Azadi (Freedom), Azadi (Freedom) and Azadi (Freedom) Comes From Each Corner of Kashmir Vally..

Among the sea of people marching towards TRC grounds on Monday were the strong trading community of the Valley. Unmindful of the losses they suffered in the wake of enforced economic embargo on, and persistent strikes and curfews in the Valley. People of Kashmir Show once agian Inner Face of India to the World... As Azadi(Freedom) Slogans came from each corner of the vally... this show's how democratic India is ...as they called themselves India as a democratic country...Is It True..:)

Cont...

Stand For Free Kashmir....Voice Freedom comes from all Ages....

Con't...

Kashmir on Rise... only one Voice Azadi, Azadi and Azadi... (Freedom, Freedom and Freedom).

Who is Discriminated (Kashmiri's or Jammu People) Read it.

According to a computation made by the General Administration Department (GAD) in 2005, for submission to the Sachar Committee, the state had roughly 3,52,000 employees. The Department worked out the percentage of employees to the total strength of respective communities. Hindu employees represent 4.61 percent of the 30 lakh Hindu population in the state whereas Muslims have a representation of 2.85 percent for the 68 lakh Muslim population. So relative to the respective populations, Hindus outnumber Muslims in the State government. This should question the ‘assertions’ of discrimination effusing from the winter capital. Ridicule them. Deflate them. Scanning the composition of the State administration, the claims of discrimination do come home, indeed. The irony, though, is that the victim of this discrimination is not the ‘Pro National’ Jammu wala as we have been made to believe but the ‘Anti National’ Kashmiri, to put in the latest Right wing lingo. One, which is being endorsed by our wannabe Prime Minister L K Advani as well. Starting with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the total cadre strength is 94 with 24 officers belonging to the Kashmir division, 27 officers belonging to the Jammu division and two from Ladakh. The other 41 babus are from outside the state. So where exactly is Jammu getting discriminated in all this? Delusion, but nothing! Further, most of the core developmental departments like Planning, Finance, R&B, PHE and Irrigation are headed by non-Kashmiris. Even the all important departments of Agriculture, Revenue, Social Welfare, Health, Home, CAPD, Industries and Commerce, Information, PDD are ‘endowed’ to non-Kashmiris. The trend is the same for Science and Technology, Transport and Culture. No Kashmiri components! Another ‘discriminating’ fact, for the record. Since 1947, out of 26 Chief Secretaries of the State, only 6 have been Kashmiri Muslims. How’s that for discrimination for the only Muslim majority state of ‘secular’ India. But no one has ever stood up for this. Makes sense, in a way. Why would a Kashmiri Muslim civil servant take the ‘risk’ of speaking against discrimination engineered by a minority and be branded as ‘anti national’. Not worth it! Never was. Now comes the real shocker. The Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS). This is where scores have to be settled, intriguing serious questions have to be asked, discrimination has to be debated and alienation of Kashmiri Muslims has to be addressed. Out of the 338 KAS cadre officers in the state, 155 officers belong to Kashmir division, 151 to Jammu division and 22 to Ladakh division. 10 officers are from junior KAS. Now how can this representation be fair, even ethical? This is unfair by any account of economic management or population distribution. The ratio is 55:45 in favor of Muslims but why has everything been worked out and settled at 50:50? It is not supposed to be that way. Kashmir outnumbers others in terms of population, but why is that they are outnumbered when it comes to Administration, Judiciary, Police and even Private enterprise? This preposterous idea of 50:50 distribution is absolutely fake, senseless by all parameters. Save your disappointment, resentment and protests for now though. Save them for the ‘administrative genocide’ I am about to illustrate. From 2001 till date, 478 KAS appointments have been made. Kashmiris are at 106, Ladakh at 12 and Jammu at a staggering overpowering figure of 360. Discrimination? No, not by any standards. This is something far beyond the term, with devastating consequences for the majority. As I said ‘administrative genocide’, if you like. Engineering, competent and successful, has been done for the next three decades and things (read Kashmiris) have been leveled out for the ‘pro National’ Jammu bureaucrats. In fact it would not even make sense to call it KAS five years down the line. It will be, rather already can be, rechristened as Jammu Administrative Service (JAS). And here in Kashmir, we would even have to import BDOs and Tehsildars! And mind you, Kashmiris are not overpowered in bureaucracy alone. It’s all across. Take for example the 641 Muslims and the 1015 Hindus figuring in the tentative seniority list of 1656 Junior Agriculture Assistants as of April 2006. Or for that matter the 114 Muslim AEEs in Works Department against the 164 Hindu AEEs as of May 2005. And be assured, it only gets worse after that. The latest recruitments don’t show any mercy to Muslims or Kashmiris. Amongst the 429 Accounts Assistants selected by the Service Selection Board in April 2008, Jammu accounts for 334 Assistants while Kashmir gets a ‘fabulous’ 95. I am not even going to comment on that. Of course, Raj Bhawan, the custodian of the constitutional rights of all sections of society remains off limits for at least one community, no prizes. The last Muslim Secretary the First Citizen of the state had was when we used to have a Sadr i Riyasat. Since then it is graciously adorned by the malis of Floriculture Department who are considered indispensable for their manicuring skills and presenting a gulab every morning to the sahib of the estate. However with the arrival of the present Governor two middle level Muslim officers from the former Chief Minister’s office are now manning the secretariat outpost of Raj Bhavan. To conclude, all this is in complete sync with the latest branding of Kashmiris. Anti Nationals, at the end of the day you see. PS: Yesterday’s piece on judiciary reflected only the current composition affected by deputation and transfers. The actual composition of the J&K High Court Bench gives Kashmir 6 slots and Jammu 6. Of these two from Jammu, Justice V K Gupta and Justice T S Thakur are already Chief Justices posted on deputation. Justice Bilal Nazki from Kashmir is a judge on deputation to the Bombay High Court. The State Hugh Court has so far sent 3 judges to the Supreme Court, one of whom, Justice Anand, served as Chief Justice of India. The other two were justice Raja Jaswant Singh and Justice R P Sethi. You know their home addresses.

