‘Police, forces’ high handedness pushing youth to militancy’

The Jammu and Kashmir police and the state government’s perceived mishandling of the situation in South Kashmir has created marked resentment among the youths who may take to militancy. The alienation and the feeling of mutiny is so marked that mainstream political activists have left their villages and are living in Srinagar in hotels.

Among the cases that fomented street protests was Zubair Ahmad Turray’s case in Shopian, who was allegedly arrested and tortured by the the security forces. 

Shopian remained shut for four days, with people demanding that the police should come clean on the custodial disappearance of Zubair. Police had said that Zubair Ahmad escaped from their custody at Keegam police post on 1 May, but people were apprehensive that he was killed in custody. 

The police was proved right when Zubair released a video announcing that he has joined the militant ranks. He mentioned that he was “forced” by the police to take to militancy. 

This reporter talked to the family members of Zubair who lives in the Bon Bazar locality of the main Shopian town. His father Bashir Ahmad told this reporter that the police has filed 23 FIRs against him and most of them were filed during the 2008 unrest. He said that the first PSA was slapped against his son in 2008, following which Zubair discontinued his studies.

“Most of the cases and FIRs were false and our entire family had to bear the brunt of these cases for the past so many years. I had to go to the courts and also to the politicians, pleading with them that if they quashed the charges against my son, I assure that he would live a normal life,” Bashir said.

Narrating the ordeal of the family, Bashir said that the Army raided their house in 2004. Zubair was allegedly tortured and picked up by the BSF who also interrogated him. He was detained by the police for two months, released and then arrested again. Bashir claimed that his son Zubair was detained under PSA (Public Safety Act) and was dispatched to the Udhampur jail for six months when he was a minor. 

He said that right from 2004 he has been chasing his son behind the bars and seeking his release orders from the courts to be arrested again by the police. He said that when he was able to get his seventh PSA quashed from the court, the police instead of releasing him, kept him under illegal detention at the police post of Keegam. “When he was not released for two months, some police officials had told Zubair that they were preparing grounds for his eight PSAs and this news had perturbed him mentally and he fled from the police post and joined the militant ranks,” Bashir further said.

The story of Zubair is not an isolated story in South Kashmir. Dozens of teenagers were tortured and detained; some of them were slapped with PSAs. These are the main factors according to the analysts responsible for the rise of new age militancy. The hatred against the police is deep rooted in South Kashmir, and it can explode into a big incident.

The Army, paramilitary forces and the Special Operation Group (SoG) of J&K Police end up instilling fear among the people. A few days ago, thousands of troops cordoned off Heff and Shermal villages in Shopain as these had witnessed a lot of support for militants. The Army and the security forces during the house-to-house searches dragged out the relatives of militants and even women were allegedly thrashed. This incident triggered massive protests in the area, forcing the Army to lift this cordon. The protests were curbed by the heavy use of force.