A Lawless Law in A Lawless Land

What does one do for revenge? Or for wanting something from someone against his will? Or for hating someone’s guts? Or wanting to ‘teach a lesson?’ Or for bullying someone at school? One can either act on them or just be content without doing anything. A lot of them appear vague reasons, meriting no response. (Some of these reasons are stronger than what our government uses to arrest people (it uses no reason) as you will read later on).

How does one act to fulfil these wishes, if one can not be merely content? A person may kidnap another to ‘teach him a lesson,’ or ‘demand money’ or  ‘ just kill him.’ This person then will be considered a kidnapper or a killer, as the case may be. A sane democratic government will hunt this person down and then put him on trial and then behind bars.

Q. But what if a state wants to do ‘all of the above’, and get away with it? What can the state do?

JacKal Police

As Srinagar burns protesting the killing of a 17 year old by the JacKal Police (formerly the JK Police); how far the government has reigned them in, is obvious from this picture:

A policeman carrying an AK rifle is stopped by his colleague from CHARGING AT A WOMAN who was raising anti-police slogans on seeing policemen committing ‘atrocities’ against the protesting youth in Chattabal area of Srinagar. Srinagar remained under siege and angry youth defied restrictions and clashed with police to protest against the killing of teenager Tufail Ahmad Matoo. At least 15 persons including eight policemen were injured in fresh clashes. (Courtesy of Rising Kashmir)

This picture is a testimony of the powers they have courtesy of the state government. If the government was really serious about the innocent deaths in the valley, we would see restrain from the JacKal Police, but that obviously is not the case. We rather hear ridiculous statements from the government. They really are losing grip of their senses.

From a previous post on the JacKal Police:

The Jammu and Kashmir Police has turned over the past decade and a half from an organization supporting the freedom struggle to a people more than happy to kill innocents and it will continue to grow evil. It has already graduated from beatings innocents to killing them, now they just need to expand their reach and increase the innocent death toll. Once India is confident that the police have been trained well to behave as colonial masters, as is the attitude of the army at present; it can reduce the presence of the army, flash a happy face to the world, confident and satisfied at the thought that the same role is being played by someone else. Lessons from the colonial masters, the British, has always inspired India: import officers who can act and behave as colonial masters, obtain the major chunk of the force from the local population and impose evil through them…more

And, the meaning of JacKal in the context of the JK Police:

Old World nocturnal canine mammal closely related to the dog; smaller than a wolf; sometimes hunts in a pack but usually singly or as a member of a pair.

Omar’s Kashmir

Does it look like this boy was murdered?

Click To Enlarge (Warning: Discretion Is Advised)

Or is it just another innocent’s killing?

If he was murdered, as the Indian press is obliged to report, the killer, whose description would defy Sherlock Holmes, must really have a great imagination and wickedness. He had an fool-proof plan: he waits and picks his target on a day of protests, follows him to a crowded playground, hits him on the head as soon as the police charges the crowd. He is able to do all this given even in the highly charged atmosphere. And no one sees him pick a heavy stone and hit him. It doesn’t just stop here: he is so concerned about this death, that he and a friend of his actually take this kid to a hospital and then disappear! The police is now looking for the youth who, out of humanity, took him to a hospital. But, humanity is a concept, the armed forces are not aware of. They just have to please their bosses, and in this case, Omar Abdullah – the murderer to take reigns of Kashmir, with his brother-in-law Sachin Pilot’s blessings nevertheless.

Lies!

Omar how long will you continue lying? Manmohan did promise you all out support, but this is not what you are supposed to be doing!

Just look at the clothes this little kid is wearing, the t-shirt speaks of innocence. Cry a tear for this little soul.

UPDATES:

When Tufail gifted his jacket to a needy boy.

Delhi’s Derelictions

Elsewhere in Srinagar, CRPF men go crazy, start beating people and smashing windows, as thousands defy curfew to bury young Tufail.

UN, We Are Not Indian

A message for the world, all Kashmiris already know this:

Rhetoric, notwithstanding.

Two more fall prey to the bullets of India’s Army, as India’s Prime Minsiter visits the occupied state of Kashmir.

 

Rail Mubarak, a new greeting in Kashmir, wonder whether we will soon have a railway public holiday!

And someone, somewhere was shown his rightful place.

Stay In Or Face Bullets

India Dares Kashmiris To Face Bullets

In an unethical and immoral tone, the state’s Principal Secretary (Home) Anil Goswami went on state run television and warned the people that if they attempt to violate the curfew, security forces would have to respond to ensure that they do not so.

