Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I am a stone pelter. Who are you?

http://scarletkashmir.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-am-stone-pelter-who-are-you.html

by
Imran Muhammad Gazi

FIRST PERSON


------- and what else can I do to express my resistance against oppression, writes Imran Muhammad Gazi an MBA student.

I have been shot in the ribs. I am on a stretcher in an emergency ward of a city hospital. Who am I? I am a stone pelter from a busy commercial area of Srinagar. This is my comprehensive introduction, no need to have a name, surname, qualification and profession. Just one word sums up my personality” Stone Pelter”. I am not that educated but some of my educated peers tell me I have always been in news right from 1931. You will find me everywhere, i have stood the test of time, leaders have changed slogans have changed but I have not. Yes there was a time when I was sidelined, and gun wielding elders occupied the centre stage.



Situation has changed and I am again in business in urban Kashmir, Ragda 2008 restored my lost glory, you called it a revolution, I watched spell bound vast multitude of people filling the streets of Kashmir, it was on that day at historic Eidgah, the gun wielding elder passed the baton on to me and with a smile on his lip and tear in his eye said” your turn mate”. I still don’t know why those tears in the eyes of the elder, perhaps I am too young to understand this.

You can find me on any street of urban Kashmir, although I have some favourite spots, I love jamia Masjid and Maisuma, old town Varmul, Sopur, and Malakhnag Islamabad to name a few. You can easily recognize me as I am the best dressed youth of my area, trendy jeans, smart sports shoe, whacky jacket and few fashion accessories, they say I buy them from the money I get for stone pelting. My income is being discussed everywhere and there is no unanimity on that it varies from 100 to2500,at times I am afraid that I may be brought under income tax net. My attire has little to do with fashion, and more with the nature of my job, I am supposed to be athletic and nimble footed and I have to mingle with the crowds, hence my attire. Ideal day at work is thrilling and exciting, the suspense, the drama, the surge and the chase is right out of 80s blockbuster Hindi cinema.

I dodge shells and bullets, ala Rajnikanth, only difference is there is no retake on the street, either you dodge in first take or you are down in the gutter. Stone pelting used to be an art but with the passage of time it has developed into a science, it is more because of those chocolate pelters, some of whom are students of best schools of Srinagar. Purists moan the adulteration; pragmatists call it the need of the hour. These chocolates talk about projectile motion, angle of projection and range, I don’t get a bit of that. They introduced “sling”, whatever oldies may say it is an effective combat weapon. I have not talked about my adversary ,most of the time it is the “Ponde police” sorry local police, it is an honour to have such an enemy in the battlefield, the most professional and business savvy police force in the world, highly well versed with economics. Such is the level of efficiency that they no longer waste bullets on us but use teargas shells for dual purpose of chasing and killing us, you can not blame them after all world is going through a recession and cost cutting is the mantra. They perfected this technique under there former boss, whose name was a tongue twister for us, we remember him as Asif Mujtabha the paki batsmen. He was a brilliant officer, disciplinarian, had a penchant for cleanliness, smoothly killed almost sixty of us in a span of few weeks, yet you could not see a speck of blood on his hands nor his immaculately worn uniform, as I told u spick and span. He treated us like his kids, ensured we did not suffer any pain or agony, bullets hit us, either on head or chest, he was such a noble loving and caring father. We miss him, they transferred him, must have been promoted, I feel good at least our blood helped someone to make a career.
Why do I pelt stones, this thought had never crossed my mind, I just instinctively new when I had to don the armour and start the battle. It was only after Ragda 2008, I heard some whispers, hushed tones, and few glances of suspicion on the street. I am street smart, I realized I am not the darling of the masses anymore, people who fed me with (Teher) even in the midst of the battle, now hated me. I should have seen this coming, it all started with the fatherly police chief Asif Mujtaba, quoting Hadith against stone pelting, learned man he is, after securing our (duniyah) worldly life, he immediately focused his attention to secure our (akhirat) life here after. We miss him; he was our real benefactor, trying to ensure us peace in this world as well as other world.

