Srinagar, July 03: The police killing of three young Muslim protestors this week is fueling an already volatile situation in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir triggered by the rape and murder of two Muslim girls, blamed on immune security forces.
“They were protesting peacefully against the misbehavior of policemen and the killing and rape of two girls when police resorted to unprovoked firing,” Ahsan, one of the protesters in Baramulla district, told. Saleem an employee of private mobile company, died on the spot while Tariq Ahmad Malik succumbed to his injuries later.
Kashmir’s Justice Uprising (Watch) “Saleem, who was the only earning hand of his family, had gone to bring vegetables where he joined protests along with other youth but fell to the bullets,” said his close friend Irshad.
On Tuesday evening one more civilian died when Indian trooper opened fire on people who were protesting against the killing of Saleem and Malik.
The three victims were among thousands of people who took to the streets across Kashmir over the past days to protest the rape and murder of two Muslim girls from the orchard-fringed village of Shopian, blamed on Indian security forces.
A general strike called in response to the latest shootings crippled life in the summer capital Srinagar and other towns in the valley for the second day running.
“The killing of innocent people will not stop the uprising in Kashmir till human rights violations end,” Zaffar Akbar Bhat, the Hurriyat Conference leader and chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement, told.
Locals say Niloufer, 17, and her sister-in-law Aasiya Jan, 22, were abducted, raped and killed by security forces.
Their bodies were found in a canal in Shopian after they had gone missing the previous evening.
Only days after the incident, the state’s chief minister Omar Abdullah said medical tests indicated the women had been neither raped nor murdered.
But later forensic tests proved that they had, and Abdullah was forced to order a judicial inquiry into the crimes.
Immunity
As the protests raged on, relatives of the two women whose deaths sparked the uprising are still praying for justice to be served.
“I had never thought of such a pain I am undergoing,” Shakil, brother of Niloufer Jan, told.
“My sister was one in millions. She always prayed for peace in Kashmir.”
Many are accusing the government of trying to cover up for the crime.
“We have been demanding the arrest of the rapists and killers but the government was shielding the culprits,” charged Zaffar.
Advocate Bashir Bhat believes only justice would bring an end to the ongoing protests in the valley.
“Let the government unveils the truth in the killing and rape of the Shopian girls and probe Baramulla firing incident too.”
He said that government can not suppress the voice of the Kashmiri people with the delaying tactics like they are adopting in the Shopian case.
Local legal experts and human rights organizations affirm that concerted attempts have been made to suppress evidence of the sexual assault and hide the culprits.
“We had in the very first day the commission saying it will do nothing as it has no powers to arrest any person or to punish anybody,” Main Quyoom, former president of the Bar Association in Kashmir, told.
“It was just eyewash for the people of Kashmir.”
Quyoom says that the Shopian incident is not the first time police personnel have been accused, but none has even come under investigation.
He asserted that a number of laws gives police unlimited powers, which includes killing a person and damaging and seizing property on mere suspicion.
“They do whatever they want to do, and there are laws which give them complete immunity.”
-Agencies