Sunday, August 29, 2010

KASHMIR: Dukhtran Millat chief Aasiya Andrabi, aide arreste...

KASHMIR: Dukhtran Millat chief Aasiya Andrabi, aide arreste...: "Srinagar, Aug 28: Police on Saturday arrested the chairperson of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Syeda Aasiya Andrabi and her close aide during..."

Dukhtran Millat chief Aasiya Andrabi, aide arrested


Srinagar, Aug 28: Police on Saturday arrested the chairperson of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Syeda Aasiya Andrabi and her close aide during a raid on a house at Zakura in the City outskirts here on Saturday.
Pertinently Aasiya along with senior Hurriyat Conference (G) leader Masarat Alam have been spearheading the ongoing “Quit Jammu and Kashmir Movement” for over two months. Since the launch of the movement, Aasiya had gone underground to evade arrest.
Police said acting on a tip off, the Special Operations Group personnel accompanied by a posse of women cops cordoned a house at Zakura at around 1.00 pm and arrested Aasiya and her close aide, Sofi Fahmeeda. They were whisked to some unknown destination. Sources said the raid was kept so secret that even the local police was not aware of the happenings in the area.
Highly placed official sources said the police have been tracking Aasiya’s mobile to ascertain her location. They said though Aasiya had been constantly changing her locations, her mobile signals were last tracked to a residential house in Zakura. The Senior Superintendent of Police Srinagar, Aashiq Bukhari confirmed Aasiya’s arrest. “We had already registered a case against her. We were tracking her movement and finally succeeded in arresting her along with a close aide” the SSP said. However, he refused to
divulge the details about the charges. But sources said she has been lodged in the Women’s Police Station here and booked for “inciting people against the state and police.” Sources said she was likely to be booked under the Public Safety Act.
Sources said police has also seized Aasiya’s personal laptop and many mobile phones during the raid. Officials said police had formed special teams to arrest Aasiya and even raided many places in the City. They said police earlier this month had conducted an identification of some burqa-clad women at Parimpora when they had received reports that Aasiya will pass through the area.
Incidentally, Aasiya who has been endorsing the Hurriyat (G) protest calendar was at the forefront of criticizing the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah and New Delhi for killing spree in the Valley.
Aasiya was recently in dock after some New Delhi based newspapers accused her of double-standards for demanding passport for her elder son, Muhammad Bin Qasim to study abroad.
However she had vehemently denied the charges terming it as an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing situation in the Valley.

FAMILY WORRIEDThe family members of Aasiya are worried about her welfare. “The police are not telling us where they have lodged Aasiya and Fahmeeda or for what charges they have been arrested. If anything happens to them, the Government will be responsible for the consequences. We will be taking legal recourse against the arrest soon,” Aasiya’s family told Greater Kashmir.

‘IT SHOWS GOVT’S FRUSTRATION’
The Dukhtaran-e-Millat has termed the arrest of Aasiya as Government’s frustration to curb the ongoing agitation. “Aasiya Bajee’s unflinching support to the Quit Jammu and Kashmir Movement had frustrated the authorities. Though her arrest is a big jolt to the movement but it will not deter our resolve to extend support to the just cause. We appeal the people to carry forward the agitation to its logical conclusion,” said the spokesperson of Dukhtaran-e-Millat Shaista Banu.
She said Aasiya has never compromised on her commitment to champion the cause of Kashmiris. “We salute her courage and countless sacrifices for the movement,” she added.

BACKGROUND
Born in 1962, Aasiya, a vociferous orator, graduated in Home Science from University of Kashmir in 1981. Daughter of a Unani doctor, Syed Sahabuddin Andrabi, Aasiya wanted to become a scientist and to move to neighbouring, Himachal Pradesh in pursuit of higher studies. But her brother’s refusal changed her destiny.
Her close aides said she used to spend most of her time at home and one day, by chance, read a book ‘Khawateen Ke Dilon Ki Bateen’ from her father’s library based on the rights and duties of Muslim women. She was moved by the status of women in Islam and this proved a turning point in her life. She learnt Arabic to propagate the teachings of Islam.
Aasiya formed the Dukhtaran-e-Millat (daughters of the community) in the eighties. However, after the eruption of militancy, she spearheaded a reformist movement among women prompting a ban of her organization. Around the same time, she found a match in Muhammad Qasim alias Aashiq Husain Faktoo, then a commander of Jamait-ul-Muhajideen.
However, the couple couldn’t stay together for long. They were arrested along with their newborn, Muhammad Bin Qasim. They were booked under Public Safety Act and shifted to Jammu Central Jail. Her husband was booked under Terrorism and Disruptive Act and given life sentence. Despite passing of over 17 years in jail, he has not been released yet.
Over the years, Aasiya has been arrested and booked for various charges. During the Amarnath land row and subsequent killing of over 60 youth, Aasiya led massive protests and was again booked under the PSA. She remained in custody for over six months. Though, the High Court quashed the PSA and released her, Aasiya was again arrested after she staged protests against the Shopian double murder and rape in 2009. She along with her associates were booked under PSA.
Aasiya’s fame even reached Bollywood and inspired filmmakers to depict her life in films. But she halted their efforts by threatening legal action against the producer.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

KASHMIR: Help Flood Affecties

KASHMIR: Help Flood Affecties: "Help your brothers in Pakistan.Help flood affected people.Help those who are looking for humanity.This is the worst disaster in 21th centu..."

Help Flood Affecties

Help your brothers in Pakistan.Help flood affected people.Help those who are looking for humanity.This is the worst disaster in 21th century.Come forward and help to rebuild Pakistan.Governments must act to provide sufferers to irrigate their land free of cast and provide them with latest technical support.

