Kashmir: news only, no discussion

zgx09t

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Family demand justice for Kashmiri teenager killed in 'unprovoked attack'

Death of Asrar Ahmad Khan in Indian-administered Kashmir has intensified scrutiny of authorities


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The father of a teenager killed in Kashmir has demanded justice for his son, after witnesses said he was fired at with pellets and teargas in an unprovoked attack by Indian security forces.

Asrar Ahmad Khan, described as a shy and studious teenager, died last week 11 days before his 18th birthday. He had spent almost a month in hospital, where he was being treated for injuries sustained during the incident on 6 August.

On Wednesday, officials said the boy had been hit by a stone thrown by protesters. Asrar’s cousin, who was present at the time, said there had been no stone pelting in the area. The family produced records that described pellet, shell and blast injuries as the cause of death.

Ajit Doval, India’s national security adviser, said on Saturday that Asrar’s death was unfortunate but demonstrated that the situation was largely peaceful. “If there’s one incident that has taken place, that’s good,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “Zero would be better, but one is good.”

Media outlets have documented accounts from several other families who allege their relatives died due to the actions of security forces. It is not clear if the Indian authorities have changed their position regarding the circumstances in which Asrar died.

His death, the first to be confirmed by the authorities, has intensified scrutiny of Indian officials, who have maintained that the situation in Kashmir is returning to normal. His father, Firdaus Ahmad Khan, said he wanted punishment for his son’s killers. “The government is a liar. He was not hit by a stone but they killed him,” he told the Guardian last week.

Tens of thousands of extra troops were deployed to Kashmir ahead of the revocation of the region’s special status on 5 August, when strict curfews were imposed, apparently to prevent unrest. On Sunday, restrictions in Srinagar were raised to their most severe levels since the clampdown began, as Shia Muslims observed an annual day of mourning. Mobile and internet services remain suspended across the Kashmir valley, home to around 7 million people. Only some landlines have been restored. Thousands of people have reportedly been detained.

The human rights group Amnesty International India has raised serious concerns about the continued communication blackout in Kashmir, warning that it has given the government “a near-total control of all information coming out of Kashmir”.

“This raises grave concerns of human rights violations that may occur yet remain unreported,” the group said.

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Asrar had been playing carrom, a table-top sports game, and then cricket, at a park near his home in Elahi Bagh on the outskirts of Kashmir’s main city, Srinagar, on 6 August, according to his family.

Two witnesses – Asrar’s best friend Muqeet, and his cousin Adil – said a convoy of eight paramilitary vehicles had entered the neighbourhood. Two of them had stopped near the corner of the park.

The paramilitaries inside the two vehicles then fired a teargas smoke shell into the park, they said. “The shell tossed Asrar in the head and then they fired a burst of pellets towards him,” Adil, who had played the last carrom game with his teenage cousin, told the Guardian. “There was no stone-pelting in the area,” he said.

Adil and a neighbourhood friend rushed Asrar on a bike to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences. It is near-impossible to call for an ambulance because of the communications blackout. The Guardian has not been able to independently confirm the account.

A hospital registration card said Asrar had presented with “shell/blast/pellets injury”, adding that he had “multiple pellets on head, eye, brain”.

Asrar immediately underwent an operation and was transferred to the surgical intensive care unit. Under the advice of doctors, Asrar’s family played him his favourite music, a collection of Sufi mystic songs, as he lay unconscious.

He died at 8.15pm on 3 September, a hospital certificate said.

The cause of death, according to the certificate shown to the Guardian by his family, was “pellet injury with shell blast injury”. It noted that Asrar had “severe traumatic brain injury with sepsis with cardiopulmonary arrest”.

Asrar’s body was handed over to his family during the early hours of Wednesday.

Khan described Asrar as an “obedient and disciplined son”. “He never raised his voice and he never talked eye-to-eye with his elders. He played cricket but he was also very studious. He was always top in his class,” he said, adding that he wanted justice for his son.

On Thursday, Khan shook hands with visitors who attended the family home to pay their respects. “Martyrdom was written in his destiny. He was destined to be a martyr,” he told two young men.

Muqeet, Asrar’s best friend, said: “He excelled in sports as well as in education. He wanted to be a doctor and a cricketer.”

Muqeet said his friend deserved justice. “We do not want any compensation. They lied when they said he was injured by a stone. They want to hide the truth,” he said.

Amnesty International India said its previous research had found the use of pellets had been responsible for blinding, killing and traumatising people in Kashmir. “This time, however, it’s hard to ascertain the actual figures of civilian casualties or injuries due to the communications blackout,” the group said.

Hospital staff refused to give information beyond what has been shared by an official spokesperson, Amnesty said. “We can neither cross-check nor verify government or news media claims.”
 

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‘A storm has hit my life': the Kashmiri families torn apart by mass arrests

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An estimated 2,300-4,000 people, mostly young men, have been arrested in region beset by tensions

Azhar Farooq in Srinagar and Rebecca Ratcliffe in Delhi

Tue 27 Aug 2019 06.26 EDT
Last modified on Tue 27 Aug 2019 11.00 EDT

A member of the Indian security forces patrols a deserted road in Srinagar
A member of the Indian security forces patrols a deserted road in Srinagar, Kashmir. Photograph: Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images

There was only one knock at the door before police officers entered Tanveer Sheikh’s home. Armed men climbed through the windows and began searching room to room, asking for Tanveer.

