When teenager converted to be John Douglas

It was a chilly evening of January 2011. 16-year-old Imran (name changed) was walking down his colony lane, all alone, pensive, in this summer Capital. His was a typical scene of jilted teenage lover, whose affair with the girl of his age ended after three years of romance –mostly on mobile phone and Facebook –as the duo reached their class 10th. 
Suddenly a friend of his appeared at the site and broke the lull by asking reasons for being gloomy. Imran couldn’t hide but spoke his heart out. His friend responded with a joyful remedy by offering him a phone number of a “pretty girl who loves spending time chatting with boys”. But there was a precondition that she attends call only in the night hours.

CALL OF HOPE
The number brought a new hope in the life of this lover-boy, mostly alone at his home, as his mother has passed away around a decade back while father is often out for business tours. 
Imran was so tempted on getting the contact number that he straight rang her up that very moment. But the voice at the other end had the plea. “I am busy with my parents. Will call you later,” the sweet voice revealed and dropped the phone.
Imran kept waiting for the call. At around midnight the phone tinkled. At was she speaking prettily. The duo kept talking for over an hour till they realized that they could be friends.
The very next day, their date realized at a mall in this Himalayan region City. While Imran had hired an auto to reach the venue, the girl had come in her sedan. 
Finding his new girlfriend driving car, inferiority complex hit the boy who hails from a middle-class family and he did what’s mostly typical of Bollywood flick. “I faked to have left my car at a workshop for some repairs,” he quips.

SEDUCING PARTY 
The couple kept dating for a few days till finally the girl invited him for a party at a hotel. Excited, the 10th standard lover reached the venue well in time. 
The girl had booked a room there. But to his surprise there were no other guests. The charming face opened her purse to take out two small red Vodka bottles and offered one to him, he says.
“Though I hesitated because of not having touched liquor all my life, as she insisted I started boozing with her,” Imran recaps. This date ended with the booze.
The next day, he received a call from the girl. But unlike the past, this time there was a shock. “She threatened me to come to the hotel at once or else my video of boozing will be uploaded on the Facebook… Scared, I rushed there only to find that she had really captured my video and was waiting to click the upload button on the laptop screen,” Imran recaps.
“I stopped her saying what she wanted,” he recaps adding she demanded to share physical intimacy with him. 
“If you want to delete your video, have Vodka and listen to me…,” she told him. Imran says he had to meet her demands to get the video deleted. The tech-savvy, boy didn’t take any risks by deleting the video alone. Instead he formatted the hard disk meaning that entire data was lost.
But this date made him “confident” that he could have multiple girlfriends, he confides. And this confidence worked. “I started flirting with many girls apart from her.”
“But as girlfriends come at a heavy cost, I started running short of money,” says the boy.

NEED FOR MONEY
One Saturday Imran says he needed Rs 1,500 to date a girl. His father was away and so he banked on his friend, the guy who had given him the “pretty girl’s number.”
The friend, however, pleaded pocket money constraints. But after a few minutes, Imran received a call from the girl whose phone number his friend had offered. The seductress had a surprising revelation for the boy in need.
“Apart from offering to pay Rs 1,500, she said if I go to church, I’ll get lots of money,” he recaps. Imran says he refused the second option pleading how would it be possible for him to go there?
“Don’t worry I’ll take you there,” she said. The very next day, it was a Mass at a Church and she took him there.

PASTOR FACTOR
This was where Imran says he was introduced to Father Chander Manni Khanna aka Pastor CM Khanna "who asked me to join spiritual classes and took me as his son.” The Pastor, for now is a key accused in the alleged apostasy case and was arrested for some days by police.
The Pastor, Imran says, started calling him to his residence and even introduced him to a girl whom he claimed was his daughter. “She became my girlfriend and we would roam around in Khanna’s car,” he says.
The Pastor, as per the boy, would often invite him for lunch, breakfast or any other meals. “Once they cooked some meat which had been frozen in ice cubes. On finishing the lunch, I was told that it was swine meat,” he says adding he couldn’t think much about the forbidden meat because of being under the influence of liquor.
“Khanna and I would booze together at his home,” Imran alleged.
“Finally they both(Father and daughter) asked me to convert.”
“They even gave me some literature including the New Testaments to read,” Imran says.

THE CONVERSION
After a few weeks, the boy says, he got convinced. On the second Sunday of the bygone Ramazan, Imran says he was baptized along with three other boys adding after that 8, 28,28 and 30 people converted on the coming Sundays, respectively. By now Imran was given a new name: John Douglas.
On the night of Shab-e-Qadr in Ramazan, he says, the Pastor called him to his home for dinner. “After dinner, Khanna and I kept boozing beer till late at night.” Going home wasn’t any problem. “They would offer me their car to drive.”
Besides, the class 11th student says he was given a ATM card with ***(name with held) inscribed in it, and had some 64,000 Rs in the deposits.
“I got two Samsung Galaxy phones. One for myself and other for a new girlfriend, who later ditched me.”
After a few days, Imran’s mother came in his dream rebuking him that “born from womb of a Muslim mother why he wanted to die death of Non –Muslim?” “Her words irritated me and I abused her a lot,” the boy admits adding the next morning he called on the Pastor and revealed the dream before him.
“He told me it was all satanism adding that I should recite Bible at her grave.” Imran says he straight left for the graveyard and recited atleast 15 pages of the book there.
“I was so fascinated towards the religion that I would feel pride carrying the Testaments along even to school.” This was when some of his friends came to know about his conversion.
“They asked me to revert but I didn’t listen to them.”