Let development replace the destruction.

Pakistan Zindaabad


Thursday, August 19, 2010

KASHMIR: Muslims are not involved in 9/11

KASHMIR: Muslims are not involved in 9/11: "Muslims are peace loving .They are not involved in Terror of any kind.Please go through the theries of 9/11."

Muslims are not involved in 9/11

Muslims are peace loving .They are not involved in Terror of any kind.Please go through the theries of 9/11.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Kashmir Police Officer hurls shoe at Omar Abdullah



SRINAGAR: A week after shoe hurled at Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Barmingham UK,  a shoe hurled at Omar Abdullah after hurling  Indian Flag in Bakshi Stadium. But it's the first time that a member of the security apparatus — his assailant is a head constable with the state police — has launched such an attack. This, when Omar has been demanding that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act be revoked so that the Jammu and Kashmir police can tackle the troubles in the state directly.

The drama unfolded as soon as Omar rose to give his speech. Abdul Ahad Jan (50), who was sitting in the third row of the VIP enclosure at Bakshi stadium along with senior officials and the J&K chief justice, removed his shoe and threw it. The brown shoe sailed over Omar's head. Jan was later taken to Sher-e-Kashmir hospital.

Cops said Jan, who also waved a black flag, was mentally unsound and facing criminal charges. A government statement later said Jan was approached by a political party leader; he used the politician’s entry pass to get in.

An eyewitness said Jan looked uneasy from the beginning. J&K police DG Kuldeep Khoda said Jan was suspended after he was arrested on extortion charges in May. ‘‘He was out on bail,’’ he said, adding that the police would look into the security lapse. Sources said 15 cops were suspended after preliminary investigations.

Jan’s son, Showkat Ahmad, contradicted Khoda, saying his father was a serving cop in Kulgam, south Kashmir. ‘‘He isn’t under suspension,’’ he claimed. He said his father had saved former DGP J N Saxena after he was injured in an attack on police headquarters in 1992. ‘‘Saxena had ordered his out-of-turn promotion, which was never given,’’ he said. ‘‘My father is fighting a court case for implementation of that order.’’

Reports said as soon as the news broke, hundreds of people visited Jan’s house at Ajas in Bandipora district to hail him. One of Jan’s sons was accused of being an over-ground militant worker and jailed briefly. He is now a radio mechanic. Another source said Jan had told his family members before starting for Srinagar in the morning that he would ‘‘teach Omar a lesson’’.

Earlier, in his address, Omar said Prime MinisterManmohan Singh was ready to consider autonomy for the state as a solution. ‘‘But we would like to discuss other options like self-rule and azadi too,’’ he said, and added that the restoration of autonomy could bridge the trust deficit between the Centre and people of the state.

Monday, August 9, 2010

KASHMIR: Keran still inaccessible

KASHMIR: Keran still inaccessible: "People stage protest, march towards LoC SHAHID RAFIQ Kupwara, Aug 8: Hundreds of people of Keran today staged protests and tried to ..."

Keran still inaccessible


People stage protest, march towards LoC

SHAHID RAFIQ


Kupwara, Aug 8: Hundreds of people of Keran today staged protests and tried to march towards the Long of Control accusing the government of failing to restore the road connectivity of the area.
“Keran was ravaged by floods triggered by Kishenganga river and is still inaccessible due to the lackadaisical approach of the government,” the protestors said adding the road was completely washed away due to floods.Pertinently the flood situation in Keran continues to remain grim on 12th day on Sunday as Kishenganga is flowing above the danger mark. Due to this, residents of several low lying areas have shifted to the safer places. 
“Several acres of agriculture land have been inundated, hundreds of cattle perished and many low lying hamlets are still submerged,” residents of Keran told Greater Kashmir.
Flood has swept away most of the bridges including Mandyan, Dut, Frashi, Keran Bridge and interior culverts and completely washed away road stretch from Pathra to Kean. From Farkayan pass road has been closed due to land slides. Over 50 structures including 20 houses in proper Keran, Mandyan, Naga, Kundyan besides buildings of boys’ higher secondary school has suffered damage, sources said.
Most educational institutions in Keran including FCI’s Food go down has been damaged and thousands of quintals of ration was washed away by flash floods, said the residents.
“There is shortage of ration. The collapse of bridges means that food grains, medicines and other basic amenities can’t reach Keran as a result of which people will face hardships,” the residents added.“If the indifferent approach of the government continues, we will be forced to jump into the river to cross to other side of the Line of Control to get the relief,” the residents said.
MLA Karnah, Kafil-ul-Rehman told Greater Kashmir “I am stranded in Tangdhar and could not visit Keran as there is no road connectivity. I am waiting for the helicopter. I have taken up the matter with CM.”(GK)

Friday, August 6, 2010

Agra to Islamabad....Failures



Why didn’t Pillai speak up when his boss was in Pak?

By Jawed Naqvi

Monday, 19 Jul, 2010


Pakistan’s former foreign minister Gauhar Ayub rightly admitted to an Indian TV channel that his current successor Shah Mehmood Qureshi was out of line in making less than diplomatic comments about India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna in Islamabad last week. Mr Qureshi’s comment to the effect that the visitor did not have the mandate from Delhi to hold serious discussions with him was childish and inappropriate. Moreover, whether Mr Krishna was consulting New Delhi or not on the phone in between his engagements was really not anyone’s business but his own.


