Srinagar, Oct 24, 2011: The residents and traders of Saraf Kadal in Srinagar are up in arms against the authority for undue victimization of the innocent people in the garb of teargas shelling on peaceful protesters. The complainants said it had become almost a routine that after Friday congregational Salah pitched-battles erupt between protesters and Indian paramilitary forces and Special Operations Group in the area. And this is when, the complainants said, the police and paramilitary CRPF resort to teargas shelling.
“For sometime we have observed that the teargas shells are not the routine ones as used to be fired in the past. These are chillier and make one feel uneasy with nausea amid frequent coughing,” said the residents adding pepper gun shelling was being done. Pertinently the weapon was introduced in the City last year 2010 during the mass agitation as a weapon to counter protesters. “We are sure pepper-guns are used in our area,” the complainants insisted.
The residents said it was illogical on the part of armed forces that they use weapons, which put everyone to inconvenience. “If somebody is protesting why should the others be victimized?” argued a gold merchant in the market famous for the ornaments while narrating his woeful tale. The trader said his aged father was an asthma patient adding that the shelling worsens his health condition.
“We fear that someday our father may die because of this shelling, which almost leaves him half dead… This is injustice with humanity,” he said. Similar were the complaints of a housewife who said her kids start vomiting whenever this shelling takes place. GK NEWS