BLACK SUNDAYAnd then came the Black Sunday. Imran says he was asked to attend a prayers at a place other than church. 
“There were candles lit up all around and an empty glass was lying inside. As prayers went on someone brought a jug full of red liquid and poured it into the glass.”
When Imran asked what it was, he was told it was swine blood which they all had to drink.
“For a moment I couldn’t even think of touching but then in no time Khanna took some sips, next I drank it and after that many more including Khanna’s daughter did the same.”

CLOSE AIDE
Imran says he became a close aide of the Pastor and would even stay with them. 
One day, as per the boy, Khanna’s daughter called him to his home in the afternoon, saying that she had installed a latest operating system on his new laptop.
When I reached there she asked me to distinguish between two videos of schoolchildren on the laptop.
He couldn’t find any difference. “Then she told me that in one of the videos, kids were leaving for Friday Prayers at Masjid while at some other school the children were playing,” he says adding that he was told the “schools which don’t allow kids to offer the congregational Friday Prayers were given financial support.”
In the meantime, Khanna walked in and said: “Your are my son and I’ll send you to California soon.”

RAGDA HINDRANCE
Imran says he replied that for that he would have to get a passport. But the boy says the June 2008 Radga played a spoilsport. “The concerned police station had listed me among the stone pelters so I couldn’t get police clearance for the passport.”
When Khanna came to know about the hindrance, he intervened asking “me to get six photographs.” “And the very next week, he showed me my passport adding that I would be leaving for California for further studies on November 15,” Imran says but adding in the same breath that the Pastor didn’t handover his passport to him.

HIS POWER 
Imran says Khanna was “all powerful”. Two of his close aides(names with held) would carry guns and his daughter told me that “it was all because of the Father’s influence.”
“If you want we can give you AK 47 riffle licensed, she told me!”
Imran says one day he himself saw “Khanna’s influence doing a miracle”.
“I was driving his car under the influence of alcohol and happened to hit a person near Ram Bagh, a police man at once caught hold of my collar. But I asked him to let me make a call or he would have to repent,” the boy says.
Imran made the cop speak to Khanna and the very next moment he was released. “And you won’t believe I learnt that the man I hit was whisked away by police.”
In the meantime, one afternoon, Imran says he was shown small packets containing white powder like substance named “enjoyment packet.”
While others only smelled its quality, the boy says he was asked to taste one. “It was bitter but made me feel on the top of the world and I started consuming it often.” 

SMELLING RAT
But somewhere in the hearts of his heart, Imran says one question would often strike his mind.
“Why will a person who treats me like his son make me booze, have illegal relationships and roam around like a freak… Will my own father ever offer me wine, money and sex?” the boy whose health has deteriorated due to frequent boozing and other “illegal acts”, argues.
These queries started to remain in the back of his mind, till a revelation made him think the other way. I came to know from one of the persons that my video of getting baptized was lying in the mobile phone of a cleric.
“This alerted me and I realised they were playing a dirty game with me and planned to teach them a lesson because by now I was feeling that my health had deteriorated as I couldn’t even stand properly.”

THE REVENGE
He came up with revenge at one of the baptizing ceremonies as the tech-savvy boy carried a spy cam along. The trick worked. He captured the footage, which subsequently leaked on the internet sites leaving the people including civil society members and clerics concerned. 
At the Court of Grand Mufti Bashir-Ud –Din, Imran had confronted Khanna when the latter appeared before him for hearing. Initially Khanna, the clerics present at the Court said, had tried to refute the allegations but the moment Imran appeared, the Pastor was shocked and confessed his involvement. Khanna was subsequently arrested by police.
On Thursday while the Supreme Court of Islamic Shariat in Srinagar pronounced the Fatwa, two New Delhi based newspapers issued similar reports about Pastor Khanna and even his wife alleging that the family was involved in luring Muslim youth to Christianity through “unfair means”.

WHY REVERSION
But why did you revert? Some of his friends who knew about his activities had been after him that he should meet some Muslim clerics to know what Islam is. “I knew nothing more than Nimaz and recitation of first five paragraphs of Holy Quran which my mother had made me memorize before she died,” he admits.
Imran says luckily he happened to meet a senior cleric and founder of a Darul Uloom who looked at him with a smiling face.
“Son I have no burgers or pastries to offer other than this Chachwaru(local bread) and he subsequently told me about the basics of Islam which made me feel sorry of my deeds,” the boy admits adding that nobody forced him to revert but he did it out of his own.
Your story is exciting like a Bollywood flick? “Please don’t take it as excitement. It should make you worry. What if your own brother was at my place?" he rep lied to this correspondent.
With this Imran goes emotional requesting that “please to add my appeal in the story.”

