The Kashmir Valley on Sunday witnessed another day of violent clashes, leaving 10 people injured, three of them critically. But since the publication of local newspapers has been banned in an unacknowledged media gag, which has also partially shut the Internet, cellular phone services and cable TV network, there are chances of the news travelling to the nook and corner of the Valley and beyond little or largely exaggerated.
Already the clash between a group of protesters and soldiers at Saderkot in northern district of Bandipore on Sunday afternoon was initially reported by some media outlets, including national TV channels, on the basis of a wire copy as an attempt of the former to storm an Army camp “which prompted the jawans to open fire”. The report said, at least, one person was killed and two others were wounded in the Army firing. There is no Army camp there at the place where the shooting took place and, in fact, no one was killed in the shooting.
As has been corroborated by the local police, the Army jawans had gone to Saderkote Bala along the Srinagar-Bandipore Road to obtain gelignite or blasting gelatin from local quarry miners after ignoring their (local police’s) pleas to avoid it. On way, they were confronted by an irate crowd and the clash followed.
The youth, who were chanting pro-azadi slogans, allegedly hurled stones at the soldiers and the latter opened fire in “self-defence”, leaving four persons wounded. They were rushed to Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital, where the condition of one of them is stated to be critical. Locals have told the police that no stones were hurled at the Army, although the protesters were hysterically chanting pro-freedom slogans and some youth in the crowd started jeering at the soldiers. This is the first major incident in which civilians have been injured in direct Army firing which, according to police officials, could have been avoided.
As many as 41 deaths have taken place and nearly 2,000 people have been injured in firings and other actions resorted to by the J&K police and CRPF in their attempts to contain a new phase of unrest in the Valley, triggered by the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the new-age poster boy of militancy, on July 8. Officials say that over 500 incidents of stone-pelting and mob violence took place during the last nine days in which one policeman also lost his life and over 1,550 security personnel were injured.
On Sunday, local newspapers failed to hit the stands for the second consecutive day and curfew continued to restrain people to their homes in the summer capital and other cities and towns of the Valley. This was the ninth day of the curfew in force in these areas and residents clearly have been caught in the worst living conditions with no or little eatables available to them. At places, even potable water supply has been disrupted and the authorities have failed to offer an explanation for the same. However, there have been reports pouring in from some old Srinagar areas which talked about the security forces taking a lenient view and showing a soft attitude by allowing women and children to leave their roadside homes on Sunday morning to fetch milk, vegetables and other eatables from alleyways where there is usually no presence of the men in khaki to enforce restrictions and which connect the area with the suburbs, including Dal and Nigeen lakes full of floating vegetable gardens.
No English or vernacular newspaper — Urdu or Kashmiri — could be published on Sunday.
The police had on Saturday confiscated the copies of all leading Srinagar newspapers during pre-dawn raids at their press offices in an undeclared information gag which has also shut down the Internet and Cellular phone services partially. Earlier on Friday night, the Cable TV operators were also asked to close the services. However, after remaining shut for about 20 hours, they were allowed to resume work but told to block Pakistani and other “illegal” channels. No formal gag order has been issued but the authorities have privately justified the curbs saying these were unavoidable in order to discourage ‘rumour-mongering’ which, they insisted, was “adding fuel to the fire”. A senior minister in the PDP-BJP government who was approached by media representatives following the raid on newspapers told them “Better you stay at home for some time.” They were also told that in view of apprehension of serious trouble and attempts likely to be made to subvert peace, strict curfew will be enforced during next few days and that in such situation movement of newspaper staff and distribution of newspapers will not be possible.
The editors, publishers and owners of Kashmiri newspapers and other media persons have strongly condemned the gag which, they said, “is not only reprehensible but also against the norms of a democratic set up”.
While only BSNL mobile services are presently connecting the Valley areas within and to the rest of the country, even inter-exchange calls on all landline telephone connections, except the mobile services of the public sector undertaking, were on Sunday suspended following a request from the State government. While landline telephone connections in three north and north-western districts of Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara were snapped on Friday, the inter-exchange calls for all landline connections in rest of the Valley cracked on Sunday. Even the data speed of broadband services available on fixed lines was reduced. While all private mobile phone service providers were asked to suspend the services earlier during the week, the BSNL was exempted from proscribe apparently because these are used also by most government functionaries-ministers, bureaucrats, police higherups.
As the Valley continues to be on the boil, the Centre on Sunday, rushed in 20 companies (approximately 2,000 personnel) of CRPF to Kashmir Valley. Earlier during the week, about 4,000 personnel were flown into Srinagar from Delhi and other parts of the country to supplement the effort put in by J&K police and CRPF men already stationed in the Valley to control the situation. Also, two fully equipped infantry battalions of the Army were brought from Jammu on Tuesday, mainly to protect the camps and other installations apart from for their deployment in most sensitive areas close to cantonments.
A J&K government spokesman here said that all educational institutions in the Valley which were to reopen on Monday after two-week long summer break will now remain closed for one more week and reopen on July 25.
Meanwhile, former MEA minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Sunday said that security forces are resorting to ‘disproportionate use of force’ while dealing with the protestors in the Valley and that the “set rules for forces” seem to have disappeared. He said the BJP-led government at the Centre is in a denial mode and doesn’t want to take the other parties with experience of dealing with difficult situations on board.
Mr. Khurshid who was accompanied by AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation here following directions from the party president Sonia Gandhi said that it was unfortunate to hear about young people losing their vision due to pellets. “Forces seem to be resorting to disproportionate use of force while dealing with the protestors. There are set rules for dealing with crowds, such things seem to have disappeared in Kashmir,” he said.
A report from Dras in Kargil district said that the area close to the Line of Control on Sunday observed a complete shutdown in protest against the killings in the Valley. The call for showing solidarity with the victims of violence had been issued by local clergy and was endorsed by various political and social organizations. Earlier on Friday, the Chenab valley in Jammu region witnessed a shutdown whereas protests were held also in frontier districts of Poonch and Rajouri over the Valley happenings.
An official release issued here said that on the 16th day of Amarnathji Yatra, 4,510 pilgrims paid obeisance at the cave-shrine in Pahalgam hills. With this the number of the devout who have visited the revered place of worship, so far, this season had risen to 172,851. Meanwhile, four more pilgrims have died due to cardiac arrest en-route Amarnath raising the number of such casualties and in mishaps to 15, officils said.
