Mayhem continues in Valley, 2 more killed

The police detains hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani (above, centre), who was marching towards Martyrs’ Graveyard in Srinagar. (Photo: PTI)

The Kashmir Valley on Wednesday witnessed another day of mayhem as two more persons were killed and dozens injured in security forces’ firings and beatings even as chief minister Mehbooba Mufti made a fervent appeal to the people for peace, and sought their help and cooperation towards restoring normalcy in the state.

Police sources said that one person, identified as Hilal Ahmed Sofi, was critically injured in firing on a mob which attacked a police party at Harnag in the southern Ananatnag district on Wednesday afternoon. The police party was returning from the district headquarters when their vehicle was targeted with stones by youth, the sources said. However, the locals have alleged that no protest as such was going on in the area.

Another youth Mushtaq Ahmed, who was earlier wounded in security forces’ firing at Kaimoh in south Kashmir, succumbed in hospital on Wednesday morning. With these two fatalities, the death toll in five days of turbulence has risen to 35, including a policeman. All but one civilian death have been caused by security forces’ firings on protesters and stone-throwing mobs.

The J&K police in a statement here said that “stray and intermittent” incidents of stone pelting were reported from various areas of Kulgam, Pulwama, Baramulla, Shopian and Kupwara districts, but did not say if these evoked any armed response from the security forces or not. The statement was also silent on latest casualties. It, however, said that militants opened fire at the vehicle of a police officer at Zainapora in Shopian when he was on the way to neighbouring Imam Sahib along with “law and order deployment”.

“There was no loss of life or injuries in this incident,” the statement added.

The Kashmir Valley erupted following the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the new-age poster boy of militancy in Kashmir, by security forces on July 8. More than 1,500 people have been injured, 400 of them receiving bullet or pellet injuries above their waist line. Officials said that one policeman has been killed and over 150 injured in mob violence which also left many police stations and posts and other infrastructure damaged.

On Wednesday, the police arrested two senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq as they tried to leave their besieged respective residences in Srinagar in attempts to relocate to Mazaar-e-Shohda or martyrs’ cemetery in the heart of the summer capital to pay homage to the 1931 martyrs. All separatist leaders and prominent activists of various pro-azadi organisations were placed under house arrest or “preventive custody” by police soon after the killing of Wani.

The Valley is since reeling under strict curfews and other security restrictions. However, Ms Mufti visited Mazaar-e-Shohda where she laid wreaths and said fateha prayers at the graves of the martyrs. July 13 is observed as ‘martyrs’ day’ in both parts of divided Kashmir as on this day 65 years ago as many as 22 Kashmiris were shot dead by the troops of autocratic Dogra Maharaja outside Srinagar’s central prison, where an in-camera trial of rebel Abdul Qadeer was being held. The bloody incident heralded an uprising against the Maharaja’s rule and for independence of the Muslim majority state. While July 13 is observed as “martyrs’ day” by both mainstream and separatist political parties and is an official holiday, the latter insist that the struggle for “independence” is still on as India “forcibly occupied part of the State in 1947”.

Omar Abdullah, a former Chief Minister and working president of opposition National Conference, also visited the cemetery to pay homage to the martyrs. He, however, slammed Ms. Mufti for ferrying people in police buses to an officially-sponsored function at the memorial “to convey normalcy has returned.” He accused her of pursuing “misplaced” priorities and “shamelessly” trying to convey message of normalcy in the State. He wrote on Twitter, “Brazen shamelessness of the @MehboobaMufti #BJPDP Govt, ferrying people in police buses to state function to convey normalcy has returned”.

There was strictest security arrangement in place for their visits to the ‘martyrs’ cemetery in Khawaja Bazaar locality in the heart of old Srinagar which is known as hotbed of separatism.

In the afternoon, the Mirwaiz scaled the outer wall of his residence in Srinagar’s Nigeen area after the policemen deployed in strength at its entrance foiled his repeated attempts to come out of the encircled premises. He was, however, arrested by police as he jumped out and was quickly removed to a nearby police station. Earlier Mr. Geelani too was arrested by police as he emerged of his Hyderpora house in uptown while making a similar attempt.

Sayeda Aasiya Andrabi, the chief of all-women Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the Faith), is a statement here asked Pakistan to recall its envoy in Delhi in the wake of “brutality unleashed by India’s occupational forces across the nook and corner of the Valley”. She also asked the separatist leadership to announce a programme that would help towards sustaining the present ‘movement’ which, she claimed, has got support of Muslims of Jammu region as well and also of the people living on the other side of the Line of Control in PoK. This, she asserted, was happenings at a time when International community is also attracted to the situation prevailing in the Valley.

Meanwhile, the separatists have extended the strike call for another two days (Thursday and Friday). The call was initially issued for three days from July 9 to mourn and protest over Wani’s killing but was extended by two days on Monday in view of the large scale killings. The authorities have said that curfew restrictions will continue to remain in force in the Valley areas on Thursday and Friday but may consider a rotational relaxation for Thursday to enable the people to buy food and other essential commodities.

Separately, the authorities have extended summer vacations in colleges till July 17 and said these will now reopen on July 18 when schools are scheduled to resume classes after the two-week long break.