Indirectly Goswami is stated to have hinted at security forces being empowered to shoot at sight any one trying to march towards Lal Chowk.

Etalaat

Israeli Made Tavor Assault Rifle – 21st Century (TAR-21, called Zittara in India) Now Being Used In Kashmir.

Indian Army Recruiting To ‘Attack’ This Blog!

This blog has had the most unusual referrer today: The Indian Army!Perhaps the Army is recruiting people to counter this blog, however I know this blog has not ruffled that many feathers as yet, it is more likely an error (there is no linkback on the ‘alleged’ page), quite amusing one at that!

Section 144 Imposed In Kashmir

Section 144 has been imposed in Kashmir effective 5th October 2008, in view of the upcoming Massive Protest March planned for the 6th of October. Last time a massive curfew was imposed in the Valley to prevent a similar rally. The protests had started way back in the month of June against an order effecting the transfer of land in Kashmir to a Hindu Shrine Board. This time it appears that either the government and the separatists have come to an understanding or the government is quite confident of handling the situation better than it did the last time. It is pertinent to mention here that the Indian Armed Forces occupied the vale of Kashmir illegally in the October of 1947 by flying troops to the Srinagar Air Field, that one act was to change the destiny of Kashmir. Will this October Rally herald a new beginning for Kashmir?

 

I Shot Him Because His Name Incensed Me

From a reader’s words

…I was reminded of a conversation with a major in the Indian army whom I met at a friend’s place in Delhi, recounting how he killed a Kashmiri driver during a routine check because he was incensed at the driver’s Muslim name and how this was listed as yet another “encounter” death. That was about eight or nine years ago at the height of the BJP’s rule at the center. Gruesome as it was listening to his slow- motion account of that “encounter”, what struck me at that time was that the man felt no shame or remorse. Instead there was a sense of bravado. That was the first such “encounter” he had had and remembered it as one would remember a first love.

This major went on to join the elite Black Cat commando force set up to counter terrorism.

Read the complete post here

Innocents are killed, killers are rewarded, this is the story of life in Kashmir!

• We need a kill , operations have dried up, the shocking story of India’s army in Kashmir.
• A young student was shot point blank , instead of an investigation, the killers were rewarded.
• Does a 19 year old deserve to be tortured, burned and then killed ? India’s Army thinks he does.

Was It Just A Few Hectares Of Land? – I

The city of Srinagar abounded with sparkling lakes, today just one survives, the rest having died unnoticed and silently. This one lake, the oft-quoted and oft-photographed, Dal Lake has withstood the onslaught of man’s greed and nature’s fury for centuries. This lake perhaps is the symbolic representation of a Kashmiri – one who has survived decades, nay centuries, of onslaught by foreign rulers, and continues to sparkle, like the lake, hiding its scars far within. Kashmir would see an era of Peace only when the seat of power was held by one of its own. Never have foreign rulers been able to control it for good and nothing has ever dampened the spirit of the people of this humble valley. A Vale surrounded by such tall mountains that it should never have been discovered by ‘the others’ to begin with. Invaders of all religions, colours, hues, wishes and desires have trampled this humble valley but never could they escape from the fire that burns within the heart of every Kashmiri, the desire to be free. Having lived under subjugation and enslavement, the Kashmiri body may have been enslaved, not the Kashmiri soul!

The year 1947 saw such turn of events, that Kashmir, instead of seeing a breather after an excruciating survival under the Dogras saw it being occupied by a country it did not know. A country it never had any ‘unconditional’ economic, social, political, cultural or religious ties with, any that it might have had were forced. The country was India and 61 years have passed without the slightest ebb in the hatred for the state of India in the hearts of Kashmiris.

Non-violent protest never seen in the past; art of subjugation learned from Israel by India; and a silent international community are the hallmarks of Kashmir since last three months. Was it a simply a case of the few hectares of land that were transferred or the blocking of the National Highway that has given birth to such staunch resentment in Kashmiri hearts? Are they willing to die of starvation rather than come on the table just because of these two issues? Even the rampant un-employment in the state never led to such massive civil disobedience. What is it then exactly? Is Freedom the uncomplicated and simple answer to this complicated and intricate problem that has been dragging on even before the states of India and Pakistan were created?

Freedom does suffice as an answer for a Kashmiri. A Kashmiri who is not well read may not be able to explain further this Freedom to a non-Kashmiri; a learned Kashmiri may elaborate to a non-Kashmiri as to what exactly this ‘Freedom’ means, but still the definition would be elusive. It has a thousand contours and colours, rather Oppression in Kashmir has a thousand contours and colours and the only way to even out those contours and the only antidote to this oppression, as all Kashmiris see it, is Freedom.

