Re: Pakistani flags fly over Kashmir - situation takes unexpected turn
From Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
KASHMIR WATCH
Kashmir Watch :: Headlines
SRINAGAR, Aug 11: Kashmir fruit traders’ call of “Muzaffarabad Chalo”—supported by both factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, Syed Salahuddin-led United Jihad Council (UJC) and Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which continues to be a constituent of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre—today pushed the Valley back to the turbulent era of 1990 as it was first time in the last 17 years that over 1,50,000 Kashmiris participated in a pro-Azadi rally and a senior Hurriyat leader was among 7 persons killed in firing of Police and armed forces. Authorities have imposed curfew on Srinagar and all major towns in the Valley immediately after the People’s League Chairman, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, alongwith three others, succumbed to the injuries he had sustained in Police firing on his procession on Baramulla-Uri section of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road. Late in the evening violence erupted in Baramulla where angry mobs torched Police Station of Sheeri as well as SHO Sheeri’s residence at the district headquarters in an apparent reprisal of the killing of the Hurriyat leader and two others.
Notwithstanding the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s statement here on Sunday that it would not happen, march to Muzaffarabad began from Fruit Mandi of Sopore in the forenoon today when two senior leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, namely Shabir Ahmed Shah and Sheikh Abdul Aziz, shared leadership of the 10,000-strong rally with about a hundred of prominent fruit growers and traders of Sopore-Baramulla belt. Even as most of the Hurriyat leaders had been placed under home detention since Saturday last, Shah and Sheikh succeeded in reaching Sopore yesterday. Sources revealed that SHO Sopore took Shah into custody but he was let off on the orders of a senior Police officer late last night.
Leaving Shah and Sheikh free to mobilize the participants, authorities had overnight detained most of the prominent fruit traders including Bashir Ahmed Beig, Ghulam Rasool Bhat, Irfan Hafeez Lone and Mukhtar Ahmed Wani. Unfazed by laying of Constantine wire barriers at several places in and around Sopore, hundreds of people had begun to gather at Fruit Mandi since last evening. It was around 0945 hours today that nearly a 10,000-strong procession was taken out on Sopore-Sangrama-Baramulla-Uri Road.
As it began swelling to a massive rally with joining of thousands of peoples on way, some of the youth removed the Police barriers forcibly at Sangrama Crossing. According to eyewitnesses, few youth attacked a CRPF bunker. Soldiers manning the pillbox opened fire that left one person dead on the spot and 15 others wounded. Twenty-year-old student, who died at Sangrama, was identified as Tahir Nazir Lone S/o Nazir Ahmed Lone R/o Thindam, Kreeri. The processionists roughed up two SPs and torched both of their Gypsies on the spot. Reports awaiting official confirmation later said that one of the critically injured, namely Irfan Ahmed S/o Bashir Ahmed R/o Krankshivan Colony, Sopore, died at a hospital in Sopore.
Carrying the dead body of Tariq Nazir Lone, the procession of thousands of common people and fruit growers besides more than 200 vehicles, including 30 fruit-laden trucks, marched towards the garrison township of Baramulla. It further swelled at the Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz’s residential village of Khanpora on the highway where more than 20 fruit-laden trucks and over a hundred medium vehicles joined the rally. It was around 1315 hours that District Magistrate, Baseer Khan, imposed curfew on the highway beyond Sheeri but Police and security forces failed to stop or break down the rally of over one Lakh people.
Even as the Valley’s separatist circles claimed that 300,000 people participated in the march and the authorities confirmed a crowd of nearly 100,000 people, independent watchers put it at 1,50,000. Fruit traders and political leaders had called and supported the march to press their demand of opening Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road for exchange of trade between two parts of J&K and Pakistan. Citing examples of attacks on some Kashmiri drivers and their fruit-laden trucks on the traditional Srinagar-Jammu highway, they have been complaining of “economic blockade” of the Valley in Jammu and Punjab.
However, the rally turned completely political when the processionists carried green Islamic flags and shouted the 1990-model slogans like “Aay jabiro, aay zaalimo Kashmir hamara chhor dou”, “Ham kya chahte: Aazadi” and “We want freedom”. While there were few pro-Pakistan slogans, the processionists yelled against BJP, Shiv Sena and “communalists”, holding them responsible for the “economic blockade” on the highway in Jammu. The primary slogans included “Naka bandi tod dou, Jhelum Valley Road khol dou”. After the shootout at Sangrama, people were also heard shouting a martyr’s death was a nation’s life.
Apparently perturbed over the civil and Police authorities’ failure in stopping and dispersing the march on 30 Kilometres of the road, Army felled massive trees, demolished patches of road and created many other barriers on the highway from Rampur to Uri to block the march. When the front end of over 8 Km long rally reached Chehal, close to the brigade headquarters of Rampur, Police and armed forces opened fire to disperse the sea of humanity with the use of force. Over 50 people are believed to have sustained injuries in the firing and resultant stampede.
While 26 of the injured were treated at District Hospital of Baramulla, five people with critical injuries were rushed to SMHS Hospital in Srinagar. Four of them later succumbed to injuries. They included Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who was a resident of the saffron-rich township of Pampore. Three others killed in the Chehal shootout were identified as Abdul Hameed Bhat S/o Dr Abdul Majeed Bhat R/o Kanlibagh, Baramulla, Bashir Ahmed Malla of Khanpora and Manzoor Ahmed Akhoon of Sheeri, Baramulla.
Immediately after the news of Sheikh Aziz’s death spread like a wild fire, District Magistrate of Srinagar, Kachoo Isfandyar Khan, imposed curfew on the Capital city as also in its rural peripheries. Police vehicles fitted with public address system advised people to remain indoors and announced till late in the night that curfew had been imposed in Srinagar district. As tension spread throughout the Valley, authorities imposed curfew on all major towns in Kashmir.
