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| First death again in Baramulla; JKLF chief arrested for ransacking Maisuma Police Station | | Stone-pelting returns to Valley ahead of Durbar | | Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Apr 28: Even as the Early Times prediction (April 20th) today came true and New Delhi finally salvaged Omar Abdullah’s 28-month-old government from the Dogra Certificate morass, the much apprehended street turbulence has begun to return to Kashmir valley ahead of the annual Durbar Move. Like last year, the first civilian casualty by the stone pelters has happened in the old township of Baramulla and the JKLF Chairman, Yasin Malik, has been arrested amid clashes and ‘ransacking’ of Police Station at Maisuma.
Valley’s first casualty of, what could be arguably the beginning of Turmoil-2011, has come from the chronic flashpoint of Baramulla town. Official sources said that a driver of the State Road Transport Corporation, Ghulam Jeelani Bhat S/o Ali Mohammad Bhat R/o Shalimar, Srinagar, succumbed to injuries while under treatment at SKIMS in the wee hours today.
Sources said that during transportation of the polling staff and ballot boxes of the Panchayat elections from Rafiabad to Baramulla, a group of stone-pelting youth had attacked Bhat’s bus, JK01Y/0291, in Azad Gunj locality of old town Baramulla on April 25th. Under the fierce attack, Bhat lost control of his bus which, consequently, rammed into a grocery shop. He sustained critical injuries. He was quickly rescued and rushed to Srinagar where doctors treated him at SKIMS. He breathed his last at the hospital today.
Survived by his wife and three young children, Bhat is the fist civilian who has died, albeit at the hands of stone pelters, this year. The last casualties of street turbulence in the Valley had occurred before seven months of peace on September 13th, 2010. Last year too, the first such death had occurred around the same place on February 22nd, when stone pelters had forcibly dragged passengers out of a minibus and an 11-day-old infant, named Irfan, had fallen from the lap of his mother, Kulsooma W/o Nazir Ahmed Magray R/o Rawcha, Rafiabad.
Following seven months witnessed unabated street turbulence as 112 protesters and demonstrators died in firing from Police and armed forces and the stone-pelting crowds too left six persons, including a constable, dead while enforcing Hurriyat (Geelani)-sponsored shutdown. The poor SRTC driver from Shalimar is the seventh person to have died at the hands of such unruly mobs in the Valley since February 22nd, 2010. (See details in a separate box on this page).
SP Baramulla, Dr Haseeb Mughal, said that case FIR No: 87/2011 was registered at Police Station Baramulla and a manhunt was launched for the assailants immediately after they attacked the bus on February 25th. He said that almost all the people involved in the attack had been identified and two of them, namely, Ashiq Ahmad Chana S/o Mohd Sultan Chana and Waseem Ahmad War S/o Nazir Ahmad War, residents of Arampora Azad Ganj, had been arrested. He said that search was underway for their accomplices.
Parallel to current year’s first fatal casualty, uptown locality of Maisuma witnessed a flare up when JKLF Chairman, Mohammad Yasin Malik, and his followers and neighbours allegedly ransacked Police Station Maisuma over the late night arrest of a youth. Malik was arrested, alongwith half-a-dozen of his followers, and a criminal matter was filed against them at Police Station Maisuma.
SSP Srinagar, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, told Early Times that SHO Maisuma spotted a civilian, whose clothes were torn and who was bleeding, at Clock Tower in Lal Chowk, late last evening. He identified himself as Ashfaq Hussain Shah S/o Pir Hussain Shah of Karnah, presently living at Wathora, on Srinagar-Chadoura Road. On being questioned, Ashfaq described himself as the driver of a Tata-Sumo. He narrated how a resident of nearby Maisuma had mercilessly beaten him up and snatched away Rs 500 from him. Shah claimed that he could identify the asailant.
SSP said that during preliminary investigation, SHO learned that one Ashiq Hussain Dar S/o Mohammad Ramzan Dar of Maisuma had beaten up several persons in the last. He was late in the night arrested from his residence. The complainant identified him as the man who had attacked him. A criminal case was accordingly registered.
SSP added that JKLF Chairman, Yasin Malik, trooped into the Police Station in the morning today and threatened the officials of dire consequences if they failed to release his neighbour immediately. Even as SHO was present, Malik, according to SSP, smashed the table and broke glasses while threatening and abusing the officials. Thereupon, he walked out and enforced shutdown in the area. He said that Malik’s followers resorted to stone pelting on the passing vehicles and traffic was completely disrupted in Maisuma and Budshah Chowk.
While Malik was leading a procession towards Lalchowk, he was arrested alongwith his old time colleague, Shaukat Bakshi. Their supporters clashed with Police but dispersed when Police used baton charge and tearsmoke to scare them away. SSP said that Malik and Bakshi had been detained at Police Station Kothibagh. He said that Police would proceed against both, Ashiq Hussain Dar as well as Malik, under law.
Dar’s family members, however, told mediapersons that Police had been trying to arrest him on account of his involvement in last year’s clashes and street demonstrations. They claimed that Dar was innocent and was being fabricated in fake matters. Police maintained that he was a known criminal who was involved in a number of attacks on people, including the one on the Tata Sumo driver.
Officials insisting anonymity said that they were expecting resurgence of stone pelting and attacks on Police as some recent incidents had sent out signals that the Government was buckling under pressure of hardliners, interlocutors and Amnesty International. Officials said that release of a teenager as well as Bar Association chief, Mian Qayoom, were being widely attributed to the influence of Amnesty and the Centre’s interlocutors while as hardliners like Geelani were taking credit for today’s revocation of Dogra Certificate order.
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