Interview with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq: ‘I’m personally working to bridge gap with youth’

The interview first appeared in The Indus Post on Feb 5, 2018.

By Sheikh Saqib and Khawar Achakzai

Inside his office adjacent to his guarded mansion at Srinagar’s Nigeen, Kashmir’s chief cleric and Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman has put up a thoughtful composure in the face of the renewed Indo-Pak war of words. Behind the latest blitz was the call that rang up Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s office on 29 January 2019.

“The Foreign Minister briefed him on the efforts of the government of Pakistan to highlight the gross human rights violations being perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Pakistan Foreign Ministry Office said in a statement.

Summoning Pakistan’s envoy Sohail Mahmood a day after, Indian foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale termed Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s telephonic conversation with Mirwaiz a “brazen attempt to subvert India’s unity and violate its sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

“If such action by Pakistan … is repeated, it will have consequences,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar warned.

But Islamabad dismissed India’s protest as “nothing new”: “We would like to reiterate that Kashmir is an outstanding dispute between India and Pakistan, and acknowledged as such through UN Security Council resolutions as well as numerous Pakistan-India documents, including the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration,” it said, rejecting India’s objections to the conversation.

Inside his Nigeen residence, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq terms New Delhi’s protest as an attempt to rake up the “normal” call in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections in India.

“One can only understand why so much noise is being made over it in the election season,” he says. Even in his press conference held in backdrop of the call controversy, Mirwaiz said, “My conversation with the foreign minister should not irk India if it believes in dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue.”

Amid the renewed bilateral blitz, Mirwaiz is a busy man in office, trying to address political as well as social issues.

At 17, he rose to political prominence and became the youngest Mirwaiz of Kashmir after his father Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq’s assassination on May 21, 1990. “I had just passed my matriculation and wanted to pursue my career in software engineering and had even applied for the same,” he told Rediff in an interview.

After assuming the mantle of Mirwaiz, he was soon presiding over the conglomerate of (then) above 30 political parties, under the banner of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) in February 1993.

In an interview with The Indus Post, the 45-year-old Mirwaiz advocating Kashmir’s freedom from Indian rule and an end to repression in the valley spoke about many issues. Edited excerpts:

Q: New Delhi has warned Islamabad of “consequences” if they repeat any attempt, like calling you again. What was the call about?

It was simple call from Pakistan foreign office reiterating Islamabad’s traditional support to Kashmir issue. In fact, Mr. Shah Mehmood Qureshi spoke about Pakistan effort in raising Kashmir issue on global front. He even talked about how relentless peace talks offer from Prime Minister Imran Khan was turned down by Narendra Modi government.

Q: But did you expect that the call would soon trigger a war of words between India and Pakistan?

Well, I am not able to rationalize New Delhi’s miffed response over it. Both countries have been talking about Kashmir since many decades now. There is a clear roadmap on it. Also, we should not forget that Pakistan is a party to the Kashmir dispute. In past, even Hurriyat Conference met various Pakistani delegations in New Delhi. Even the former NDA prime minster Atal Bihari Vajpayee batted for the dialogue. But now, it’s quite ironic when much noise is being made over a call.

Q: Since New Delhi justifies its dominant political posturing citing Islamabad’s “insincerity” to the peace initiatives in past, do you think new dispensation is ready to walk extra mile on Kashmir?

Well, my last interaction with Imran Khan makes me believe that he is extremely sincere on Kashmir issue. And he has already said it that he is ready to walk the extra mile on resolving the issue.

Q: Talking about the recent Jamia Masjid pulpit desecration incident, how serious was it?

What happened was unfortunate. But I think we need to look at a broader picture here.

The fact is that this conflict has affected our youth in a humongous way. There is this sense of disillusionment among the younger generation that nothing is moving forward, that there is an inexplicable stagnancy that they think we’ve reached.

On one end of the spectrum our youth are losing their lives every day and on the other end, apparently, everything is normal—life is moving on, people are involved in their daily errands, business, other activities and things.

There’s a sense of severance amongst our youth while trying to balance the complex nature of our struggle.

About the incident that happened, we’ve gone into the detail of it. As far as ‘Daesh’ is concerned, it does not have any solid backing in the valley. Yes, to some extent, young boys might be getting swayed by some online videos and speeches, but that is due to the ramifications of the social media and the age of easy access that we live in. The easy dissemination of every kind of ideology and whatever is happening on global level, with regards to Islamic societies right or wrong, can sometimes influence the thinking and thought of a few.

Having said that, it’s very important not to lose sight of our cause. The ideology of ISIS and our struggle are polar opposites and do not represent the aspirations that our cause represents. And it will not in any way take us forward.

I personally think that the Jamia Masjid incident was more of an act of bravado, to garner attention. Such elements thrive on media attention.