HIS APPEAL
“I want to inform all my brothers and sisters, kiths and kins, nears and dears that please don’t believe or trust a person who is unknown to you and don’t trust a girl blindly because I faced so much because of a girl and she intrigued me into drug addiction, illegal affairs, boozing and all sinful life,” he confesses. 
“And don’t make friendship with someone who shows undue concern because I was misguided by my best friend. I request all parents to check that whether or not their wards attend to schools regularly and what all are their activities including talking on phone.”

THE MISSIONARY IRONY
Whenever news of any conversions pops up in Kashmir, fingers mostly point towards the Christian Missionary run schools. But like many other such cases, Imran was never a missionary school student.
In reality, it’s the missionary schools, which have produced some of the best people in the society. Valley’s head priest Mirwaiz Dr Umar Farooq, who is spearheading the campaign against apostasy, happens to be a Burn Hall alumni. On the other hand Ishfaaq Majeed Wani, one of the pioneers of the militancy and then Commander-in-Chief of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was a Biscoe Boy while same is true for US trained pilot Nadeem Khateeb who ended up being a militant and was killed in an encounter in Doda area, a few years back much to the shock of his parents who were of the impression their son was working in US after completing his commercial pilot training there.
There are many more in the list of Missionary school alumni like National Conference President and Union Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, his Chief Minister son Omar Abdullah, former Chairman JK Bank Dr Haseeb Drabu, separatist leader Sajad Gani Lone and of course Masrat Alam, the most wanted man during 2010 Ragda. Daughters of Peoples Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti happen to be Presentation Convent Higher Secondary School (PCHSS)Alumni. 
Missionary schools like Tyndale Biscoe School, Burn Hall, PCHSS and Saint Joseph, for around a century, have been known for imparting best of the education as is evident from the versatility in their alumni and interest of almost everyone to get their wards admitted there. 
Veteran separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani’s granddaughters study at PCHSS Raj Bagh while same is true for daughter of another senior leader Shabir Shah. Mirwaiz’a close aide, Advocate Shahid Ul Islam who did some interlocution between the Muslim clerics and the Missionary people over the apostasy issue is no exception to it. While Shahid and his siblings too had studied at missionary schools, same is true for his daughters. And he openly admits it.
In the yesteryears prior to eruption of militancy when wives of Army and Air-force officers mostly taught at the missionary schools like the Presentation Convent, these teachers would hold voluntary classes for children of economically backward families, after school hours.
“After school duty these teachers would voluntarily return from their homes in casuals and hold classes for the children of poor families in the school neighbourhood,” recaps a Raj Bagh resident.

BOTTOMLINE TRUST
Well, coming back to Imran and his reversion. A question on how he managed to capture the baptism video without being caught takes you by surprise. “Could you ascertain when I took your video on my mobile as you interviewed me,” he replies with a smile on his face as he showed this correspondent my interactive video.
“I no more trust any one so easily that’s why I captured you in my phone,” he adds as he slips down the chair due to his deteriorating health. He can’t sit properly and needs to lie down frequently. Medicos say drugs and drinking liquor like a fish have badly affected his health!

Earlier Published on Greater Kashmir

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32 bullets, he took ‘em all, to shield others from unrelenting guns

Abdur Rauf Wani (24) 

 It was the morning of January 21, 1990. The sun came up without much sparkle but it shone on young Rauf’s face for the last time. For, by noon, he was lying on the ground in his favourite blue jacket and green shoes, his body pierced by a hail of troopers’ bullets.

And, two decades later, his family and those who saw him getting killed along with 52 other peaceful protesters in Kashmir’s first massacre since the armed rebellion broke out in 1989 against the Indian rule, try to look back on the event that gave birth to a generation of angry youngmen, a violent uprising and a separatist sentiment never seen before in Kashmir.

On that fateful morning, Abdur Rauf Wani (24) and his father G A Wani, a government employee, watched from the window a huge but peaceful procession passing through Maharaja Bazar, triggered by the news of molestation of women in the old city, strict curfews and restrictions. It was also just a day after New Delhi appointed Jagmohan as J-K Governor in a bid to control mass protests by Kashmiris.

In the street below, men in thousands raised their fists, with slogans ‘Hum Kya Chahte… Azadi’ (We Want Freedom) renting the air. Nothing unusual, as people had grown used to these reminders. But Rauf, unable to contain the surge of emotions within, turned to his father and what followed was a little “more unusual”. “Bauji, this’ll be now begairti (disgrace), should we not join now,” Zulehama Banday, Rauf’s older sister recalls his brother’s conversation with dad. The senior Wani looked back, waited for a moment and then nodded his head. “Should I go,” Rauf again insisted. “Yes,” his father replied.

Zulehama says it was the first time that the family had okayed Rouf’s request to join the peaceful protests. Rauf was soon away, smashing a flower vase in hurry. He stumbled but got up immediately. He performed ablutions, fixed the shoe laces, adjusted his jeans and slid both arms in the blue jacket that he had slung on his right shoulder till then.

