Democracy Handcuffed

The photographs that have appeared on the front page of many newspapers today along with a story – ‘Kashmir’s handcuffed children’ is an eye-opener for all those who have been made to believe that the government is serious in implementing the confidence building measures (CBMs) announced during last year’s summer unrest as a part of efforts to reach out to the ‘angry’ people especially the youth. Even though chief minister Omar Abdullah before Eid-ul-Fitr had announced general amnesty for about 1200 stone-pelters with much fanfare, not just the youth but even the minors are still being cracked down upon. These photographs of minors are self explanatory. Not only have they been handcuffed, which should across as a shock for those who take pride in calling themselves a part of the world’s largest democracy, some even have torture marks on their bodies. And going by their statements, it is unfortunate that have been meted out treatments that are usually received by the hardened criminals while in the police custody. Take the statement of a sixth class student, Burhaan Nazir of Nalahbundpora Nowshera, for example. He was arrested last week from the streets of Srinagar’s Old City and his statement comes across as a shocker as to how these minors are treated by the police. ‘We were severely beaten in the police station and all we heard from policemen were just abuses,’ Burhaan has remarked while policemen as per the report dragged him back from the court and bundled him into a waiting armored vehicle. ‘They abuse my sisters, tore our clothes. I am afraid they will beat us again in the police station. They even abuse my mother, who is dead,’ he cried as he was bundled into the police vehicle even as his words shocked everyone who was present in the court premises. Other minors have a similar tale to tell of police torture and it belies all the claims of the government that often boasts of exercising restraint while dealing with the ‘agitated’ youth. And even if these minors have been found guilty of stone pelting, this is no way to treat someone who has not attained maturity. In fact, bringing them handcuffed to the court leaves nothing to imagination. These pictures speak for themselves as to how this government treats minors in police custody. True, the government had said it would not withdraw cases against those involved in arson. But then the authorities cannot treat minors in a manner in which adults are treated. And to conceal their shortcomings, the police before the court pretended that they did not the ages of these children who from no angle look like 18 years old. Even the lawyers have objected to the way these minors have been treated as one observed in the report: ‘This is a brute use of force by state and this is beyond any comprehension of any jurisprudence or human rights and I think police stations have turned into tyranny centres.’ The government owing to the pressure from both within and outside the state may have set up a juvenile home in Kashmir recently but these pictures tell a different story. These pictures are truly ‘beyond any comprehension of any jurisprudence or human rights’. And as far as the chief minister’s ‘Eidi’ goes, now Eid-ul-Adha is approaching but it seems the ‘bold’ announcement of last Eid is yet to be implemented the way it should have been. On the contrary there have been more arrests. Therefore, it is time that the government gives up its habit of only announcing these so-called huge CBMs that are never implemented on ground. The government may announce yet another CBM before the upcoming Eid but now it can no longer fool the public with its hollow promises that never see the light of the day. Ironically, now the government ahead of Eid-ul-Adha has turned itself into a sacrificial animal of sorts. It has been trying to give an impression that it wants to do a lot, be it the revocation of controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) or amnesty to the stone-pelters, but it is not allowed to do so by its ‘enemies’. While some leaders of the government continue to blame the opposition and the separatists for its shortcomings, others have chosen to point their guns towards the army and even the centre. Therefore, it is imperative that the government introspects and realize that since it is power, it has to take responsibility for all the issues facing Kashmir and at the same time look for their resolution.

|Kashmir Monitor|

Kashmir’s handcuffed children

Inside the court room, when the judge asked the prosecution what their age was. The prosecution replied he had ‘no information’.(Pictures: Shahid Tantray)

The five children looked distraught. Handcuffed, burly policemen hushed them inside the court premises Tuesday afternoon. They looked pale and had visible torture marks. People, many of them lawyers, inside the premises just gazed in distress as the children moved.

Mohsin Majeed Shah was one among the detained minor boys. He had a torture mark on his forehead, right between the eyebrows. His tiny hands cuffed as a policeman pushed him between the groups of men who stood gazing in bewilderment. Mohsin’s mother had waited all day inside the court premises to see her 13-year-old son- a seventh grader at a local school. She says he was arrested last Sunday.It was an emotional tryst between a mother and her son. Both wept and cried. His brother, two years elder to him, also wept. “Look what they have done to Mohsin,” he kept saying.

His mother had brought him fruits and snacks. She cried. Her dirge was unstoppable when she held him in embrace. She kept kissing his forehead, on the torture mark. His family says Mohsin was arrested last week when he left his home at New Colony, Paplpora Noor Bagh, located on the fringes of Old City, to meet his maternal uncle at Rajouri Kadal.

