When I take some stress or simply think about anything seriously, blood starts coming out from it. I cannot see anything from my left eye except an occasional flash of white flash light.”

Apart from Arman’s parents and close family nobody knows about his injuries. “A few days after I was hit, my results came out. You won’t believe I was praying to God that I should not get enough marks otherwise all my relatives would come to congratulate me. I had passed my 10th standard with distinction,” says Arman. “I can’t sleep properly as left side of my skull and neck still has pellet pieces inside.”

When this reporter visited Arman, he was just back from a private clinic where an injection was given directly into his cornea without giving him local anesthesia. He was withering in pain.

A few kilometers away teenager Danish, 17, was hit by pellets on June 18, 2014. That day Kashmiri youth protested against atrocities in Gaza. Around 150 pellets had hit his body from head to toe.

Hailing from a modest background Danish started working from an early age. “I was just 9 year old when I started working with my uncle.  He decorates houses for marriages,” says Danish.

Arman, 18, while showing his bloodied eye which was hit by pellets on May 22, 2015.

Before his injury Danish would add around Rs 3000 a month to his family income – more than what his father earns. His father sells floor sheets on cycle.

Danish has undergone three surgeries – one in SKIMS Bemina and two in Amritsar, Punjab. Doctors in Amritsar had advised him to come again for another surgery in which a lens will be put in his eye. “They (doctors) told me that chances are I might be able to see the world again. But there is no guarantee,” says Danish.

Three of Danish’s friends, who too were hit by pellets on that day, had undergone surgeries outside J&K. But the results were disappointing. “I know I can’t see again. So what is the fun of spending money,” says Danish.

But Danish’s mother says that the reason they are not opting for another surgery is lack of finance.  “We have sold everything we had for his earlier surgeries. It cost us around Rs 3 lakh. Now there is nothing left,” says Danish’s mother.

“Last time my brothers and Danish’s uncles came forward and contributed for his treatment. But I can’t ask them again for help. I am planning to visit separatist leaders, may be they will help my son. But I am not sure if they will help at all as I belong to a National Conference patriot family. NC people too won’t help because my son was hurt during stone pelting,” says Danish’s confused mother.

After the injury Danish avoids getting on top of the buildings to place decorative buntings. “I am afraid of climbing now because my vision is blurred. I can’t see from my left eye and my right eye’s vision too gets distracted.  I fall quite often while climbing stairs. I have to be doubly sure if I have placed my foot correctly on a staircase,” says Danish.

Even riding a bike, that used to keep him mobile and help him reach his workplace quickly, is now difficult for Danish with such blurred vision. “Life is long and it’s my reality, I have to live with it. That is why I prefer to return home much before dark as I can’t see properly from even my right eye in the evening,” says Danish painfully.  He continuously feels pain in his eyes and complaints of developing ‘pressure’ which aggravates his headache.

Mushtaq Ahmad Najar a carpenter by profession cannot see from his right eye after pellets hit him in old city.

Earlier Danish used to attend three functions a day but since pellet hit his eye, he manages only one in a day.

Post-injury he has given up cricket, his favourite sport. “I tried playing once, but when the ball was thrown at me I couldn’t judge it properly. So I left the field,” says Danish.

Danish’s mom is melancholic. “I wish to donate my eyes to Danish. He is my eldest child; I can’t see him like this.  But we don’t have enough money for such kind of a surgery. I know he can’t see, but I still hope that he will get his vision back someday.”

The use of shot guns or pellet guns became norm since 2010 unrest. Even though doctors call the damage caused by pellets deadlier than bullets but the High Court sees it “non-lethal”. A PIL, against the use of these weapons, was dismissed by the High Court. Later, the PIL was re-appealed and argued with more cases but is pending disposal. Litigant Manan Bukhari, head of the legal aid Hurriyat (M), told Kashmir Life that he will take the case to Supreme Court.

Data revealed in response to an RTI suggested Kashmir’s two main hospitals SKIMS and SMHS, from 2010 to October 2013, 165 people suffered serious pellet injuries. Of them at least 12 lost their eyesight partially or completely.

“The number of pellet victims is much more than what these hospitals reveal,” says Bukhari. “They haven’t given us exact figures and there are many injured who don’t even go to these hospitals fearing the raid of state forces.”

Many injured claim their doctors advised them going out of J&K for treatment. “Doctors at SKIMS Bemina and SMHS only do stitching of injured eyes but then ask them to move out of state. I won’t say patients after moving out of state get their vision back but at least they have machinery there to operate upon them. Here we lack basic facilities,” says a parent of one such patient.

