Srinagar, Mar 9: Indian police arrested hundreds of youth including Hurriyet leaders and activists and women in Kashmir. One Kashmiri Hurriyet activist Fahmeeda Sofi was arrested when she was attending DeM chairperson Aasiya Andrabi who was recently operated at Soura hospital in Srinagar.A police party from Soura police station and Rambagh police station raided the hospital and arrested Fahmeeda.
Besides APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Gilani, Agha Syed Hassan Almoosvi, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, the authorities are putting other women Hurriyet leaders including Aasiya Andrabi, Yasmeen Raja and Fareeda Behanji under house arrest, which is highly condemnable act of Indian establishment in Kashmir.
Brute Indian hegemonic thinking could not have chosen a better time to highlight their ugly ideology warped in the torn cloth of Democracy and Secularism. India has been playing havoc with the lives and properties of the Kashmiris and now since the hanging of Afzal Guru; curfews, bullets, assault, pepper bombs, this is what India has for Kashmir. But now this is the height of apathy and lowliness; to start laying their hands on the daughters of Kashmir; has India gone schizophrenic; is it not inciting war; does India have the least of humanity?
In Kashmir mothers, wives and daughters who have suffered and seen the abduction, torture and killing of their loved ones. These are not glamorous figures of fashion or economic prosperity but they are still figures of virtue, patience, faith and perseverance; they are still symbols of the bravery of raising voice in the face of tyranny, torture and brute force.
We condemn the arrest of the political activist of Kashmir, we condemn the arrest of our sisters and daughters, and we condemn the barbarity of India.
Kashmiri Hurriyat leader who were demanding the return of the body of executed Muhammad Afzal Guru are under harsh military crackdown.
Besides of hundreds of civilians, several Hurriyet leaders, including Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Ashraf Sehria, Showket Ahmad Bakshi, Muhammad Yousuf Naqqash, Ghulam Nabi Zaki, Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi, Mohammad Ayaz Akbar, Ghulam Muhammad Nagoo, Zahid Ali , Muhammad Shaban Sheikh, and Nazir Ahmad Ahangar too have been detained.
Raids were conducted at the homes of Hurriyet leaders in the Kashmir valley. Meanwhile, a senior police officer said that the crackdown on the Hurriyet leaders would continue.
The Kashmiris were protesting against the mysterious death of a scholar Muddasir Ahmad Mallah, who was tortured to death under by Indian authorities in the camps
While on March., when in the ongoing protests the ndian Army shot down another student, Tahir Ahmad Sofi. Curfew has been restored in most parts of Kashmir by the Indian establishment to crush protests against the gross human rights violations committed by India in kashmir.
It is being reported that youth in the hundreds have been taking out to the streets in different areas all over Kashmir and the Indian paramilitary forces and police have used all means including barbed wires, tear smoke shells, pepper gas bombs and firing squads to repel or disperse the youth, who are with nothing but empty hands. Reports say that the Indian Central Reserve Police Force and police personnel have attacked civilian homes, automobiles and even the Kashmir University, smashing window panes and beating and abusing whoever they find. Many have been taken into arrest and many have been injured by bullets, batons and injurious gases.
Pepper gas can be life threatening, say experts: The pepper gas used nowadays profusely by police and paramilitary troopers to quell anti-India protests in the Kashmir Valley can cause lung ailments in healthy adults or children and death to patients of asthma or bronchitis, experts warned on March 2, 2013.
The forces have been using pepper guns on the protesters despite Human Rights Commission of Kashmir recommendations against it.
In Srinagar city, heavy use of pepper guns not only caused death of three lives since Feb 2013 till March 7, 2013 but also created a serious health concern. However, in rural areas no deaths have been reported but doctors and official sources said that a large number of patients have been coming to the hospitals after they complained of respiratory and other related ailments due to the pepper gas. They said most of the patients were above 40 years of age.
Consequently, many people have taken while a 65-year-old woman from old Srinagar died Thursday due to excess intake of pepper. The residents of Pulwama in South Kashmir have, in fact, threatened to launch agitation if the use of pepper guns doesn’t stop.
Pepper spray or gas contains a chemical irritant called ‘Capsicame’, which causes inflammation in lungs in healthy adults or children.
“Pepper sprays result in temporary irritation in eyes, throat, nose and skin causing tears, coughing or sneezing. But excessive intake can cause inflammation in lungs in any healthy person, curable with systematic treatment at hospitals using bronchodilators,” Dr Naveed Nazir Shah, Assistant Professor Chest Medicine, told media men in Srinagar, reports Kashmir reader. “The affect is more on children who have smaller reparatory passage.”