Mr Qureshi was of course within his rights to express disapproval of an unnecessary and harmful comment made by Indian Home Secretary G. K. Pillai on the eve of Mr Krishna’s departure for Islamabad. Now I know many Pakistani friends and colleagues, not to speak of Indians, who would agree with Mr Pillai’s contention that the ISI was hand in glove with the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks. Be that as it may, it still doesn’t justify the comment on the eve of the foreign minister’s globally-watched crucial visit and let me tell you why.

Mr Pillai had all the details about the case when his boss, India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram visited Islamabad on June 26, a visit which was preceded by Mr Pillai’s own useful trip there. Had he made his ISI-was-involved-in-Mumbai comment then, it could have been seen as a bold and even meaningful observation. But he didn’t. Why did he choose to muddy the water for Mr Krishna? Who had authorised him to make that comment at that particular moment? Could he not have left the details of the controversial issue, since that is what it is, to the Indian foreign minister to handle? Surely Mr Krishna could have dealt with it privately or at the press conference he later addressed with his Pakistani counterpart?

And yet Mr Qureshi was wrong to compare Mr Pillai’s role with that of Hafiz Saeed, the fanatical anti-India rabble-rouser. Saeed goes about spewing hatred of Indians and yet remains unchecked by Pakistan’s law-keepers not unlike certain powerful hate-mongers in Mumbai and Gujarat who remain outside the grasp of the state’s corrective institutions for all the untold harm they cause to peace at home and with the neighbourhood. Mr Pillai’s role in queering the pitch for an India-Pakistan dialogue last week was more akin to the part played by the former Indian information minister Sushma Swaraj whose comments to the press contributed directly to the dismal end to the Musharraf-Vajpayee Agra summit on July 16, 2001.

Before coming to Ms Swaraj’s subversive role in Agra, let me put a question about the approach of Mr Pillai and others who may think like him towards India-Pakistan ties. The question is: Between the Kargil conflict and the Mumbai attack, which of the two was more catastrophic for India? In case some find that an unfair question let’s ask an even more blunt one that takes into account Mr Pillai’s concerns about the ISI; which of the two incidents has a clearer imprint of the ISI – Kargil, which everyone now knows was a botched up operation by the Pakistani army – or Mumbai, in which the ISI’s role still remains in the realm of allegation? Certainly Kargil. It was by far the more destructive for India-Pakistan ties because of the clear involvement of Pakistan’s state institutions.

And yet on March 23, 2001, without any apparent overture or apology from Pakistan, then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee shot off an invitation to President Pervez Musharraf. “For the welfare of our peoples, there is no other recourse but a pursuit of the path of reconciliation, of engaging in productive dialogue and by building trust and confidence…” Vajpayee’s invitation letter ended with a call to “put in place a stable structure of cooperation and address all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir”.

The Agra summit was torpedoed – not by Mumbai-like terrorists, but by Pillai-like officials and Swaraj-like politicians. A. G. Noorani has painstakingly chronicled the timeline of how it was subverted and why. As Noorani said, let us begin with Sushma Swaraj. On July 15, 2001, the day the talks began in earnest at Agra, she briefed the press listing the issues discussed but omitted Kashmir to the dismay of Pakistanis. She gave contradictory explanations even for this. “I didn’t mention Kashmir because it was obvious. That is why Gen Musharraf has come here.” (The Times of India, July 17). On the same day she said “it was not a deliberate omission” (The Telegraph, July 17).

But, on August 6, in the Lok Sabha, then foreign minister Jaswant Singh suggested it was deliberate. “When she told the press what she did, she told the press what she was authorised to tell and she had the authority of the Vajpayee Cabinet to do so.” He was right. A detailed report from Agra in The Telegraph (July 17) revealed: “It can be said now (after the debacle) that some people had an inkling that the Indian side would come out with a deliberate statement to suggest that Kashmir was not being discussed at all and that the summit was going very badly.”

Noorani notes that three causes were cited for the failure – Musharraf’s talk to seniors in the Indian media on the morning of July 16; his insistence that Kashmir was a “core issue”; and his refusal “to address cross-border terrorism”.

Sushma Swaraj told Pakistan daily The News (July 20): “Things were derailed the moment the video recording of General Saheb’s tough talk to a group of senior editors was instantly made available to all TV channels of the world who took no time in airing them.” She knew, of course, that this was simply not true. NDTV’s Prannoy Roy asked for the video, acquired it and telecast it. The so-called substantive bit was equally false. One of the editors who was present, Shekhar Gupta, asked Advani on his Walk the Talk programme on NDTV on March 12, 2005, whether the cause was “the breakfast with us, editors, which was televised”. Advani replied: “I don’t think so. No. Not at all”.
Shekhar recalled in Indian Express on January 31, 2004, that in fact Musharraf made many concessions: “If you go over the tapes of that Agra breakfast, you would underline things Musharraf said that no Pakistani leader had said until then.” Couldn’t Gupta have said the same thing on the day the breakfast was touted as the reason for the inconclusive summit?

If not the breakfast meeting, what was the true cause of the failure at Agra? Jaswant Singh mentioned “three broad areas” at his press conference in Agra on July 17. One was Musharraf’s stand that “unless the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is made central there will be no progress on any other aspect” whereas India’s approach “addresses all issues”. This had been denied by Pakistan’s foreign secretary Inamul Haque at the outset, on July 14. Even so, the Indian foreign minister’s charge was that Pakistan sought discussion of Kashmir exclusively; not settlement of the dispute at Agra, let alone an accord on its own terms.

The second area related to “cross-border terrorism” (CBT). The third was omission of previous accords – Simla and Lahore – the very charge he had publicly made in Delhi on July 14, and which Pakistan’s then foreign secretary Inamul Haque denied instantly (The Hindu of July 15 carried the charge and the denial side by side). In parliament on August 6, Jaswant Singh himself rubbished the Simla and the Tashkent accords but had his remarks deleted from the record (Indian Express, August 9).