Despite a government order that pellet guns be used sparingly in Srinagar, they are used regularly in Old Srinagar and across some particular villages. One pellet cartridge contains 400-500 pellets, small ball bearings. Cartridges come in grades of five to 12, five being the largest, fastest and with the widest range.

“Though written instructions have been given to use the number 9 pellet for crowd control, as it does not cause lasting damage, the directive isn’t followed. In villages, we see number 6 and 7 pellets being used regularly. Most sensitive police stations in Kashmir receive regular supplies of number 5, 6, and 7 pellets,” a newspaper reported.

In May 2015, the state run hospital, SMHS installed its first Vitrectomy equipment claiming that such injuries will be dealt locally. “We had such machines in our state available but what doctors do is they remove the pellet and treat in case of haemorrhages. You tell me what we can do when patients come to us when their eyes are already blasted by these pellets,” says senior ophthalmologist Dr Bashir Ahmad. “We don’t do corneal transplants here because we don’t have donors. Otherwise we have high definition machinery available here and every kind of injury is treated here.”

Bilal Rehman

“These pellets hit eye with high velocity and it creates huge damage to the eye, which is irreparable in most of the cases,” explains Dr Afroz Khan, associate professor and SMHS’s ophthalmology head. “Parts of eye can be replaced in Kashmir and outside as well but nobody in world can do anything when the gel or fluid of an eye is lost.” In majority of pellet eye injuries that fluid was lost, he asserts.

On July 12, 2013, carpenter Mushtaq Ahmad Najar, 45, was hit by pellets in Nowhatta while buying vegetables. “I was not aware that boys were pelting stones at police. I realized my mistake only when I saw young boys running for cover. I too started to run but it was late I guess,” recalls Najar. “First police shot in the air and then directly towards the boys. And in that chaos something hit my body, from face to chest. Confused, I rushed straight to SMHS hospital where doctors said one pellet has pierced through the cornea of my left eye”.

A resident of Malaratta, Najar is the lone bread earner of his family comprising his parents, wife and a son. So far he has undergone two surgeries in Kashmir, one at SMHS and another at a private clinic, but his dark eye couldn’t turn colourful again.

Before that incident, Najar would work throughout the week so that his son can have a better life and future. But now he is planning to change his profession. “Every day is a struggle for me. Other carpenters, whom I had once taught, scold me for even small mistakes. I don’t do it deliberately but they don’t understand,” says Najar. “I work for just 3 to 4 days a week that too for lesser wages. For rest of the days I stay at home because of the pain.”

Doctors have advised Najar to use two spectacles: one for near vision and another to see far away. A few months back his toe hit something on the road and he fell on the ground hitting his head and leg. His glasses for near vision got damaged and now he is managing without it. “A new pair of spectacles costs around Rs 500. I cannot afford to spare that much from my limited earnings. After all I have a family to look after. Cannot let them beg on streets,” says Najar.

On April 17, 2015, Bilal Rehman, 35, father of three sons, was hit by pellets on his left eye, nose and head near the Jamia Masjid. He had gone to Jamia market looking for cheap school uniforms for his kids. “It was Friday and most of the shops were closed for afternoon prayers. I too went inside the mosque to offer prayers thinking that on my way out I will buy uniforms,” says Rehman, a pashimina shawl weaver by profession.

After the prayers when Rehman walked out, he found main gate of the mosque locked from outside. “There were policemen on the other side of the gate firing at people coming out of the Masjid. There was no stone pelting going on in the area as everybody was busy with offering their prayers,” claims Rehman.

Within no time there was chaos all around. Everybody was running for his life. “Suddenly I started feeling pain and something was coming out from my face. When I checked, it was blood,” recalls Rehman.

Rehman was not alone; at least ten others were hit by pellets on their faces and eyes that day. “One among the victims was a 12-year-old boy who was accompanying his father for prayers. He was hit by a pellet and fell on the ground. In the chaos people ran over him. I still remember his face,” says Rehman.

Rehman was taken to the hospital where doctors diagnosed him with Vitreous haemorrhage, leakage of blood into the areas in and around the vitreous humor of the eye. The vitreous humor is the clear gel that fills the space between the lens and the retina of the eye. “Doctors first stitched my eye so that liquid stops coming out of it. But later, they advised me to go to Amritsar for further treatment,” says Rehman.

“I managed some money from relatives and friends and went to Amritsar directly where I was operated upon. They (doctors in Amritsar) have guaranteed me that I will get my vision back. But it has already been a month and I am still in the tunnel,” says Rehman.