However, pepper spray or gas, Dr Shah said, can cause “frequent attacks” in patients of asthma or bronchitis, which may even result in death.
“Asthma or bronchitis patients have respiratory problems. So, excessive intake of pepper can cause frequent attacks in them. And it can even cause them death,” Dr Shah said.
Around 150 countries across the globe have banned pepper spray under Article I.5 of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The ban came into force after reports of deaths and a potential risk for fatal respiratory individual emerged in the late ‘90s. The pepper gas ban has also been followed in almost all of the European countries where its use has been labelled as “inhumane and dangerous”.
Pepper guns were introduced in the Valley as a “non-lethal” method for controlling mass protests after the 2010 mass agitation. And police and paramilitary troopers here continue to use them during anti-India and pro-freedom protests. “This pepper spray or gas is not known to have long terms health hazards, but it can certainly cause death in many cases. Many deaths have been reported from around the world due to pepper spray or gas,” Dr Syed Tariq said.
The use of pepper gas by the police and paramilitary forces ostensibly to disperse the agitating people in Srinagar City. Let it be stated that all the deleterious effects of the pepper gas victimise people who are far from the scene of agitation. The toxic air laden with pepper gas enters every household in the area and causes maximal damage to the most vulnerable sections of our population.
I have seen a number of children over the last year or two who were afflicted with this near-lethal clinical problem. They complain of instantaneous bout of unstoppable cough, red eyes, shortness of breath, gasping, gagging. Older children, in addition to above, complain of difficulty in seeing, headache and air-hunger, said Dr Altaf Hussain a renowned pediatrician.
Talking to media men, Deputy Medical Superintendent (MS) SMHS Dr Kanwaljeet Singh said that they were on the job collecting the data about the number of such patients. “In our hospital we have registered 10 such patients out of which four were visitors. We kept them under investigation and were discharged later,” he said, adding that forces in last two days used pepper gas near the hospital causality ward that created further chaos inside the hospital.
In Central Kashmir’s Budgam district the number of such patients registered in various primary health centers was 338 while in Islamabad the number was 20 while in Pulwama the number 10.
A senior official in health department of Budgam district said that as per the data collected, 338 patients who complained of respiratory and other related problems were registered in various health centers. “We acted upon accordingly and controlled the serious health concern after providing immediate treatment and other observations,” he said pleading anonymity.
When asked was it all due to the pepper gas, he said the pepper gas suffocated the environment and it can create more health problems in the areas where water being consumed by the people is contaminated.
In Ganderbal district where the intensity of clashes was low, the number of such patients was only five while in Shopian official sources said no such patients were registered in any of the health centers of the district.
However, the concerned health authorities in Islamabad, Baramulla, Kupwara, Srinagar and Bandipora, where heavy clashes were reported in last one week, said that they are still compiling the data about the number of such patients and hopefully in two days time it will be revealed.
“Alone in Islamabad ( Anantnag) town 20 patients who complained of respiratory problems were registered in the district hospital in last five days. We are yet to complete the overall data of such patients,” they said.
It is pertinent to mention here that in Srinagar three persons namely Abdul Rashid of Gurgadi Mohalla Aali Kadal, an asthama patient, a 40 year old Muhammad Yousuf Sofi, auto driver from Batamaloo Srinagar and 60-year-old woman Hajra Begum Aali-Kadal Srinagar, had died due to pepper gas.
The Indian police and paramilitary CRPF continue to resort to firing on protesters without permission of magistrates in violation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The SOP violation has often resulted in the killing of protesters by the police and paramilitary forces. On February 10, when CRPF personnel opened fire on a protest rally in Watrgam area of Baramulla and killed a 15-year-old Ubair Mushtaq besides injuring four others, no magistrate was present on the spot.
In 2009, the puppet Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, in a meeting had asked the administration to ensure presence of a magistrate when dealing with protesters. However, nothing has changed on ground with police and paramilitary CRPF using excessive force on protesters during the past few weeks.
“If a magistrate is not present at the situation, police and parliamentary CRPF have no right to open fire on protesters. Killing a boy at Watrgam is gross violation of SOP by the forces,” said senior High Court lawyer, Syed Riaz Khawar in an interview.
He said that under law police and paramilitary CRPF had no right to shoot at protesters. “Not even powers devised to forces under AFSPA empower them to shoot at innocent protestors. The act of CRPF firing on unarmed civilians is tantamount to violation of law and a case may be registered against it,” he opined.
The former Secretary of Indian Supreme Court Bar Association, Ashok Arora, said that the paramilitary CRPF had no right to take law into its own hands. “There is a proper mechanism to deal with a situation. It is extremely unheard of that bullets are showered on people who register protest,” he deplored.