Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

Video shows Hizbul gunmen tonsuring ‘informer’ in Valley

- HT Correspond­ent

SRINAGAR: A grim video surfaced in the Kashmir Valley on Friday, showing a group of alleged Hizbul Mujahideen gunmen assaulting two suspected police informers, giving them a rough haircut, and shoving one of the victim’s head into a bucket of water.

The dark and grainy sevenminut­e video starts with the Hizbul militant group’s name and insignia scrolled on it, and goes on to show a dark room in which a man in military camouflage clothing uses a pair of scissors to roughly trim the hair of a person squatting on the ground with folded hands.

A running ticker below it shows: “Breaking news: Asalamuala­ikum: ye wo gaddar hai jo police mai SPO barti hone ke liye mujahideen ki khabar Hindustani kutton ko detey hai.” (These are the traitors who join police to provide informatio­n about Mujahideen to Indian dogs.) The camera then pans to another man whose hair was given a crooked cut by then, and a couple of men thrash him with sticks.

The assaulters also shove one of their victim’s head into a bucket of water and beat him.

The clip, probably shot with a mobile phone, doesn’t have pictures in large parts. The language spoken by the men seems Kashmiri, but was incomprehe­nsible because of the poor audio quality.

The video was tagged at Tral, the south Kashmir hometown of slain Hijbul militant commander Burhan Wani whose death last July triggered a long public unrest.

“I have not seen the video,” said Mohammad Zaid, police superinten­dent of Awantipora under whose jurisdicti­on Tral falls. HT could not independen­tly confirm the identity of the victims and the authentici­ty of the video, shared on WhatsApp messaging groups run on VPN software to dodge the government’s latest ban on social media in Kashmir.

Friday’s assault clip follows a string of videos in April that purportedl­y showed human rights violations by security forces in Kashmir.

The government suspended high-speed internet and then blocked 22 social media websites and groups such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to stop the circulatio­n of stirring videos in the Valley. J&K GUV MEETS PM

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here to discuss the security situation in the Valley.

The meeting comes after his similar meeting with home minister Rajnath Singh two days back. Vohra’s meeting with Modi lasted around 40 minutes during which he appraised the PM about the current security scenario in the Valley and status of developmen­t projects launched the troubled state.

NAIDU SPEAKS TO J&K CHIEF SECRETARY

NEW DELHI: Union informatio­n and broadcasti­ng minister M Venkaiah Naidu has asked the J&K government to ensure the forthwith ban on beaming Pakistani channels in the Valley.

On Friday, the minister spoke to state chief secretary and said all channels from across the border that are not permitted to air in India should be banned.

These channels are beamed from private cable operators and are being used to instigate anti India propaganda, senior officials said. “The J&K government has been asked to file an action taken report at the earliest,” an official said.

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