Once Rehman was back, his eye started aching again and he consulted a local doctor in civil lines area, who advised him to rush immediately back to Amritsar as his vein had got blocked. “As I reached Amritsar in next 12 hours doctors there just changed my eye drops. Imagine a local doctor couldn’t rectify a small issue for which I had to fly in emergency,” says Rehman.

So far Rehman has spent around Rs 2 lakhs on his treatment but what he sees from his left eye is just the outline of people sitting on his left side. Rehman has to manage a family of seven members including his aged parents with his meager income.

Before leaving for market to buy uniforms for his kids Rehman had left an unfinished Pashmina shawl back home. “I was hoping to complete it in the evening,” says Rehman regretfully.

After he was hit by pellets Rehman decided to handover the incomplete shawl to his friend for final touches. “It was such a painful moment for me that I cannot describe in words. I was not only passing a shawl but surrendering my talent, my pride, my livelihood,” says Rehman while holding his tears back. “I cannot even cry!”

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Pellet Pains

Saqib Wani

Aspiring to be an engineer, Aaqib Bashir Bhat, 16, of Bhat Mohalla Palhallan wants to study hard but can’t do it for more than 20 minutes. Reason? His left eye starts to twinge with pain since he went through a third surgery.

On 7th of March, 2013, Aqib along with his friend Tajamul Ahmad Bhat had gone to the local market to buy chicken. There were scattered protests going on in the area. And all of a sudden policemen started firing pellets at the people. Both Aqib and Tajamul got injured. “I was hit in the left eye while my friend Tajamul was hit in his back and abdomen,” says Aqib.

Despite spending around Rs 4 lakh for his treatment, Aqib has not gained his eyesight as doctors and his family had expected.

Initially he was treated at SKIMS, then in Amritsar and finally in Delhi. But the treatment failures and disappointments didn’t stop Aqib from hoping to see again.

For 18-year-old Basit Ahmad Malla, who hails from Rawpora in Palhallan town, the events of the day when he was shot by policemen from a 4 feet distance with pellets, refuses to fade from him memory. “I was on my way to mosque to offer midday prayers when policeman hiding behind the bricks came out and attacked me. They first beat me and then shot in my face with pellet gun,” says Malla.

The pellets damaged his left eye and left portion of the skull. “There are still three pellets inside his eye and treatment is underway,” his father Mohammad Akbar Malla says.

“I am without any dream as my future is at stake. Police has registered an FIR against me claiming that I am a stone pelter,” says Mallah.

Nineteen-year-old Aamir Ahmad Hajam, who works at a vegetable shop as a salesman, struggles to adapt to his shinning artificial right eye. Aamir hails from Syed Kareem area of Baramullah. “You can’t imagine the trauma I have to go through. I can’t see anything on my right side. I couldn’t continue my studies,” says Aamir. “I was on my way to tuitions when police fired pellets at me.”

Aamir was treated for his injuries first at SKIMS and then at Amritsar, but that too could not save his eye. I have already spent Rs 2 lakh on my treatment,” says Aamir who whose lips were also injured by pellets that day.

“Tell me which civilized nation uses pellet guns on humans? It is for hunting animals. But they (Indian government) treats Kashmiris worse than animals,” asks Aamir.

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Agent Of Change

From once a notorious cannabis cultivating village to major vegetable producer, Mohanviji in Pulwama district has come a long way. Mir Farhat talks to Riyaz Ahmad Dar, the man who quit cannabis cultivation to set the wheels of change in motion transforming his and others lives for good

Riyaz Ahmad Dar

A decade and a half ago Mohanviji, a village in Pulwama district located on the eastern side of Kakapora, was hounded by police to crackdown on its residents for cultivating cannabis.

The village was a source of cannabis for the whole district and beyond. Almost every smallholder in the village cultivated the narcotic drug and was on the radar of police.

Nestled in willow and poplar trees, Mohanviji is populated by around 800 residents who live in about 200 houses, Mohammad Akbar Wani, an elderly resident, informs.

Almost all the villagers practice farming, with a countable number of government employees and the younger generation, of late, turning towards education.

Frequent police raids and arrests of the men accused of selling Charas had given a bad name to the village. Its residents were socially ostracised in the whole area.

But not after the spring of 2000 when a young man, Riyaz Ahmad Dar, brought a new idea in the village: of converting the cannabis land into cash crop fields.

Dar and his family began cultivating the vegetables in their land, falling along the Romshi stream embankments that skirt the village.