Onto the road. “A neighbour tried to stop him but he wouldn’t,” recalls Zulehama, who by now had joined her father at the window to see Rauf disappear in a swarm of youngmen. The long strip of rally that begun from Jawahar Nagar and Ikhrajpora, Rajbagh to reach Budshah Chowk. Earlier proposed to stopover outside UNO at Sonawar, people in the front decided to drum up more support from inner city. The crowd swerved towards Maisuma that would lead demonstrators to inner city till it reached Gaw Kadal Bridge over the Jhelum.When the front-liners of crowd were halfway across the Gaw Kadal, the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) opened fire with automatic machine guns from three directions. In the next few minutes, the bridge with littered with corpses and blood. The first day of Governor Jagmohan’s rule would pass in the bloodshed.

Muhammad Altaf Qureshi (50) remembers how the march was stopped with automatic machine guns and how a fearless youngman braved bullets from an unremitting gun nozzle. “Without any provocation and warning, they fired on us,” he recalls. Qureshi, who was in the third row, says the sounds of unrelenting gunfire triggered a stampede on the wooden bridge. The charge pushed him on the deck and soon blood-stained bodies were dotting the spot. Whosoever tried to stand on his legs would be fired upon. In this melee of bullets and screams, Qureshi noticed a youngman getting up, pushing aside with his hands both the dead and alive. “A trooper was showering bullets from a short distance and this youngman shielded people by blocking troopers’ view,” Qureshi recalls. “He took all the bullets on his chest.” The youngster was none other than Rauf. Troopers with faces masked had emptied their carbines by puncturing Rauf’s abdomen and chest. The act of bravery saved scores from getting killed. Rauf finally collapsed, his face upwards; blood painting his blue jacket and green shoes with red. Qureshi watched silently. He was motionless.

The crowd had dispersed. ‘Mayhem’, ‘Massacre’, ‘God’ were the cries he heard from the receding crowd. On the bridge, troops were leaping on the corpses, kicking survivors and finishing them off. Qureshi pretended dead, hiding his face under someone’s blood-splattered torso. “I preferred to lie with the bodies, knowing for sure I will be shot if I stirred. I closed my eyes and remembered Allah and recited Kalima without letting a sound come out,” he recalls. Then the image of his three-month-old daughter flashed in his mind. He soon heard policemen speak in Kashmiri, shouting loud if someone was alive. “For a while I pretended dead,” he says. As if mere sack of flesh, blood and bones, the scene had deadened his body. He was picked up by a cop of J&K Police who inquired if he was alright. He saw policemen heave the bodies into a truck, over a tarpaulin and disappear from the spot. “I was taken to a nearby fire station, from where I called up my home. They were waiting for my corpse after a friend and survivor told them about the massacre,” recalls Qureshi.

The news travelled to home faster than the body of Rauf. Zulehama, the other siblings and father panicked. Rauf had wished martyrdom when a funeral procession passed by the family’s house months back. Zulehama watched their elder brother Parvez Wani readying for Police Control Room (PCR), Batamaloo, where the injured and dead were taken. At PCR gate Parvez struggled hard to enter the premises, as relatives of victims had already started to pour in.

Back home, Rauf’s father was restless. He had allowed his son join the peaceful march. A sense of guilt had overtaken him. Others in the family were crying and consoling each other, assuming Rauf might have swum the river below the wooden bridge. Or he must have stayed at someone’s house. “We were not sure, however,” Zulehama says. But at PCR, Parvez was face-to-face with reality: he was handed the bullet-ridden body of his brother. Thirty two holes, he counted, had punctured Rauf – the highest number of bullets fired on anyone in the rally. “And when the body reached our home…everyone……” Zulehama is unable to continue. It was not for the first time that he had risked his life to save others.

In 1984, Rauf risked his life to save a Sikh laborer who was shot on head while he was lacing his shoes in the street. Family members say that the labourer had cried for help, and when others in the neighbourhood shut their doors and windows, Rauf rushed out and took him to the nearby hospital. “He was 18 then,” Zulehama says. Three years later, in 1987, Rauf along with hundreds of youth was dragged to jail for supporting a political party Muslim United Front (MUF). Rauf was bundled into the notorious PAPA-2 interrogation chamber for 21 days.

Zulehama also remembers how young Rauf would shift a mound of sand outside a neighbour’s house making way for guests during a marriage. Rauf was laid to rest at a graveyard in Sarai Bala, besides Dastageer Sahib Shrine. Soon after, the family sold their property and moved to another locality. And in 2006, Rauf was posthumously honoured with Robert Thorpe award.

Zulehama knows police had registered a case which was, however, closed in 2005 and those involved in Kashmir’s first massacre were declared untraceable. But when I ask her what does she think and if she wants the case reopened, her silence is coupled with soaked eyes. For a moment she speaks nothing. Then she says: “Yes. It must be.” “When I think of my brother,” she says, “the thoughts are not just of the wonderful time we shared. It is of the brutal way in which he was killed, the irrationality of the act, and ultimately, the offenders and the Indian justice system.”

By Baba Umar ( journalist from Kashmir)

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Gaw Kadal Massacre "I saw a dog eating a human arm"

Jagmohan was appointed on January 19, 1990. That night, in response to the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed and other militant attacks, Indian security forces conducted warrantless and thus illegal house-to-house searches in Srinagar, hunting for illegal weapons or other evidence of support to the militants. They dragged many people out of their beds into the bitter cold. Many Kashmiris complained that they were beaten and abused.Jagmohan maintains that he had nothing to do with the decision.