An hour later, his brother called their mother to inform Mohsin was picked up by police and detained at a local police station. Another boy was Burhaan Nazir of Nalahbundpora, Nowshera. A 6th grader, he was arrested last week from the streets of Srinagar’s Old City.

“We were severely beaten in the police station and all we heard from policemen were just abuses,” Burhaan remarked, while policemen almost dragged him back from the court and bundled him into a waiting armored vehicle.

“They abuse my sisters, tore our clothes. I am afraid they will beat us again in the police station,” he cried. “They even abuse my mother, who is dead.” When he shouted everyone around froze for a moment.

He was lodged for the past week at Mahraja Gunj police station and will now be shifted to a juvenile home on directions of the court.The other boys seemed minors, too. One wore a torn cloak. He looked frightened, when he was brought inside and out of the court house.

There was no time to know their name as police rushed them out in hurry and dumped them into a waiting police van.The lawyers, who had assembled in the court premises, expressed shock as the detained children were whisked away.

“It was shocking for all of us to see this. We have for the first time seen boys so young being detained,” advocate Nasir Qadri says.

“They said we have been tortured and clothes have been torn. They have been severely beaten and there were visible torture marks on their bodies,” he remarks.

The police is yet to mention the ages of the boys detained on charges of rioting and arson. Inside the court room, when the Judge asked the prosecution what their age was. The prosecution replied that he had ‘no information’.

“This is a brute use of force by state and this is beyond any comprehension of any jurisprudence or human rights and I think police stations have turned into tyranny centres,” another lawyer, Babar Qadri says.

The state government has been under pressure from human rights groups over the detention of minors in the Kashmir valley.Under attack from human rights groups, it has already made amendments to the Public Safety Act under which minors were booked during the civil unrest last year.Owing to the pressure from both within and outside the state, the government set up a juvenile home in Kashmir recently.

BY: NAZIR GANAIE

Mirwaiz lunches with Radha, PDP leaders

In an interesting political development Huriyat (M) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, on Sunday lunched with New Delhi’s Interlocutor Radha Kumar and several other important Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at a lakeside government property outside Srinagar.

Well-placed sources said that a Srinagar based doctor had organized an ‘informal lunch’, for a very select group of people that included Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, centre’s interlocutor Prof. Radha Kumar, PDP spokesperson Dr. Sameer Koul, Sandeep Chatto, Dilawar Mir, former Minister Usman Majeed and close Mirwaiz aide Shahid-ul-uslam.

Interestingly the only presence from the government’s side was one of the District Development Commissioner holding charge of a very sensitive district. Sources also said that not a single member from either the ruling National Conference or the alliance partner Congress was invited for the ‘select’ lunch.

“We can’t call it a private lunch. It was held at a government owned club and the invitees were very important personalities. If the idea was that of a hush hush affair, then the lakeside club would not have been a venue”, a top government official told Kashmir Monitor.

Sources added that Mirwaiz had a brief interaction with Radha Kumar, details of which could not be ascertained. The Mirwaiz, sources say, then left the venue earlier than others while as his colleague Shahid-ul-Islam was seen having a long chat with the centre’s interlocutor.

Although brief, but Mirwaiz’s meeting with the top PDP leadership has set the tongues wagging from Srinagar to New Delhi and according to highly placed sources both the National Conference as well as the Congress were trying very hard to find out what exactly transpired between the two opposite groups. However, so far nothing much has been learnt about the details of the meeting.

Sources also indicated that Radha Kumar was trying very hard to get some of the separatists on board for their approval for parts of the report that she has co-authored. Kumar has been supportive of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s demands for AFSPA removal and is now seen to be emerging as the key person for any revival of dialogue between the New Delhi and separatists.

Open Letter To The People of India By An Indian

By: An Indian

Let us assume India is a great nation. Let us assume values of justice, equality and human dignity are paramount in this country. Let us assume rule of law prevails here. Let us assume India is world’s largest “democracy”. Let us assume Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Let us assume India and itspeople feel for Kashmiris. Let us assume Kashmiris are not the second class “subjects” meant to be denounced, demonized and condemned. Let us assume India has a free and fair media. And now let us also assume you did not know anything about what your will read below:

Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (JKSHRC) has recommended a fresh probe into the case of alleged mass rape of women by army personnel in Kunan and Poshpora villages of the frontier district of Kupwara.

A division bench of JKSHRC has asked the state government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by an officer of rank not less than an SP to re investigate the alleged mass rape of at least 31 women by army personnel in 1991. decades ago.

Over two dozen women from the villages had claimed that they were gangraped by army personnel during the intervening night of February 23 and 24 in 1991, leading to a huge outrage across Kashmir.