“We have young girls at home and they were woken from sleep,” said Maryam, Tanveer’s mother. “I told the policemen, how could they barge in like this? We could have been naked.”

Tanveer, who is 16 or 17 years old, according to the family, was not at home in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, at the time, so officers took his uncle Naseer instead. The police did not explain why they wanted to detain Tanveer.

“They said: ‘You hand over Tanveer and we will let Naseer go,’” said Maryam.

Naseer’s son keeps asking for his father, who has been held for 11 days. “He is two years old,” Maryam said. “What will we tell him? He will not even understand what has happened.”

Naseer is among thousands of people reportedly detained by police as part of a major crackdown launched after the Indian government revoked the region’s special status three week’s ago.

Prominent politicians, including former chief ministers, are understood to be among the detained, as well as business owners and lawyers. Most of those arrested are young men.

According to local media reports, some prisoners have been flown out of Kashmir to prisons in Lucknow, Bareilly and Agra. It is possible that people are being held under the Public Safety Act, a controversial law that allows authorities to imprison someone for up to two years without charge or trial.

UN human rights experts said last week they were “deeply concerned’” by the developments. Groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also expressed alarm.

A communications blackout, which has lasted more than three weeks, has severely hampered work by activists to document potential human rights abuses. The suspension of phone and internet services has also left relatives unable to call one another.

The revocation of special status from the state of Jammu and Kashmir has stripped it of any autonomy, removing its constitution and rules that have prevented outsiders from buying land. Many Kashmiris fear the change will alter the demographic and traditions of the territory, India’s only Muslim-majority state.

Despite heavy security, sporadic protests have continued over the past two weeks. A sympathiser of a banned political group, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian last week the region was a “burning volcano” that would “erupt any time”.

Delhi’s actions have also escalated tensions with Pakistan, which claims Kashmir and has suggested India could carry out ethnic cleansing.
Outside Srinagar’s central jail, families from across Kashmir queued to visit their loved ones. Aamina said her 22-year-old son, Junaid Nabi Wani, was arrested after Friday prayers two weeks ago.

“He was sitting on the roadside with neighbours and relatives when police came and asked for his identity card,” Aamina said. A police officer then placed his arm around Wani’s shoulder and asked him to take a walk. An armoured vehicle was waiting, she said, and he was bundled into it and taken away. It is not known why he was detained.

“His cousin was with him and he came running to us. We rushed outside and tried to resist but the policemen cocked their guns and pointed them at us,” said Aamina. She was assigned the number 56 by prison staff and asked to wait for her chance to enter the jail. She carried a small lunch box with food for her son.

Sarwar left her home in north Kashmir’s Hathlong village at dawn in the hope of visiting her son, Aqib. She said he was detained in a midnight raid eight days ago. She said no reason was provided for his arrest.

“May God’s wrath fall on them! My son was innocent, trust me he has done nothing,” she said. Her neighbour, Fareeda, had also travelled to meet her son, Bilal, who was detained along with Aqib.

Families waited for hours to see their relatives. “He said nothing. He only cried,” Fareeda said afterwards, breaking into tears. On her arm, a stamp read “ostrich” and “crocodile” – a code that is changed daily that allows entry into the jail.

According to estimates collected separately by Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, between 2,300 and 4,000 people have been detained. Officials said recently there had been “a few” detentions, to prevent disorder.

Amnesty International accused the Indian government of “deliberate silencing of voices in the region”.

Naseer’s family say he is being held to ransom until his nephew is handed over. Such arrests are common, according to several families in Srinagar’s old city, traditionally a flashpoint for anti-India protests.
A family in the Gojwara locality said police raided their home at midnight on 8 August and asked for their 25-year-old son.

“He was not at home, so they detained his father. He is 70 years old,” the family said. They asked to remain anonymous because their daughters had not been informed.

“When they [daughters] come, we tell them their father has gone out for a walk. When some time passes, we tell them to leave and go home early,” a family member said. “The police ask us to bring our son and take the father back,” they added.

Amnesty International India has previously documented cases where fathers were asked to bring another son for detention if they wanted their first son to be released. “These detentions are not just unlawful but also lead to harassment and intimidation of the families,” said Mrinal Sharma, a policy adviser for the rights group.

Meenakshi Ganguly, the south Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said detainees must be allowed access to proper legal counsel and families should be told where relatives were being held. “International law prohibits indefinite detentions and all those in custody should be swiftly released or charged,” she said.

Aamina said she was scared to be at home and had barely slept since her son was taken. “I promise if he is released I will leave this place. I will beg but I will go somewhere where no one knows us,” she said.

Her husband died last year and her other son has spent two years in prison. “I am all alone now,” she said. “A storm has hit my life.”
 

timepass

Brigadier
At last someone talk here on SDF..... Kashmiris are under curfew since 40days (No foods/No medicine/no access to the world/No phone/No internet) .... thousands of Kashmirs are captured & detained at unknown places, several lost there lives ..... under the siege of 900k army personnel and world is sleeping .... no one bother to even talk.....

Here on SDF, people are having discussion on Hongkong protest which prolong to 81 pages and even not single life lost....isn't it pathetic ...
 
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timepass

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