“Because of cannabis cultivation, our village was scornfully looked at by everyone in the district. Although people earned money but the bad name across the district was emotionally painful for us,” says 36-year-old Dar.

Son of an unlettered farmer, Dar had given up his education after class 12th and was in search of earning money to assist his family financially.

“My father had no source of income so I could not continue my studies. Besides, I wanted to support my father and my family. Other youth in my village were facing similar situation,” says Dar.

This desperation turned Dar and other youth of his village to cannabis cultivation for easy money. “After few years of cultivating cannabis and selling it, I realized that it had only disgraced us in the society,” feels Dar.  Besides, the continuing police raids were making the villagers restless.

Almost every day, the villagers were summoned to the police station in Pulwama and those who were caught had to spend days and nights inside police lockup. Across the district, Dar said, they were looked down upon as “criminals”.

In addition to the social stigma, religion also became a force for the villagers, particularly for Dar, to give up the forbidden way of raising money.

Dar says that cultivating cannabis didn’t fetch them much money. “I also thought that when my parents could not raise their economic standard after cultivating cannabis for years how could I and other youth like me do it,” says Dar.

In the first year of the vegetable cultivation, Dar’s idea was only received by his close uncles. Rest of the farmers were largely not attracted to it.

But as the hard work of Dar’s family began to yield for them, gradually the other villagers came in. And in a few years, the Charas fields had disappeared and were replaced by a “green gold”.

The idea of turning the cannabis lands into vegetable farms dawned on the young man during a visit to his relatives in Bugam village in Budgam district in the harvest season of 2000.  Bugam has become one of the major producers of vegetables in the Valley.

“When I saw the huge green vegetable fields in Bugam I was awed by it. Men and women, all were busy in harvesting vegetables. I thought, though our practice is same, that of working in the fields; but people in Bugam were proud of their work unlike ours as we felt shameful because of the cannabis tag,” Dar says.

A view of Mohanviji village in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

“Then and there, I told my friend that we will start the practice next season. I discussed with him the whole farming methods and the money they earned from it,” he says. “So my visit to my friend was the turning point.”

From cultivating 25 kanals of their land in the first few years by the Dar family, the whole village got involved in the vegetable farming and soon after thousands of acres of land turned greener.

The village became the only major producer of cauliflower, carrot, cabbage, turnips, collard green, brinjal, tomato and chillies in the district. And the produce began reaching to Fruit mandi in Parimpora and later to the winter capital, Jammu.

“Suddenly, the police parties also stopped coming to our village and our fortune started turning around,” says Ajaz Ahmad, a 30-year-old man, who also with his family took to vegetable farming.

Not only did the farming erase the bad name that the village had got labelled with, it also opened up labour avenues for its youth, who would otherwise give up studies immediately after 8th standard and dive into cannabis production.

After over a decade of hard labuor into his fields, Dar has turned up his fortunes. Today, he owns a ply-board factory and about 100 sheep.

“Whatever business I have today is only because of vegetable farming. In the first five years I raised sufficient money to establish my own sheep farm. And from earning money from  sheep farm, I bought a ply-board factory,” Dar says.

In the factory in Ookho village on Kakapora-Pampore road, Dar has employed about 20 young men to run his factory, and five others who rear his sheep.

Abdul Salam Wani, aged 52, says that the concept of vegetable farming came as a panacea for their long time bad practice of growing cannabis.

“We, as parents, were very upset with the future of our children, who left their studies halfway. With the availability of cannabis, it was easy for them to consume it and get addicted,” Wani says, “but the farming helped us to get rid of the cannabis plants and with them the anxiety about our children.”

Like Dar, Wani’s son, Feroz Ahmad, has also risen from working in his vegetable farm to become a trader.  In partnership with another youth, Ahmad buys vegetables from the farmers of other villages and then sells them in fruit markets in Jammu and Srinagar.

The new practice proved fruitful for the whole village as “halal money” began flowing into it.

In the years that followed the village gave a new look as new, concrete houses replaced the old mud houses. The children and youth began joining schools and colleges which increased the literacy.

“Hardly there were any graduates in our village. Our children would drop out from high school. But today there are scores of post graduates who have studied in as good cities as in Banaglore,” says Wani.  He adds that the period of “darkness and bad days” are over.

The police raids too have stopped long back. Superintendent of Police, Pulwama, Tejinder Singh, said his police teams no longer raid the Mohanviji as the villagers have given up cannabis cultivation long ago.

“We are living a respectable life after we became olericulturists,” says a proud looking Dar.