By ALEE ANDRABI (GK).

Fake Encounter By Indian Army (Major).

Bandipore, July 8: Two accused in the alleged fake encounter killing of 22-year-old labourer Muhammad Ashraf Sheikh of Larnoo Kokernag today said he was killed by a Major of Army’s 3 JAKLI. “Ashraf was killed by a Major of 3 JAKLI,” Tahir Pathan of 3 JAKLI and Reyaz Ahmad Cheechi, a government gunman, told the Sessions Judge here during the hearing of the case. Pathan told the judge that he didn’t kill Ashraf, but was present on the spot when he was killed. Cheechi also pleaded that he was not involved in Ashraf’s killing. “I picked up Ashraf from Dalgate but didn’t kill him. He was killed by the Major,” he told the judge. Muhammad Ashraf was killed allegedly in a fake encounter at Brar Bandipore on June 3 last after he went missing from his rented room at Srinagar. Ashraf worked in Srinagar and was staying in the rented room belonging to Parvez Ahmad Shalla of Dalgate. On June 3, Parvez called his family and told them that he had gone missing. Worried family members looked for him everywhere but to no avail. A missing report was also lodged in police station Dalgate. After 18 days, the family learnt that Ashraf had been killed in a fake encounter in Bandipore. The body, according to police, was handed over to them by 3 JAKLI saying that they had recovered it from a nearby forest. The family then sought permission of the district administration for exhumation of the body buried in a graveyard at Aarigam in Bandipore. The DNA test of Nazeer Ahmed Sheikh, brother of the deceased, was matched and it was confirmed that body was of Muhammad Ashraf Sheikh. Pathan and Cheechi were immediately arrested by police following their alleged involvement in the case. On Tuesday, both Cheechi of Chatty Banday and Pathan of Aloosa pleaded innocent before the court, but said Ashraf was killed by a Major. The court has sent both to a judicial remand till July 16.

@AZIM JAN (GK)

Kashmir On Roads To Protect Their Honour and Honour of Kashmir

Shame on India... (Little Warrior Still Stands to Protect Honor of Kashmir besides being the victim of Indian forces)............