An official spokesman said that all educational institutions in Kashmir would remain closed till August 14th. With this development, there will be no school children in this year’s Independence Day parades in the Valley—first time in last 16 years. The spokesman said that identity cards of hospital staff and air tickets of all incoming and outgoing passengers would be treated as curfew passes. He was, however, silent about the I-cards and curfew cards of mediapersons.
With the mushroom sprouting of rallies throughout the Valley and reports of clashes with Police and firing on demonstrators pouring in from several places, Baramulla remained the maximum disturbed district. Notwithstanding the shootout at Chehal, separatist leader Shabir Shah refused to retreat. Reports from the telephonically not-reachable area said that Shah held the fort with over 20,000 people near Sheeri. Angry crowds later attacked Police Station Sheeri and set it on fire. While the Police personnel ran for safety, records and furniture were destroyed in the blaze.
At the district headquarters of Baramulla, angry crowds swooped on the house of SHO Sheeri, Khursheed Ahmed Khan, in Sherwani Colony, ransacked it and finally set it on fire. The house was destroyed completely alongwith two adjoining houses as Fire Brigade failed to move out and anarchy prevailed on the garrison town. Late in the evening, demonstrations came out in three different localities of old town Baramulla. Crowds attacked and damaged a CRPF bunker on Baramulla bridge. Police, with the support of paramilitary forces, were trying to disperse the crowds with the use of tearsmoke and firing in the air.
Here in the Capital city, some traders, separatist activists Javed Ahmed Mir and Shahid-ul-Islam, besides a group of the activists of Dukhtaraan-e-Millat, led by Asiya Andrabi, mobilized people in some interior localities and later led a 10,000-strong procession towards Srinagar-Baramulla-Uri Road. At Qamarwari, Police and CRPF used intense tearsmoke shelling and baton charge in an attempt to break down the procession. When the rally refused to disperse and a group of youth rushed straight to attack a picket, Police opened fire. Official sources said that one person got killed and about a dozen others sustained injuries. However, independent sources, corroborated by SKIMS officials, said that about 30 persons, including 21 women, sustained injuries.
One person, killed in the aimed firing at Qamarwari, was identified as Ashfaq Ahmed Keenu S/o Ghulam Mohammad Keenu R/o Bilal Colony, Qamarwari. SKIMS officials said that they treated 23 of the injured and all of them were stable and likely to be discharged. Doctors at SMHS Hospital said that Dukhtaraan-e-Millat chief, Asiya Andrabi, was among five persons under treatment this evening.
When scores of the injured kept pouring in for treatment at SMHS Hospital, some angry youth shouted slogans and attacked a CRPF picket followed by an attack on Police Station Karan Nagar. About a dozen others are estimated to have sustained injuries in this particular clash. Eyewitnesses and the hospital staff said that Police fired a number of tearsmoke shells inside the Casualty wards and used baton charge to scare away the crowds. They said that a number of patients ran for safety from both surgery and medicine wards.
Trouble in the capital city remained limited as Police had placed most of the separatist Hurriyat leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Bilal Gani Lone and Maulvi Abbas Ansari, under house arrest. Some of the PDP leaders, including Mehbooba Mufti, Abdul Aziz Zargar and Nizam-ud-din Bhat, also claimed that they were under “house arrest”. It was not, however, confirmed by the authorities.
Reports from Kupwara said that 20 demonstrators and 12 Police personnel sustained injuries when ding dong clashes took place in the authorities’ attempts to disperse a rally at the district headquarters. In another rally, 15 demonstrators and 5 Police personnel sustained injuries at Kralgund in Handwara area. Reports said that each of the rallies were joined by more than 5,000 people. Reports of thinner rallies poured in from Ganderbal, Sumbal and Bandipore as also from Ompora, Chadoura and Beerwah in Budgam district.
In South Kashmir, over two thousand people appeared at the district headquarters of Anantnag. They shouted slogans and expressed solidarity with the fruit growers and later dispersed peacefully. Consequently, march of holy Mace from Srinagar to Pahalgam, with Puja rituals en route at Bijbehara and Mattan passed on peacefully.
While Kulgam remained peaceful with minor processions in Khudwani and Redwani, Shopian district remained disturbed as a local Hurriyat activist mobilized people and led a 5,000-strong rally to Pulwama-Pampore-Srinagar Road. At Shirmal, in outskirts of Shopian town, people clashed with Police when authorities attempted to break down the march with force. About 20 of the demonstrators and over a dozen Police personnel sustained injuries. The mob damaged the vehicles of SHO Shopian and AC Revenue of Shopian before setting a Police vehicle on fire.
As four rallies poured into Pulwama town from different routes, groups of demonstrators attacked a Police Station at Murran Chowk. After a number of demonstrators and Policemen sustained injuries in the clashes, a small crowd attacked the Police guards, manning a picket protecting the members of the minority community. However, nobody made any attempt to harass or attack the protected cluster of Pandits.
Yet another clash took place between the demonstrators and Police when authorities attempted to disperse a 6,000-strong rally at two places between Sambora and Kakapora on Pulwama-Pampore Road. Reports said that 20 more people sustained injuries in these clashes in which a mob also torched a vehicle of Fire Services Department.
According to reports, available from all district headquarters, six civilians got killed and about 200 sustained injuries in today’s demonstrations, clashes and incidents of firing in the Valley. An official spokesman was non-committal about the number of civilians injured but he confirmed that more than 100 Police and CRPF personnel sustained injuries.
This is one of the funniest statements GS has ever witnessed. 
