South Kashmir simmers after Army lays siege to village in Shopian

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, also the state Home Minister, has reportedly asked the police to probe the recent Turkwangan siege and the damages to properties at the “encounter- site”. The directive came after state CID wing submitted to the government a report about the incident, saying that no militant was hiding, but the Army and security forces are still damaging the property and firing even on people who were trapped inside the houses during the siege.

A senior police officer told this reporter that there was a brief exchange of fire between the Army and the militants in the area and after that they escaped. He said that the Army presumed that they were hiding at the Turkwagan village and laid siege for 16 hours despite police feed-back that no militant was hiding there.

Reports said that Mehbooba Mufti has taken-up the matter with the Central Government, expressing her dismay over the incident. The siege at Turkwangan village of Shopian in South Kashmir resulted in clashes between the security forces and the youths, in which is standard IX student Umar Kumar was killed.

South Kashmir remained on the edge in the past few days following the incident. It was followed by uglier incidents as some miscreants stoned a school bus in Shopian and in the stone-pelting incident a standard II student was injured seriously.

The Army destroyed the houses of two police officers at Turkwangan village as they are close relatives of a Hizbul militant Zeenatul-Islam, who reportedly escaped from the same area after a brief gunfight. A deputy superintendent of police took to social networking site on Friday, sharing pictures of how the Army and the security forces had ransacked his house on K. P. Road of main Anantnag town. Dy S.P. Nisar Ahmad Bakshi in his post said that it was eighth attack on his house since 2008. “Vandalism by security forces at K.P. Road Anantnag, property worth lakhs damaged”, Bakshi said. His post evoked a lot of reaction from people throughout the day.

Opposition leader Omar Abdullah and separatists have condemned the stonepelting on the school bus. Syed Ali Shah Geelani said that such incidents cannot be tolerated by any civilised society. Contrary to the Army’s claims that South Kashmir will be soon militant-free, as a consequence of Operation All Out started in the summer of 2016, figures indicate more militants are now stationed in the region than when the offensive was launched.

In the year 2018, at least 45 youths, some of them with degrees like MBA and Ph. D, have joined the militant ranks. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been pleading with the Centre for a dialogue with separatists and to call off the Operation All Out in South Kashmir.

There are reports of more boys joining the militant ranks than the figures being provided by police. “We can only confirm those youths joining militant ranks about whom we have complete proof. There are many missing reports about youths in many villages. We can only confirm their joining militancy when we have concluded our investigation,” a senior police officer in South Kashmir told this newspaper.

Even after the police tried to give full protection and assurances to the parents that their wards, if they surrendered arms, will be given complete amnesty, very few have surrendered. Mehbooba Mufti along with DGP S.P. Vaid has been appealing again and again to the youth to shun the path of violence and join the mainstream. “In the absence of any dialogue and any change in the ground realities, more and more youths will join militancy in frustration. The Central government will have to intervene at the highest level to reverse the trend,” said Altaf Bukhari, state Cabinet minister. The security apparatus in the Kashmir valley recently held a detailed meeting along with the intelligence agencies to finalise the strategy to contain infiltration expected in the summers. Jammu and Kashmir director general of police S.P. Vaid told the media that “all must pray for a peaceful summer”, indicating there will be definite terror challenges ahead, and the police and the security forces need to be in vigil to ensure a smooth Amarnath Yatra and in handling civilian protests at encounter sites.

In North Kashmir, three civilians were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Baramulla. One of them was recently released from detention under the Public Safety Act.

At Hajjin in the northwest Bandipora district, two civilians were dragged out of their home on Friday evening and shot dead by suspected mili-