RNI Title Code: JKENG 01109/09/1/2014-TC

Volume: 02 | Issue: 06 | 13th Feb - 19th Feb 2015 | Friday | English Weekly | Pages: 08 | Rs. 3/- | Baramulla

Feb 13 - 19 Feb 2015 P/2

Tourist guide killed after snow avalanche

hit Gulmarg

A local tourist guide was killed after he came under a snow avalanche in Apharwat Mountain of world famous ski resort Gulmarg in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, an official said.

The Deputy Manager of Jammu and Kash-mir State Cable Corporation (JKSCCC), Suhail Ahmad Wani, told GNS that at a local tourist guide came under avalanche at Hapatkhud which lies outside ‘protection zone’ near Sarsoon picket of army at Apharwat in Gulmarg.

Wani identified the deceased as Bashir Ah-mad Bakshi, son of Nazir Ahmad Bakshi, resi-dent of Watalpora in Tangmarg area of Baram-ulla district.

He further said that the rescue operation was immediately launched by police and Gan-dola rescue team. “The helicopters were also been pressed in service,” he informed. Wani said earlier there were apprehensions that some people might have been trapped but no one was found later.(GNS)

Lok Adalat held at Baramulla; 90 cas-es taken up

A Lok Adalat was held under the chair-manship of Ist Additional and Session Judge Baramulla, Parveez Hussain Kachroo at Court Complex Baramulla. The Lok Adalat was held on two benches. While Parveez Hussain Kachroo attended the First Bench, Raja Tasl-eem Sub-Judge attended the Second Bench of the said Lok Adalat. 90 cases of various natures were taken up during the Lok-Adalat, during which maximum cases were settled on the spot. The Ist additional and Session Judge directed the general public that they should seek maximum benefits from the Lok-Adalats, so that both their money and time can be saved. He also informed the general public that a Lok-Adalat is going to be held on 14th February at Baramulla. On the oc-casion, members of the Bar Association, Cli-ents and huge public gathering was also seen on the occasion

Cross LoC Trade Resumes

The cross Line of Control (LoC) trade be-tween Srinagar and Muzaffarabad resumed on Thursday after six days. The trade was sus-pended over the arrest of a driver from Muzaf-farabad following the recovery of drugs from his vehicle.

Talat Parvaiz, Deputy Comissioner, Baram-ulla said, “The cross-LoC trade resumed this morning as 15 trucks from this side started their journey towards Chakoti.”

The trade and travel on Srinagar-Muzaf-farabad road between the two sides of Kashmir was suspended last Friday over the arrest of a driver after 305 packets of brown sugar were recovered from fruit boxes in his truck.

Since then 22 drivers from Muzaffarabad were stranded at Salamabad Trade Facilitation Centre in Uri on this side while 49 drivers from Kashmir’s this side were held up at Chakoti.

The deadlock ended after authorities agreed to resume trade activities. The stranded driv-ers along with their vehicles on both sides of the LoC returned to their native homes late Wednesday night.

Meanwhile Anayat Hussain, the driver from Muzaffarabad, and local trader Zahoor Ahmad Malla, who was to receive the consignment, continue to remain in police custody. A case under Section 8/21 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has been registered against the duo and investigations are on.

Man dies in police custody. Cops sus-pended, investiga-tion going on

Scores of people took to streets Wednes-

day in Kupwara against the death of a man in police custody in the northern Kashmir district. According to the protesters the youth Nazir Ahmad Mughal of Zirhama was ar-rested by police few days back in connection with a case. “Today morning Nazir was brought dead to the Sub-District hospital Kupwara”, locals said, alleging that he was killed in custody. A senior doctor of the hos-pital said that Nazir was brought dead this morning. “Around 7:00 pm yesterday police brought Nazir to the hospital for treatment, after giving him injections and other med-icines, doctor advised him X-Ray, ECG and other tests for analyses. However, policemen accompanying him took away without bring-ing him back”, he said, adding that this morn-ing the youth was brought dead to the hos-pital by the policemen. Senior Superintendent of Police, Rahul Malik told reporters on 10 Feb one murder accused Nazir Ahmad Mu-ghal son of Abdul Rehman adopted son of Bahadur Khan aged 32 years of Gujjar Pati, Zirhama, Kupwara arrested in connection with the murder Case under FIR No 76/2014 U/S 364/302 RPC of P/S Trehgam. The

man was called by police post Zirhama for questioning in connection with the murder case. Yesterday he has complained abdomen pain and was immediately taken to hospital for treatment

Two officers killed in Chopper crash

Two officers were killed as an Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv of Army Avia-tion crashed at Safapora Heights in Bandipore district on Wednesday evening. The chopper, which was on a night f lying training mission, took off from Manasbal base at about 7 pm and crashed within about an hour after taking off.