A (molvi saheb) priest who calls himself a Puritan, and who lead many processions in Ragda2008, seconded the view and said the hadith is from Bukhari shareef, it was a bolt from the blue (nabi trath) for me, same molvi used to quote Bukhari shareef in 1990s and would read out from Babul jihad (Chapter on jihad) why this hadith was never read to us until now. What had changed, Bukhari Shareef or Molvi Sahib, it was for the first time and not the last time that I have wept, yes warm tears flowed not from my eyes but the stone cold heart of a stone pelter. I wiped my tears, with my rough hands and yes mourning the death of conscience of our Ulema I did what I knew best, yes I pelted stones mocking at the simplicity of the molvi sahib.

A columnist picked up the thread from were the molvi left, writing smoothly with his “LEFT HAND “. He mocked at my lack of education, it is easy to doge the bullet than a writer’s pen I was pinned to the ground, argument lost. There is a saying in Kashmiri (Asoolus kyah kari ghulam rasool).I don’t know the English meaning of this as I am a petty stone pelter. Agreed I am not educated, but my journo brother is, if he is writing today it is because of me who is fighting in the street for the very honour he is trying to defend sitting in his study with a laptop on the table and Coffee Mug in his hand. His colleague who shot frames was shot in broad daylight; he could not get an FIR registered. I did what I knew best, and yes I pelted stones in protest against this cowardice of the police. Street is my school, and this is what I have been taught. Get an FIR registered for your colleague with your university degree in hand and we will talk my brother. Intelligentsia scorn me, to them I am a ruffian, and they refer to me as the lumpen proletariat. They are all learned scholars, poets, linguists, writers; they are mirror of our society.

When I and my friends were slaughtered on the streets some Rahi lost his way in the commotion, and found himself in a hall were some Gyan Peeth award was given to him by someone whose hands were smeared with our dirty blood. He accepted the award with hands folded in benediction, feeling at last he has found his way not knowing Rahi has been lost in wilderness forever. When men of intellect stoop so low I do what I know best, yes I pelt stones in despair. I have one question for all you learned men. Do those Shawls of honour have smell of our blood and warmth of the breath of a dying stone pelter? By the way was it not the proletariat who brought a revolution, an old news paper I found with” Sulla Masala” talks about that.

Enough of arguments, after all I am a stone pelter I can not win an argument with you, for you are learned men. It is clear to me my countrymen that I am an impediment to your progress, it pains me, I don’t want you to be backward, I want you to prosper. What then is the solution? I can not stoop to your level nor can you rise to my level. Don’t you worry I have a solution. Let there be a role reversal for a day, you be the stone pelters and we the perennial stone pelters the target. I will gather all my friends at Eidgah and you stone us to death, we will take all your stones with a smile on our lips and a tear in our eyes, smile we will for your prosperity and tears will roll, for we won’t be there to see the smile on your lips when you achieve your prosperity. Having stoned us don’t you think you won, it is we who have won for once from masters of inaction you have become men of action, and did not we pelt stones all our lives just to make
you act.

One last request my countrymen, please do not make a graveyard for us, for you will make a ritual of visiting it every year along with our respected leaders , who will come separately, as they come to our funerals individually, strange not even our blood unites them. They say unity is possible only on principles, true how can blood of a stone pelter or chastity and honour of a common Kashmiri woman be a principle to unite on, and it must be some high principle. Even if you bury us don’t ever visit our graves for old habits don’t die we will rise from our graves and pelt stones on sight of a Hypocrite. Tell my mother I will miss her, for I had two Homes Street and her lap, and yes her lap was comforting but it was the street that was my calling.

As everything in the hospital room is becoming hazy and death is waiting to embrace me, I remember a couplet by some Iqbal, I read on the back of an auto rickshaw of a fellow stone pelter.

jis khak Ke Zameer Main ho Atish Chinar
Mumkin Naheen Ki Sard Ho Woh khake Arjmund.

Is it true my country………….

(Imran Muhammad Gazi is an MBA Pass-out Kashmir University. Feedback at gaziimran@yahoo.com)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Stone Pelting an act of war: J&K Government

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/stonepelting-an-act-of-war-jk-govt/580232/


The Jammu-Kashmir government has decided to arrest stone-pelters for ‘waging war against the state’, a crime punishable with death or life in jail.