Srinagar ki betiyan— daughters of Srinagar, full of passion— ready to die to protect their honour and honour of Kashmir as well. For New Delhi and Islamabad, the massage is loud and clear, the events of last week may be precursor of an indigenous and non-violent movement to follow. And the Indian media (with very few exceptions) is busy spreading canards, trying to label the peaceful assertion as ‘Islamists protestors.” In the days of so called “war on terror” ‘Islamists’ is a slur, a western jargon to describe the ilk of Osama bin Laden and Alzahawari. But people of Kashmir, in spite of the worst kind of suppression, have not lost their moorings. On the contrary, even when their identity is under siege, not a single Yatri had been obstructed to fulfill his or her religious obligations. When entire Kashmir has come to a grinding halt only Yatri vehicles ply on the roads here. People of Dalgate, Chandanwari and other places have made Kashmir proud by feeding stranded Yatris and tourists, from their own meager resources. Can the Swamis and doyens of Indian journalism show us one such example from the land ridden with Godhras, Ahmedabads and Bhiwandis. It happens only in Kashmir. And, to set the record straight— the flag hoisted on the clock tower was green with crescent not a Pakistani flag, and it does excite the huge agitating crowd there.

By @GK

Two rules for one game! This is called India

While police and the paramilitary CRPF troopers have inexhaustibly flexed their muscles and emptied their guns on the protestors in Kashmir who are protesting the land transfer to shrine board for the past one week, police exercised considerable restrain while dealing with the protestors in Jammu protesting in favour of the transfer. In Kashmir, five persons were killed and more than 500 people have been injured with police using brute force against the protestors. The same force is showing restraint in Jammu where hundreds of activists of BJP and RSS have been protesting in favor of the order. They have even many times blocked the Srinagar-Jammu highway.

by @GKNN

Killings Of Teenagers By Indian Forces

Amid complete spontaneous shutdown, protests over the forest land transfer to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board spilled across the Valley on Wednesday, leaving two teenagers dead and 200 others, including more than 30 security personnel, injured in violent clashes. Around 50 vehicles were also damaged in the incidents. The killing of a 17-year old boy in Shahr-e-Khaas late this evening triggered massive demonstrations at Fateh Kadal with thousands of people taking to streets and attacking the security deployments. Srinagar police chief described the situation in the city as tense.
An 18-year old boy was killed and two others were injured when police and CRPF opened fire to disperse a procession at Mazhama in Magam area of Budgam district. Reports said hundreds of people shouting anti-government slogans had assembled at the village on Srinagar-Gulmarg road pelting stones on police. Eyewitness said the police while chasing the mob barged into a residential house and fired upon Farooq Ahmad Rather son of Abdur Rehman killing him on the spot. “The policemen barged into our house and fired upon my brother. He died instantly,” Rather’s brother, Muhammad Ashraf told Greater Kashmir. “My brother was not participating in the protests. He was busy in studies as his examination was scheduled for tomorrow,” he said and broke down. Eyewitness said the policemen later dragged his body towards a waiting police vehicle. However, they were intercepted by a mob which attacked them with stones. In the ensuing pitched battle, two youth and a constable were injured. The senior superintendent of police, Budgam, Syed Aashiq Bukhari, refuted the allegations claiming that the youth was killed by a stray bullet. Back in Srinagar, a 17-year old boy, Sameer Ahmad Batloo son of Ghulam Muhammad Batloo of Tashwan Fateh Kadal, was killed when CRPF troopers allegedly opened fire to disperse a procession there. However, eyewitnesses told Greater Kashmir that Sameer was killed in cold blood by the troops. “After the protests ended at 7 pm, CRPF troopers fired at him from point-blank range. The bullet hit Sameer’s head killing him instantly,” the locals said.

by ARIF SHAFI WANI (GK).

