Black Friday in
Kishtwar
Jammu, August 10: Friday’s
riots in Kishtwar were part of the new strategy known as “agitational
terrorism” being adopted by the Hurriyat Conference and other anti-national
forces to accomplish their unfinished nefarious agenda of “ethnic cleansing” of
minorities from Muslim dominated areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Friday’s riots- in which
one Dalit youth was killed by the rioters and more than 200 shops and business
establishments belong to the minority Hindu community were especially targeted
looted and torched, were well planned and stage managed under the patronage of
Minister of State for Home, Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo whose supporters executed the
plan at ground level.
Even as the State
Government was trying to project that Friday violence at Kishtwar was clashes
between two communities but those who were reporting from ground zero giving
different pictures as it was not clash but an attack on the minority community
to force their migration.
The members of the
majority community also entered the houses of minority community and torched
shops selectively. The looting and arson continued right from Kuleed Chowk to
Bus Stand, covering Main Market towards Shaheedi Chowk, Aman Market, Baniya
Market and Purana Bazar. Surprisingly, no top police officers and the officials
from the administration could be seen anywhere despite the presence of Minister
of State for Home and MLA Kishtwar Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo in the town during the
clashes. Even when the police personnel fired in air to disperse the mob, given
their inadequate strength they failed to control the situation.”, a local news
paper “The Kashmir Times”, which is known for its pro-separatist stand,
reported while quoting eye-witnesses.
According to
eye-witnesses trouble started when a group
of youth, who were heading towards Eidgah Maidan, were resorted to shouting
anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans near Char Chinar Chowk. Within no time
these youth, who were also carrying Pakistani flags with them, resorted to
attacking members of minority community. “As everything was already planned, a
number of groups spread in the Kishtwar town and resorted to attacking Hindu,
their business establishments and houses”, eye witnesses said and added that
some the youth were carrying fire arms with them and they started firing on
members of the minority community. Stunned by the attack on majority community,
members of Hindu minority community rushed towards safer places because forces
deployed in the town were watching entire scene as mute spectators.
Fear psychosis
prevailed among the minorities, which could be well gauged from the fact that
the injured civilians of the community were not admitted in the District
Hospital, which was located in the area dominated by majority community and
were instead taken to Army camps. Four of them were sent to Military Hospital,
Udhampur in critical condition.
Army staged a flag
march in all disturbed areas including Kishtwar town at 7.40 pm resulting into
restoration of normalcy but tension prevailed among the minorities, who were
frightened following large scale violence unleashed against them by the
majority community in the morning leading to massive damage to their property
including shops and vehicles.
Surprisingly, the free
for all situation in Kishtwar continued even when Minister of State for Home
Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo, who happened to be local MLA of Kishtwar, was present in
the town. Locals said the miscreants armed with guns, lathis and patrol bottles
moved freely in the town and outskirts torching shops, vehicles and looting
property without any check by the police, which acted as mute spectators as
they reportedly had been directed not to fire at the mob, sources said.
Though the Army had
moved in at around 12 noon in the day, they eventually took charge of the
situation around 7.40 after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah spoke to Defence
Minister A K Antony at about 5 pm. The urchins fired at the houses of
minorities or those rushing for safety killing one of them on spot, who has
been identified as Arvind Kumar Bhagat, 28, son of Des Raj Bhagat R/o Sangram
Bhatta and injuring several others, four of
them with deep bullet wounds. The injured with gun shots were identified
as Sunil Kumar, 27, Rinku, 18, both residents of Cheerji, Anju Singh, 30 R/o
Kuleed and Sandeep Kumar, 15, R/o Dachan.
They were airlifted
from Kishtwar to Batote and then shifted in Army
Hospital, Udhampur as authorities
feared that their admission in the Government
Medical College,
Jammu would
flare up communal trouble.
Background of the attack
Actually for the last
couple of months, some Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of terrorists have launched a
campaign to terrorize minority to force their migration. Even at the time when
terrorism was on its peak, terrorists failed to force migration of minorities
due to valiant role played by the Village Defence Committees (VDCs) so these
OGWs started vicious campaign to get VDCs disband so to accomplish their evil
designs. During the last one month, houses of minority community were
especially targeted during nights by unidentified masked men in the entire
erstwhile Doda district. Implication of daring police officer Shiv Kumar Sharma
alias Sonu in fabricated cases was also part of the conspiracy to terrorize
minority because Sonu is symbol of anti-terrorist forces in erstwhile Doda
district. During the holy month of Ramzan, some members of the Muslim community
intensified the campaign to terrorize Hindus. Posters of Parliament attacker
Afzal Guru and other terrorists were repeatedly appearing at vital locations
but authorities deliberately ignored all such things due to directions from
higher level. Even two days before Eid, a delegation of BJP leader from
Kishtwar and Doda called on Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu zone Rajesh Kumar and briefed him of
situation arising out due to activities of some pro-terrorist elements but IGP
failed to take any prevent step.
Role of MoS Home
Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo
As elections of the
Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly are scheduled to be held in the year
2014, Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo wants to communalize the
situation, rather terrorize the minority, to reap political benefit because he,
through his muscle power, has ability to execute rigging in minority dominated
areas, as the same was done in the 2008 assembly elections. For the last three
days, Mr Kitchloo was camping at Kishtwar and riots took place in his presence.
“Surprisingly, despite large scale violence in Kishtwar for almost the full day
leading to two fatal casualties, injuries to several others and huge loss of
private property, the State Government, Police Department or even the district
administration of Kishtwar didn’t issue even a single line press note on the
situation despite the fact that senior officers of civil and police
administration apart from the Minister of State for Home were camping there”, a
reputed news paper of Jammu and Kashmir “Daily Excelsior” reported.
Sources said that
Kitchloo had given strict directions to the forces not to use force against
rioters. “The complete inaction on part of police administration forced minorities living in majority
community dominated areas to flee from their houses and take shelter in some
safer areas as rampaging mob moved freely carrying weapons and lathis in their
hands and targeting shops and business establishments.”, the news paper
reported.
Source: Source: http://samvada.org
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