YET ANOTHER COLD BLOODED MURDER OF AN INNOCENT, UNARMED CIVILIAN BY CRPF

Rajpora firing
Courtesy: Daily Rising Kashmir dt March 19th, 2009 by Wasim Khalid

Union Home Minister in town, CRPF kills civilian

Srinagar, March 18: While the Home Minister, P Chidambaram was assuring the State chief minister in winter capital that the army personnel involved in killing of two youth in Bomai will be punished, a 38-year old carpenter was killed in unprovoked firing by CRPF personnel at Khaigam, Rajpora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. The killing evoked massive protest demonstrations in the area with villagers refusing to bury the body till the guilty CRPF men were punished.“The incident happened in the evening. A group of CRPF personnel of 181 bn were looking for Ghulam Mohiuddin Malik, a carpenter, and barged into his house at Khaigam, Rajpora. Malik was sitting in a room along with his parents. His four children and wife were also present in the house,” a local Mohammad Ayoub told Rising Kashmir over phone.He said that the CRPF personnel showered abuses on Malik and grabbed him by collar to attic of his house, where they fired from point blank range towards him, killing him on the spot. Ayoub alleged that after killing Malik, the CRPF personnel went on a beating spree in the village. “Whosoever came in their way, he was flogged”.After the killing, the residents of Khaigam carrying the body of Malik took to roads and staged anti-CRPF demonstrations. Raising pro-freedom, pro-Islamic and anti-India slogans, the protestors were demanding a thorough probe into the incident and severe punishment to the CRPF personnel involved in killing the carpenter. They refused to bury the body.Tension was prevailing in the village when reports last poured in.While confirming the killing, DIG South Kashmir, Rajesh Kumar told Rising Kashmir, “People have accused CRPF of killing the carpenter. The SHO of the concerned police station reached the spot and was informed by the locals that Malik was killed in CRPF firing”.“We have not yet completed our investigations. We are verifying details about the incident,” he said.Kumar said after ascertaining the circumstances, they would file the complaint and accordingly launch investigations.CRPF spokesman, Prabhakar Tripathi said 181 Bn personnel had received information regarding the presence of militants in Khaigam village.“They asked village head to accompany their search party. As they were walking towards village, they came under fire from a haystack on the roadside. The troopers retaliated and the whole area was sealed,” he said.Tripathi said, “During searches, we recovered Malik’s body and damaged mobile from the haystack. The cordon is till on and we are ascertaining the situation”.

State-Sponsored Terrorism - Double Standards of GOI

Miserable attempts of Indian Army and the Govt. of India to present a distorted version of Bomai killings by the men in uniform and thereby shield the killers speaks volumes of their double standards towards fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Every time Indian security forces commit such heinous crimes against humanity in Kashmir, they protect their beasts by citing provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Disturbed Areas Act in their defence and shamelessly claim that probes by civil administration has no bearing on them. Under such circumstances only demand Kashmiris should make for the time being should be the revokation of such draconian, barbarian and inhuman laws. Nothing short of that should be accepted upon lest the killers in uniform shall continue to have a day out and quench their thirst for more human blood with the killings of innocent, unarmed Kashmiris.

While government of India has filed over 5000 page chargesheet against Ajmal Amir Kasab, the terror suspect of 26/11 Mumbai attacks and is fully geared up to have him hanged for killing scores of innocent civilians on the fateful night of 26/11 (Mumbai attack). Even the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India went to the extent of going on record saying that terrorists like Kasab have no human rights, they should rather appeal for animal rights owing to the beastly acts of terror perpetrated by them over unarmed civilians. Now the question here is what opinion does the Chief Justice of India hold about the dastardly acts of murder committed by Rashtriya Rifles officers on the unarmed, innocent civilians of Bomai. Even the deceased were common civilians and had nothing to do with insurgency, then shouldn't the armymen too be labelled as terrorists as good as Kasab and shouldn't they too be hanged and tried under animal rights Act. If at all Govt. of India boasts of having no double standards and is ready to treat all kinds of terrorist activities in a like manner, then there should be no second thought on hanging the Bomai culprits in public in order to provide a detterrant for other armed groups in the valley. But we all know that is not going to happen since it will lower the morale of security forces occupying the land of Kashmir, as the GOI as time and again been saying under such circumstances. GOI will never go for a fair deal in such cases and even if RR is held responsible for the killings, the maximum punishment that shall be awarded to the killers will be their transfer or at the most their suspension from service. That can by no means termed as justice with the victims of their trigger happy attitudes. Nevertheless, Bomai is a litmus test for the newly elected govt of the state. At least Bomai will lay to rest all false hopes and aspirations of a few sects of our society from the present govt.

Bomai, The Acid Test

Government is unnecessarily making matters worse in Bomai; it should fix the responsibility and punish the guilty before it is too late
Courtesy: Editorial Daily Rising Kashmir dated March 3rd, 2009
It’s been over ten days since the devotees, Javed Ahmad and Muhammad Amin of Sopore, fell to army bullets on way back from a religious congregation at Tujjar. The incident had evoked large-scale protests in Sopore and the protests had a violent spillover to other parts of the Valley especially Srinagar. Chief Minister was quick to order a magisterial probe, promising that the erring soldiers would be brought to the book within fifteen days. According to the deadline set by the chief minister people should get the satisfactory justice by March 5. T
he Chief Minister said he believed in doing his job silently and as soon as he heard about the Bomai incident, he ordered a time-bound inquiry, without taking any time. The fact that the life returned to normal in entire Valley after a weeklong strife over the killings only on Saturday is the grim reminder of the level of credibility of government promises among the common masses. What made maters from bad to worse is that the government has initiated the probe into Bomai incident so casually that it courted controversy at the very outset. Locals now allege that the army has presented its ‘agents’ as the witness in the session. Separatist forces have joined the chorus triggering fresh turmoil in the town. The locals are so much agitated over the vacuous promises made by the government that on Saturday the situation took yet another turn. People in Bomai decided not to send their wards to classes till the School buildings that have been under occupation for several years were vacated. The government is unfortunately unable to read the subtext of such demands. When people demand justice from government it is simply evident, especially in Kashmir context, of the popular legitimacy of the state system. The chief minister must recognize that for the Bomai demand the reference point is the state government. But, the tragedy is that the government is shying away from identifying the culprits and delivering the justice. Bomai is acid test for Cong-NC government, which is riding on the rhetoric of change. Not because it did not change anything yet but because the government seem, in Bomai context, no different than governor’s rule when the people suffered about five weeks of siege.