Death of another victim of fake encounter

Pahalupoora, Draway ( Kokernag), June 23: A pall of gloom descended this remote hamlet of south Kashmir, 45 kilometers away from Islamabad town when body of a 22-year-old laborer, Muhammad Ashraf Sheikh allegedly killed in a fake encounter by the troops in Bandipore reached here, Monday. Just few meters away from the house of Abdul Rehman Paddar, a carpenter also killed in a fake encounter in 2006, Ashraf’s mother Zaina is mourning the death of his son with the neighbors surrounding to console her. Ashraf is the victim of sixth case of fake encounters in the last few years, villagers said. Earlier, five innocents allegedly killed in fake encounters in the area include, Ghulam Nabi Wani , Ali Muhammad Padder, Nazeer Ahmad and Abdul Rehman Padder. Ashraf son of Muhammad Akbar Sheikh left for Srinagar on June 1 for work and never returned. “My innocent son used to toil hard to feed his poor family. Is being an Hafiz a sin and offering prayers a crime for which he was killed,” said Ashraf’s mother Zaina as tears brimmed in her eyes. “ Zaina had recently underwent surgery for which the amount was paid by Ashraf by working hard. The amount was borrowed from some relatives who were demanding it back and he was thus toiling more,” said Muhammad Akbar Sheikh, father of Ashraf. According to his family members, Ashraf worked in Srinagar and there he was staying in the rented room belonging to Parvez Ahmad Shalla of Dalgate. On June 3 Parvez called his family and told them that he has missing since June 3. Worried family members looked for him everywhere but of no avail. A missing report was also lodged in police station Dalgate. “On Sunday evening we learnt that he has been killed in a fake encounter in Bandipore. We approached SP Bandipore, Muhammad Zahid who showed us some snaps he had clicked when the troops of 3 JAKLI had handed over the dead body to them saying that they ( troops) recovered the dead body in a nearby forest. After which we sought the permission of the district administration for exhumation of the body buried in the graveyard at village Aarigam in Bandipore. Then, the DNA test of Nazeer Ahmed Sheikh, brother of the deceased was matched and it was confirmed that dead body is of Muhammad Ashraf Sheikh,” said Bashir Ahmad Sheikh, cousin of the deceased. As soon as Ashraf’s body reached his native village here, people gathered in large numbers and shouted slogans against the Army and the government and demanded stern action against the culprits. The protestors while raising slogans against the concerned MLA, Peerzada Muhammad Syed, accussed PDP, NC and Congress of selling the blood of the youth against the hefty amount of Rs 8 lakh. “When our MLA needs votes he visits us and begs but never bothered to see the plight of the family of the Abdul Rehman Padder whose five daughters and wife have been left to fend for themselves,” said Muhmmad Yousuf, a neighbour. “On one hand they are talking of zero tolerance and on the other hand our youth are being killed in fake encounters and later labeled as terrorists,” said Riyaz Ahmad Padder, cousin of Abdul Rehman Padder.What police says SDPO, Kokernag, Rohit when contacted told Greater Kashmir that three persons including a personnel of 3 JKLI Bandipore, Tahir Gojri, a former government gunman suspected to be involved have been arrested by the Bandipore Police. However, DIG South Kashmir, Muneer Ahmad Khan termed the allegations of the people and the family fabricated and said that Ashraf was not killed in fake encounter but murdered by the two persons who have been arrested by the Bandipore police. In a statement, earlier on Monday, Jammu and Kashmir police claimed to have solved a blind murder case of a person and arrested one person in this connection. Police said that on June 3, 2008 Police Station Bandipora received a written complaint from patrolling party of Army that a dead body of unidentified civilian was laying in Nala in General area of Chaliwan. “The body was handed over to Police along with complaint for further course of action. On receipt of this complaint Police Station Bandipore registered a case FIR No. 108/08 under section 302 RPC, and the body was sent for postmortem after completing all medico legal formalities”, sources added. The body was handed over to Jamia Auqaf Nassu for burial. The investigation of the case was set in motion and statements of witnesses were recorded. However, on 22.06.08 one Nazir Ahmad Sheikh, son of Muhammad Akbar, resident of Draway Kokarnag in Islamabad approached this Police Station Bandipore claiming that it was body of his brother. The identification was made by him through photographs. During investigation it was further revealed that one Reyaz Ahmad Chachi, resident of Chitaybanday who is arrested in a case in Budgam, had connived with one Tahir Pattan, resident of Sheikh Muqam Aloosa to kill Muhammad Ashraf. Tahir Pattan was arrested. During questioning both the persons revealed their involvement. Police in the statement said that further investigation in the case is on.

By KHALID GUL (GK).

