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