A pilot and a co-pilot, who died in the crash have been identified as Lt Col Rajesh Gulati and Major Tahir Khan.

“The chopper took off at 7 pm from Manas-bal base. It was on a night f lying training sor-tie. The chopper lost contact after 40 minutes of f lying and crashed minutes after having lost contact. A search and rescue mission was car-ried out by ground forces,” said an Army spokes-person in the northern command.

At Manasbal, Army’s Aviation wing is op-erating an airstrip that is used to keep an eye on the operations in north Kashmir and the Line of Control.

ALH Dhruv, a twin engine chopper is man-ufactured by state-owned Hindustan Aeronau-tics Limited (HAL). While technical snags have been prime cause behind the crashes, officials said that the reasons behind the present crash could be “environmental, technical or human” and can be determined only after the inquiry is complete.

Palhalan observes shutdown

Asif ShahbazA complete shutdown was observed on third

consecutive day against the killing of a youth here at Palhallan. All shops, business establish-ments, banks and tuition centers remain closed to mourn the death of Farooq, an ace cricketer.

Meanwhile a large contingent of police blocked all entrance points towards Palhallan locality. The relatives of deceased alleged that they were not allowed to visit the victims family.

“We were not even allowed to reach at fu-neral prayers, later we used other route to reach here” a relative told The Varmul Post.

Moreover intermediate clashes between se-curity forces and group of youths were witnessed throughout the day. Police lobbed a several um-ber of smoke canisters and pepper gas to disperse youths.

Drawing his attention towards the current situation, locals appealed DC Baramulla to keen-ly look into the matter as the excessive use of pepper gas has caused health problems among elderly persons.

WEEKLY SNIPPETS

P/3

Srinagar: Blaming the separatist lead-ers for provoking youth, the Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar Tuesday said that police has lodged an FIR in the case and whosoever is found guilty will be punished. The DGP said, “Loss of any life is unfortunate. I regret the loss of the innocent life of Palhalan youth. Police is ready to do whatever is possible for the slain youth’s family. I have ordered the police investigation into the killing and have asked investigating authorities to submit the report as soon as possible,” he said and added that the investigations have started. He further

said that the police will find all the cir-cumstances that led to his killing. “The initial reports said that there was heavy attack from the huge mob over the police party deployed in the area but everything will be cleared and case will be thor-oughly investigated,” he said. Terming the separatists strike calls unlawful the DGP said, “The strike calls given by the separatist leaders are unlawful. They provoke the innocent youth for their po-litical means and indulge them into the stone pelting. I appeal the youth that in-stead of pelting stones they should focus on their education and health,” he said.

While sharply reacting to the state-ment of DG police in which he blamed the pro-freedom leaders for the Pal-hallan youth’s kill-ing, chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Geelani said that the statement of DG police is an attempt to hide their acts of worst kind of the state-terrorism.

Geelani said, “that we are running

a peaceful political movement in Jammu and Kashmir to achieve our just and genuine goal and we are representing the wishes and sentiments of the majority population of Jammu & Kashmir. We have no power or machinery which we can use to disturb the situation of law and order of the state and the accusation of the police chief is basically an attempt to hide his own faults. It has been the old and successful tactics of the oppressors to themselves disturb the peace and then blame the oppressed people for the situ-ation and punish them so that no one from the oppressed people can dare to raise his voice against them.”

He said that this is the arrogance of power which is speak-ing in a high tone. The pro-freedom leader expressed his surprise that after provoking the people by unjust arrests, night raids, frequent search op-eration and imposi-tion of restrictions and curfew, the police chief is expecting that the situation should remain normal. It is very cheap thinking on the part of a top

police official. He said that the youths are arrested, tortured, abused and insulted in police stations without any justification and they are pushed to walls and their career is ruined. The pro-freedom leader said that the forced occupation of Indian over Kashmir doesn’t have any moral, political and legal justification and the India should now accept the ground re-alities in Kashmir and fulfill the prom-ises which its leadership has made with the Kashmiri people at national as well as international level, that they will be given a chance to decide their future.

SOPORE:Apublicmeetwasorganisedbytrafficdepartment in collaboration with police department Sopore here at the premises of Dak Bungalow on Saturdayinwhichvariousofficials,dignitaries,seniorcitizens took part. The meet was organised in order tochalkoutasolutionfortrafficmessinthetownand making public aware about the rules and regu-lationoftrafficbesidesvariousotherburningissuesthat have engulfed Sopore town badly. In his inau-gural speech, Superintendent of Police Abdul Qayoom emphasized the need for closer rapport between the police and the general public for better maintenance of law and order so that problems can be sort out and a roadmap can be arranged to solve them. Address-ingthefunctionDySPTrafficSohailAhmadsaidthatpassing bucks on each other is not the solution for

this mess, but working together is the key. “I hope that people from all walks of life will come forward and help us in making Sopore a better place. It is our townsoitisourdutytosolvetheproblemoftrafficjams”, he added. As reported earlier by The Varmul