Fate Of Kashmiri

The family members of two Kashmiri businessmen who were arrested by Delhi police for their alleged involvement in Lajpat Nagar blast in 1996 have accused the police authorities of falsely framing the duo. The duo, Iftikar Hussain and Nissar Ahmad are languishing in New Delhi’s Tihar jail for past 12 years and police have failed to prove any charge against them, said sister of the duo, Rohi Jan. “My brothers are innocent. They were framed by Delhi police because they are Kashmiris. The local police here also wrote to their Delhi police counterparts that Iftikar and Nissar were not involved in any anti-state activity but they were not released,” said Rohi. Iftikar and Nissar who had taken to shawl business after their father’s death in 1995 were arrested by Delhi police several days after the blast, said Rohi. “My elder brother (Iftikar) who was 22 at the time of arrest was picked up by police for questioning from old Delhi and Nissar who was a minor at the time of arrest was detained by police in Kathmandu where he had accompanied our business partner in connection with some business,” said Rohi. She said when they heard about the news of the arrest, the family members rushed to Delhi. “We were assured by the police and the authorities that my brothers would be released in few days and were detained only for some questioning. But later they were shifted to Tihar jail and charged with being involved in the blast,” Rohi said. During the early days the family hired few lawyers for pleading the case of the duo. “We would regularly travel to Delhi and visit the jail to meet our brothers. But after sometime our economic condition deteriorated as there was nobody to look after the business in Delhi. Our shop was sealed by the police in Delhi and we couldn’t afford the money to hire the lawyers and visit Delhi to meet our brothers. We have not seen our brothers for past five years,” said Rohi Jan. There was a time when the family would spend every winter in Delhi’s posh area, but today the family including an aged mother has not enough money to meet Iftikar and Nissar who are languishing in the Tihar. “My mother developed severe aliment after the arrest of Iftikar and Nissar. She is yearning to see them in her lifetime but we have not enough money to visit Delhi,” Rohi said. The needs of this once prosperous Mirza family are taken care off by Zaffar Hussain, third son of Mir Mirza Ali Muhammad. Zaffar is working as a teacher in a private school. He also takes tuitions after the school hours to fulfill the family needs, said Rohi.

@GK NEWS NETWORK

Hang Me Says Afzal

New Delhi: On death row for the last three years, India's most controversial convict, Mohammed Afzal, wants a speedy conclusion to his ordeal and says BJP's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani would act swiftly in deciding his plight one way or the other while the present government is dilly-dallying his death sentence. "I don't think the UPA government can ever reach a decision. The Congress party has two mouths and is playing a double game," said Afzal, convicted for the December 2001 Parliament attack in an exclusive interview to IANS in Tihar prison's Jail No 3. "I really wish LK Advani becomes India's next prime minister as he is the only one who can take a decision and hang me. At least my pain and daily suffering would ease then," said Afzal, who has been in solitary confinement in the capital's high security jail. Incidentally, Advani has criticised the delay in carrying out the death sentence. "I fail to understand the delay. They have increased my security. But what needs to be done immediately is to carry out the court's orders," Advani had remarked in November 2006. In an exclusive interview, Afzal's first since he was convicted by the Supreme Court in 2004 that was subsequently upheld a year later, he says the death sentence had made him delusional. He, too, has filed a mercy petition – along with 40 others – that is pending before the President. Cumbersome legal procedures and prolonged periods of solitary confinement, he said, were inhuman and cruel. Psychologists call this condition the 'death row' phenomenon, in which prisoners spending years awaiting their execution go through excruciating mental torture, a fact that was recognised by the European Court of Human Rights in 1989. "Life has become hell in the jail. I requested the Government to take an immediate decision over my sentence just two months ago. I don't wish to be part of the living dead," said Afzal, whose moods swung frequently between being stoic and defiant. "I have also requested that till the time they (Government) take a decision, they shift me to a Kashmir jail," said Afzal. Dressed in a spotless white kurta-pyjama and a sports cap to hide his shaven head, Afzal, who is in his mid-30s, said he sympathised with Sarabjit Singh, an Indian lodged in Pakistan prison for nearly two decades, but said no parallel could be drawn between the two of them.
@By IBN News

Cont.....

”Please don't compare me with Sarabjit. The issues are separate. My sympathies are with him, but my fight is for the Kashmir conflict. Now, I am not even seeking any clemency and have no objection to the Government deciding my fate."
Last month Home Minister Shivraj Patil's controversial statement saying those demanding Afzal's hanging could not seek reprieve for Sarabjit drew considerable publicity.
"If you are asking for Afzal Guru's hanging, then how can you ask for pardon for Sarabjit Singh?" Patil had asked CNN-IBN.
Sarabjit has been held guilty for bombings in Lahore and Multan in 1990 that left 14 people dead. He was to be executed April 30. However, the intervention of the Indian government led to the execution being postponed by Pakistan.
Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on Parliament that killed six security personnel and one civilian.
"I long for my eight-year-old son, Ghalib. In jail, it is not possible to meet them easily as intelligence officials unnecessarily harass my family and wife, Tabassum, when they come here," he remarked.
In jail, Afzal is reading Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s book India Wins freedom that details events of the country's independence movement.
There is pressure to issue clemency to Afzal from political groups in Kashmir, who believe hanging Afzal would have negative effects on the peace process in Kashmir. Human rights activists, too, have demanded a reprieve, as they believe that the trial was flawed.
"I only asked for pardon to stop millions of Kashmiri people hitting the streets. If I am hanged, I would take it as a sacrifice towards the people of Kashmir," Afzal told IANS.

