Protests in J&K over youth's killing in Delhi
In late May, J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad announced he has been assured by chief ministers of 12 states that no innocent resident, be it a student or a businessman, of his state, would face any harassment in their respective states.
By Masood Hussain, TNN |
SRINAGAR: In late May, J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad announced he has been assured by chief ministers of 12 states that no innocent resident, be it a student or a businessman, of his state, would face any harassment in their respective states.
Barely months later, on Thursday, thousands of protestors in uptown Chanpora were carrying the coffin of a young man as testimony to a belied assurance.
Irshad Ahmad Lone, they said, was killed by the Delhi Police in custody in a Delhi police station. He had gone to join his new job in an automobile company on September 21 and on October 8, the family got a call from a Kashmiri Gate police station ASI Ramji Lal asking them to rush to the Sushrutra Trauma Centre where Irshad was admitted.
Though the Delhi police has told the family they found Lone on the road in a bad state and got his phone number from him, the family is not ready to accept it. His brother who flew to attend the ailing Lone said there were torture marks on his body and he had no option but to believe that Lone was the victim of the Delhi Police. “His only sin was that he was a Kashmiri,” his brother believes.
As the news broke, there were massive protests in upper Srinagar. There were protest strikes for three consecutive days. The corpse was flown to Srinagar late last evening and handed over to the family. Thousands of people came out in protest and attended the funeral prayers.
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After the burial, the mobs broke lose and resorted to violence. This triggered ding-dong battles between cops and the protestors. Lone’s death is not an isolated incident. Reports of Kashmiris getting arrested in different states on flimsy grounds are routine. There are scores of youth behind bars in different states, most of whom are unrepresented in the trial courts. As part of the routine security setup, police in all the metropolitan cities are discouraging hoteliers to rent rooms to the Kashmiris on occasions of Republic and Independence days.
Though CM Ghulam Nabi Azad had taken up the issue with all his counterparts and managed to get written responses, it has not stopped problems the Kashmiris are subjected to in neighbouring states. The death of Lone is offering yet another chance to Azad to review his policy and talk to his counterparts afresh.
The killing taking place in Delhi — a Congress-ruled state with its police force directly under MHA — is a major credibility problem that Azad needs to take up at his earliest.
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