The state has already slapped the Public Safety Act against eight stone-pelters, all between 15 and 18 years old, over the past week while 16 youths from downtown Srinagar are being tried under section 121 of CrPC (waging war against the state). Sources in the state Home Department told The Indian Express that the government was ready with PSAs against “20 more such youths”.

The 16 youths were produced before a Srinagar Court on Monday. Police sought their remand for eight days, which was soon granted by Judge Masarat Jabeen.The boys, the investigating officer told the court, were directly involved in pelting stones at police and security forces.

However, counsel for the accused Rafique Joo said the youths were held in random raids across the city and were not involved in stone-pelting. He opposed booking of youth under Section 121 of CrPC.

J&K first started booking stone-pelters under the Public Safety Act during the 2008 Amarnath land row agitation. The first person to be booked was Nayeem Ahmad of Rainawari, Srinagar. Though he was released shortly after, Ahmad was again picked up in June last year during protests over the death of two women in Shopian.

IGP, Kashmir, Farooq Ahmad said he was not in a position to give “the exact number of youths” booked under PSA or Section 121 of CrPC. “I am out of station and don’t have the exact number,” Ahmad told The Indian Express

Monday, February 15, 2010

Kashmir: News Reports



DNA

Back to back teen killings have Srinagar on the Edge

Locals blamed the CRPF. They said some vehicles of the central force were passing through the area when the incident took place.Even before the dust could settle on the killing of a schoolboy in the old city, another teenager was killed at Kralisangri-Brain near Nishat, 12 km from Srinagar, on Friday, leading to violent protests in the Jammu and Kashmir capital. Police said Zahid Farooq Shah, 17, was shot at when he was watching cricket. He was first rushed to SMHS Hospital and later to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences for specialised treatment where doctors declared him dead.The CRPF denied the charge. “None of our jawans opened fire. CRPF was neither deployed nor patrolling the area at the time of the incident,” P Tripathi, spokesman for the force, said.

Washington Post

Teenager dies as protests rock Indian Kashmir

Mushtaq Ahmed, a witness, said paramilitary soldiers charged at a group gathered in a playground in Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, and began firing as they fled, killing his friend Zahid Farooq Shah, 17.

CNN

Clashes after death of second teenager in Srinagar

The main part of Srinagar remains under curfew-like conditions. Since early Thursday security forces have flooded the streets, most businesses have remained closed, and residents have stayed inside their homes. Police responded to the crowds with tear gas and baton charges to disburse the protesters shouting pro-freedom slogans. While the family of the teen alleged he was shot by Indian security forces from a passing vehicle, police said the boy died from what they called mysterious fire.

Hindu

On Butt's death anniversary, Life disrupted in Kashmir

A shutdown to mark the 26th death anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front founder Maqbool Butt affected life in the Kashmir valley on Thursday. The police clamped restrictions in many areas of the city to prevent protests. JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik and 10 others were arrested. “The police raided the house of Mr. Malik in the early morning and arrested him,” a JKLF spokesman said. Shops, business establishments, government offices and banks remained closed in all 10 districts of Kashmir. Traffic went off the road. In Srinagar downtown, the district administration clamped an undeclared curfew in several areas, including Eidgah, Nowhatta, Gojwara, Rajouri Kadal and Rainawari. Thousands of police and Central Reserve Police Force personnel were deployed in the old city. All roads were sealed with barbed wires. The restrictions came just two days after normality returned to the city after eight days of clampdown sparked by the killing of a 13-year-old schoolboy, Wamiq Farooq, and Zahid Farooq (16). The police also arrested JKLF vice-chairman Bashir Ahmad Bhat and six others when they tried to take out a rally from Abi-Guzar in Lal Chowk “Another front leader Mohammad Yasin Bhat was arrested at Nigeen in Srinagar. Two more JKLF activists Hafiz-u-llah Sofi and Mushtaq Ahmad were detained in their homes in Srinagar,” the spokesman said.