@By IBN News

Harassing to change statement

Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, son of Khazir Muhammad of Shanipora Khansahib in Budgam district, was picked up by SOG personnel of JK Police on the intervening night of July 29-30, 2003, and killed in custody, according to his family.
“It was 9 in the evening, when suddenly SOG men entered our house and dragged out my husband. He was taking dinner that time and when we intervened, the SOG personnel ruthlessly beat us,” Bhat’s wife Lateefa Begum told Greater Kashmir.
“At 2:30 am same night our house was again raided by the SOG. They searched the whole house and threatened us of dire consequences if we won’t give information about militants. One of the SOG personnel who was speaking Kashmiri told me, if you would not have provided food to militants, it wouldn’t have happened,” she added.
Lateefa said that next morning when they approached SOG camp and police station Khansahib, “They denied having arrested my husband.”
Bhat, a carpet weaver, had been killed during the night of his arrest. He was brutally tortured due to which he died. On the evening of July 30, his body was handed over to his family.
The SOG had also arrested Abdur Rehman Mir son of Muhammad Ramzan of the same village that evening.
“After SOG arrested me, I was taken to Fujpora, a neighboring village where I saw Bhat. Then both of us were taken to Khansahib SOG camp where we were kept in two separate cells. After a few minutes, I heard cries of Bhat who was being tortured. I was mum as I knew that now it would be my turn,” Rehman told GK.
“After some time, the SOG personnel came to me and said if I won’t give information about militants I would also be given same treatment. When I said that I don’t have any information about militants, they kicked me. Later I was asked to move to the room where Bhat was kept,” he said, and added, “When I saw Bhat, he was naked and blood was oozing out of his mouth and nostrils.”
Recalling that horrifying night, Rehman said that a doctor was called to see Bhat. “But the doctor declared him dead. He (Bhat) was given third degree torture.”
“It was a horrifying scene. I was shocked. Next day when Bhat’s body was handed over to his family members, I was also released with a warning that I won’t open my mouth, otherwise I would also meet the same fate,” he added.
On July 30, 2003, police station Khansahib lodged an FIR of the incident. However, surprisingly, the FIR has been lodged against 29 and 35 Rashtriya Rifles battalions. The FIR No 208 of July 30, 2003 reads that Bhat was arrested by the RR and he died in their custody.
After Bhat’s custodial killing, massive protests rocked Budgam after which a probe was ordered into the killing. Bhat’s family and Rehman have recorded their statements before the authorities stating that SOG was responsible for the killing.
Lateefa Begum says that she doesn’t know why the FIR has been lodged against the Army. “My husband was arrested by SOG officer Shabir Ahmad. But if police says my husband was killed by the Army, let an independent probe be ordered and killers be brought to book.”
“I’ve four kids and no source of income. After my husband’s death, I sent my two elder kids to an orphanage as I can’t feed them. Life has become an ordeal for us. I’ve developed psychiatric problems and I’m on treatment. But at times, I’m not able to purchase medicines. What was the sin of my husband?” she asked.
Advocate Mir Hafizullah, who has filed a petition before Chief Judicial Magistrate Budgam on behalf of the victims, said, “The FIR has been deliberately lodged against the Army to shield SOG personnel as Army enjoys impunity under Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).”
The CJM has ordered police station Khansahib to submit the report of the case by June 10, 2008.
However, Bhat’s family said they are being harassed by the SOG personnel not to give any statement against them. “SOG officer Shabir Ahmad, who killed my husband, sends me threats that if give any statement against him, he will kill all my family members. I’m being asked to change my statement against the SOG,” Lateefa said.
She appealed the higher ups in the police and army to investigate the matter and punish the guilty.

