Vigilantism over braid-chopping turns ugly in J&K
The vigilantism over alleged braid chopping is Kashmir has taken a bizarre turn.
On Friday, a mob tried to set a mentally-challenged man to fire on suspicion of him being a braid chopper in the north-western town of Sopore. In Srinagar, a worshipper was beaten up mercilessly during a visit to the famed Hazratbal shrine on the banks of the Dal Lake. Similar incidents have been reported from some other parts of the Valley where the braid of more than 150 women and girls have been cut by unknown assailants in the past month. The victim of Sopore’s Pothkhan, Nowpora area, Waseem Ahmed, was surrounded by a mob of about 800 people which after beating him to the pulp tried to set him to fire, said Sopore’s superintendent of police, Harmeet Singh.
The officer said that Ahmed was rescued by the police and taken to a Srinagar hospital in critical condition. The police said it has registered an FIR and identified some people involved in the attack with the help of videos that have gone viral on social media.
Following the incident, clashes erupted between
A mob tried to set a mentally-challenged man to fire on suspicion of him being a braidchopper in the north-western town of Sopore
irate crowds of youth and the security forces. The forces fired teargas canisters to disperse stonethrowing mobs in the area. In Srinagar’s Hazratbal area, a mob tried to lynch a person after accusing him of being a braid chopper. The police said that he had come to Hazratbal to offer fajr (dawn) prayers at the famed shrine but was “mistaken” as a braid chopper and beaten up mercilessly. The mob also tried to kill him by drowning him in the Dal Lake, the police said.
There have been fresh protests across the Valley over the alleged braid chopping cases. At places, these protests turned violent after which the police and Central paramilitaries used tear smoke and swung bamboo sticks to quell the stone-throwing mobs.
The police and paramilitaries enforced a lockdown in seven police station areas of summer capital Srinagar on Friday to prevent such protests.