Begar

tale of torture and harassment.

Yet another tale of torture and harassment Z.
February 21, 2008
Mangwalpora(Handwara), Feb 20: Mangwalpora has been named as a Model Village by the government. It witnessed one of the longest military sieges in the past 18 years of political struggle. The eight-day siege ended this morning. People are recovering from the psychological trauma induced by the siege, which they say was a tactic used by the soldiers and police to “break our will so that we would give false information about militants.”
“But we are proud that we didn’t give up, and defeated their nefarious intentions,” said Bashir Ahmad. The soldiers dug out the floors of rooms in his house.
The soldiers of 30th battalion of Rastriya Rifles and personnel of Special Operation Group (SOG) also dug the houses of several other people in search of “ammunition and hideouts.”
The search operation in Mangwalpora, having a population of 350 people, was the longest in Kupwara and one of the longest in the Valley.
According to the Bashir, the search operation was “collective punishment and mental torture” by the troops of RR and Special Operation Group of Police.
“They thought we would name or blame somebody. But we stand by our unity, besides this is a peaceful village,” Bashir said.
Yesterday the people rejected the eatables brought and offered by the army.
Muhammad Shafi, another resident said, “My house was searched more than 30 times by the troops. In fact there is not a single house which wasn’t searched by troops less than 20 times. But they found nothing. That shows they wanted to harass us.”
He said the troops even snapped the electricity supply to the village on the first day of siege. “They took electric bulbs from the verandahs of our houses and electric poles; it was dark everywhere. We were even deprived of water during the first two days of operation and we used snow,” Shafi added.
Ghulam Muhammad, a resident, said the army choppers made several sorties “quite close to the ground to create fear among people especially the children and women.”
Locals alleged they were detained in two houses during the first three days of the siege. “Men and women were kept in separate houses. We have never witnessed such harassment by troopers. Even an expecting mother was not allowed to be taken to hospital in time. Even after a caesarian, the baby couldn’t survive,” said Muhammad Maqbool Wani..
The troopers had allegedly restricted the villagers from offering prayers in the mosque during the siege. “We were not allowed to call the prayers (Azaan) in the mosque during these eight days and even not allowed to offer the Friday prayers,” Wani added.Two kilometers away from the town, the troops, along with sniffer dogs, were still encircling the town, and frisking everybody who comes out of the village.
Many villagers fear the reprisals by army and SOG.

Z. kashmir. Rebuilding the Paradise. great kashmir

Paradise Under The Gun
Friday, 27 April 2007

It is the ultimate irony that a place so close to paradise has become synonymous with terrorism and danger. I didn't witness any terrorist activity while I was in Kashmir, but military and security forces were everywhere. In bunkers on street corners. Patrolling the streets, in bulletproof vests. Riding shikaras. Standing in the mustard fields and the apple orchards. Searching our car at checkpoints.

One morning, I saw a guy being chased by the cops (at left). A whole crowd of spectators soon joined the fray. The cops hassled him for a while, but then let him go, so apparently he was not a threat.

Most people outside of India perceive the Kashmiri dispute as a conflict between India and Pakistan. But there is a third voice in this: that of the Kashmiri people. The locals I spoke to (admittedly, a small number!) don't want to be part of either India or Pakistan. They do not consider themselves Indian and resent the "occupation" by the Indian military. (I don't mean to offend any of my Indian readers here, just reporting what I'm hearing!)

My Kashmiri guide was not shy about expressing his disgust with the Indian military. He used every opportunity to badmouth them:"Look at that one. He is just standing there, like this [folds his arms across his chest]. What is he doing? He is doing nothing! And that one -- look, he is sound asleep in that bunker."

Relations between the Indian security forces and the local Kashmiris are tense. The military say they are targeted by the locals. The locals claim the military harasses them: "When a militant throws a grenade out onto the street, the militant is clever - he runs away quickly. And the security forces comes after us instead."

The history of Kashmir is mired in controversy. The in-a-nutshell version is that prior to British colonization, Kashmir was an independent territory. After independence from Britain in 1947, Kashmir went with India, but, according to the Kashmiris, it was a forced affiliation. My guide tells me:"We decided to go with India because we had no choice; they agreed to help us against Pakistan. But they did not keep their other promises to us."

I say to him: "I guess the lesson here is, be careful who you ask for help..." and he nods. But when I ask him what he thinks would resolve the problem, the lesson seems forgotten: "The U.S. must intervene. Only pressure from the U.S. will resolve this issue." While some loathe us for interfering, others look to us for intervention.

Kashmir

History relived! sakooter

May 3rd, 2007 ·

The amazing things about history is that it repeats itself.

The saddening thing is that in Kashmir the only history oft repeated is the that which causes distress for the masses.

“Begar” or forced labour introduced by the Dogras had on the surface left us alone. But the fact remains that forced unpaid labour exists even today.

The ’security forces’ ensure their own security, their own well being at the cost of the people who supposedly they are here to provide security to.

Army is forcing the men of Charle, Devar, and Khan Peto villages in Budgam district into labour, a delegation of residents told Greater Kashmir. Srinagar, Apr 30:

“I have been taken to camp many a time by these government gunmen and I was forced to cut timber for Bukharis (wooden heaters). I have six mouths to feed and it means loss of earning, but I can’t say no to them. They are brutes, they can implicate you in false cases, they can kill you,” said a villager, requesting his name should not be mentioned. April 30, 2007

The mourning residents of the village told the DC and the RR commander, “your troops regularly knock at our doors in the night and harass us masquerading as militants. They take us into forest, force us to fell the trees and saw the timber. They also force the artisans to make beds, boxes and other items from the timber. For the daylong forced labour we are paid two and half kilograms of rice or two litres of kerosene. Sometimes they don’t pay even that. We are forced to look for explosives on the roadsides.” April 12, 2006

sakooter