@ By ZULFIKAR MAJID (GK)

Cry Of Mother

A woman with sad eyes and the bearing of a Roman general leads her bereaved followers up the stone steps of the sacred Makhdoom Sahib shrine to seek blessings for Kashmir's missing men. Near the relics of the saint, they weep and wail for the return of husbands and sons who have vanished during the 18-year insurgency against Indian rule. A male worshiper objects as a photographer takes pictures – after all, this is a place of devotion. But Parveena Ahangar barks at the worshiper with the moral authority that only a large middle-aged mother can command. "We have lost our relatives. We are not here for tourism, sir." She stares him down and barks again. "The world must know how we grieve."
The man slinks away.Mrs. Ahangar is the champion of families left vulnerable in this conflict. She's also a ferocious oddity in a traditional Muslim culture where a veiled woman's place is in the kitchen. This barely literate housewife has become the globe-trotting face of a campaign to account for what human rights groups claim are 10,000 disappeared men. Indian security forces, an estimated half a million are in the region, have often responded harshly to the attacks here. Missing men have been snatched from their homes or picked up for just walking near the sites of grenade attacks. Human rights defenders say many have died in Indian jails and have been buried under false names. Indian authorities dispute the disappearance figure and assert that most of those alleged to be missing slipped into Pakistan for guerrilla training, which has coveted this Muslim-dominated area since partition in 1947. Whatever the number, the 600 members of the group Ahangar formed in 1994 – the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (www.disappearancesinkashmir.org) – have been forced to the margins of this paternalistic society while the fate of their men remains unknown. Most are unskilled women who were jolted into a breadwinning role for which they were not prepared. Many have been forced to beg or give up children to orphanages – and they lack the emotional closure that a burial can bring.
"The disappearances are like a cancer," Ahangar says. "We have been struggling for 18 years without a cure."
To fight back, she organizes regular protests across the valley and provides families with legal advice. On a given day, one can find villagers from remote areas sitting on the floor of her unheated house, sipping salty Kashmiri tea as they go through documents. Ahangar advises them on how to lodge claims and which Islamic charities can school the children. By keeping the issue alive and building solidarity, members feel relieved of the sense of powerlessness that keeps them up at night.
"She gives me strength," says Rahet Kowoosa, a widow who cries easily. Every day for the past 16 years she has replayed the evening that her son, Mohammad, was seized by soldiers riding in a truck. They smashed her hands with rifle butts when she tried to block the vehicle. Since then, she has scoured Indian Army camps and jails, and filed court petitions to demand his whereabouts. "If I could bury him, I would have some satisfaction visiting his grave," she says. Ahangar mops Ms. Kowoosa's tears with a cloth and sobs along.
Among the most frustrated are the so-called Half Widows. Until their husbands are proved dead, these women cannot inherit their property or claim state compensation. Often in-laws throw them out, leaving them to fend for themselves. Islamic law only allows these women to remarry after seven years, but most choose not to in case their husbands return. Ahangar feels their pain. In August 1990, Indian security forces stormed a relative's house and dragged out her 16-year-old son, Javeed Ahmad. She says they thought he was a militant who had the same name. Thus began her own hunt, so far fruitless. "I couldn't just sit and do nothing," she says. "My heart had shredded."By her own admission, Ahangar is an unlikely candidate to challenge Indian authorities. She had a sheltered upbringing as the daughter of a building contractor, married a mechanic at age 12, and immediately set about producing five children. Until her son disappeared, Ahangar largely did housework.
She still remains unworldly. Ahangar cannot read her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize written by "someone in New Delhi." She is unsure how many countries she has flown to for international human rights meetings. ("Four? Five? Ask my niece.") But she's savvy in attracting media attention and donations. Ahangar says that public pressure has worked, pointing to a gradual decline in disappearances from 81 in 2003 to none so far this year. Some government officials have put the total number of unaccounted-for people at around 3,000, but insist that many of those were militants who went into hiding and are not victims of "enforced disappearances." Authorities consider her group sufficiently embarrassing to periodically break up events and detain her. In recent weeks, Indian security forces have visited the homes of various association members and asked them for photographs and details of the missing so that they can search for them. Rights activists believe the gestures are a direct response to her campaign.
Ahangar's boldness has also raised hackles at the Coalition of Civil Society, an umbrella group that she split from recently over "differences." Representatives there describe a large ego that cannot share the public limelight. At the same time, they praise her organizing skills. "Of course we respect her," says Khurram Parvez, the coalition's program coordinator. "Her presence has motivated other families." That mobilizing spirit was in force back at the shrine. A young woman shyly approached Ahangar after witnessing the commotion with the irritated man. Her husband was missing. Could Ahangar help? Ahangar nodded briskly and motioned to a minion to note down details. The other half widows circled the newcomer with hugs. "We'll take care of you," Ahangar said, making an appointment to discuss the case.