The commission has also asked the state government to put on trial former Director Prosecution who had sought closure of the case as the perpetrators were “untraceable”. According to the Commission, ex-Director Prosecution had “overstepped his brief” and, therefore, prosecution proceedings should be initiated against him and those officers who had approved his report.

Quoting the report of then district magistrate, the commission said the medical examination of 31 women had confirmed they were assaulted.

JKSHRC has been hearing the case since 2004 and during the last seven years, it recorded statements of 18 victims who testified they were assaulted. JKSHRC has also asked the state government to pay compensation of Rs 2lakh each to the victims of the incident.

As part of a series of reports into the incident was former divisional commissioner of Kashmir and ex-Chief Information Commissioner of India, Wajahat Habibullah. For some strange reason the report was kept confidential, however, part of it was leaked. The leak report stated: “While the veracity of the complaint is highly doubtful, it still needs to be determined why such complaint was made at all. The people of the village are simple folk and by the Army’s own admission have been generally helpful and even careful of security of the army’s officers. Unlike Brig Sharma, I found many of the village women genuinely angry… It is recommended that the level of investigation be upgraded to that of a gazetted police officer”.

Understandably, the facts, reports, recommendations of the officials and grief of victims were lost in the name of “national interest” and concoction of a suppressive jackboot regime. Else, why would the state give up any chance of exposing “well-concocted bundle of fabricated lies” and “a massive hoax orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathizers and mentors in Kashmir and abroad”

as termed by a Press Council report which conducted an “independent investigation” on the insistence of Army into the case. This would have helped in preventing many youngsters from crossing over to other side of LoC for arms training just to return to fight the state. And did I tell you that just a month ago, JKSHRC confirmed the presence of over 2300 unmarked graves in just three districts of north Kashmir and has ordered similar investigation into some 3,000 odd graves that are alleged to be in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu.

The confirmation by JKSHRC has given the rights groups and family members of victims a shot in the arm after the investigation wing comprising SSP rank officer submitted its report. There are around 8,000 people, who families and human rights organizations allege, were subjected to enforced disappearance by security forces in the state over the past two decades.

Let us assume that you were deliberately kept insulated from these hard realities. Let us assume that you are hearing the arguments for the first time. The following instances should help you understand things better:

In April 2004, family members of four missing army porters from Jammu received an anonymous letter informing them that their kins were killed by the Army after passing them off as militants. Later, Captain Summit Kohli of 16 Rashtriya Riffles, who happened to be the duty officer at that time in Lolab, committed “suicide” in his camp under mysterious circumstances.

Though family members of the porters have been under the impression that the letter might have been written by Captain Kohli, his mother is still fighting a lone battle claiming that her son was murdered for blowing the lid off the worst kept secret in the security force.

In 2007, at least five bodies were exhumed from graveyards of Bandipora and Ganderbal districts after it was confirmed that they were innocent civilians who were branded as militants and killed by security forces just for gallantry medals. While an SSP rank officer of J&K police and his associates are in jail for almost five years in this case, the army officials who were party to the heinous crime haven’t appeared in the court even once.

In January 2003, security personnel claimed major success by killing five foreign terrorists allegedly responsible for Chhatisinghpora massacre of Sikhs in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. Later it turned out that those killed were local civilians whose DNA samples were fudged during the investigations. Those involved in the police currently enjoy plum postings while others in the army have questioned the jurisdiction of courts, despite being chargesheeted by CBI.

Let us hope that a country where clamor grows for hanging a person to satisfy the collective conscience of the nation, would react in a sane, enlightened and humane way to prove that this land of Gandhi is not lost in the din of jingoism.

Politics of deceit

BY: Hassan Zainagiree

That it is lust for power which holds pre-eminence to anything and everything for pro-Indian political parties has once again scripted its unalloyed truth. Witnessed in, what is hailed as, 'August' and 'sanctified' assembly the drama enacted has vindicated the stand of pro-resistance forces who rubbished the idea of joining political process managed and controlled by New delhi.

The manner in which two regional parties {a} NC which champions the cause of autonomy and b} PDP that swears for self rule acted as mute spectators in scuttling an innocuous resolution moved by independent MLA of Handwara Er. Rashid seeking clemency for parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, has brutally exposed their hypocritical and deceitful politics. That both have succumbed to the dictates of New Delhi reveals the value, weight and essence of’ people’s mandate' they say the people of Kashmir have given to them.