No doubt the next venue for the India-Pakistan conundrum is Kabul where both sides will be present at an international conference on Afghanistan. The BJP will be praying that the two sides don’t talk so that it can do all the pretend fence mending and not the Congress or anyone else. Mr Pillai will probably be mining the situation for post-retirement political benefits. Us journalists will grow old reporting these on-again off-again talks.

Meanwhile, young stone-pelters on the streets of Kashmir are facing off against one of the most formidable armies in the world. They are the ones paying a real and terrible price for these diplomatic mind-games.

Pathribal encounter: Five Armymen found guilty of killing innocent Kashmiris




Apr 27, 2006
New Delhi, Apr 27
 After three years of probe, the CBI indicted five army personnel for staging a fake encounter to kill innocent civilians and gave a clean chit to the state police.

The CBI, which was handed over the case in January 2003 by the state government, alleged officials and jawans of Seven Rashtriya Rifles Brig Ajay Saxena, Lt Col Brahendra Pratap Singh, Maj Saurabh Sharma, Maj Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan had staged a fake encounter and killed five innocent civilians labelling them as terrorists responsible for carnage of Sikhs in Chittisinghpora in South Kashmir.

The case had become politically sensitive and former state Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and his party, PDP, were quick to suspend Farooq Khan, the former Senior Superintendent of Police, and also instituted a judicial probe which found the SSP gulity.

However, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court rejected the inquiry report and absolved Khan of all charges.
The CBI also did not find any wrong doing on the part of the SSP and claimed the fake encounter was staged by the army personnel.
Five people were killed on March 26, 2000 in Pathribal in South Kashmir who, the army claimed, were mercenaries responsible for the gunning down of 35 members of Sikh community on March 21 when the then US President Bill Clinton was on a visit to India.
The 18-page CBI chargesheet said that after the gunning down of Sikh community members, the army unit operating in the area was under "tremendous psychological pressure" to show results because there was allegation of inefficiency and ineffectiveness on their part.
The CBI alleged the army personnel entered into a criminal conspiracy to pick up the some innocent persons and stage manage an encounter to create the impression that the militants responsible for the Chittisinghpora killings had been neutralised.
During CBI investigation, the army had claimed that it was the police which had given them the information about the presence of militants, a statement denied by local police officers.
The CBI found that Subedar Khan had handed over five dead bodies to Station House Officer Achchabal with a Handing over Memo mentioning the names of three killed persons as Pakistani nationals and the other two as unknown.
The accused army men also showed fake recovery of arms and ammunition from the five deceased after obtaining signatures of two witnesses on blank papers.


This is not zero tolerance, Mr. Prime Minister


Siddharth Varadarajan
June 4, 2010
Hindu
The Central government's professed commitment to human rights is worth nothing so long as it won't allow the soldiers indicted for murdering innocent civilians in Kashmir to be prosecuted for their crimes.

I asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an unfair question during his big press conference last month. How could he speak of zero tolerance for human rights violations in Kashmir when his government would not allow the prosecution of army officers and jawans charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation for the murder of five innocent civilians at Pathribal in Kashmir in 2000? The question was unfair because there was no reason to expect India's chief executive to be aware of the status of an individual case, no matter how gruesome. Or to know why one branch of his government had made out a case for murder against a group of soldiers only to have another branch, the Ministry of Defence, do its utmost to ensure that the indicted men never stand trial.
Like many other questions that day, therefore, mine also went unanswered. I wasn't surprised or disappointed because the reason I asked it was to extract a commitment from the Prime Minister. You see, 10 years ago, I visited a woman named Raja Begum in Anantnag. She was the mother of Zahoor Dalal, one of the five men murdered in Pathribal. Throughout the time I spent in her house, she wept quietly in one corner and didn't say a word. All the talking was done by another relative. As I left, I made one last attempt, asking her whether there was anything she wanted to tell the people of the country. “Zahoor can't come back but those who did this should be punished before my eyes,” she replied. “Why did they pick up an innocent man and murder him? If there is a government, if there is justice, the people who did this must be punished.”
I wrote about Pathribal and its aftermath countless times but wanted to make another push for justice in this case. My question to Dr. Singh, then, was really Raja Begum's, the partial discharge of a debt journalists accumulate as they run from story to story. And as expected, the Prime Minister promised to look into the matter. I have no idea what enquiries or exertions he has made on the case since then but the facts themselves are quite simple. And, in the context of the recent exposé of fake encounters in Machhil in Kupwara, they reveal a pattern of impunity that ordinary Kashmiris will be condemned to endure until India gets a Prime Minister brave enough to put a stop to it.
A group of terrorists, most probably from the Lashkar-e-Taiba, arrived at the Chattisinghpora village in Anantnag district in the dead of night on March 20, 2000. They made all the Sikh men assemble and gunned them down in cold blood. Five days later, L.K. Advani, who was Union Home Minister at the time, told a nation still recovering from shock that the heinous crime had been solved with the killing of five “foreign militants.” In an FIR filed on March 25, officers from the Rashtriya Rifles and the Special Operations Group of the State police said they had managed to corner and kill the five terrorists in a fierce encounter at Pathribal-Panchalthan. The bodies of the men, which had been burned beyond recognition, were buried in a common grave.
Unfortunately for the army, the five men killed were not terrorists or foreign nationals. They were civilians who had been picked up in and around Anantnag on March 24. Apart from young Zahoor, the others named were Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Mohammed Malik, Juma Khan and Juma Khan. Such was the randomness of the operation that it had actually netted two men of the same name from different villages. As the families of the five men searched frantically for their missing relatives, suspicions grew that the “terrorists” buried in the common grave may not be whom the authorities claimed them to be. Protests were held demanding exhumation of the bodies. The demand was rejected, leading to an ugly incident in Brakpora on April 3 where the Central Reserve Police Force opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing nine.
The bodies were eventually exhumed and positively identified by the families of the five missing men. But the government baulked at the implications and insisted on DNA matching. Blood samples were collected, which all turned negative. This was because the police and local doctors, acting on whose instructions it is still not known, switched the samples. When the tampering was exposed in March 2002, fresh samples were collected which conclusively established that the five “terrorists” killed in that so-called joint operation by the Rashtriya Rifles and the police on May 25, 2000 were none other than Zahoor and the others who had been abducted by the security forces the night before.
The State government then ordered a CBI investigation into the killings. The agency took four years to come to the conclusion that the five men had indeed been murdered. It filed a charge-sheet in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, against Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lt. Col. Brijendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar I Khan of 7th Rashtriya Rifles, accusing them of murder under Section 302 of the Ranbir Penal Code. That was in July 2006. Four years on, the trial has yet to begin.
With the full backing of the Army brass, the Ministry of Defence and the Government of India, the five soldiers challenged their indictment on the grounds that the government had not granted sanction to prosecute them. The CBI took the view that the requirement of prior sanction mentioned in Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990 was only for protection of persons acting in good faith and that abducting and murdering innocent civilians could by no stretch of imagination be considered something “done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.” The Principal District and Sessions judge in Srinagar before whom the case was committed offered the Army the option of trying the soldiers in a court martial. But the Army refused, and the matter went to the High Court which ruled in favour of the CBI in July 2007 that prior sanction was not required. At this stage, the Army (represented by the General Officer Commanding, 15th Corps) moved the Supreme Court, which admitted the appeal in September 2007 and stayed further proceedings before the trial court. Since then, the matter has not moved at all. For some reason, notice to the Jammu and Kashmir government, listed as a co-respondent to the CBI in the GOC's petition, was only served in December 2009.
If the Central government was really serious about ensuring justice, it could have done one of two things at any stage after 2006. It could have granted sanction to prosecute the five army men, ending the legal wrangling over the CBI's indictment there and then. Or it could have gone along with the CBI's rational argument that the protections contained in the Armed Forces Act (and indeed in Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code) cannot be extended to cover blatant criminal acts like the murder of innocent civilians. But, no, none of this was done, for the promise of “zero tolerance” of human rights violations is just an empty slogan.
If the Prime Minister feels I am being unfair, let him end the sickening litigation that is preventing Raja Begum and countless other mothers and fathers and sons and daughters of people wrongly killed by the security forces from getting justice. But ending impunity is not just about righting the wrongs of the past. It is also about deterring future criminals. If the men responsible for murdering Zahoor Dalal and four others at Panchalthan had been tried, convicted and punished, I am certain the soldiers who kidnapped and murdered three young Kashmiri men in Kupwara on April 29 in order to claim cash rewards for bravely killing three “terrorists” would not have so easily done what they did. A case against the army officers has now been filed but if Pathribal is any guide, that too will not go anywhere.
The Prime Minister is going to Kashmir next week. When he is asked questions about these cases, he will have to do more than simply promise to look into them.



Indian View

Kashmir: no ideal solution
By Kuldip Nayar

What is happening in the valley lends credibility to the Kashmiri diaspora that met in Washington a few days ago to ask for an early, peaceful solution to the Kashmir problem.