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Pelleted Palhalan

Images of a Palhalan boy’s face dotted with pellets haunted Kashmir’s conscious for days. But he was not the only one injured that day. Durdana Bhat visits Kashmir’s most talked about village and meets ‘others’ struggling to get out of darkness, off the media glare  

Imtiyaz Ahmad Tantray

It has been more than one week since Imtiyaz Rasool Tantry, 16, a class 10th student from Palhalan was admitted in Srinagar’s SKIMS hospital with pellet injuries. But for this boy, the events of last week are imprinted on his mind like the marks of hundreds of pellets on his right arm. He is writhing in pain. It is visible on his face every time he tries to riffle his right arm. After every two hours doctors come and inject him with a pain killer. They (doctors) seem as confused as the young boy. “It eases the pain for the time being. But it is not helping,” says Imtiyaz.

But as Imtiyaz sees this reporter walking towards him, he puts on a brave face and starts recalling the events of May 21, the day that is otherwise drenched in blood.

Back home in Palhalan, sitting outside her modest brick and wood dwelling, Imtiyaz’s mother is clutching a small purse in her hand in which she has kept money donated by her well wishers and neighbours for her son’s treatment.

Imtiyaz’s father Ghulam Rasool said, “Imtiyaz had gone to school to appear in exam but when he didn’t return, we started to look for him. Later we came to know that he was hit by pellets and fainted on the spot. We rushed him to the hospital in Srinagar.”

“After my eyesight was weakened due to carpet weaving, I started working as a construction labourer. I don’t earn much. If he will not be treated with proper medication, he will lose his arm,” says Imtiyaz’s father.

On the same day, Hamid Ahmad Bhat, 16, a class 10th student like Imtiyaz, was out to check if his tuition centre is open or not. He was caught in the protests and a high-velocity pellet hit him in the right eye causing vitreous haemorrhage. Around 100 pellets have hit him in the face and skull as well.

His mother Rafiqa said, “Three days before, I went to Srinagar to see him but I can’t withstand what he is going through. Tell me for what crime he was punished?”

The incident took place on the day when Kashmir was commemorating the Hawal Massacre, besides the twin death anniversaries of Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone.

“I am not satisfied with the ongoing treatment of my son. If I have to, I will sell my land to raise money for his treatment, he still have two live pellets inside his right eye and he is on the verge of losing his sight,” Hamid’s father Nazir Ahmad Bhat said.

 “My son wasn’t involved in any protest, he was going for a private tuition, still he was hit and injured,” claims Nazir.

This “non-lethal” weapon was introduced to control pro-freedom protesters and stone throwers after Delhi and the state government came under severe criticism for shooting dead 128 unarmed protesters, mostly young boys, during anti-India protests in 2010.

Unlike Imtiyaz and Hamid, another youngster Tariq Ahmad Hajam, a class 7th student, was taking a stroll near the entrance of the Palhalan town gate. He was hit on the back and scalp. Though he has not suffered any deep injury, but the pellets are still inside his skin.

“I was coming back from the school when pellets hit me,” recalls Tariq.  “I lost my consciousness. When I opened my eyes, I found myself at a hospital bed. My brother and father were there to see me. On the next morning I was discharged.”

Doctor had told him to take medicine and apply ointment for six days and everything will be alright. “But I can’t sleep. He says, “It has been eight days and I haven’t re-joined my school.”

Back to SKIMS, teenager Imtiyaz is still enduring a withering pain. In spite of his visible bravado in presence of this reporter, he occasionally contracts eyes to overcome the frequent bouts of pain. With pellet still in his body, it seems the pain, inflicted upon this boy, will take some time to fade out. But can life be the same again?

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Tourist Killed, 10 injured in Gulmarg Mishap

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

A woman tourist was killed and ten others injured after a vehicle in which they were travelling in skidded off the road in Gulmarg area in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

A police official told GNS that the vehicle (MHVN-3565) over turned and rolled down into a gorge near Sharabi mode in Gulmarg resulting in injuries to eleven persons.

All the injured tourists were immediately shifted to SKIMS hospital, Soura for treatment, however, a woman Insha Begium wife of Abdul Rahim Sheikh from central Indian state of Mahrashtra later succumbed to her injuries.

Meanwhile, police have registered a case and started further investigations in this regard.

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Police Arrest Three for Pasting ‘Threatening Posters’ in Pulwama

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

Police on Sunday claimed to have arrested three persons allegedly involved in pasting ‘threatening posters’ in Khrew area of Pulwama in South Kashmir.

Senior Superintendent of Police Awantipora, Muhammad Irshad said that the arrested persons have militant links and they pasted threatening posters of Lashkar-e-Islam outfit at Khrew few days back.