To think that it was just the Land Transfer or the Economic Blockade is naïve thinking, it would be murderous for India and the people of India to think of these two abstract reasons as the only and main cause of all the effect we have been seeing in Kashmir.

From a previous post on this blog 1521 For 1, written February 0f 2008:

For those who want to know, this is a clear indication that the fight in Kashmir is not just with the 460 odd always on run militants but something greater. What is that greater? That greater is the burning desire in every Kashmiri for Freedom. The never dying desire to breath the crisp fresh air of Freedom; Freedom from slavery, subjugation, torture and oppression or perhaps just the freedom from having to carry an Identity Card for moving outside our homes in our land or still just perhaps the freedom to know that every morning won’t bring the news of deaths by bombs and bullets. Increasing number of tourists visiting Kashmir or decreasing number of militants is not an indicator of peace, as the Government is trying to portray. Kashmir is a volcano about to burst, like it did in 1989.

And Kashmir did burst the summer of 2008.

The Killings Continue

Kashmir -Friday, the 12th of September, 2008

The emotions, the rage, the strength and the helplessness of Kashmir.

Stats:

2 Killed.

25 Hit By Bullets.

150 Injured.

2 Million Protesting.

Perpetrator:

India.

Rebirth Of Kashmir

The Rebirth Of Kashmir is a beautiful post by David Lepeska, an American journalist who has done a stint of reporting in Kashmir.

This post of his captures and does justice to the emotions of Kashmiris apart from being a decent analytical view on the present situation in Kashmir -and he is honest to Kashmir, since having stayed and interacted with the people of Kashmir he knows the ground reality – unlike the desktop Indian journalists who, often never having visted Kashmir, write what they feel and think, not what the truth is.

The police and Indian army troops, armed to the teeth and out in force earlier in the day, have melted away. How do you attack someone laughing and dancing joyously as he denounces you and your country?

Yes, many protesters are vehemently denouncing their oppressor, India, and celebrating Pakistan and Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. But these are less acts of allegiance, more expressions of Kashmiri unity, as separatist and Muslim.

So while Kashmir remained beautiful the shadows of the past and a lingering threat darkened the days.

No longer. The floodgates have opened and Kashmiris are releasing two decades of pain, anger, fear, frustration and loss – the pent-up emotions of the conflict generation. It is not a revolution as much as an evolution. We are witnessing the rebirth of Kashmir. For now, the insurgency is over, giving way to a broad-based non-violent movement for azadi.

And for my money, this is how freedom arrives. Not from the barrel in a gun. Not with a knock at your door in the dead of night. But from a seething, jeering, bopping mass of one.

All Over The Place

David Lepeska had also written about Kashmiri Bloggers for The Kashmir Observer. His blog has some other interesting posts and pictures on Kashmir also.

I Will Not Quit…

…since I am just a humble henchman of India, a hypocrite, a chameleon and in unholy matrimony with India.

Omar Abdullah’s lie:

I WILL QUIT IF unbridled force IS UNLEASHED ON MY INNOCENT PEOPLE!

Source

This still isn’t unbridled force for Omar Abdullah, but wait, he wasn’t speaking anything he means, he never does.

Is This NOT Unbridled Force?

Killer Roaming Free – Henchman Of India, No Different Than Abdullah

Shot In The Neck By Indian Forces

Tear Gas And Kill

Is This NOT Unbridled Force?

Youth Shot In Nowhatta, Srinagar POINT BLANK.

Ready To Fire, Finger On Trigger

Beaten For Daring To Buy Food!

Woman SHOT POINT BLANK By CRPF Troopers!

Stop Me If You Can!

No Unbridled Force All This!

I Will Quit If…

Omar Abdullah, a sad progeny of one of the greatest leaders of Kashmir, however controversial, Sheikh Abdullah, is no different than the gun-wielding Special Task Force personnel desperate to kill a Kashmiri. He is no different than the other henchmen of Indians in Kashmir, be it the Muftis, the Azads or the Ansaris or the hundreds of shameless and guiltless Kashmiris on the payrolls of one of the biggest daemon-cracy of World. These same people claimed all these past years that all is well with Kashmir on one hand and on the other helped execute one of the worst possible state-sponsored terrorism on the hapless people of Kashmir. These idiots had forgotten all along, rather stupidly that the desire for freedom can not be quelled by force- direct, indirect or psychological. I call them idiots, for their lack of understanding, for what they have done to our home, not theirs , since their homes stand protected by their paymasters away for Kashmir, for in Kashmir they should never imagine a home.