I was one of the participants at the conference which was convened by the Kashmiri-American Council and Association of Humanitarian lawyers. Emotions apart, the diaspora was concerned over the future of the land of their origin.
All agreed, as is the general belief in India, that a delayed political solution of the Kashmir problem is responsible for the eruption of occasional violence or protests in the state. The participants expressed grave concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in Kashmir and demanded the appointment of a commission to investigate the causes of the current violence in the valley, where 43 people have died since June 11 when the present wave began.
I have no doubt that the mishandling of the situation and violation of human rights have contributed to the spread of defiance and destruction in the valley. But the youth were equally determined to pelt stones on security forces.
In fact, the reason behind such occurrences is the alienation of Kashmiris from India and New Delhi’s assumption that the people will ultimately come round to accepting the status quo if they were to find the governance just, honest and working for the betterment of the state. The situation has gone beyond that.
There is validity in the argument that the separatists are not allowing the situation to settle down. But the fact remains that people in Kashmir have given Srinagar and New Delhi many chances — the recent one being the year-old election in which they participated to the extent of 60 per cent — to sort out the problem of autonomy. But the two did not do so.
Where did things go wrong? My experience tells me that the more a political party, or the administration at Srinagar, goes nearer to India the greater is the resentment of people who want to preserve their own identity. A government which is seen challenging New Delhi is liked because it gives them a vicarious satisfaction of being independent.
Sheikh Abdullah, a popular Kashmiri leader, understood this. He did not question Kashmir’s accession to India but placated the Kashmiris by criticising New Delhi for eroding the state’s autonomy. For example, he would say that the Kashmiris would prefer to stay hungry if the atta from India was meant to trample upon their right to stay independent. It may have been a fiction but it worked.
Even Jawaharlal Nehru, the Sheikh’s friend and supporter in political battles against the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, did not understand his rhetoric and detained him without trial in southern India for some 12 years. Still Nehru realised rather late that tampering with autonomy had taken the shape of separation and a strong pro-Pakistan tilt. He released the Sheikh and sent him to Islamabad. Unfortunately Nehru died when the Sheikh was in the midst of talks with Gen Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s martial law administrator.
Until then Kashmir was a problem between India and Pakistan. They held talks and fought wars but reached nowhere. The Shimla Agreement converted the ceasefire line into the Line of Control. But the two failed to go further because of their domestic compulsions. The Sheikh returned to power and entered into an accord with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi that restored some autonomy which New Delhi had appropriated in his absence. But the Sheikh did not have a free hand because the bureaucracy and the intelligence agencies, by then strong, did not want him to succeed. They “treated me like a chaprasi (peon),” the Sheikh often told me.
His son, Farooq Abdullah, much less in stature, tried to retrieve the situation by asking New Delhi to go back to the terms of accession, the centre retaining only three subjects, defence, foreign affairs and communications. Successive governments at New Delhi felt that they could not go back as they feared a backlash. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was the only person who foresaw the danger in not reaching a settlement. He set up a back channel which almost found a solution when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted by Gen Pervez Musharraf.
I was reminded of the promise Nehru made to the Kashmiris that they would be given an opportunity to decide what they wanted to do with their territory. I told them that Nehru had rejected the demand for a plebiscite in his lifetime. His reasoning was that Pakistan by joining Cento and Seato, the two military pacts against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, had changed the context of the undertaking.
In the ’80s, the Kashmir problem became an issue. The Kashmiris too claimed a place on the table for talks on Kashmir. Rigged state elections in 1987 drove the youth from ballot to bullet which Pakistan was willing to provide. The following 10 years saw a running battle between the Kashmiris and the security forces. Thousands died on both sides. The result was a further hiatus between the Kashmiris and New Delhi.
Three things happened. One, the anti-India Kashmir leadership constituted a joint body, the All Hurriyat Conference. Two, a secular movement acquired an Islamic edge, particularly because of hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Three, the pro-Pakistan tilt changed into a resolve for independence, the slogan which Yasin Malik, the first militant in Kashmir, raised. Today that sentiment prevails in the shape of a demand that Kashmiris decide their own destiny.
The demand for independence may be genuine but it is not possible. I wonder even if Pakistan would agree to an independent, sovereign state when the chips are down. I opposed the demand at the conference in Washington on two counts: one, India will not agree to another partition on the basis of religion, and two, borders could be made irrelevant but not changed. I also cautioned that Jammu and Ladakh would not go along with the valley to the point of secession.
Yet it would be useful to find out what was the solution that Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif had reached to make the former say: “We were almost there.” Former Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri announced at Delhi that they had reached a settlement. What was the solution? And the most important part is whether Kashmiris would accept it? Both India and Pakistan must persuade them to accept autonomy because independence does not seem to find favour in either New Delhi or Islamabad. It can tell upon India’s integrity. The Kashmiris should realise that independence is not an ideal solution.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi. Dawn

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

KASHMIR: Photo Gallery

KASHMIR: Photo Gallery

KASHMIR: World

KASHMIR: World: "

Address the roots of indifference

KASHMIR IN WASHINGTON

PARTICIPANTS OF KASHMIR CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON VOICE CONCERN ..."

KASHMIR: Keran Protests

KASHMIR: Keran Protests: "Massive protests were held in Keran,a town situated on the ceasefire line of Jammu and Kashmir and in Neelam Valley of Azad Kashmir.Protesto..."

Keran Protests

Massive protests were held in Keran,a town situated on the ceasefire line of Jammu and Kashmir and in Neelam Valley of Azad Kashmir.Protestors were condemning Indian rule and chanting slogans against India.The area is damaged by floods and all links are cut off.The only road link to the world is Keran Kupwara road.The road is destroyed by landsliding.Keran town is located in the bank of river Kishan Ganga called Neelam in Pakistan.The are was once a world famous place of learning centuries back.There is Sharda University in the area which was oldest University of Budhism in the region.Due to division of Kashmir in 1947 and Ceasefire Line the area is cut off by the Neelam river.Demonstrators warned if rescue and relief work not started then the pop[ulation cross over to Azad Kashmir.

Monday, August 2, 2010

More deaths in Kashmir /Dawn Editorial


Sunday, 01 Aug, 2010
 
Kashmiri protesters clash with Indian police in Srinagar July 30, 2010. Police fired on large anti-India demonstrations in Kashmir on Friday, killing two civilians, officials said, the latest violence in the region at the core of the dispute between India and Pakistan. - Photo by Reuters
Indian security forces have killed at least four more Kashmiris, as violence returned to the Indian-held territory on Friday and Saturday. The number of civilians killed since June 11 has now climbed to more than 20, with countless injured and hundreds of people thrown into jails. But evidently neither New Delhi nor the Delhi-backed chief minister is willing to learn from the deaths and try earnestly to find out the reasons behind the new wave of protests that has rocked the valley.

Most shocking was Omar Abdullah’s remark on Thursday when he asked the Kashmiris to call off the protest because it was causing “discomfort” to the people. Here are Kashmiris in a state of rebellion. They have rendered sacrifices in blood for the sake of freedom, because they want to be masters of their destiny. India, on the other hand, has deployed 700,000 troops in the valley to keep them in bondage. That the Kashmiri stir is urban-based is obvious, and not even the most rabidly pro-India elements abroad have detected a foreign hand in the uprising. Even sections of the Indian media admit that the protest is indigenous, with urban youths in the lead. Against this background, one is shocked that Mr Abdullah should refer to this struggle as “discomfort”.