The next morning, as word of the searches and beatings began to spread, people began to pour out into the streets of Srinagar. From the mosques, loudspeakers urged Kashmiris to come out and fight for azaadi, or freedom. Thousands of Kashmiris gathered to protest the actions of the security forces.

The state government declared a curfew, but few if any Kashmiris observed it.It was early evening when one group of marchers reached the Gaw Kadal Bridge on Srinagar's JhelumRiver. They were shouting slogans and some were pelting the soldiers with stones. Troops from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) opened fire into the crowd. Eyewitnesses say the shooting was a brutal and excessive use of lethal force against demonstrators. Many demonstrators were shot from behind as they turned to run away.Kashmiri news photographer Meraj-ud-din described the scene:

"When I reached Gaw Kadal, all I could see were the dead. I saw bodies of children, bodies of women, bodies of men.... Later they brought the bodies to the police compound. I saw them again. There I cried. I shouted, screamed. 'Don't do this to the people.' That day I saw everything."

Human Rights Watch, in its 1991 report on the shootings, criticized the killings and concluded that the use of lethal force was not proportional to the threat.

At least thirty-five people died. Many estimates put the toll near one hundred. Until then, this was the highest number of persons killed on a single day since the violence erupted in Jammuand Kashmir.The killings drew international attention. The London based daily,the Independent, carried an interview with one of the survivors, a thirty-eight-year-old mechanical engineer called Farooq Ahmad, who worked for the government:

"I was just standing watching the procession of Muslims demonstrating against India. It was curfew time and there were CRPF on both sides of the lane. They should have given a warning, telling people to go back to their rooms. But there was no warning, so people thought the procession was allowed. Then there were two shots in the air, and more shots, shots and shots – people were falling down. I also fell down. Someone pushed me down. The CRPF took control of the area. There were a lot of dead and injured. But I was safe, no bullet. Then came somebody, they said I was still alive, and that fellow, an officer, came with a Bren gun, a light machine gun. He aimed at me and started firing." 

Farooq Ahmad survived. But few in Jammu and Kashmir have forgotten that incident. Human Rights Watch recently met with an eyewitness who recalled the events at Gaw Kadal.

"I remember that scene perfectly. There were so many people. I remember thinking that all of Srinagar must be out on the streets. They were shouting slogans and calling for freedom. There was a CRPF bunker just near the bridge. Suddenly the soldiers opened fire. It was machine-gun fire and all I could hear is the rat-a-tat sound. At that time, we were not used to the sound of firing like we are today. I think everyone was shocked. No one had expected the troops to start firing. Soon, there were people falling down all over the place. I remember the man standing next to me saying, 'I know I have been shot but I can't feel anything.' I looked at him. And then I saw his foot. There was a bullet stuck inside his shoe... All around people were groaning with pain. Everyone that could ran away. I stayed where I was in case they fired at me. I stood there for many hours. Finally, the police brought trucks and started taking the dead and wounded away. But they had been lying there for many hours before the trucks came. I remember that there were dogs sniffing at the bodies. I will never forget one sight. I saw a dog eating a human arm."

The shooting at Gaw Kadal Bridge and the way the Indian government responded may have been the turning point in the rebellion. As Human Rights Watch said in a May 1991 report, "In the weeks that followed as security forces fired on crowds of marchers and as militants intensified their attacks against the police and those suspected of aiding them, Kashmir's civil war began in earnest".Almost every day there were protests. Teachers, students, and government employees came out into the streets shouting slogans. At the same time, there were increased attacks from militants, now with a religious dimension. Hindu Kashmiris, called pandits, came under attack. Many were abducted or killed. Many received anonymous notes that were threatening and abusive.Thousands of pandits began to flee the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, relocating to squalid camps in Jammu and Delhi. At least three hundred thousand Kashmiri Hindus still remain displaced.

The state administration, led by Jagmohan, sought to end the militancy and the mass protests through the increased use of force. Government forces fired live ammunition on crowds of unarmed demonstrators.Round-the-clock curfews were imposed for days in major towns to prevent protests.Paramilitary troops conducted large-scale searches, called "crackdowns" in Jammu and Kashmir. Residents were forced to gather outside while troops ransacked their belongings, looking for hidden weapons. Informers, in hoods, identified alleged militants to be taken into custody, who were then often tortured and sometimes killed.

No known action was taken against any CRPF officials who ordered their forces to open fire at Gaw Kadal, or against the officers present during the shooting. No public inquiry was ordered into the incident.The police did file complaints against demonstrators who pelted stones at security forces, but they were not investigated. Without an investigation into what exactly happened in Gaw Kadal, there will be no chance of holding those responsible accountable.

The consequences of Gawkadal and the failure to hold the security forces accountable have been far reaching. Many young Kashmiris began to join the militants, whose popularity shot up. One man told Human Rights Watch that he and other parents watched helplessly as their sons enlisted with the militants: "Boys, as young as fourteen or fifteen, crossed the border and came back with guns. No one could stop them."

"Gaw Kadal remains an emotional and sentimental subject for Kashmiris even today".