The arrested persons have been identified as Imtiyaz Ahmad Sheikh son of Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Mudasir Ahmad Lone son of Abdul Samad Lone and Ishfaq Ahmad Bhat son of Ghulam Mohammed Bhat.

He said that a case under FIR no. 76/2015 under section 13 Unlawful Activities Act.

Sources said that the trio had downloaded the poster from Facebook and printed them at a local computer outlet and pasted them in the area.

Meanwhile, two youth were Sunday held for “setting Budgam shrine on fire”.

A police official said that two youth have been held after they made a failed attempt to set the shrine of Agha Syed Mehdi Al Safvi Al Mousvi on intervening night of Friday. The two have been identified as Saqib Bhat, son of Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat and Bilal Ahmad, son of Ghulam Mohammad of Zaber Mohalla, Budgam.

“Following the incident, a special police team was constituted who today arrested the two accused. They have confessed to have tried to set the shrine ablaze,” the official said.

He said police had already filed a case FIR number 140/2015, u/s 436, 427, 295 RPC in this regard. (GNS)

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‘3 Militants Killed after Attack on Army Hospital in Tanghdar’

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

Three militants were killed on Sunday after they tried to storm an army hospital in Tanghdar sector of the frontier Kupwara district in North Kashmir.

Official sources told Global News Service (GNS) that a group of six to seven heavily armed militants, who had reportedly sneaked into the Valley last week, tried to storm army’s 328 Field Surgical Centre (FSC) at Bukhayan village near Dak Banglow Tanghdar in the wee hours Sunday.

The surgical unit is about 200 yards from army’s 104 Brigade.

“The militants fired indiscriminately towards the soldiers and tried to enter the hospital. However, the army men repulsed the attack. This led to outbreak of gun-battle,” sources said.

The militants, sources said, took shelter in the residential houses belonging to Muneer Sheikh, son of Mehboob Sheikh and Shakoor Sheikh, son of Ata Mohammad Sheikh adjacent to the Surgical Centre, while two others engaged the army in the gunfight.

“When the encounter turned fierce, additional reinforcement comprising of 30 commandos of 4 PARA were flown in by chopper”, sources said adding, “The commandos and the soldiers of other units including 3/1 GR, 20 RR, 12 Maratha regiment and 26 Rajput regiment have laid a siege around the village to prevent militants from fleeing,”

Sources said that the militants declined the surrender offer by army and continued renewed assaults on them. Few residential houses were also destroyed following heavy motor shelling by army on militants.

They said that it is believed that the group of militants entered the Valley through Darshan Post along the LoC on May 25 and killed three army men of 3/1 GR and injured a Junior Commissioned officer (JCO). One unidentified militant had also been killed in the encounter.

A senior defence official said that three militants have been killed in the ongoing encounter. He said that militants have taken eight civilians hostage, while five others have been evacuated by the army.

“Besides the hostage crisis, heavy rains, thundershowers and lightening occurred in the area that hampered the operation. All the militants are under trap,” the official said. Sources said that three rifles have been recovered alongwith as many bodies.

Meanwhile, General Officer-in Command (GoC) 15 corps, Lt Gen Subrata Saha earlier in the day visited the encounter spot and assessed the situation.

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In Kashmir, 4 ‘Strategic Locations’ to Have ‘Critical Care’ Ambulance Services

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

The restive Kashmir Valley will soon be receiving first of its kind ‘Critical Care Emergency Medical Services’ for common people.

Under Kashmir Life Line (KLL) initiative, the ambulance services will be launched by Center for Research and Development Policy (CRDP) and Borderless World Foundation (BWF) in collaboration with the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK), a CRDP statement said.

“Initially, both the groups will be providing four (4) fully equipped Cardiac and Trauma Care Ambulances to the Health department. The Health Services Department will manage and run the ambulance services,” the statement said.

The statement informed, “the ‘Critical Care Ambulances’ will be stationed at four different locations of the Valley viz Sangrama in Baramulla district, Qazigund in Islamabad district, Sanatnagar and Dargah areas in Srinagar district.”

“The organizations are planning to launch 15 such ambulances in the Valley by the end of this year,” the statement added.

According to the statement, Borderless World Foundation (BWF) had “conducted an Emergency Medical Services Survey in the frontier district of Kupwara in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai”.

According to the Survey, the statement said, “emergency cases found were delivery cases, cardiac arrests, road side accidents, brain hemorrhage, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, food poisoning, burns, paralysis, psychiatric problems, respiratory problems and so on,” adding, “therefore, it is very essential to have Emergency Medical Services in place in order to cater such critical cases at the earliest.”