The violence and human rights abuses have finally drawn the attention of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who on Wednesday asked Pakistan and India to start talking to resolve the Kashmir dispute. It need not be repeated that Islamabad has never shied away from talks on Kashmir to seek a peaceful solution to the dispute. One wishes New Delhi, too, had the wisdom to realise that killing Kashmiris is no solution to the problem and the only way out are sincere and purposeful talks with Pakistan and the Kashmiris.

Mayhem, 7 more killed

SOG CAMP, TEHSILDAR OFFICE SET ABLAZE, SAFFRON TOWN TURNS RED, 2 YOUTH SHOT AT IN BATMALOO

GOWHAR BHAT

Srinagar, Aug 1: Police and CRPF men killed three more protesters in the Valley on Sunday, while four persons were killed and dozens injured in a powerful blast at the camp of Special Operations Group camp of Police at Khrew when angry youth set it ablaze late in the evening. With today’s killings the death toll in 52 days of recent unrest has risen to 30.


PAMPORE/KHREW
Two youth were killed in the Saffron town Pampore when police and paramilitary CRPF troopers opened fire at the protesters on Sunday morning, while a teenaged girl, was shot dead by the force personnel in nearby Khrew area.
Witnesses said that hundreds of people, including women and children, took to the streets at different places in Pampore, on Srinagar-Jammu highway this morning. People from nearby villages including Alochibagh, Hatiwara, and Galender joined the demonstrations on the highway and staged a  sit-in.
Police and paramilitary CRPF men tried to disperse them but they refused to budge. They resorted to baton charge and opened  indiscriminate fire on the demonstrators. Scores of people were injured in the firing, several of them fatally.
A youth identified as Nayeem Ahmed Shah, 20, son of Bashir Ahmad Shah of Pampore was shifted to SMHS hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. “He was dead by the time we received him,” an official of the SMHS hospital said.
Another youth, Rayees Ahmad, 18, who was being shifted to a Srinagar hospital, succumbed to his injuries near Nowgam, Bypass. Several other injured were shifted to hospitals at Pampore and at Srinagar.
Witnesses said that SOG men fired on a procession at Khrew which was heading towards the highway.
“The procession was peacefully marching towards highway. But police and SOG men intercepted them resulting in a confrontation between the SOG men and protesters,” witnesses added. The angry protesters then attacked the SOG camp with stones wherefrom policemen fired indiscriminately on the people. “At least 13 people had bullet injures even as people refused to move back despite firing which continued for around three hours,” the eyewitnesses said.
Afroza Teli, 15, was removed to a SKIMS where she breathed her last.
“Afroza had a fire arm injury in her head. She breathed her last here,” doctors at SKIMS said.
One of the injured, Riyaz Ahmad Bhat, 22, of Khrew was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition. “ He is not stable,” doctors attending upon him said.
The word about the killings brought more people on roads who raised anti-police and anti-SOG slogans. At Khrew, angry protesters set ablaze Irrigation office as the news about Afroza’s death spread in the area.
The enraged protesters set afire Tehsildar’s office, a court building and attacked the police station Pampore. They also burnt a government vehicle and a police Gypsy as the bodies of the youth reached in the area.
Police and CRPF repeatedly baton charged protesters and lobbed tear gas shells on protesters carrying coffins.
Officials at SMHS hospitals said several of the injured from Pampore and Khrew were admitted in the hospital.
The injured include Muhammad Muzaffar Ganai of Pampore (hit by a bullet in abdomen); Fayaz Ahmad Malik of Pampore (bullet injury in chest); 9-year-old girl, Reshma of Pampore (bullet injuries in her neck) and Muhammad Younis Bhat of Khrew.
Officials at SKIMS, Soura said that four injured, who had bullet injuries, were undergoing treatment in the hospital.

4 KILLED, DOZENS INJURED IN KHREW BLAST
Four youth were killed and dozens injured in a powerful blast at the camp of Special Operations Group of Police at Khrew after angry youth set it on fire after the killing of young boys and a teenaged girl by police and CRPF earlier in the day.
A powerful blast rocked the SOG camp at around 7.30 in the evening after angry protesters set ablaze one of the buildings of SOG of police. The SOG and policemen retreated from the camp and took refuge in a nearby Army camp.
Witnesses said three person were dead on the spot while scores others were injured.
One of the dead-on-spot was identified as Javaid Ahmad Sheikh, 22, of Wuyan. Six persons were shifted to SMHS hospital in a critical condition where one of them Muhammad Amin Lone, 22, Ghulam Ahmad Lone, of Shalnag, Khrew was declared brought dead.
The identity of the other dead couldn’t be established as the bodies were severely mutilated and charred beyond recognition. Witnesses said many bodies had their heads blown off.
“One of them was brought dead here while the condition of others is very critical,” said an official at SMHS hospital.
Given the injuries and the intensity of the blast, officials said toll was likely to rise.
Locals said it was not the police ammunition which went off due to fire. “It were detonators and gelatin rods belonging to the private cement factories used for blasting lime stones in the area,” they said.
Witnesses said the blast was so powerful that its tremors could be felt several kilometres away. The bodies they said lied scattered near the camp as both the buildings of SOG and police station were razed to ground.