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1993 Sopore Massacre

January 6 : In occupied Kashmir, massacre in Sopore town 18 years back, when the apple town witnessed the worst incident of arson at the hands of troopers of Border Security Forces leading to death of 57 people, a dozen of them roasted alive, besides reducing 350 shops and residential houses to rubble and ashes on 6 January, 1993.

The ‘Time’ magazine had titled the news report (on January 18, 1993) “Blood tide rising: Indian forces carry out one of the worst massacres in Kashmir’s history.” The publication described the massacre, and the protests that ensued thus: “Perhaps there is a special corner in hell reserved for troopers who fire their weapons indiscriminately into a crowd of unarmed civilians. That, at least, must have been the hope

of every resident who defied an army-enforced curfew in the Kashmiri town of Sopore to protest a massacre that left 55 people dead and scores injured.”

The memories of the bloodiest of the massacres carried against the civilian population in Valley remains fresh in hearts and minds of the people particularly denizens of the apple town even after eighteen years.

It was the chilly morning of January 6, 1993 when mujahideen attacked the BSF men at Baba Younis Lane near the Sopore town’s main street, killing two of them. The mujahideen also took away the rifles of the slain BSF men. The personnel after the shootout went berserk and opened indiscriminate fire on unarmed civilians and set on fire markets and Women’s Degree College near chowk of the town.

The local residents regard the incident as one of the worst massacres in the history of Kashmir. Abdul Rashid, an eyewitness while recalling the massacre said it was around 1030 hours on the fateful day when BSF personnel fired indiscriminately and carried out arson in the apple town.

“I still remember that BSF personnel intercepted a bus from Bandipore near Sopore and set it ablaze.” Fifteen persons were charred alive. “I along with nine other persons had taken refuge in a shop and there was destruction across Sopore. I still remember that corpses were scattered and police was watching helplessly,” he said.

Some 15 civilians who tried to rescue their brethren were also shot dead by the BSF personnel, said Abdul Majid, a survivor. Ghulam Nabi Butt of New Light Hotel shouldered 11 dead bodies and before he could carry the 12th, he too was shot dead. “I cannot forget that horrendous incident till I am alive; the troops were on rampage; I lost two relatives in the incident,” said an eyewitness and survivor of the carnage. “I wonder how can doomsday be worse,” said a resident.

As per the locals, BSF personnel sprinkled petrol and gun powder on all structure to set about 350 shops on fire,” said an eywitness, Ghulam Nabi. Recalling the horror at the hospital, an employee at local hospital said, “We could not rush outside as BSF personnel killed several persons who rushed the injured for treatment.”

“The massacre would haunt us as long as we are alive,” said Muhammad Abbas of Sopore.

The locals said that people searched the debris for bodies for next three days. The incident sends shock waves across the Kashmir valley and people protested for many days continuously. The martyred were later identified as Mohammad Maqbool Dar son of Karim Dar, Abdul Ahad Laloo son-in-law Razaq, Abdul Ahad Kanjwaal (85) of Muslim Peer Sopore, Zahoor Khan son of Shafi Khan, Bashir Ahmad son of Ghulam Mohammad Shalaa, Ghulam Rasool son of Mohammad Shaban, Ashraf son of Mohammad Maqbool Shalla, Sajad son of Razaq Shalla of Shalpora, Ismayeel son of Ghulam Ahmed Butt of Marajpora, Ghulam Mohammad son of Khaliq Wani of Iqbal Nagar, Sideeq Rahee, Ghulam Nabi Zargar Son of Qadir of Badami Bagh, Ghulam Nabi Butt New Light Colony, Farooq Banday son Rashid Banday, Javid Sheikh, Ghulam Nabi Butt son of Abdullah Butt of Sangrampora, Altaf son of Ghulam Rasool Ganie of, Ashraf son of Ghulam Hassan Kangoo, Ashraf Kernaie son Hassan Kernaie Khan Kahie Mohalla, Ghulam Rasool Sofi of Rafiabad, Majeed son of Ghulam Mohammad Gadoo of Baba Raza, Majeed son of Shafi Sofi, Haji Gh Mohammad Sheikh of Krankshun colony, Ashraf Wani of Handwara, Mohammad Hussain Wani of Baramulla, Bashair Wani of Wanigam Pattan, Mushtaq Ahmad Balla Son of Khazir Balla of Seer, Mohammad Ashraf Mir of Ashpeer, Rashid son of Jabbar Sofi Bandipore, Rashid son of Ghulam Mohammad War Tujar Sharief, Khaliq son of Ghulam Mohidin Malik of Arampora, Razak Chalkoo son Ghulam Mohammad of Baramulla, Ghulam Mohammad son of Sultan War of Tujar Sharief, Gulzar Sheikh son of Abdullah Sheikh of Shahabad, Ghulam Mohidin son of Asadullah Mir Bandipora, Ghulam Rasool son of Sultan Sofi of Langate, Ghulam Mohammad Khan of Bandipora, Bita Mir son of Gh Mohdin of Tawheed Gung Baramulla, Bita Ganie son of Wali Mohd of Syed Kareem Baramulla, Misra wife of Asadullah Lone of Hatlongoo and Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh of Krankshun colony

Earlier Posted On  Frontline Kashmir

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A Mother’s Tragedy

Sixty-five-year-old Nabza Bano stands near a small cornfield where her three-storey house once stood in Sundbrari village, about 85kms from Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. Lost in a melancholic silence, she points out all that remains of her old home – a few burnt logs.