Q: So you think there is no ISIS presence in the valley?

Definitely not! I don’t even think that there is a very deep-rooted conspiracy behind this.

See, we have to understand that people nowadays see a youtube video, listen to some lectures and start giving their opinions without understanding the fundamentals. Some of our youth, who unfortunately are yet to channelise their strengths and talents, listen to one or two religious videos and get incited to talk about Khilafa.

We as an Ummah are proud of our faith and all that it stands for. But we have to learn to take a stand against what does not fall in line with our religious teachings.

The space for unfortunate incidents like that of Jama Masjid also stems from the fact that leadership has been imprisoned either in their houses or put behind the bars and not able to communicate with the youth. While it has led to frustration and disappointment among youth, it has also emboldened certain elements, who are trying to infuriate and propagate misinformation and misbelief in the garb of a concocted definition of ‘Islamic State’.

But now, we are trying at every level to connect with youth who are more into religious practices so that we can familiarise ourselves with their thought process and accordingly work to guide them ahead in the right direction.

The senseless noise at times on social media needs to be curtailed and we have to put ourselves in a better position as well to educate our youth about Kashmir and its history of struggle.

Q: But do you think that Hurriyat has somewhere failed to address and educate youth?

See, as I said, our activities have been choked by the establishment from the last many years now.

Geelani Sahab, Yasin Sahab and I are mostly under house arrests or put behind the bars. Whenever we started a dialogue process with people and try to carry out our activities, India, which swears on its democratic fabric, suppressed our voice, at the drop of hat.

And this has unfortunately created a gap between our leadership and the youth, who have high expectations from us. This has also led to a certain amount of alienation among our youth with regards to the leadership for not doing anything to address their aspirations.

But now, I am working personally to start our activities again and bridge this gap. And I am very optimistic we will succeed. I am getting inputs from people, going out to interact with youth. It is helping me to draw a map on how to go ahead.

I will also be going to my downtown office Rajouri Kadal once or twice a week, so that people can come and put forth their opinions, give suggestions and hopefully make it a productive deliberation. Meeting our youth – the boys and girls, is one of my top priorities.

Q: You have also organized such programs earlier where you had asked people to share their views. What happened to that?

Yes, we had organized such events a number of times but as I said Indian state always muzzled our activities whenever we tried to do something new.

Earlier we had asked people of all sections of the society to send their views and ideas to us but we could not follow it because the 2014 flood brought everything to a halt.

Then, we launched another such event and again 2016 uprising happened and we were put in jails and barred from meeting anyone.

But yes, we’re deliberating on the letters sent to us. Some of the suggestions are very good. These things take time, but we are on it and trying to see how best we can implement those suggestions.

Q: Did you get any alternative strategy for Hartal in your letters?

I’d be lying, if I tell you that I am not aware of the fact that how people seek new strategy to Hartal calls.

But the fact is that government is not allowing any space for peaceful protests. Seminars are banned. Meetings are not allowed. Student activities have been barred. So hartal, at times, remains the only option for us to protest. But, we are looking at alternatives.

We have suggested to traders to look into the possibility of shutting down their shops for one or two hours. We discussed with transport organizations to look into the possibility of blocking roads for half an hour to highlight issues and to students to hold candlelight marches in their campuses.

But I guess, it will take more oraganised effort to make it workable. Besides, I am also getting inputs that our young boys are taking drugs which is very unfortunate. 

Drugs?

There are forces who are working to deviate our youth. But we want to give them a message that we won’t let you crush our movement, no matter how nefarious your means are.

We are already losing our youth to bullets; we cannot afford losing them to this menace.

We are trying to rehabilitate those kids who have unfortunately fallen into this trap. Our entire movement is shouldered by the energy of our youth and the experience of our old. We are trying our best to help these things culminate in tipping the balance in our struggle.

Q: How do you see the younger generation of Kashmir?

I am in my forties but I started when I was a teenager. So, I know that our children are blessed with great qualities, of learning and struggling to meet the desired ends. They should study the history of their land, read about the narratives, construct them and deconstruct the myths and counter narratives denigrating our cause.

https://theinduspost.com/?p=642

(The Indus Post Online Team contributed for this interview.)

From the Embattled Lanes of Srinagar, Two Young Men Have Taught Themselves How to Build Robots

The story first appeared in TheWire's LiveWire.in on November 12, 2018.

By Sheikh Saqib

Srinagar: In the midst of the all the strife and chaos in the Valley, two young Kashmiris have been quietly pursuing their passion for robotics – trying, then failing and finally succeeding at inventing robots, drones and much more.

Now, they’re gearing up to compete against others in India to get a chance to represent the country internationally. This is a peek into their lives up till this point.

