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)

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.

KASHMIR: 2 Kashmiris found dead in Delhi

KASHMIR: 2 Kashmiris found dead in Delhi: "Srinagar, July 24: Bodies of an uncle-nephew duo from Islambad’s Kujar village on way to Bihar were recovered by police near a railway track..."

KASHMIR: Protests against India

KASHMIR: Protests against India

KASHMIR: Dheerkote Kashmir Conference

KASHMIR: Dheerkote Kashmir Conference