Once an example of peace, Handwara erupts in blaze of ‘disillusionment’
December 2014. The twin higher secondary schools for boys and girls in north Kashmir’s Handwara town are abuzz with voters. Proudly flashing the ink mark on their fingers, the residents of the picturesque town appear ready to give democracy a chance.
Cut to April 2016. Students of Handwara’s degree college march down the streets of the ghostlike town with placards. Shopkeepers down shutters, buses take U-turns and shoppers run for cover. In minutes, Handwara’s busiest market is deserted.
Aijaz Ahmad Sofi, president of the traders’ association, tries to maintain calm. “It’s just small kids going to visit their friend’s house to pay respects,’’ he tells everyone. “The young boys are marching towards their classmate Nayeem Qadir’s house.”
Nayeem — a 20-year-old cricketer, who represented his state in an under-19 tournament — was killed in firing by security forces on April 12.
“I am Nayeem, kill me,” the students shout.
The crowd reaches Nayeem’s house, the air filled with chants of “Azadi” (freedom).
“Nayeem was to join the Virat Kohli academy. He was leaving Kashmir for good and going to Dehradun on April 16. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see the day,’’ Sofi says. Nayeem was the best player in Sofi’s club Star Eleven.
The picturesque town has produced scores of bureaucrats and police officials with no sign of militancy in over a decade but is now simmering, with people regretting their enthusiasm during the 2014 assembly elections.
“Today, all we can tell the rest of the Valley is that we are sorry. We should have never voted the way we did. In Handwara, the killings have been so brutal that the 120 children who died in 2010 will never forgive our deeds,’’ Sofi says, referring to the 2010 street protests against the army across Kashmir.
The town has one of the highest literacy rates in the state — at 77.26%, it is higher than the national average.
“Initially, Handwara saw a lot of militancy but for last 12 to 13 years, we have been peaceful. Even when Afzal Guru died, there was no stone pelting or violent protests,’’ Sofi says.
But this time is different. “Kids are climbing on to military and police vehicles to break them with boulders, even though 40 armed men are inside. This is how hurt the town is,’’ says Sofi’s associate Mir.
Nayeem’s uncle, Ali Mohammad says Mohammad Rafiq, a police assistant subinspector, fired at his nephew when the cricketer was walking home with bags of vegetables.
“We were walking towards home when I saw Rafiq fire. I yelled don’t shoot, but he just shot and hit Nayeem. All the young boy could say was mama I have been hit,’’ Ali says.
Nayeem wasn’t the only victim of police firings. Four others died in the next three days, triggering violent clashes across Kupwara district.
Local residents say the tragedy of Handwara is that a town known for maintaining peace has been pushed to a point of no looking back.
“Even on the day the Valley was closed to protest against the NIT row, the Handwara market was open,” said a shopkeeper.
Local shopkeepers say they were busy when screams from students and a hail of bullets shattered the calm of the day. “We can’t get over the way we were fired upon. We are the same people who defied separatist calls of shutdowns, voted in huge numbers and this is what we get in return,’’ says Sofi.
Trouble began after an underage local school girl was found in a lavatory used only by army personnel. Some local male students say they saw an army man inside, triggering the molestation charge. Many then started pelting the army bunker with stones.
The army has since released a controversial video, where the girl is purportedly seen as saying that a group of local boys, not army personnel, molested her. But her family has rejected the video.
Local residents say the protests were not so harsh that people should have been killed. “In spite of charges of molestation, things would have returned to normal had the protesters not been killed,’’ they say.