And innocent Blood spills again Kashmir

I haven’t made a post for quite a while now though there were many instances when I wanted to wrote. I even started once but then left it incomplete.

The reason for my not writing was it hurt, it hurt to write about the violence, human rights violations, the injustice done to my people. Even though I wrote so little compared to what was happening in my land. It still wasn’t easy. I was not prepared to undergo the pain, the anguish. It is so constant and continuous that it had left me numb.

But then I couldn’t resist as the bloody face of a teenager with half open haunting eyes filled every newspaper. I could see blood had come out from his nose, mouth, ears of the 17 year old while the back of his head lay in a bloody mess.

Tufail Ahmad Mattoo, the lone son of his parents whose mother had this boy after three miscarriages, was killed while returning from tuition when he was caught in a skirmish between protestors and police.

An eyewitness said a teargas shell was fired at him by police and when he fell down they got down from their vehicles and one of them kicked his body and told others he is dead and fled.

Police first blamed the protestors, then the people who took Tufail to hospital saying it was a conspiracy as no bullet or smoke shell was fired. Finally the autopsy report revealed it was a smoke shell which had made a hole in the boy’s skull. (A smoke shell is fired to disperse the crowd, it is never aimed at people as it can be fatal but in Kashmir it is usually aimed that too at head to ensure causality)

Tufail’s father who works outside the state was on a holiday. He told a national daily that the school bag of Tufail is still lying in the police station. Incidentally the day Tufail was killed June 11 was the day that saw death of 28 civilians in the Chotta Bazar Masacre. 19 years have passed. This is one of the incidents in a list of many. Nothing has been done so far and nothing will be.

As I again and again looked t the bloody picture of Tufail ( I was torturing myself probably because that is all I could do) I could see the green full sleeved T shirt with painted faces girls under the Pain stripped half sleeved shirt of Tufail. I wondered how the boy would have dressed to look cool in the morning. What would have crossed his mind when he would have looked at the mirror. I wondered in anguish how would he have felt when the shell hit him. How much pain he would have undergone and for how long. Doctors found his brain matter out. I pray he would have lost consciousness immediately. I know his mother would have thought about this so many times. I wondered how the killers would have slept that night.

All people Kashmir came out on streets to protest against the killing. The Central Reserve Police of India thrashed a 24 year old in any part of the city; they beat him so much that he went into coma. He passed last night. People say he had died few days back but was kept on a ventilator to delay the unrest. Among protests all over the place as he was being taken for burial police opened fire on protesting mourners killing another youth and injuring many. When this youth was being buried police again fired on the protesting mourners injuring many. Yet again scores and scores of family will be mourning the death of their loved ones. Yet once more all we can do is protest knowing we may get many more such wounds to heal.

The Police in Kashmir are protected by a Draconain law AFSPA Armed Forces Special Protection Act where they get all the immunity and powers to kill.

Last time when I made a post about the killing of another boy someone wrote that we should stop violence. I want to put the record straight. In a recent statement the police said that there are only 500 militants in the state, the armed struggle has turned completely peaceful meaning there is almost no use of gun. That leaves only peaceful march and stones. Are stone pelters to be killed like flies? Why do you kill peaceful protestors? What will happen when you don’t let people protest peacefully? The protests in Kashmir are controlled not by riot police but by the people who are trained for armed combat. It means the small boy protesting the killing of his friend is met by a man who is trained in the military warfare and has a gun in hand (a trigger happy hand that is). Is that fair? He is protected by all the laws while the small boy knows that all the laws are not going to help him? Is that fair?

The details about the guy who was killed today and who right now is resting with so many like him in the martyrs’ graveyard have not come yet. But in my mind I can see his distraught family who will probably never come to terms with the tragedy. (I have got a headache already)

I don’t know where to begin and where to end there is so much to tell, so much to show……………….
The international community is a mute spectator and simply not interested as we are not in their scheme of things. Read we have no oil or any such thing.

I will end with something that might give you insight on how we live.

Every morning while going to office as well as every evening while coming back I see groups of girls and boys coming from tuition. My heart beats faster as I look at the boys and there is only one thing that comes to my mind; a prayer. I pray for their safety, life and happiness as they laugh carelessly, unaware of the danger lurking in the shadows. I feel like a mother and wonder how stressful life all the women of Kashmir have.