Deep inside one of the narrow allies of Srinagar’s Karanagar area, 22-year-old Sheikh Najeeb Shafi lives in a two-story house full of electronic devices. The house, which retains an old-timey charm thanks to its architecture has witnessed all of Najeeb’s projects come to life, everything from minor machinery to his attempts to make a robot.

He is presently busy testing a two-wheeler balancing bot, which is exactly what it sounds like – a machine that balances itself on two wheels. Just as Najeeb’s invention starts running around the room on its wooden wheels, his co-inventor, 16-year-old Mir Faizan, returns from a day at school.

Najeeb and Faizan have spent most of their short lives experimenting with any electronic equipment they could lay their hands on. From destroying gadgets to repairing them – they’ve done it all.

“Once an electrician came to my house and fixed a bulb. When he turned the switch, the light shined and made things distinguishable. This fascinated me,” says Najeeb, explaining how he started on this path.

“After that,” he continues, “I started to take an interest in electronic stuff. I would destroy things and then repair them. I failed most of the time, but kept at it, trying different tactics. This, I should say, inspired me to try more.”

As a kid of barely ten, Najeeb remembers receiving a book about electronics from a senior at school. That book is still with him, occupying prime space on the desk where he spends his day experimenting. At first, he says, he couldn’t understand the book. “I would skim through pages and enjoy the pictures in it. But as soon as I realised what it was really about, I started reading it with concentration. It helped me connect myself to the confusing world of electronics,” he recalls.

After failing his 12th board exams three times in a row, Najeeb started spending his time making projects for final-year B-Tech students.

“I went on doing their assignments until I passed my 12th class examination last year,” says Najeeb, “now I am myself a B-Tech student and am busy doing mycollege projects.”

His parents weren’t exactly happy during that period, though. “My parents often forced me to focus on my regular studies because they thought my interest in robots would lead me to become a grease-covered local mechanic in the future,” says Najeeb.

However, he doesn’t blame them for being worried. He says, “My parents are not at fault here. The Valley has produced many people with different skills but they end up suffering because there’s a lack of platforms and facilities. Even my teachers could not understand me. They would call my parents and complain every time I took one of my robots to school.”

Najeeb’s interest in electronics eventually led him to an India Skills competition last year, where he met Faizan for the first time. Both of them had gone there to compete as individuals but ended up as a team, which turned out to be a great decision as they won regional runner-up at the event.

“We participated in the competition as a wildcard team,” says Faizan. “I was self-trained in software and I was interested in robotics as well,” he says, explaining why he wanted to work with Najeeb.

The competition basically involved participants racing robots to see which one could pick up and dump balls inside a net the fastest. Najeeb and Faizan’s invention outperformed most, surprising the audience and judges.

Although he’s just 16, Faizan is not new to these competitions. Just a couple years ago, he won a bronze medal as a ninth grader competing against college students at IIT Delhi’s annual competition.

Most recently, Faizan was occupied with making a jetpack but had to abandon it mid-way when costs exceeded Rs 40 lakhs. After doing all he could, including collecting trash to fashion parts out of, Faizan approached the government for financial assistance but was denied.

He remains optimistic though, saying, "I still hope to get it done someday.”

After abandoning the jetpack project, Faizan ended up directing his limited resources to making a drone, which he did complete and that he now counts as his biggest achievement.

This self-taught duo is all set to compete in India Skills this year, hoping they get a chance to represent the country internationally and make the Valley proud

Martyr's Graveyard and it's Custodian in Kashmir.

This piece was originally written in 2016 and later edited on July 20, 2018.

By Sheikh Saqib

Note - The custodian and caretaker of more than 1500 martyrs in India-administered Kashmir died at the age of 78 on Thursday, July 19, 2018.

“Lestyo forget, we have given our today for your tomorrow”, reads the inscription on the gate of Martyrs’ Graveyard in old Srinagar, India-administered Kashmir.

I went to this celebrated graveyard to pay tribute to the countless martyrs whose blood still smells fresh in the air. 

Epitaphs of hundreds of martyr’s stand like sentinels over the graves of people killed since the 1990s.

After I travelled for the interview in this chaotic city, this graveyard stood out as a relative calm with neatly laid out graves in rows.

Habibullah Khan, 75, is a gravedigger and a caretaker of this blooming garden of graves. He has been digging graves for the last 26 years. The accidental gravedigger was a businessman until he learnt the skill of digging graves.

Popularly known as Mazar-e-Shahuda, the graveyard where Khan works have the buried bodies of more than 1500 martyrs. Khan who may look physically old and weak carries strong and vivid memories of the fallen.

The Journey of Khan as a Gravedigger

“Since the 90s till now, I have been in the habit of keeping a grave ready, you never know who will be killed today and brought to this precious graveyard,” says Khan.