With the cases of accidents and emergencies increasing every day, the peripheral health care facilities and tertiary care hospitals in Kashmir are ill-equipped to provide requisite care to the victims. “The recent floods of September 2014 have further aggravated the already grave scenario of infrastructure and equipment. Policy makers, planners, administration and government have all harped on the promise of fulfilling the vacuum in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) but nothing significant has been done. Experts believe that immediate and effective care are the most important factors that can save lives,” the statement said and further added, however, “the available emergency health care in the state seems neither capable of providing immediate nor an effective care to the patients / victims.”

“The statistics of the Traffic Control Department reveal that in 2012, 2346 accidents were reported from Kashmir alone in which 368 people died and 3555 people were injured. Many of the injured ended up with permanent disabilities. In 2013, 2256 road accidents were reported killing 353 and injuring 3033. The official figure of the killed people up to the month of June 2014 was 185. This points out the increasing need to have EMS in the close vicinity of the accident spots,” the statement said detailing the raod accident graph of valley. “As per the official documents, the Emergency Department at SK Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura receives approximately 200-300 patients daily and 55-60% of these need to be hospitalized. Many of these admissions are related to trauma and other medical emergencies.”

The statement while quoting a written reply to a question posed by Naresh Gupta to the the CM Omar Abdullah, 3288 people have been killed and 27, 165 injured in 18, 786 accidents across the state in three years (2009, 2010 and 2011).

“Therefore,” the statement said, “as per the available data about the accident related deaths, pregnancy related deaths, deaths due to cardiac arrests, deaths due to unavailability of trauma and critical care units, it becomes necessary to have a network of Emergency Medical Services across the Valley so that the victims receive immediate and effective treatment and loss of precious lives can be averted.”

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Will not Support Revocation of AFSPA at This Juncture: BJP

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

A day after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed stated that his Government will achieve its objectives regarding revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) Sunday said that it is not the right time to remove the Act and the party will not support its revocation.

“We must keep the ground realities in mind. The time for removal of the law has not come yet. It is the time to give good governance to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We will not support its revocation at this juncture,” BJP’s leader and health Minister Lal Singh told KNS.

When asked about BJP’s views on PDP’s stand on removal of AFSPA, he said it is not appropriate on his part to comment on the assessment of the PDP. “I can tell you in BJP’s capacity that time is not ripe for the revocation of AFSPA,” he said.

He said that it is important to observe the situation and it is important to understand the security contours of the situation before we take a decision. “The decision should be a pragmatic one, it should be in national interest,” he said.

It is to mention here that Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Saturday said that his Government will achieve its objectives regarding revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir.

“I know what to do on AFSPA and would achieve objective on its revocation.  I know everything. I know what to do and what not to do. Whatever we have to do, we will do that,” he had said.

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Int’l Buyer-Seller Meet: ‘Orders Worth $700,000 Booked in 2 Days’

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

Urging foreign delegates of 6th International Buyer-Seller Meet to be the ambassadors of J&K State, Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Sunday said his Government plans to hold handicraft and industrial exhibitions on a much larger scale in future.

Mufti Sayeed said this while interacting with them over High Tea here.

Business delegates from as many as 21 countries including United States, UK, Egypt, Palestine, Tunisia, France, Turkey, Germany and Indonesia are participating in the Meet, an official statement said.

Terming Kashmir Expo-2015 a huge success, President KCCI informed the Chief Minister that orders for Kashmir Handicraft worth over US dollars 700,000 have been booked in the first two days of the four-day Meet.

“A number of samples have been requisitioned which will further boost business sales in the coming days,” the statement quoting KCCI president as having told the Chief Minister.

“The CM assured that exhibitions on much larger scale, in collaboration with KCC&I and other stakeholders in industrial and handicraft sector, will be planned in future where foreign buyers will be able to see a greater variety of exquisite handicraft items made in Kashmir,” the statement said.

Calling upon overseas buyers to be J&K’s messengers in their own countries, the Chief Minister said the Government is taking several steps to market Kashmir’s handicraft.

“Seeing is believing. When you see things for yourselves, the perception changes automatically. Kashmir is a treasure trove of handicraft, heritage and natural beauty. I hope that you will love to visit this place again,” he said while asking the delegates to also enjoy Kashmir’s riveting beauty.

Sharing their experiences, the delegates thanked the Chief Minister for inviting suggestions for improving business ties so that export of hand-made products from Kashmir increases.