Post about the Sopore SRTC yard to be allotted as a parking lot, SP Sopore Ab Qayoom said that will use the space as a parking lot. “We will use SRTC yard for parking the vehicles, so that tomorrow no one can say that we have no place to park our vehicle, when punished for illegal parking”, he said. About the Suggestion put forward by The Varmul Post to implement One-Way route system in Sopore town, SP Sopore Ab Qayoom lauded the suggestion. “A good suggestion was put forward about the One-Way route andwewilldefinitelylookintoitwithconcernedofficials”,headdedInthismeeting,ARTOSoporeJamshed Chowdhary, SHO Sopore, President Trad-ers Federation, religious scholar Dr Nazir Ahmad were also present besides senior citizens and men from media.

Sopore Administration Agrees to utilise SRTC yard for parking in Sopore, as suggested by THE VARMUL POST.

Palhalan Killing:DC Baramulla sets up enquiry. SDM Pattan to head the committee.

DGP blames Separatist leaders for provoking youth; says strike calls unlawful.Geelani says attempt to hide their acts of worst kind of the state-terrorism.

NEWS

Baramulla. Deputy Commissioner Baram-ulla, Talat Parveez has setup an enquiry com-mittee to investigate the unfortunate death of a youth at Palhalan on 9th Feb.The enquiry committee will be headed by Sub District Mag-istrate Pattan. The enquiry committee has been directed to submit their report at an earliest. The Deputy Commissioner has informed that an FIR has already been lodged in this matter and strict action will be taken against the cul-prits. As informed by the Sub-district Magistrate Pattan, any person who is interested to submit his statement regarding the incident of the death of the youth at Palhallan on 9th February can contact the SDM and submit his statement be-fore the SDM. The SDM has been designated as the Head of the Enquiry Committee set up by the Deputy Commissioner Baramulla to inves-

tigate the death of the youth at Palhalan. The SDM Pattan has assured the public that justice would be done in this matter.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate Pattan Hameeda Begum who has been appointed as inquiry of-ficertoprobethekillingofPalhalanyouthFa-rooq Ahmed Bhat Wednesday visited the bereaved family and asked people there to come forward to record their statements. She was accompanied by Tehsildar Pattan Qaumuddin and Niab Teh-sildar Ghulam Hassan.

SDM Pattan told CNS that she has shot a letter to SDPO Pattan asking him to provide the names along with belt numbers of all those cops who were present on spot when the killing oc-curred. She said that most of the people re-quested to her to provide ex-gratia relief to the bereaved family while some others informed

her that that they are ready to record their state-ments.

“I had gone their to express solidarity with the bereaved family. People there informed me thatIwastheonlyinquiryofficertovisitanybereaved family. Some youth approached me andinformedmethatthecopwhofiredonFarooq was wearing a blue hamlet,” she said adding that she will probe the incident in a best possible manner so that guilty could be booked and sentenced.

SDM Pattan added that she has informed the people to come forward to record their state-ments. “I will complete the inquiry within a week and will submit my report to DC Baram-ulla,” she said adding that nobody is above law andoffenderhastofacethemusic.

Feb 13 - 19 Feb 2015

P/4

As we approached the pro-resistance hub of Palhallan in North Kashmir, there was an ee-rie silence. Sawdust, otherwise used to mark the path to wedding feasts in Kashmir, led us to the house of Farooq Ahmed Bhat who was killed in police firing last week.

A standard 10 student, Farooq was the youngest child of Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, a laborer by profession in this town of North Kashmir. Nicknamed ‘Prince’, his friends still recall his fast bowling and the cover drive for which he was famous. Prince was the heart throb of his people.

Death didn’t even give him one last chance to enjoy a few sips of Nun Chai. After return-ing home from the playground, Farooq asked his mother to give him a cup of tea. The tea wasn’t yet ready prompting him to spend this short time playing volleyball with some friends in a nearby field. Nobody knew that a cup of tea would turn out to be a matter of life and death for Farooq. He never returned to have one more sip of it.

Had Farooq been alive, he would have been outside the state working right now, sighed Tariq Ahmed, his brother. “One of my close friends assured me that he would provide Fa-rooq a good job on the condition that I would sing at his wedding,” said Tariq.

Tariq is a singer of Kashmiri folk songs with stage and television performances to his credit. Instead of listening to Tariq’s music, mourners were seen trying to console him and his family at their residence.

When the whole of Kashmir was observing a shutdown for the second hanging anniversa-ry of alleged Parliament attack convict, Mo-hammad Afzal Guru, Farooq and his team-mates were out in the playground.

