[Reader-list] More on Little Kashmiri Boys...

[S. Jabbar]

Early Times, 
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2010
Was Bacha Khour gang chief¹s PSA revoked on CM¹s orders?
Baramulla¹s Swat under tight scanner as Omar gives catch-or-quit option to
Police

AHMED ALI FAYYAZ

SRINAGAR, Feb 24: Stone pelters who struck on the Rafiabad family and caused
the death of an eleven-day-old infant on Monday last were not roaming around
and unleashing a
reign of terror without reason. Their chief had been held for rioting during
the Shopian demonstrators last year and detained at a jail in Jammu but,
according to residents, his PSA detention was withdrawn within a couple of
months on Chief Minister Omar Abdullah¹s orders after intervention of a
couple of National Conference (NC) leaders including a Minister of State.
Members of this gang were conspicuously present at a valedictory function
organized by Police in honour of the outgoing Deputy Commissioner,
Lateef-uz-Zamaan Dewa, and SSP, Viplab Kumar, over a month ago. On Tuesday,
they audaciously called local cable operators and warned them of ³dire
consequences² if they dared to play a tape that would have identified the
ruffians responsible for the infant¹s death.

Residents of the ³liberated² Baramulla town, who call themselves the ³silent
majority² and claim to be 99 percent of the population, made harrowing
disclosures with regard to the identification of the ruffians and rioters
involved in the killing of an eleven-day-old infant in his mother¹s lap
earlier this week. ³Police are just beating about the bush. They have no
intention of arresting the killers², said a senior citizen and influential
businessman who claimed that Police had complete knowledge of the ³most
wanted² faces who have been holding the old town of 30,000 inhabitants
hostage with stone pelting since the Amarnath land controversy of 2008.

³Old town across the bridge (over river Jhelum) has become like Swat and
Wazeeristan. Stone pelters, whose number is less than 100, and their
sympathizers have been enjoying a field day here as Police or security
forces never venture into this liberated zone², a 60-year-old trader
observed. None of these hapless citizens is prepared to be identified in
media. They have a reason. ³During last year¹s Shopian clashes, these people
not only occupied SRTC¹s yard and raised their own shops but they also
dismantled the business centers of Beopar Mandal President and General
Secretary in full knowledge of the National Conference-led coalition
government², revealed a resident.

If these representatives of the suppressed civil society are to be believed,
even after Chief Minister¹s serious concern over the infant¹s killing,
Police or security forces have neither conducted any raids nor given any
indication of arresting the gangsters. According to them, entire Old Town,
comprising Tauheed Gunj, Jamia, Qazi Hamam, Kakkar Haham, Jalal Sahab, Ganai
Hamam, Syed Kareem, Bangla Bagh, Azad Gunj, Iqbal Colony, Stadium Colony,
Armpora, Bagh-e-Islam, Suhail Colony, Qadeem Iddgah, Khwaja Sahab, Mir
Sahab, Drangbal and Khandanyar mohalls, is completely ³out-of-bounds² for
Police and security forces.

(Late night reports, however, said that Police trooped into the old town in
search of the stone pelters involved in the death of the infant after Chief
Minister Omar Abdullah asked the authorities in Baramulla to either capture
the ruffians or quit. Sources said, CM has made it a point to get the
ruffians arrested and reveal it during his reply to the discussion on
Governor¹s address in Legislative Assembly at 1600 hours on Thursday).

Residents revealed that on Tuesday, Police arrested two boys of 12 years of
age from among a group of stone pelters who disclosed during questioning
that those very people, who had been arrested last year but later released
in a couple of months, had not only organized the clash but also intercepted
the minibus at Chakla, in Baramulla town outskirts, and caused the death of
the ill-fated baby. One of the Police officials confirmed, on the condition
of anonymity, that the detained boys, who were later handed over to their
parents, had identified Raju Chraloo, Meena Kumari and Itchguard (real names
not known) as the key handlers of the stone pelting and clashes with Police.
He said that Police got both the boys¹ statements recorded on tape.

³Within minutes, local cable operators received threatening calls from
telephone numbers 9697982050 and 9858773617, warning them of dire
consequences if they played the feed on their networks², Police sources
said. They said owners of both the mobile phones were present on the
valedictory function that had been organized by Police in honour of the
outgoing DC and SSP last month. Inquiries further revealed that the man, who
was identified as ³kingpin² of the gang by the detained boys, had been
arrested and detained under PSA at a jail in Jammu last year. However, on
the intervention of two of the NC leaders, including a Minister of State,
Chralu¹s PSA was withdrawn on the orders from Home Department within two
months. None other than Chief Minister happens to be the Home Minister in
Jammu & Kashmir.

One of the cable operators confirmed that he had removed the tape after he
received threatening calls from two different telephones. ³Everybody in the
town is scared. The common impression is that these gangsters are not only
hand-in-glove with separatists and militants but also with officers in
Police and security forces and even Ministers in the coalition government²,
he added. He said that a civil society group, called Falah-ud-Darain, had
succeeded in building up some resistance against the criminal gangs but
given up as the operators publicly boasted of their connections with
Government officials and politicians.

According to the residents, members of the gang have diversified their
³business² and organized groups of street criminals. Even an influential
Jamaat-e-Islami activist and President of Beopar Mandal, Abdul Rehman
Shalla, failed to take on the gang after they caused extensive damage to his
shop and threatened ³further action².

Meanwhile, in a statement issued from New Delhi, hardline separatist leader
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who had proudly eulogized and supported the stone
pelters last year and until yesterday, has also distanced himself from this
anarchical mode pf ³resistance² and condemned the killing of an infant in
Baramulla by the rioters. According to KNS, Geelani has taken a volte face
and expressed concern that anarchical stone pelting would lead the Kashmiris
to a very dangerous situation.
END