Carnage continues in IIOJK

Muhammad Arshad Khan: India under Modi has started killing out of frustration detained Kashmiris as well as labourers to avenge their demand for freedom from Indian bondage.

As of today, the troops martyred two youth including one who was languishing in Kot Bhalwal jail, Jammu, since January 13, 2003 and a labourer in Poonch and Shopian districts, respectively. The latest killing raised the past six months’ toll to 117 in the occupied territory.

The detained youth identified as Zia Mustafa was taken out of jail, and was killed in a stage-managed encounter in Bhata Durrian, Mendhar area of Poonch district, today.

Another youth, identified as Shahid Aijaz was martyred in Shopian district, today. He was a resident of Islamabad town. Thousands of people thronged the house of the martyred youth at Kharpora Nowpora in Islamabad and demanded his body for funeral and proper burial.

It is worth mentioning here that Indian troops in their unabated acts of state terrorism in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir had killed 117 people in the past six months

An official told media that Zia Mustafa, lodged in high security Kot Bhalwal jail since 2003, was shifted to Mendhar on 14 days’ police remand in connection with an FIR registered in Gursai police station. He was taken to the forest areas on Sunday morning, and was shot dead by the troops and portrayed his death as the result of an encounter between Indian troops and militants.

“During searches in late noon hours, the militant was found lying dead and his body has now been retrieved,” the official confirmed.

The operation in the forest areas in the Poonch and Rajouri districts commenced on October 11 when five Indian soldiers including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) were killed in an ambush in Surankote forest of Poonch.

On October 14, four more soldiers including a JCO were killed in Nar Khas forest in Mendhar.

Drones and helicopters were pressed into service to assist the marching troops, which included para-commandos, in the jungle at a distance of four km from the Line of Control (LoC), the officials said.

Having failed in arresting those involved in the killing of Indian soldiers, the frustrated troops brought detained Zia Mustafa from Kotbhalwal jail and shot him to death to mislead Indian people that the troops have killed a mujahid.

Avenge of Indian troops did not stop here.

They made another twenty-one-year-old youth, Shahid Aejaz Rather, a scapegoat, now in Shopian, today.

Shahid had quit studies after high school, would join his brother in apple picking during the season to earn livelihood.

A resident of Nowpora village in south Kashmir’s Islamabad district, Shahid had left home last week, along with two of his neighbours, for Shopian to work in the apple orchards.

His younger brother, Zubair Aejaz Rather, 18, would also go to the neighbouring villages to pick apples and support family. When the weather conditions in Kashmir worsened on Saturday both the brothers had decided to return home on Sunday.

Speaking to the media, Zubair said that he had spoken to his brother yesterday night over phone. “He told me that they [Shahid and his neighbourhood friends] are returning home tomorrow. I told him to wait so that we could go together,” said Zubair.

Next morning, at 8 am on Sunday, Zubair called on his brother’s phone number but it went unanswered. He tried to call his friends’ numbers too but no one received the calls.

In panic, he “kept calling for half an hour” until realising something was wrong. By now his brother, Shahid, was shot dead near a paramilitary forces’ camp.

As per, Shahid’s friend, who was with him at that time, said that they were neither asked to stop nor asked to prove identity but the CRPF troops killed him without provocation.

“It is doomsday”

When Zubair was waiting to hear back from his brother, he received a call from one of his friends, telling him that an incident had happened in Shopian. “My brother had been martyred,” recalled Zubair, who couldn’t believe it as “there was no reason for the army to shoot him”.

With heavy legs, Zubair dragged himself home. “I wanted to reach early but the roads became longer and longer. I couldn’t reach anywhere,” he said, adding that “he fainted four times on his way home”. “It was doomsday. I can’t even think about anything right now. I am not in my senses.”

One of Shahid’s friends, Ashraf Ahmad, who was with him at the time of the incident while speaking to the media said that the trio had decided to walk from Zainapora village in Shopian as there was no cab at that moment.

When they had reached Babapora near the CRPF camp on the main road, they had seen a group of CRPF personnel stationed on the road. “They [CRPF] neither asked us to stop nor checked our ID cards,” said Ahmad. “All three of us were walking normally and Shahid was behind us.”

Ahmad said that all of a sudden, “we heard some gunshots and we ran into the lanes for our lives”.

“Armed forces show little restraint”

A picture circulated on the social media shows Shahid’s body, wearing a pheran, lying near a pick-up truck, with a small plastic bag and apples scattered around.

“I just remember that there were a few CRPF personnel there,” said Ahmad, adding that they believed Shahid must have run too. But a while later, Ahmad received a call from someone telling him that Shahid had been shot dead.

Ahmad recalls that the truck was already parked when they were walking by foot. “It was the CRPF who fired the shots as they were the only ones present on spot,” said Ahmad, feeling it was a miracle that he was alive.