[Reader-list] ...oh, these....'peace loving' young boys.....

[Lalit Ambardar]

Compulsive
stone- pelters go berserk……while their ‘masters’ maintain sadistic silence…….

Rgds all

LA

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Efforts to trace school boy hampered

Excelsior Correspondent             May 23,2011

Srinagar, May 22: Rescue operations to trace Shakir Ahmad Bhat, the boy who
drowned in river Jhelum on Friday afternoon
were hampered as the divers of Navy came under stone pelting in some of the
areas of downtown city.

Reports said
that the divers had planned to extend the rescue operations to some more areas
located along the banks of river Jhelum and as
part of the same operation they had planned to carry out search for the body at
Habba Kadal and Fateh Kadal areas.

However,
trouble started in these areas when the divers boarding the Army vehicles came
down and started to move towards river Jhelum
in order to carry out the rescue operation there. A group of people while
noticing movement of Navy divers and Army vehicles sensed that something is
wrong in the area. They started pelting stones on the rescue team. The divers
left the area.

Officials told
Excelsior that as soon as the divers' team reached Habba Kadal and Fateh Kadal
areas some of the youth pelted stones on them. This forced the divers to leave
the spot and they did not carry forward their operation of tracing the body at
these places.

"The
rescue operations to find the body of Shakir were launched on Friday afternoon
and as we could not trace him we decided to extend our search operation to
Fateh Kadal and Habba Kadal. But due to the stone pelting in these areas the
divers could not carry out their task and as such we had to abandon the search
operation at these places," the officials said.

Following stone
pelting incidents, the team of navy divers returned to the main operation point
in the river Jhelum near the foot bridge. They
assisted the rescue teams of River Police, Fire & Emergency Services and
Civil Defence in finding the body of Shakir, but success has eluded them so
far.

Shakir, a
student of 10th class of Tyndale
 Biscoe School,
resident of Nowgam drowned when he could not swim after entering into a bet
with his friend Sheikh Salman. While Salman swam to safety, Shakir could not do
so and was drowned.

"It was
unfortunate on part of the people to pelt stones at the divers' team and it has
hampered our operation of tracing the body of the drowned boy. We might have
traced the body of Shakir had a group of people not pelted stones on them at
Habba Kadal and Fateh Kadal," the officials said.

Meanwhile, for
the third consecutive day parents and relatives of Shakir along with commoners
assembled on the banks of river Jhelum near the foot bridge as the rescue teams
were busy in tracing the body of Biscoe boy.

Meanwhile, in a
statement a police spokesman said that River Police have so far rescued 32
persons alive mostly from Dal lake area.

Responding to a
news item appearing in a section of press that River Police has failed to save
lives of people who drown in river Jhelum, the
police spokesman said that four members of a family (Tourists) were rescued
alive on May 12 this year, when their Shikara capsized in the midst of Dal lake
following strong winds.

The police
spokesman said that River Police carried out many operations in both Dal lake
and river Jhelum this year as well as last year and rescued many people, who
were caught either in midst of gusty winds or had drowned due to some other
reasons.http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/May 23,2011