Arshad, a stone pelter narrated the scene, “During stone pelting Farooq was taking a rest one a half kilometers away from the ‘bat-tle field’. The security forces chased the stone pelters right from the highway into the vil-lage and fired indiscriminately towards all sides, killing Farooq and injuring three other youth.”

“He did not participate in stone pelting.

Why did the security forces use live ammuni-tion instead of non-lethal weapons? How can a responsible officer order his men to fire bul-lets directly into a group of young boys,” he asked.

Farooq was extremely shy, say his friends. Once his brother Tariq Ahmed came to watch a cricket match in which Farooq was playing and told his friends to ask ‘Bhai Jan’ to leave as he couldn’t play with ease. This was the level of Farooq’s respect for his elder brother. Cricket was his passion. A boy who participat-

ed in many district level cricket champion-ships besides an under seventeen cricket championship in Jammu, loved cricket to such an extent that whenever he would watch TV, it would almost always be a cricket match. Re-calling Farooq’s passion, Tariq said that poli-tics was never on his mind. Cricket was every-thing.

With two unmarried sisters, Farooq was the hope of Bhat family. The wails of his mother, Halima and sisters cut through the si-lence which had engulfed this village. The moist eyes in front of the two-storied house portrayed the pain where his friends served Sharbat to the mourners.

“Being a resident of Palhallan is a sin. The forces raid our houses, beat us, put us behind bars, chase us everywhere. We will never bow down to their oppression. Let other parts of Kashmir surrender before the tyrant’s rule but we never will. Resistance is our food. It is in our genes. The more they will suppress us, the more we will rise,” said Ishtiyaq, a friend of Farooq.

How all it happened: Locals said that a po-lice team thrashed Ghulam Mohammad Bhat and his daughter Safeena during a nocturnal raid at their house on Sunday. As the news spread, hundreds of people from various local-ities of Palhalan took to the streets on Mon-day afternoon and pelted stones at the police and paramilitary forces who had been de-ployed to thwart protests on the second anni-versary of hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru. However the situation took an ugly turn when Special Operations Group person-nel chased the protesters down the lanes of Palhallan and fired indiscriminately injuring Farooq Ahmad Bhat, Riyaz Ahmad Bhat and Zahid Ahmad Bhat, all residents of Palhalan. However, Farooq Ahmad Bhat son of Ghulam Muhammad of Palhalan Pattan breathed his last on his way to hospital.

Farooq was laid to rest at the martyrs’ graveyard Palhallan. Thousands of people took part in the funeral.

COVERSTORY Feb 13 - 19 Feb 2015

With two unmarried

sisters, Farooq was the

hope of Bhat family. The

wails of his mother, Hali-

ma and sisters cut through

the silence which had en-

gulfed this village. The

moist eyes in front of the

two-storied house por-

trayed the pain where his

friends served Sharbat to

the mourners.

P/5

Kashmir’sKANDHAR

Feb 13 - 19 Feb 2015

K i l l i n g

CONDEMNEDCondemnations continued to pour in both from pro-freedom and mainstream parties

here against the killing of a youth in forces’ firing in Palhalan area of North Kashmir on February 9.

Farooq Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Palhallan was killed in indiscriminate police firing on a group of protestors demonstrating against the harassment of man and his daughter during a nocturnal raid on Sunday this week.

Ameer Hamzah , Provincial president, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat : “India has turned Kashmir into Gaza. From 2008, the youth of Palhalan have become the target

of the forces. Every now and then they kill our youth. Infact Palhalan has become the abode of mar-tyrs now.”

Asiya Andrabi, Chairperson of Dukhtaran-e-Millat: “ We condemn the killing of youth at Palhallan at the hands of forces. People should stand up

against this brutal act.”

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M) : “The draconian powers available with the government troops are giving them license to kill

Kashmiris at will.”

Shabir Ahmad Shah , Hurriyat Conference Jammu Kashmir: “If a beast gets killed in any part of India, the whole country starts raising hue and cry, but in

Jammu and Kashmir, where innocent people are killed by brutal forces, no one raises the voice against it.”

Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Chairman of National Front : “Targeting peaceful demonstrators by bullets was a brutal and shameful act. India is committing

crimes against humanity for last several decades in Kashmir without being questioned.”

Jamaat-e-Islami: “Jamaat appeals all international human rights bodies and forums particularly the Islamic coun-

tries to take serious notice of these grave human rights violations at the hands of the occupying forces of India and take effective steps to stop these violations.”

Dr Nisar ul Hassan, President Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) : “Slaughtering an innocent civilian for raising voice against tyranny is barbaric and wanton

disregard to humanity. This is a cold blooded murder and a crime against humanity which is unfor-givable and unpardonable. Security forces have unleashed a reign of terror and subjugation against Palhalan inhabitants. We cannot be mute spectators to this bloodshed and nation has a collective responsibility to agitate and protest against these innocent civilian killings. The culprits of this hei-nous and grave capital crime should be booked for murder and punished with death sentence.”

