Won’t vote again, says human shield
Army said they were forced to tie Farooq Dar to a jeep since the soldiers had come under severe attack from stone pelters
The Kashmiri weaver who was tied to an army jeep to thwart stone pelters has vowed never to vote again, a day after the Indian Army commended the major who had used him as a human shield.
“I won’t vote again after what they did to me. I will boycott voting,” Farooq Dar told HT on Tuesday. Dar was returning home after voting in the bypoll for Srinagar parliamentary election on April 9 when he was picked up by soldiers and tied to the jeep and driven around for 28km.
The bypoll witnessed largescale violence and a very low voter turnout. The army said they were forced to use Dar as a human shield since the soldiers had come under attack from stone pelters. A video of Dar being driven around tied to the jeep went viral, dividing the nation. While a section claimed it to be a gross violation of human rights, others defended the action of the army major.
On Monday, the army said Major Leetul Gogoi has been awarded the Chief of Army Staff’s Commendation card for “sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations, without specifying whether the award was particularly related to the jeep incident.
Sitting at his village home in Budgam district, around 70km from Srinagar, Dar kept repeating that “justice” was not done to him. “Insaaf nahi kiya mere saath” is what Dar repeated time and again. “After the atrocity, I expected justice. But that wasn’t done,” he said.
Dar said he had been getting nightmares since the April 9 incident. “My mental peace is gone. “Till the day I am alive, the incident will haunt me. My life will never be the same again,” he said.
“I can’t sit alone. I get troubled. I go to the neighbour’s house or watch television. But I can’t concentrate on work. Only Allah knows when I can restart working again,” Dar said. He hasn’t woven a single shawl since the incident.
His brother Ghulam Qadir said a “depressed” Dar had to be taken to Srinagar’s SMHS hospital for treatment some 20 days after the incident. “The doctors told my brother not to think too much about the incident and take maximum care of himself,” Qadir said.