Reporting for this story was funded in part by a fellowship from the South Asian Journalists Association.

Letter From Tihar Jail

“Ussi Ka Shahr, Wohi Mud’daie Wohi Munsif – Mujhe Maloom Tha Mera Qasoor Nikle Ga (City theirs, pretender theirs; Theirs is the judge – I knew they’d find a fault in me),” Mohammad Iqbal Jan, rounds off a letter with the couplet, he has sent to Greater Kashmir from the Delhi’s Tihar Jail - he and his co-accused friend, Mushtaq Ahmad Kaloo, have been languishing in since November 2006। Iqbal and his friend were picked up by Delhi police from an old Delhi hotel on 16, November but were shown arrested from old Delhi’s railway station. “They (Delhi police) abducted us on gun point immediately after we checked out from the hotel, Rest-In, and bundled us in an Indica car,” the letter unfolding the sequence of events, reads. “They asked us to produce our identity cards which we did. They checked our suitcases. I was carrying Rs. 5,50,000 with me out of which I had paid Rs. 18,000 to Delton Industries at Pritampur. Their eyes lit up on seeing the cash and they snatched it. When I resented, they threatened to kill us.” The letter further reads, “They took us to Lodhi Colony where a special cell of Delhi police functioned and tied our hands to tables like animals. On 27 November, they told us that we’d be freed and instructed us to take bath and put on new clothes. They brought us to the old Delhi railway station in the night. They removed our jackets and took away our belongings.” Iqbal says, “The moment we were on the road, some policemen shouted, Pakdo, Pakdo (catch them, catch them). Some more cops appeared which were brought in the same vehicle that had just dropped us and pushed us into the car. I saw my suitcase lying open on the road with my belongings scattered. Strangely, there was a box lying nearby which did not belong to me. When I asked what it was, they said, there’re sweets in it. They took us back to their office and the next day they got a 10-day remand from a mobile magistrate at 6 p.m. using a rear entry to his office.” The duo was paraded before the media. “The police threatened us if we opened our mouth before the press, they would kill us and our family,” writes Iqbal. The police fabricated the case like this: “The duo was to collect a box of RDX from a person, Raju of Deoband at old Delhi railway station. The police apprehended the duo when they were waiting for him. A person namely Sikander Khan was made a public witness to the case.” Iqbal asserts, “This is how the Delhi police cooked up the story and got us falsely implicated.” Back home, the senior superintendent of police, Varmul, has issued a non-involvement certificate in favour of the accused. Even the village numberdar has certified the accused of their non-involvement in militant activities. “I’m ready to face a CBI probe,” Iqbal writes. “If I have done anything wrong, let me be punished. I don’t want to languish in the jail as an under-trial indefinitely.” A gas-distributor, Iqbal, with his friend Mushtaq Ahmad Kaloo had booked a Jet Airways flight to Delhi on 14 November. From the IGI airport, they had hired an auto-rickshaw and checked in at the hotel, Rest-In. Iqbal was carrying the money to be deposited in the company’s Chandigarh office. Iqbal writes they’re being subjected to all manners of ill-treatment in the jail. “Our kin travel all the way from Kashmir and the authorities do not allow them to meet us. We’ve been kept amongst hardcore criminals. They let us out only for one hour in the day. In the scorching heat, we’re not given a drop of water to drink. They abuse us whenever we raise our voice and even say bad things to our religion,” he writes. ‘If at all, we’ve done something wrong, why do they abuse our religion? Incidentally, the letter has come around the time when several reputed human rights activists from all over India had converged on Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar, to unleash their concern over the inhuman conditions of innocent natives in various jails across the country. A letter by India’s leading human rights activists to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to “probe the communal policies of the Tihar authorities” has once again brought into sharp focus the malady which afflicts the custodians of law.

@ by M FAROOQ SHAH (GK)