The BJP and Congress which have 'national' interests to serve for scuttling the resolution were expected to behave the way they choose. But the facilitating role the two regional parties played have unmasked their pro-Kashmir credentials. It has reinforced the belief that while hunger for power might make them growl and fight over what is thrown from New Delhi-with rulers in Delhi, incidentally , enjoying their head-butting and bull-fighting -they are seen clinching together in a bond of togetherness as and when it serves the political machinations of New Delhi.

Remember the precariously vulnerable positions of New Delhi when it was struggling to provide some semblance of democratic face to its otherwise garrisoned hold in Kashmir but fellt hamstrung. National conference volunteered to play the Trojan horse,. knowing that a party wearing all India nationalistic traits makes Kashmiris take a terrible fright, Mufti Muhammad , till then a staunch Congress leader , changed his political robes and carnated into new political formation , the PDP, where his soul remained the same only the body morphed up into different exterior. PDP did not act differently. It gyrated its hips and played to the tune of its masters as and when New Delhi asked it to do.

Both NC and PDP outsmarted each other to damage the freedom struggle. Delhi used them as political instruments in repressing and suppressing people of Kashmir.

Each of two tasted power and encrypted their profile on the memory genes of Kashmiris. Each one ruled under the blessings of Indian army and the shadow of AFSPA and PSA. The black laws which gave impunity to the armed forces from courts. While the NC helped creating the Shrine Board which helped outside state people to get membership of the Boards, the PDP accomplice in playing deceitful role in a cabinet decision giving forest land to the Shrine Board {which , as people well anticipated its political ramifications, led to the 2008 uprising}. if Dr. Farroq acted as a willing lackey in agreeing to the Chairman of Unified Head quarters comprising of army, police , CRPF and intelligence sleuths, signaling , albit wrongly to the world, that armed forces are sub-servient to the civilian government, Mufti Syed followed the suit.

The fact of the matter is that law-making bodies in JK have always breached the trust of people . The 'representatives' who get elected to these bodies get the 'mandate' of the people on local issues and governance but after getting 'elected' enact laws which they have no mandate of the people and which often tantamount to violating the autonomy of the state and peoples aspirations

So deeply and radically power have corrupted them that even when an unanimous resolution on autonomy is passed with two-third majority and Delhi pisses on it, the NC dispensation opts to bear with the ignominy than give up power. On the other hand, they remain on their toes not to miss any opportunity of showing their loyalty to Delhi. ‘If Farooq Abdullah’, as Syed Geelani says, ‘signed the death warrant of Shahhed Maqbool Bhat, his son Omer Abdullah, keeping alive the family tradition , rejected the Afzal Guru’s application to be shifted from Tihar jail to Central Jail Srinagar’.

The deceptive politics played by the PDP and the NC over Guru’s issue should not surprise us all. It is power and power alone that they are so energetically circumambulating around. For the sake of power, as their track record shows, they won’t mind even if entire Kashmir nation is hanged. They stand de-robed in their double-speak and double cross. People of Kashmir are too mature not to be fooled by their gimmicks.

AFSPA in Kashmir: "Armed Forces' Say Prevails Anyway"

By: Gowhar Geelani

There is a lot of noise in the media over AFSPA. Ask any senior Indian security official, a turn-coat politician or a retired Army General what AFSPA stands for. "Armed Forces Special Powers Act," they will say. Now pose the same query to an ordinary Kashmiri living there in the hapless Vale for the past two decades. The answer perhaps would be: "Armed Forces' Say Prevails Anyway".

Many experts on India's TV news channels and newspapers are debating the pros and cons of the proposed partial annulment of this draconian Act from a few selected areas of the Kashmir Valley. Much is being said about the "fissures" between the coalition partners in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference and the Congress, over the "abrogation" of the AFSPA.

The glamour scenes of this staged drama are interesting. The lead role is being enacted by none other than Mr Omar Abdullah, the embattled Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Saif-ud-Din Soz, President of the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee, seems satisfied with the role of a supporting actor. The people of Kashmir continue to be the real victims.

According to the Gazette of India, the Armed Forces [Jammu and Kashmir] Special Powers Act received the approval of the Indian President on the 10 September 1990. The Act, however, was deemed to have come into force on the 5 July 1990. What exactly is this Act? Basically, it is an Act that gives certain special powers to members of the armed forces in the disturbed areas in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. "Disturbed area" means an area which is for the time being declared by notification under section 3 to be a disturbed area.

There lies the root of the problem. How is an area declared disturbed and by whom?

The Governor of the state or the Central Government, may, by notification in the official gazette, declare the whole or any part of the state to be a disturbed area. In relation to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Gazette of India explains, if the Governor of that state or the Union Government, is of the opinion that the whole or any part of the state is in such a disturbed and dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary to prevent- "activities involving terrorist acts directed towards overawing the Government, striking terror in the people or any section of the people, questioning or disrupting the 'sovereignty and territorial integrity' of India, or causing insult to the Indian national flag, the Indian national anthem and the constitution of India; etc.