Omar Abdullah, the chameleon that he is, recently had claimed that

I WILL QUIT IF unbridled force IS UNLEASHED ON MY INNOCENT PEOPLE!

This statement, widely circulated in the press, and put on a blog by another henchman of India, a Kashmiri Leader, who claims the impossible in his introduction:

I am a kashmiri but i love both India and Kashmir.

First of all I do not know how Omar claims Kashmiris to be my people, even if one would ignore the fact that he has no moral right to call Kashmiris my people and take the sham elctions as a yard stick, he lost from the National Conference’s stronghold rather shamelessly. He has not been elected even once and there he goes!

And if all that India has been unleashing all these months is not unbridled force, I wonder what would be! Ofcourse he has not resigned.

Then, to save his vote bank, and gain with a possible BJP government at the centre in the future, National Conference has welcomed the Amarnath Land Accord:

“a very good sign”.

This accord has been called as Immoral and Illegal by noted columnist A. G. Noorani and Mr. Noorani further elobaorates on how India will treat a demand for restoring the Article 370, the political gimmick used by Abdullah since long.

If the State can thus bend its knees before the Sangh parivar on an issue like this, what hopes of justice can Kashmiris entertain when it comes to restoring the raped Article 370 to a status of worth and respect?

And Now, Omar Abdullah Has Turned To Guiding The people Of Kashmir.

‘I do not believe that independence for Kashmir is a feasible or a viable option and I stand by that,’

Whoever told you that the people of Kashmir care for what you think?! Just like the ancient times you have strong political and family relation with India, there was a time when Kings and Queens would marry into different empires to strengthen their ties, that is what you have done, don’t we all know that your sister married Sachin Pilot. Strong ties anyone would say.

‘I believe that you can give Kashmir independence but you cannot give Kashmir freedom under the circumstances that prevail within the subcontinent – India, Pakistan and China,’ Abdullah argued.

So maybe we should shift Kashmir to a more viable location?

Be that as it may, it’s not my job to follow popular mood,’

You are a jobless politician vying for attention and some media space and let me gaurentee you you have got media space.

‘It needs political handling.

You had 61 years, you won’t get a day more Mr. Abdullah. We want no more of your task forces and unholy matrimonies.

What happened was a spontaneous eruption, arising out of the fear that the economic blockade brought into people’s minds,’

Economic blockade! You kidding who? Bullets haven’t stopped Kashmiris demand for Freedom, you think an Economic Blockade will put fear into peoples minds??

it’s not as bad as 1990, because in 1990 people like myself, my party colleagues, we were all fleeing,’

Ofcourse all of your people were fleeing for their lives. Why are you lying though, you didn’t flee. Wait a minute! You were not exactly in Kashmir then, had you even visted kashmir in 1990’s? When was it that you learnt Kashmiri, 2001?

And, A Question For You Omar Abdullah

When was the last time you saw a crowd such as this attend your political rally? And you call it popular mood! It is not facebook where you set your mood, it is a pity you have not yet understood Kashmir and if you and your henchmen don’t, you will soon be fleeing Kashmir, and the next time you return it will be to answer a Tribunal on War Crimes.

Welcome To Indian Kashmir!

Alistair Scrutton on Reuters

Might Of The State

The world’s largest democracy locks up protest leaders without charge, shoots dozens of demonstrators dead, beats and intimidates ordinary citizens and raids homes without warrants.

Welcome to Indian Kashmir, where the biggest separatist protests in two decades have clashed with the might of the state.

Anger Against India

The crackdown may also be counter-productive. Residents say the deaths and violent crackdown have fuelled anger against India and boosted the separatist cause after years of relative peace.

Coercion

“The government of India does not have a strategy,” said Siddharth Varadarajan, diplomatic editor of The Hindu newspaper.

“It is relying heavily on coercion, arresting top and middle-level leaders in the hope it will break the back of unprecedented protests.”

Most Militarised Region

For decades there has been simmering resentment at the hundreds of thousands of Indian troops stationed in Kashmir, making it one of the most militarised regions on earth.

Target Killings

One surgeon, who asked to remain anonymous because of fear of retribution from Indian authorities, said he has received around 400 wounded people in three weeks, 150 of them hit by bullets.

“These are target killings. It’s simple to see,” said the doctor, explaining that many of the chest wounds were from weapons such as AK-47s. “Most of these were intended to kill. They were not to disperse a crowd.”

