Such gruesome revelations about the police highhandedness is atrocious. And to everybody's dismay they enjoy the highest impunity. AFSPFA is the real shield which gives them free-hand. Will BJP/PDP coalition relax it?
On 5/27/15, muruganandan.k <[email protected]> wrote: > pasted below is a column from today's the Hindu's opinion page: > A heavy hand in Kashmir > In response to a political storm over the numerous killings of unarmed > protesters by the security forces in Kashmir in 2010, the UPA > government belatedly tried to change tack by procuring "non-lethal > weapons" for the security forces and the police deployed in Kashmir. > The introduction of non-lethal weapons was meant to minimise the > number of deaths caused by the security forces while trying to curb > protests. The government procured pepper grenades, and pump guns that > release a barrage of steel pellets. In a context like Kashmir, merely > introducing fewer lethal weapons was never expected to work. The > paramilitary forces and J&K policemen who wielded the pellet guns, > used them at close range aiming at the chests and heads of protesters. > The fallacy of pellet guns being "non-lethal weapons" became obvious > during their earliest use in August 2010 when Irshad Ahmad Parray, a > nine-year-old boy in Anantnag, was killed after receiving pellet > injuries in his chest and abdomen. When these guns don't kill they > leave behind a world of darkness by blinding the injured. Although an > exact number of people who have lost their eyesight to pellet gun > injuries is yet to be tabulated, requests under the Right to > Information Act have revealed that between 2010 and 2013 in the two > major hospitals of Kashmir, 36 persons had been recorded as having > suffered serious eye injury from pellets. In 2010, 12 people were left > completely blind. The number has grown, the latest case being that of > a Class X student, Hamid Nazir Bhat, in Palhalan village in Baramulla > last week: his right eye has been destroyed by pellets fired by the > men of the J&K Police. Last year, Mehbooba Mufti, the president of the > People's Democratic Party, and her fellow-legislators walked out of > the Assembly in protest against the blinding of unarmed protesters in > Shopian in south Kashmir by the "uninhibited" use of pellet guns by > the J&K Police. After the PDP formed the government in coalition with > the BJP, Ms. Mufti and her Chief Minister-father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed > appear to have forgotten the outrage they had felt over the blindings > in Kashmir by pellet guns when Omar Abdullah was Chief Minister. The > promise of a "healing touch" that helped the reinvention of Mr. Sayeed > in Kashmir politics in the 1990s will lose credibility unless it is > applied in ground operations. Mr. Sayeed has maintained a shocking > silence over the case of the 16-year-old Hamid, but Javaid Gilani, > Inspector General of Police, in an interview to a Srinagar-based > newspaper has justified the pellet gun blindings by asking, "How can a > deterrent be set then? How are stone-throwers to be stopped?" Such > callousness amounts to adding wounds to a wounded body, an attitude > that can push Kashmir back to the brink. > > > > -- > "THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE IS NOT HATRED, BUT INDIFFERENCE" > MURUGANANDAN.K > Ph.D Scholar, > Department of English, > Pondicherry University, > puducherry-14 > mobile:+919787871008. > > > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of > mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