Voice of Victims Executive Director Abdul Qadeer : “We condemn killing of a youth and critically injuring three others by security forces at Palhalan.”

Muhammad Farooq Rehmani, Chairman JK Peoples Freedom League: “Targeting a peaceful demonstration by police and army was a brutal and shameful act. The In-

ternational Court of Justice should bring India to justice and the world body should emphasize on withdrawing troops from the disputed region without further delay.”

Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation: “Our youth are being killed for expressing their genuine feelings, which just shows how intoler-

ant and cruel the central government is towards Kashmiri Muslims.”

Ashraf Aakash, Chairman Sopore Citizens Forum (SCF): “We condemn the killing of a youth in Palhallan Pattan and express sympathies with the bereaved

family.”

Saif Uddin Soz , JKPCC Chief : “I condemn the firing by security forces in Palhalan (Pattan) in which a youth was killed. I feel

that to open fire like this can be avoided. Surely the aim to kill is different from the aim to injure. I urge the Governor to institute a proper inquiry into this matter.”

Altaf Bukhari , PDP MLA from Amira Kadal: “Such incidents are a brazen violation of democratic norms and have a tendency to prove coun-

terproductive for peace and tranquility in the State. Incidents like Palhalan create an atmosphere of insecurity and fear among the people and those responsible for this reprehensible act must be identi-fied and brought to book.”

Engineer Rashid, MLA from Langate: “Governor N N Vohra should either resign or sack the officials involved in cold-blooded murder

of the youth. Any enquiry ordered will as usual be a mere joke and will only add salt to the injuries of Kashmiris.”

Ashok Koul, BJP’s State General Secretary (Organizations) : “Such incidents should not happen and security forces should restrain themselves while dealing

with law and order issues. The security forces have to be restrained in their approach and deal human life with respect and consideration of the consequences.”

A day after the killing of Farooq Ahmad Bhat in police firing at Palhalan, The Varmul Post team managed to sneak into this small hamlet despite heavy restrictions and concertina wire barricades placed by the authorities at various points leading to this hotbed of resistance popularly known as ‘Kandahar of Kashmir’.

The funeral prayers of the slain youth had just been finished, attended by around 30,000 people from the adjoining areas. The number, according to locals, would have been much higher had there been no restrictions.

As we got down from our car, a long, moving queue of people showed us the way to the house of Ghulam Mo-hammad Bhat, Farooq’s father. Moist eyes welcomed us. The atmosphere was filled with a deep silence that gave us an understanding of the loss this hamlet had just experienced.

Instead of entering the house of the killed young boy, I decided to move toward the main entrance of the vil-lage. A handicapped person sitting on the pavement of a shop guided me with directions and a smile. The walls alongside the road are marked with graffiti such as, ‘Freedom of Kashmir’, ‘Save Gaza’, ‘Khilafah’, Geelani-Our Leader’, ‘Election Boycott’ etcetera.

The main entry point leading to the village was cut off by 10-feet-high blockade of tin sheets, which were erected by the police early that morning to prevent the protesting youth to pour onto the Srinagar- Baramulla

highway. I saw scores of young boys pelting stones at the cops. A kid aged around 12 shouted at us, “Lunch break hai, dou baje phir shuru hoga (it’s lunch break, stone pelting will again begin at 2’o Clock in the after-noon).” The boy and his friends asked many questions about the media not highlighting their cause. The eldest among them said, “Raath gou warr (mishap happened yesterday).” So what exactly happened? I asked. It was a targeted killing, he replied abruptly. At 4:30 in the evening, they (the police) rushed into the village firing indiscriminately at us. Farooq and a few other youth got hit by bullets.

Meanwhile, as the “lunch break” ended, this small bunch of kids swelled into a large crowed of around 300 young men and teenagers. Slogans, stones, pepper and teargas shells charged the atmosphere; so did the talk with these young boys.

What about your future, I asked. “They (police) have put a cross with red mark on it long ago, was the spon-taneous reply from another boy. Almost everyone here has a case against him and many are even behind bars. But this won’t stop. A government job is not everything. We can do other things too,” he added

Don’t you fear arrests? This time I added a smile to my question. “No, we don’t have collaborators here and the police won’t come…then a tear gas shell fell in front of us and cut short his sentence.

While we were running away, I could barely open my eyes due to the tear smoke. “Don’t rub your eyes,” said someone from the crowd. “It will hurt you more. We have experience of all this now,” he claimed proudly.