“Some of the delegates appreciated the excellent quality of products made. However, many others advised a new variety of designs so that their marketability in foreign markets improves.”

A delegate from Indonesia requested the Chief Minister to organize a similar buyer-seller meet at Jakarta – the Indonesian capital. Another delegate, Ahmad Tawakal, from Egypt, described the Buyer-Seller Meet as a wonderful experience and hoped that it will create greater awareness about Kashmir Arts internationally, the statement informed.

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‘PDP Part of Biggest Intrigue Against our State’

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

At the party’s day-long District Convention held at Pulwama, National Conference Sunday alleged BJP’s agenda in J&K was anything but governance and the right-wing party’s advent into J&K through PDP – its ‘Trojan Horse’ – did not auger well for the State’s political interests and welfare.

Speaking at the party convention in Pulwama, NC General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar lashed out at BJP for issuing ‘inflammatory and radical’ statements that are full of ‘contempt and disdain’ towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

“BJP’s statements – through its senior leaders and spokespersons – on sensitive issues like AFSPA, Article 370 and the issues of talks with Hurriyat Conference are full of communal disdain and contempt. While the party, in connivance with PDP pretended to have shelved its longstanding agenda of abrogating Article 370 during the Assembly Elections, BJP’s National Spokesperson Dr Sambit Patra has recently stated unequivocally that BJP remains committed to the abrogation of Article 370. What is even more tragic is that our Chief Minister has till now remained completely silent on this newly advocated demand by BJP to scrap Article 370. Every single pretense that was put forth as a smokescreen in the PDP-BJP ‘Common Minimum Program’ has been rubbished and trashed with contempt by the BJP – and their demand to abrogate Article 370 is the latest incident that exposes Mufti Sahab,” Sagar said while addressing party leaders, delegates and office bearers at NC District Office, Mujahid Manzil in Pulwama.

Demanding the immediate revocation of AFSPA from J&K, NC Additional General Secretary Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamaal asked New Delhi to stop discriminating against the people of J&K and afford them the same democratic rights and liberties as afforded to citizens in other States of the country.

“When AFSPA can be revoked from Tripura, why are the people of J&K expected to live in perpetuity with AFSPA – an act that puts into abeyance their basic rights? While NC was in power, the Congress party in the State – most notably the then PCC President Professor Saifuddin Soz openly opposed NC’s demand for AFSPA revocation. However, today it is quite amusing to see the same Professor Soz demand the revocation of the Act. When it mattered, he and some of his colleagues chose to oppose the demand of National Conference and former Chief Minister  Omar Abdullah to revoke AFSPA. Similarly, PDP – which was the principal opposition party – chose to further its petty partisan agenda for power on the sensitive, humanitarian issue of AFSPA rather than rising above politics to support NC’s efforts to get AFSPA revoked. While in opposition, PDP leaders – including Mehbooba Mufti said AFSPA could be revoked by the State Cabinet. Our question to Mehbooba Mufti is simple – what stops Mufti Sayeed and his Cabinet from revoking AFSPA from J&K – especially given the fact that we have been told that the PDP-BJP alliance besides other agreements, hinges on the revocation of AFSPA? Mufti Sahab is the one who has introduced AFSPA in J&K and it is his moral obligation to the people of the State to revoke this Act without any further delay. Unlike PDP, National Conference will rise above politics to support all endeavors of PDP to get the Act revoked – both inside the State Assembly and outside of it,” Kamaal said.

NC Provincial President, Nasir Aslam Wani lashed out at the PDP-BJP Government for this “criminal neglect” of the flood cictims and warned PDP about the saturation of tolerance and patience among the victims of the September calamity. “PDP told us that they were diving head-first into this unholy alliance with BJP so that they could get money from the Central Government to help the flood victims. This was clearly said by both Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti during the period when they pretended to be deliberating on the possibility of tying up with BJP. Now today the State’s Finance Minister brazenly tells us that this was never on the agenda and was not a reason to tie up with the BJP. Nine months have passed since the floods wreaked havoc with Kashmir and the flood victims are yet to see any signs of political will from either PDP or BJP to start their rehabilitation and dispensing compensation to them. Mufti Sahab’s beloved ally – the BJP was more visibly forthcoming to help Nepal in its time of need than helping the people of Kashmir in their testing time – and till now we are yet to see Mufti Sahab stand up and demand justice from the Central Government. Fact is Mufti Sahab sold the mandate of the people to the BJP and RSS for becoming the Chief Minister for six years and in return signed off the rights and interests of this State and its people,” he said.

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