She says two of her houses were burned down by the Indian army, along with two cowsheds, but what pains her most is the absence of her three sons – all of them killed by the Indian army. Their loss has inflicted a wound that only festers with the passing years.

But years of mourning have dried her tears and she is unable to weep now.

After their house was destroyed, Nabza and her family lived in a tent adjacent to the burnt remains of their home for six months during a harsh Kashmiri winter. The family’s neighbours and relatives helped them to build a modest one-storey house where Nabza now lives with her terminally-ill husband, her daughter, son-in-law, their two children and the two children of her now deceased eldest son.

They live in poverty. Nabza’s son-in-law works as a labourer, but he is the only wage earner in the family and his salary is not enough to support them all.

Nabza’s husband, Las Khan, suffers from asthma and his treatment costs about 15,000 Indian rupees ($340) a month. Last month, the family had to sell off one of their cows to cover the cost.

Picking up the gun

Nabza displays pictures of her sons [Majid Maqbool]

Las Khan has lost four sons to the conflict, including one from his first marriage. Mukhtar Ahmad was 40 when he was killed in an encounter with the Indian army in 1997. Khan says his eldest son was a militant.

The youngest of Khan’s sons with Nabza was just 13 years old when he was killed in 1999. Nabza says Mohammad Abbas would sometimes help out militants who were active in the area by showing them safe passages. “But he was not a militant and never had a gun. He was innocent,” she adds.

On the day he was killed, Nabza recalls, he had put on his best clothes and taken food for a few of the fighters who were in the mountains.

“As soon as they finished eating, the army laid an ambush and killed all of them in the encounter,” Nabza says. Seven were killed that day, including Mohammad. The death certificate issued by the police refers to Mohammad as a “19-year-old militant”.

Ajaz Khan and Ghulam Hassan – the elder two of Khan’s sons with Nabza – picked up the gun in the early 1990s when the armed struggle broke out in Kashmir. They both joined the indigenous rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen.

Ajaz was 25 when he was killed in an encounter with the Indian army in 2002.

“He had come home that day after more than six months,” Nabza recalls.

But the army had laid an ambush outside their home and Ajaz was killed in the fighting that ensued. He was shot twice in the chest.

“Army from seven companies laid an ambush for him that day,” Nabza says. “Some families had offered him a safe house during the encounter but he declined, saying he could not bring harm to any civilians.”

Nabza says the shooting began at four o’clock in the afternoon and Ajaz fought until he ran out of ammunition. He was killed at around two o’clock in the morning. After his death, Nabza recalls, the soldiers fired shots into the night in jubilation.

Ghulam was one of the first young men from their village to join militant ranks in the early 1990s, Khan says.

“In 2003, he was arrested and tortured in custody for eight days in the RR [Rashtriya Rifles] military camp,” Nabza adds.

After he was released and returned home, Nabza says, her son bore the marks of torture on his body – his face was swollen, his kidneys damaged and he could barely walk or talk. A few days later he died.

“He died when he was offering morning prayers in this room,” Nabza says. “I held him close to my chest. I would not let him go,” she recalls. “Then I don’t know … I fainted.”

“After he died … the army lied and said that he had a heart attack in custody,” Khan interjects. “They even wrote this lie on his death certificate,” the old man explains.

Ghulam was the only one of their sons to marry. After he was killed, his wife remarried and Ghulam’s son and daughter came to live with Nabza and her husband.

‘Mother of militants’

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Las Khan fell ill after the deaths of his sons and has been bedridden for the past 10 years. Photographs of his sons hang beside each other on the wall of his small room. He cannot speak or hear well, but he recalls the details of their deaths with clarity. He remembers the date and the deed. And even though illness has made him too weak to walk, he never misses a prayer. Gasping for breath, he prostrates himself in prayer five times a day.

Beside his bed is a small trunk. Nabza unlocks it and carefully removes pictures of their sons and their death certificates. She spreads them out on the floor, one by one, and stares at them. There are pictures of funeral processions, of people offering funeral prayers, others showing the burnt remains of their old home. She addresses the pictures as though talking to her sons in person – incoherent lamentations of how much she misses them and how she wishes that at least one of them had lived.

A child enters the room. He is the son of Ghulam. He carries a blackened samovar that had been found a few days before at the site of their old house. They gaze at it, turning it around. Their silence is filled with memories of their life before. Nabza explains that they used to serve tea to guests in this samovar. She says it was the only thing recovered from the burnt remains. Everything else was consumed by the fire.

Nabza recalls how in 1998, soldiers had raided their home, threatening to set fire to it. She says they had called her “the mother of militants”.

Las Khan produces a pocket diary. He flips its small pages, showing entries made in Urdu. It is a detailed record of the dates his sons were killed and his properties destroyed – a written testimony to the tragedies the family has endured.

When his sons were alive, Khan was himself arrested several times by the Indian army. He says he was tortured and beaten in custody for failing to convince his sons to surrender. His son-in-law shows an old mobile phone picture of Khan’s bandaged broken arm.

