BAPTIZING THE YOUNG MINDS

By: Irfan Kashmirie

On 2-11-2011 Kashmir Education Initiative observed its Annual Day in Gandhi Bhawan, University of Kashmir. KEI is a volunteer-driven philanthropic organization with an aim to support education of talented and deserving youth who can't otherwise support continuing their education on their own. On the occasion approximately 60-70 students (KEI Scholars) were awarded the scholarships. At around 12:00 noon all the participants were asked to come on dice, introduce themselves, share their thoughts and explain to the audience what they aspire to be.

A lot of students got up to the dice and most of the students wanted to become doctors, engineers, scientists, etc.

A bright kid from one of the backward areas of the valley also went up, introduced himself to the audience and said that his aim in life was to fight Indians for the freedom of Kashmir.

The hall reverberated with cheers and applauds to the young kid. Next was the young girl who aspired to pursue MMBS and a full time “dayee” to spread the word of Allah and organize congregations especially in Medical Colleges / Universities across valley.

Kudos to the young sister. After some time came the turn of another young brother who said that he will work and strive to expel American Zionists and Indians out of Muslim lands in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, etc. But this did not go well with the organizers and they immediately cautioned the students not to spill it anymore.

And this is how the people at the helm of affairs make our youth/Gen-Next morally bankrupt. The place which is supposed to produce thinkers/philosophers is just busy in molding the brains of the youth. Shame on university administration who suppress the emotions of the youth to keep their political masters happy. The place is supposed to be the hub of revolution / renaissance (like Osmania University Hyderabad) but unfortunately it is doing exactly the opposite of the same.

In another example, class 7 students of DPS Athwajan offered congregational mid day Zuhr prayers in the playground of the school. This came into the notice of the principal and next day a siege was laid in the ground by so called Muslim teachers of the school to prevent students from offering the Zuhr prayer. Most of the students who have kept beard are asked day-in and out to tri m it off or else face the consequences.

It must be borne in mind that no religious activity (including offering prayer) is allowed in the DPS campus right from its inception in the Srinagar. Although, students every now and then break these rules but this does not go well with the school principle and often the students pay price (in the form of fine and mental torture). Isn’t this interfering in the faith?? Why are Kashmiris silent over such issues, why don’t we launch a mass campaign against such cultural and religious aggression?? Or is it that we all have gone materialistic and await wrath from Allah (SWT).

Alhamdulillah these youth have raised some hope that our Gen-Next will be fertile brains and great thinkers/philosophers who will do everything possible to keep their religion as well as Ummah protected. May He guide us to the right path, the path which He has bestowed with His Grace and not of those who earn His Anger? Aameen Summa Aameen.

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.