2 YOUTH SHOT AT IN BATMALOO In a separate incident of firing at Batmaloo here, two youth were injured critically late during the night protests, locals said.
 "Police and paramilitary CRPF men opened fire at demonstrators near the Batmaloo chowk injuring two youth critically. They were rushed to a hospital where doctors described their condition as critical," locals added.
 The entire Srinagar city remained under a curfew on Sunday. Huge deployments of police and paramilitary CRPF troopers imposed tough restrictions across the city. The forces didn’t allow any civilian movement and beat-up civilians who ventured out of their homes.
 In the evening, hundreds of people came out on roads in downtown localities of Iddgah, Narwara, Nowhatta, Rajouri Kadal, Bohri Kadal, Fateh Kadal, Zaina Kadal, Nowshera areas, after announcements were made over Masjid loud speakers to defy curfew following killings in Pampore.
 People came out in large numbers and raised pro-freedom slogans.
 At Iddgah CRPF fired a few shots in air but they eventually retreated from the area. Police and CRPF were also withdrawn from other areas as well.
 In uptown Chanapora, people poured on to streets and staged protests after police raided several localities and detained several youth. Locals said that police detained boys as young as a 10-year-old kid. Police fired several rounds of fire in air to disperse the protesters.
 Police and paramilitary CRPF forces lobbed tear gas shells and opened fire at several places in Galwanpora, Hyderpora, Gangbugh and Tengpora localities after hundreds of people defied curfew and tried to come out.
 Locals offered resistance and pelted stones on forces triggering clashes.
 In Sonawar, police detained dozens of youth during overnight raids and imposed strict curfew during the day. The youth had allegedly staged protests and raised pro-freedom protests in Masjids the previous day.
 Police didn’t allow people to venture out of their homes.
 Locals and eyewitnesses said that they saw a senior police official beseeching not raise slogans or protests over Masjid loud speakers.
 “A VIP area lies adjacent to this locality. We have strict instructions not to allow any protests over loud speakers. We can bear stone pelting but not this,” the official told elders of the area.
 In Tankipora, witnesses said, a police party led by a police officer dragged civilians out of their homes and beat them up. They said police also ransacked the houses and vehicles parked on roadsides.
The policemen allegedly smashed window panes of many houses at Bemina Housing Colony in the evening.
The inhabitants told Greater Kashmir that the policemen pelted stones and hurled choicest invectives on the residents. “They chased a group of youth shouting pro-freedom slogans and entered into the colony,” the residents added.(GK)

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Indian State Terrorism against Kashmir Media

 

Kashmiri journalist was held for 41 months without trial


R W B has interviewed Maqbool Sahil, a journalist based in Srinagar, the summer capital of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, who was detained for 41 months without trial. Now the incharge editor of the Urdu-language weekly Pukaar, Sahil has spent 19 years covering the conflict in Kashmir, in which thousands have died since 1989.
Arrested in 2004 after covering the rape of an Australian tourist for Chattan, the newspaper he then worked for, he was beaten and tortured during two weeks of interrogation and accused of spying for a Pakistani network. He was nonetheless never tried although Indian law says every detainee must be indicted before a court within 60 days. He decided to resume working as journalist following his release on 9 January 2008.
Sahil wrote seven books while in detention. His prison diary, “Shabistan-e-wajood,” was acclaimed by Reporters Without Borders last year.
RWB: Why were you arrested?
MS: I was detained solely because of my work as a journalist for the weekly Chattan, covering crime and doing investigative reporting. A few days before my arrest, I covered the story of an Australian woman visiting Kashmir who said she was raped by the owner of the houseboat she had been staying on. Almost all the newspapers covered the case but I dug up facts that contradicted the Australian woman’s account and I wrote about this for the weekly.
On 16 September 2004, a few days after my story was published, I was arrested by plain-clothes policemen as I left an army barracks in Srinagar. They bundled me into an unmarked car and took me to the Hari Nivas interrogation centre. There I was told that I had been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department for being involved in some sort of Pakistani espionage network.
RWB: What were the charges?
MS: I was interrogated and tortured for more than two weeks. They told me charges would be brought against me under the draconian official secrets and espionage laws, charges which carry the death penalty and do not permit release on bail.
RWB: Could you describe the conditions in which you were held for those 41 months?
MS: I was put with criminals such as pickpockets, murderers and robbers and others. During interrogation, they used a wooden roller on my legs, they suspended me from the roof and caned my feet, they regularly beat me and they did many other vicious things to me. Then they increased the intensity of the torture because I was unable to provide them with the information they were seeking about my supposed involvement.
I was so wrecked by the torture that I was unable to stand on my feet. Other detainees used to help me change my clothes and eat.
Meanwhile, CID personnel raided my home three times, taking my computer, books, CDs and diaries, which still have not been returned to me.
I was transferred to Srinagar central jail on 1 October 2004, but a month later I was taken back to the Hari Nivas interrogation centre for more interrogation and the next day I was transferred to Kote Bhalwal Jammu central jail under a two-year Public Safety Act detention order. The High Court quashed the PSA detention order after one year, so I was brought back to Srinagar for more interrogation at the Humhama interrogation centre, another PSA detention order was issued and I was taken back to the Kote Bhalwal jail. This process was repeated four times in 40 months, until January 2008.
In the summer of 2007, I was moved to the Amphalla district jail, where I was kept in an individual, dark cell in the hot summer months of May, June, July and August without a fan or water. I was allowed out of the cell only once every 24 hours to use a latrine. The rest of the time, I had to use a tin can in my cell as a toilet.
RWB: How did all this time in detention affect you?
MS: During those 41 months, I was almost completely cut off from my family. I hardly had any chance to see my children. I saw my mother after two years at the Humhama Interrogation centre. She had grown older and her health had deteriorated. My brother repaired radio and TV sets at home to feed my eight-member family.
RWB: And how did all this affect you as a journalist?
MS: As a journalist, it was very difficult to spend so much time in such a strange and tough place as a jail. I decided to read and write. I also I started studying crime as prisons have all kinds of criminals. I spent my time with Kashmiri detainees, Muslims, Sikhs and Dogras. I was surprised that more than 80 per cent of the inmates insisted on their innocence.

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