“The army said they would give me 1.3 million rupees if my son surrenders,” Khan explains. “But my son had not picked up the gun for money. He would not even call me father had I taken even 15 paisa from the army.”

Looking at her ailing husband, Nabza remembers how he was beaten every time their home was raided by soldiers looking for their sons. “I felt as if I was receiving those blows,” she says. “Those blows also hit my body.”

The family says the authorities told them that they could not claim any compensation for their houses or cowsheds because their sons were militants. Neither did they receive any substantial aid from groups opposed to Indian rule.

Now, all that Nabza is left with is her unshakable faith in God. She has a firm belief that her sons did not die in vain. “We will get freedom one day, God willing,” she says with conviction.

For Nabza, her sons remain alive in her memories. She talks to their pictures as though they are there with her. “All my sons are alive,” she says in Kashmiri, looking at the pictures spread out in front of her. And then, after a brief pauses, adds: “We are all dead.”

Source (C) Aalaw

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Police firing in India: Human lives not worth the monkeys

The killing of Altaf Ahmad Sood, a class XII student on 2 January 2012 at the NHPC premises at Boniyar village under Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir in the firing by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel has exposed illegal direction issued by the CISF Directorate for the use of fire-arms to protect the installations. Altaf Ahmad was part of a mob of 400 villagers who took to the streets and later gathered near the local power station to protest against long hours of power outages.

On 30 September 2011, the CISF Deputy Inspector General, Shikha Goel reportedly issued a circular stating that the CISF Directorate had noted that some units were “failing to take proactive action” in protecting and securing the undertakings and that the CISF personnel should effectively protect the installations against mob violence, particularly where there is a delay in arrival of the local police or the magistrate.

The CISF circular is blatantly illegal. Section 129 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) provides that if protestors of an unlawful assembly do not disperse, they, if necessary, are to be arrested and confined. If it is still not possible to disperse, the CrPC further provides that the law enforcement personnel should use “as little force, and as little injury to person and property, as may be consistent with dispersing the assembly and arresting and detaining such persons”, with the authorisation by the Magistrate.

In clear violation of the CrPC, the first thing security personnel do is to use lethal weapon while dealing with protests which may turn violent. In most cases, police shoot without authorization of the Magistrate. Even when the police are authorised by the Magistrate, they usually shoot above the waist level to cause maximum damage i.e. loss of life or impairment for life. The Indian practice is in sharp contrast to the practice of the Britain which designed its bullets to be fired at the ground so that they would bounce up and hit the legs of demonstrators. In 1989, the British government further replaced its rubber bullets with the plastic ones for dealing with the protests in the Northern Ireland as the rubber bullets were considered too dangerous.

Each year the right to life of many citizens of India is violated in the disproportionate use of fire-arms by the law enforcement personnel. According to the statistics of the National Crime Records Bureau, in the last five years a total of 1,462 civilians were killed in police firing i.e. 472 in 2006, 250 in 2007, 317 in 2008, 184 in 2009 and 239 in 2010. In 2010, about 50.8% of all police firing cases were necessitated for ‘riot control’.

The patterns of police firing in India do not also meet the United Nations standards on the use of fire-arms. Rule 9  of the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials of 1990 states that “Law enforcement officials shall not use firearms against persons except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting their authority, or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives. In any event, intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.” Further, Article 3(c) of the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials provides that “The use of firearms is considered an extreme measure. Every effort should be made to exclude the use of firearms, especially against children.”

Human life is too precious to be taken away by the trigger happy law enforcement personnel. The governments which are concerned about the right to life of their citizens have been using rubber and plastic bullets to reduce death and serious injuries.

Even the rubber bullets have been found dangerous. A study by the British medical doctors on the effects of rubber-coated bullets used by the Israeli police force during riots by Israeli-Arabs in northern and central Israel in early October 2000 found that Israeli Police often fire from too close range and aim poorly. The study published in The Lancet, a medical journal, in March 2002 concluded that “Resistance of the body surface at the site of impact (elastic limit) is the important factor that ascertains whether a blunt or penetrating injury is inflicted and its severity. Inaccuracy of rubber bullets and improper aiming and range of use resulted in severe injury and death in a substantial number of people. This ammunition should therefore not be considered a safe method of crowd control”.

In India, the use of rubber bullets is an exception while the use of live bullets is the norm. The State governments usually order inquiries to placate the situation once some protestors were killed. However, the use of force is often justified on the ground of mob violence. Since it is impossible to prove dis-proportionality of the use of fire-arms in case of violent protest, the inquiries often end up in exonerating the police personnel even if they simply aim to kill. The police firing on the protestors of land acquisition in Pune on 9 August 2011 captured on camera showed that the police fired to kill and not to control the crowd.

In the aftermath of Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960, even then Apartheid regime of South Africa started using the rubber bullets. If India is committed to ensure the right to life of its citizens, it must issue a circular to make it mandatory to use plastic coated bullets before the use of live bullets. After the Himachal Pradesh High Court disapproved of the use of live bullets to tackle the monkey menace in January 2011, the Himachal Pradesh State Wildlife Department started using the rubber bullets since May 2011. There is no reason as to why the guarantees to ensure the right to life of the monkeys cannot be extended to human beings.

Source (C) Aalaw

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