Palhalan youth have gained this ‘experience’ during 2008 and 2010 uprisings when this village was put under curfew for 29 days at a stretch. Since then police often see the youth of this place as suspects making them feel more and more alienated. “They have been pushing us to the wall. What are we supposed to do? We are forced to become anti-India”, said a youth in his mid twenties in broken English.

“No this only stops for a wile but it won’t end. We are on ‘haq’(truth).

PALHALAN DIARY

By Kashif Abdullah

P/6YOURVIEW

Note: All views expressed in this column are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the organisation

BY Zahir-ud-Din

The month of February is important in Kashmir for a variety of reasons. In 1975, the fatigued Plebiscite Front leadership prostrated itself before the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, and surren-dered its 22-year-long struggle, terming it as “political wayward-ness.”On February 16, the Plebiscite Front ratified the Indira-Abullah Accord, and on February 25, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah took oath as the Chief Minister of the state, with Congress support. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto called for a general strike in Kashmir on February 28 against the sell-out.The People’s League had come into being by now to fill the political vacuum the Accord had created, and its young activists vowed to make Bhutto’s call a success. Posters were pasted on electric poles and walls, banners hoisted across streets, especially in the Sopore town, urging people to strike work and keep shop and businesses closed.On February 11, when People’s League activists Abdul Razaq Sopori, Ghulam Hassan, alias Kranti, and Ghulam Muhammad Kar, alias Bulla, were hoisting a banner in a Sopore locality, the police swung into action and arrested the latter two. Sopori managed to get away.According to Ghulam Hassan:“We were taken into custody and shifted to Srinagar immediately. Bulla suffered an attack of epilepsy. I requested the police to give him a tablet. My request was rudely turned down. I was taken to the Hari Nivas torture centre and Bulla was shifted to the Central Jail.”Bulla’s woes did not end even in jail. He received no medication, and continued to be subjected to torture, and finally succumbed on February 15.That very night, the police came calling on Bulla’s father, Ghulam Rasool Kar, forcing the scared family into a vehicle carrying his son’s dead body, which had been washed in jail and lay wrapped in a shroud. They were not allowed a last look of his face.The police allowed eleven members of the family to take the body to a cemetery near the Government Degree College in Sopore where a grave had been dug in advance. When they sought permission to bury Bulla in their ancestral graveyard, the police silenced them with rifle-butts. People in Nau Hammam protested, but authorities imposed curfew in the area, preventing them from coming out, and

the burial was carried out under strict curbs.The next morning, the news spread like wild fire in Sopore, and the entire town came out in protest, demanding an impartial probe. The government was forced to appoint Mohan Singh, the then sub-divi-sional magistrate (SDM) in Srinagar, as inquiry officer, but the police prevented people from appearing before the investigation.The scores of ‘witnesses’ the station house officer (SHO) at Hand-wara produced during the inquiry all sought to bail out the police. (The findings of the inquiry have not been made public till date). Sometime later, the deputy commissioner concerned, Abdul Hamid Banihali, called on Bulla’s family and offered (monetary) relief, but it declined.The Valley observed an ‘unprecedented’ strike on February 28 in response to Bhutto’s call, but just a few days later, when Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah arrived in Srinagar, he was accorded an ‘unprecedented’ reception.On February 11, 1984, the JKLF ideologue, Muhammad Maqbool Bhat walked to the gallows in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, and was laid to rest in the prison grounds. The execution was bad in law.Noted lawyer and former Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffar Husain Beig drafted an SLP on the issue, and Kapil Sibal, Advocate, appeared in the Supreme Court.According to Beig:“No one can be hanged until the concerned High Court confirms the death sentence awarded by the sessions court. I annexed a certificate from the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir stating that Maqbool’s death sentence had not been confirmed. Despite that, the petition was rejected the day it was filed, by a Special Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Chandrachud who was the Chief Justice of India then.“The Attorney General of India, who represented the Union of India, took out an unsigned piece of paper, claiming it to be the High Court’s confirmation of the death sentence. The Hon’ble (Supreme) Court took cognizance of the Attorney General’s paper, and dismissed the petition without any further argument.”The document produced by the Attorney General, Beig believes, was just a piece of paper:“Though neatly typed, it bore no signature, no seal, nothing. I was amazed how this paper, unsigned, unauthenticated, could override the otherwise properly-certified document issued by none else than the Registrar of the High Court, who is supposed to have complete knowledge of the court records. But the court was satisfied with this, and accepted the Attorney General’s plea.”

Courtesy: Kashmir Reader

Changing of Mindset

Tearful February

Feb 13 - 19 Feb 2015

P/7Feb 13 - 19 Feb 2015

By Mohamad Elmasry

Three Muslim Americans were murdered on Tuesday in a University of North Carolina dorm room. The crime came on the heels of re-cent anti-Muslim attacks in Europe, carried out in apparent response to the January mur-ders (committed by Muslims) of Charlie Hebdo journalists in Paris.