For complete article click here.

6 Million Men, Women And Children Caged!

Nothing Biting And Bitter, Perhaps The Bitterest, Leaf Was Added To The 60 Years Somber And Traumatic History Of Kashmir On Sunday Midnight.

Not only were many a Kashmiri leader who had led peaceful public rallies over a week earlier were arrested in an overnight crack down but announcement piercing the deathly silence of the night proclaiming curfew in all the 10 districts of the valley were made from megaphone fitted police vans. There is nothing new in the imposition of restriction on public movement in the state. In fact, Kashmir and curfews for indiscriminate use of the later have become synonymous. In the 60-year history, there has hardly been a year when there have not been restrictions on the assembly of people or section 144 has not been in force or when curfew has not been imposed in one or another town.

The curfew in force all over Kashmir for the past seven days is unprecedented. Terming the caging of 60 lakh men, women, children, young, old, toddlers and infants and denying them food and medicine, as curfew can be a misnomer. It will be too mild to call it even an emergency. Martial law in no way is different than the situation that has been prevailing in Kashmir during the past week.

Humanity was torn to shreds when hundreds of patients suffering from serious ailments could not be shifted to hospitals. Stories instilling awe and fear about many pregnant women gasping for breaths on roadsides and even breathing their last have been galore.

Reports about men in uniform beating doctors have disturbed the entire medical fraternity. It was for the first time that restrictions had been imposed even on the movement of hospital ambulances.

There are reports about the paramilitary forces firing on ambulances which were not contradicted. It is not an overstatement but a hard reality that because of scarcity of baby food in the valley and restrictions imposed by the government many crying infants were lulled to sleep by their mothers’ empty stomach. Many chronic patients depending on daily medication had to go without medicines during the unparalleled curfew.

Kashmir, particularly during past two decades, has seen many a grave situations when not only the law enforcing agencies but the entire state as such had gone out of gear. But during those tough times too, newspapers continued their publications. In recent history, it was for the first time when no newspaper was published because of strict restrictions on the movement of newsmen and other newspaper staff. It was nothing but muzzling the media when the government, besides banning private news and current affairs cable channels, very tactfully prevented publication of newspapers. The situation as has been obtaining in Kashmir since Sunday mid-night is reminiscent of the 1976 Emergency in India.

The question arises what prompted the government to create a situation which reminds one of primitive times when human values were almost irrelevant.

Ostensibly, there was no reason for placing entire Kashmir under an undeclared emergency. The All Parties Hurriyat Conferences and other allied organization were holding absolutely peaceful rallies in support of their known political demands. True, the APHC rallies attracted hundreds of

thousands of people and about a million had responded to the call of conglomerate at Eidgah but these rallies were so disciplined and orderly that not a brickbat was thrown on the security forces at any place.

This has been acknowledged even by the known critics of Kashmiris. There was no law and order breakdown anywhere in the valley. Instead, if one looks dispassionately at the law and order situation in Kashmir in the backdrop of the months gone by, it was much more peaceful. Instead of reacting harshly with strong arm methods to the violence-free political scenario, the government should have capitalized over it and given peace a chance to strike deeper roots. It is high time for New Delhi to reassess the Kashmir situation and find out ways and means for a lasting solution to the nagging problem which cost the Indian nation no less.

Source: Greater Kashmir

SAFMA Is Silent Because…

…all it believed in all the time was P0r n0graphy of Peace…

…and as Kashmir burned on the 14th and 15th of August, SAFMA was busy in a ‘Cultural Peace Mela,’ – a midnight party…

… it is strange that Kashmiri Journalists are still asking questions from organisations that never had any respect for or a desire to see peace in Kashmir!

Media fraternity in Kashmir has taken a strong exception about South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) remaining silent over curbs on media in the Valley .

Gujrat In Kashmir

“I pleaded before the troopers that I am expecting a baby and have to immediately reach the hospital. But they hit my stomach and private parts with rifle butts and batons. I helplessly cried for mercy but they continued to thrash me. Finally I started to bleed profusely and fell unconscious,” she said and broke down.

Source Greater Kashmir

What can you say about a woman eight months pregnant who begged to be spared. Her assailants instead slit open her stomach, pulled out her fetus and slaughtered it before her eyes.

Source Boloji

But this then is the character of the Nation called India, it matters not whether the assailants are wearing government approved uniforms or not, they have the approval from the corridors of power. Be it the blue turbaned Manmohan Singh or the poet Atal Behari.