Special Powers conferred upon members of the armed forces under the AFSPA can roughly be summarized as follows:

(a) Any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces may open fire if he/she is of the opinion that any person is acting in contravention or breach of any law or order;
(b) he/she may destroy any arms dump or any structure used as training camp for armed volunteers or utilized as a hide-out by armed gangs wanted for any offence;
(c) arrest, without warrant, any persons who has committed a cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he/she has committed or is about to commit a perceivable offence;
(d) enter and search, without warrant, any premises to make any such arrest as aforesaid;
(e) stop, search and seize any vehicle reasonably suspected to be carrying any person who is a proclaimed offender;
(f) power of search to include powers to break open locks; etc.

At a time when top Indian politicians are selling the news to the entire world about a record number of tourists visiting the Kashmir Valley this season, the massive voter-turn out in the just-concluded Panchayati polls, the successful completion of the holy Amarnath pilgrimage, the presence of only a few hundred gun-wielding youths where there were once thousands, and the state government's focus on the issues of "governance", "development" and "employment generation" in the state, how come many "wise men" in the Indian Parliament and Cabinet then justify the AFSPA in the same breath? Amazing.
Quite amazing is also the fact that as soon as Mr Omar Abdullah made his hasty and controversial announcement in a public meeting [he termed it as "good news"] about the partial withdrawal of the AFSPA, grenades were showered on the few bunkers of the paramilitary force, the CRPF, in Srinagar and South Kashmir. Though the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, a pro-freedom militant group in Kashmir, claimed responsibility for these attacks, many pro-India politicians in the Valley, including the General Secretary of the ruling National Conference, Mustafa Kamal, raised fingers of suspicion towards the vested interests in the Army, the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party as well as pro-freedom leaders. How come a place that was being described as the one fast returning to normalcy can all of sudden go volatile just because of one announcement made by a mercurial Chief Minister?
By the way, many wonder about the status of the judicial probe ordered into the death of a National Conference sympathiser, Haji Syed Mohammed Yousuf Shah, in Police custody on the 30 September. Two fellow National Conference workers, Muhammad Yousuf of Ganderbal and Abdul Salam Reshi of Kokernag, had accused the 61-year-old deceased S M Yousuf Shah of Anantnag, of taking Rupees 1.18 crores from them for "assuring them a ministerial berth and a berth in the J&K Legislative Council".
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of a faction of pro-freedom alliance, the Hurriyat Conference, has said that the Army will not allow revocation of the AFSPA for obvious reasons. Addressing a group of people at Charar-e-Sharief, Budgam, he said: "If pro-India political parties in Kashmir are really sincere, they can repeal the Disturbed Areas Act on the floor of the J&K Legislative Assembly to make the AFSPA null and void."

Meanwhile, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons [APDP] has demanded to end the "culture of impunity" in Kashmir. In its press release, the APDP has said: "In Jammu and Kashmir, the 8000 people who were subjected to enforced disappearance have not disappeared because of the imposition of draconian laws like AFSPA, but due to an institutional policy of repression, where even the draconian laws were defied. AFSPA requires the arrested persons to be brought before the district magistrate within 24 hours, which of course has never happened in Jammu and Kashmir."

Some reports suggest that besides other recommendations the group of interlocutors on Kashmir have also called for a review and phased withdrawal of the AFSPA. Many political commentators in Kashmir have described the trio comprising of Mr. Dileep Padgaonkar, Prof. Radha Kumar and Mr. Ansari as a "bunch of jokers" who wasted one full year to compile a "laughable" report. Mr. Padgaonkar said that the separatists had "missed the bus", but in reality not a single passenger in Kashmir boarded this bus of interlocutors with "one driver, a conductor and a cleaner". Neither did the interlocutor's bus move beyond the main station [the Union Home Ministry] nor it had the fuel in the tank [the petrol prices have seriously gone up!] to take any serious decisions. It did not have a mandate to do that.

Omar Abdullah may be right in his claim that he has Union Home Minister, Mr. Palaniappan Chidambaram in loop on the issue of the AFSPA. But, there is all-powerful Ministry of Defence. Those army personnel found guilty of killing five innocent civilians in South Kashmir area of Pathribal, in 2000, are yet to be punished. That is why many wonder whether Omar Abdullah has the mandate to take any unilateral decision on the issue as contentious as the removal of the AFSPA. When it comes to Kashmir, the Indian Army has the final say!