Western media outlets will likely frame the most recent perpetrator of what some specu-late is an anti-Muslim crime in the same way they frame most anti-Muslim criminals - as crazed, misguided bigots who acted alone. If past coverage is any indication, there will like-ly be very little suggestion that the killer acted on the basis of an ideology or as part of any larger pattern or system.

But what if acts of anti-Muslim violence are consistent with at least some strands of cur-rent western ideology? What if Islamophobia has become so commonplace, so accepted, that it now represents a hegemonic system of thought, at least for relatively large pockets of people in some regions of the West?

Portraying Islam

Given what we know both about western media portrayals of Islam and Muslims on the one hand, and media effects and theory on the other hand, it would be foolish to dismiss west-ern media representations as potential causal factors in anti-Muslim sentiment and crime. In fact, it is likely that anti-Muslim sentiment and crime are, at least in part, driven by one-sided, narrow, sensationalistic, and arguably bigoted western media portrayals of Islam and Muslims.

Many scholars - including Edward Said, Elizabeth Poole, Kai Hafez, Milly Williamson, Karim Karim, Teun Van Dijk, Kimberly Powell, and Dina Ibrahim, among others - have carried out academic studies examining western news coverage of Islam and Muslims.

Results suggest that Muslims are often por-trayed in western news media as violent, back-wards, fundamentalist and as threats to west-ern civilisation. Western news coverage rarely highlights Islam except to show its possible re-lation to some atrocity, and Muslims are rarely mentioned in the context of news that is posi-tive or benign.

Several studies have found that Muslims are portrayed as a homogenised body, lacking di-versity and difference, with other analyses showing that news coverage of violent conf licts in the Muslim-majority world ignores context and circumstances, implying that Muslims are inherently violent and prone to conf lict.

Inconsistent coverage

Other studies show inconsistent coverage of violent global and regional conf licts. When Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims are killed by Muslims, Islam is identified as play-ing a direct role. When Muslims are killed by Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims, how-ever, the religious identity of the violent perpe-trators is downplayed or ignored.

The ongoing conf lict in Burma represents a good case-in-point. There has been little west-ern news coverage on the recent persecution faced by Rohingya Muslims, who Human Rights Watch says have been subjected to mass killings; “crimes against humanity” and “eth-nic cleansing”.

Most recently, American television news networks have underlined a possible associa-tion between groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL, on the one hand, and Islamic religious doctrine on the other. Analysts claiming that “Islam is the problem” are given prominent platforms on news talk shows, while expert Muslim voices are systematically ignored.

Notably - and in spite of the fact that each act of Muslim-perpetrated terrorism is con-demned strongly by all notable Islamic univer-sities, Islamic scholarly councils, Islamic or-ganisations, Muslim governments, and promi-nent Muslim jurists - regular cries are heard from media personalities complaining that Muslims do not condemn terrorism.

Prominent media personalities

Remarkably, some prominent media person-alities systematically ignore Muslim condem-nations of terrorism and then scream loudly that Muslims aren’t condemning terror. Re-cently, both Rupert Murdoch and Piers Morgan claimed that it is primarily the responsibility of Muslims to root out and defeat the likes of al-Qaeda and ISIL.

In much of the western news discourse, the implication always seems clear; western societ-ies should be suspicious of Muslims - all Mus-lims.

Ignored in these analyses, of course, are the facts that Muslims in many Muslim-majority countries are often preoccupied, battling bru-tal dictatorships (which are often propped up by western nations, including the US), acute poverty, and regular bombing campaigns, all of which have helped create the conditions under which groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL - both of whom kill many more Muslims than non-Mus-lims - thrive.

In much of the western news discourse, the implication always seems clear; western societ-ies should be suspicious of Muslims - all Mus-lims. Various pundits have taken to prominent media to offer up inf lated estimates of the number of Muslim terrorists, with some sug-gesting that “peaceful” Muslims are, in the first place, a minority, and, more importantly, only peaceful because they have misunder-stood the teachings of their inherently violent religion.

Always ignored is empirical evidence - of which there is no shortage - showing that Mus-lims aren’t more violent than non-Muslims and

that the overwhelming majority of Muslims believe terrorism to be an abomination.

The discussions carried out on television news programmes are not surprising given the structural problems associated with western news, and, importantly, the basic imbalance in sourcing. Why, for example, is Hamza Hansen, a top Muslim American public intellectual, not given a regular platform on news networks alongside anti-Islam bigots who have made ca-reers out of dissecting Islamic textual sources they do not appear to be qualified to interpret?

Media portrayals

Importantly, western entertainment media portrayals also receive unfavourable scholarly evaluations. In the most comprehensive and systematic study of Hollywood movies done to-date, media scholar Jack Shaheen examined 100 years of Hollywood film representations of Arabs and Muslims.

