‘I went to vote, why would I stop others?’
It was a sunny Sunday morning in Kashmir’s Beerwah region. The morning chill had dissipated and Farooq Ahmad Dar was on his way to his sister’s house as there had been a death.
The 26-year-old had spent his morning outside a polling booth in Arizal’s Chill Bras area for the Srinagar bypolls, defying a separatist boycott call that contributed to the lowest turnout in almost three decades.
However, within minutes, Dar says his life was turned upside down. He claims he was pulled from his motorcycle by army personnel, tied to the front of a jeep and driven around from village to village for hours — a purported video of which has gone viral on social media and triggered nationwide outrage.
Dar says he has bruises on his body from the army’s ‘thrashing’ but appears more affected by the trauma of the alleged incident.
“I was tied up at 10 in the morning and taken off the jeep at around 5.30. God knows how many kilometers they travelled with me tied in the front,’’ he tells HT, pointing at a torn phiran muddied with many stains.
“All this while, I thought I would be killed.”
The army has ordered an inquiry into the incident and sources claim Dar was part of a stone pelting mob that attacked the personnel. But Dar says he just got down from his motorcycle to check on a few women protesting at Utligam.
“Please check my name in the list of voters. If I voted for democracy, why would I stop others from voting and pelt stones?” says Dar, a shawl artisan, who says he voted at booth number 90 in Chill village and showed the ink mark to security personnel.
He says the video — which forced chief minister Mehbooba Mufti to ask for a report — was shot at Gundipora.
His brother Fayaz Ahmad Dar says the family went to the army camp to seek his release. “He could have been killed by the army, hit by a stray bullet or a stone,’’ Fayaz said.
Dar says he was let off at around 7.30pm, when the village head and other elders visited the Rashtriya Rifles camp.
“We are poor and Kashmiris. Whether we vote or note, whether we are pro-Azadi or anti-azadi, for them (forces), we are the same,” he says.