He found that the majority of the 900 films he examined portrayed Arabs and Muslims as “brutal, heartless, uncivilised religious fanat-ics and money-mad cultural ‘others’ bent on terrorising civilised westerners, especially Christians and Jews”.

No one could reasonably suggest that west-ern news and entertainment media organisa-tions should ignore negative portrayals of Mus-lims altogether. This would be unreasonable, especially given the importance of global ter-rorism and the involvement of Muslims in their fair share of negative events.

It is not unreasonable, however, to ask for contextualised accounts, fairer portrayals, crit-ical examinations of the root causes of terror-ism, an increase in Muslim voices, and news coverage that does more to separate ordinary Muslims from groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL.

According to the scholarly literature, the patterns of representation are fairly clear. Some fair, balanced news coverage and sympa-thetic entertainment media portrayals of Mus-lims notwithstanding, Islam and Muslims are generally portrayed negatively and stereotypi-cally, including in some of the most powerful western media.

At what point do we begin to hold media or-ganisations at least partly accountable for the anti-Muslim sentiment that is gripping many western nations?

Or, more importantly, when will western media organisations hold themselves to ac-count?

Dr Mohamad Elmasry is an assistant professor in the Department of Com-munications at the University of North Alabama.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

Chapel Hill Shootingand

Western Media Bigotry

P/8

Printer, Publisher, Owner & Editor: Muneeb ul Haq Published from: Mohjoo Complex, PWD Road Baramulla-193101 (J&K)Printed at: Gousia Printing Offset Press, Batpora Sopore, Dist Baramulla- 193201 (J&K).

New Declaration No.: DCB/LRA/2014/348-54 RNI Title Code: JKENG01109/09/1/2014-TC Contact +91-7298910301

Feb 13 - 19 Feb 2015

Sachin Tendulkar and his left pad first charm

Virat Kohli and his favourite pair of gloves

R Ashwin with his lucky bag during the 2011 World Cup

Virendra Sehwag and his numberless jersey

MS Dhoni with his lucky number on the back

Yuvraj Singh and his birthday number on his jersey

Sourav Ganguly and the photo of his Guruji in his pocket

Zaheer Khan’s lucky handkerchief

Mohammad Azharuddin and his black tabeez

Rahul Dravid and his right thigh pad first rule

Sports

Superstition is common in every sport and is known to help increase self belief among players. How much they rely on it is something only they themselves

know but their performances always make us wonder if luck its part or not! Cricketers are a superstitious lot. As if their skills with bat and ball are not enough,

theyhavesomeveryspecificsuperstitionsthattheybelievehelpthemwinmatches.Thosebeliefsmightnotbetruebut,hey,ifthathelpsthemfocusandwin

games, we’re not going to complain, are we? Here are some famous cricketers and their superstitions:

Superstitious Team India

Despite all his talent, even the Master Blaster believes that put-ting on his left pad before the right one brings him luck. He also got his lucky bat repaired before the 2011 World Cup as that was the one tournament he has always wanted to win.

The Tendulkar of our generation also believed in being superstitious once! He used to keep wearing the same pair of gloves with which he wore when he started scoring well. But after a point of time, he prob-ably realised that his talent and commitment was all he needed to succeed. No one knows where that pair is now!

R Ashwin carried a bag which he believed was not only lucky for him, but for the entire Indian team as well. Even though he only played two games during the World Cup, he carried it for all the matches which India ended up winning.

Yuvraj Singh’s birthday falls on 12th December and he believes that to be his lucky number. He also sports a kalava, which is a black thread that he wears on his wrist.

They call him the God of the Offsidethankstohisgraceandhebelieved in pocketing his luck. He always made sure his guru’s photo was in his pocket whenever on the field.Healsoworeringsandmaa-las which he believed were lucky.

The left-arm Indian paceman made it a point to carry a lucky yellow handkerchief during every crucial match. He has come through for India with some amazing spells and has had a successful career as well. All thanks to that handker-chief!

A ball hurled towards his legs usually ended up at the fence. He wasbrilliantinthefieldaswellandalways wore his black tabeez. How-ever, whenever he was batting, he let it hang out of his jersey to bring him better luck.

The Wall is one of the most technical batsmen cricket has ever seen. But the key to his unbreakable defence was that before going to bat, he always wore his right thigh padfirstandnevertriedoutanewbat ahead of a series.

He used to wear the number 44 jersey but that wasn’t turning out to be too lucky for him. So after consulting a numerologist, he de-cided to wear a numberless shirt and since then, the bowlers rarely got to see the back of that jersey.

Mahi has surely been an amaz-ing captain and if luck has played its part, then he surely has the number 7 to thank. He was born on 7th July and hence sports that number on his jersey.