For Khan, digging graves of martyrs is more than a job to earn money but to contribute towards the shared sentiment among Kashmiris for freedom struggle.

“When I saw people picking up arms to fight the Indian state, I found digging graves for these martyrs as my way of resistance against the Indian State,” says Khan.

In the late 1990s, Khan went through a major surgery on his head but his determination towards his work kept him going even when doctors Kept him on medicines and advised him to take rest.

“If I take rest, who will take care of my people who are buried here,” Khan said while tears rolled down his cheeks.

The journey of Khan as a gravedigger is all about trauma, violence and bloodshed.

As Khan says, the violence since the 1990s has generated a sea of memories in his brain.

“During the turbulence of 90’s I used to bury not less than 10–13 martyrs’ per day, even the children were not spared,” says Khan.

The Birth of Martyrs’ Graveyard in Srinagar

“This piece of land was not always a martyrs’ graveyard, it was just another field of Srinagar,” remembers Khan.

“At one corner of the cemetery was a big and old tree on which, during the turbulence of 1990’s, the flags of Al- Umar, Hizbul-ul-Mujahideen and Kashmir Liberation Front (KLF) were waved by some of the residents of the locality. They shouted to gather other residents and were told to dig some graves, for there were some martyrs who were later buried here,” says Khan, adding that when they started the job, they found it unsuitable to bury the martyrs’ bodies in it.

“The level of the water came up and the perception existed that no graveyard could be established. People started preparing to go home but a sudden influx of thoughts rushed through my brain and I stopped people present there and shouted, ‘Nothing can stop us from putting these blood riddled bodies in this land’,” says Khan, “I returned home to take some rest and to my surprise when I came back after a few minutes, people had started bringing mud from their houses to make the place fit for a graveyard. I felt like angels were also helping us”, says Khan.

“The sacrifice of young people with high spirits, ready to do anything for the freedom movement, enticed me to do the job”, says Khan.

As he recalls, one day, in the mid-1990’s he was told to dig a grave for an unknown person whose body was not even recognizable due to burnt scars.

“When I finished burying the person, about five strangers entered the cemetery and called me. With angry faces, they told me to disinter the grave. I did so immediately. They looked at the body and left. Then after a gap of 3–4 hours, they came back and told me to dig up the grave once again. They came back at least 3–4 more times. This afflicted me. Every time I disinterred the grave I would feel a pang in my heart on seeing the beautiful face of the body. These kinds of cases have happened to me a number of times, I used to offer prayer in the cemetery itself and ask God for forgiveness for disturbing a dead person”, says Khan.

“The 1990s were the worst,” Khan says when I asked whether the violence of 2008–2010 and 2016 was the worst he had seen. In those days bodies were not even recognizable due to the mutilation. Every day people were killed by Indian security forces.

“One day in Srinagar, Indian Army fired bullets on a large procession of people which resulted in mass killing. Some died on spot, some were fidgeting with open stomach, and some even jumped in Jhelum. This was the height of oppression in the valley. Fumbling, I tried to stitch the wide open stomach of some people but you know what… it didn’t work and they died,” says Khan.

According to Khan, in the 90s, the Armed Forces used to treat people like animals.

“Every day there was a threat of getting killed at the hands of the Indian forces. They destroyed everything, from humans to buildings. Even the people who used to attend the funeral processions were not spared. In some cases, people were also targeted in the cemetery itself,” remembers Khan.

During the turmoil of the 90s, Khan recalls burying 4–5 corpses in a single grave due to the increasing number of dead bodies and also his fear of being attacked inside the cemetery.

Khan Takes a Walkthrough rows of Graves

Khan treats these martyrs as his family. Every day he visits the graveyard and offers his respect to the deceased.

Khan manages to spend almost an hour daily to recite prayers for the departed in the cemetery; “Aaa Aashi matya toi kyazi rooshiv, Thavnyav myani rouban janti kyan bagan manz”. (Oh my people, may God keep you in the gardens of heaven)

Khan says that most of the victims of the conflict, especially from old city Srinagar, are buried here. The oldest person laid to rest here is 105 years old while the youngest is a two-year-old, Saqib Bashir.

“The story of Saqib Bashir is the most heart wrenching,” he says when I ask him about the most memorable funeral. “Her mother was breastfeeding him, suddenly a bullet fired by Indian forces stroked the mother’s breast and straight in the mouth of her son. He died while the mother survived.”

“When slaves are martyred they are relieved of their pain” reads one tombstone, that of 22-year-old Ashiq Hussain, who was killed on August 20, 1996.

Tufail Mattoo, a young boy was killed after a tear gas shell hit his head in 2010. He is now buried in this graveyard. The killing of Tufail Mattoo, says Khan, triggered the 2010 unrest in the valley.

Close to Tufail’s grave is that of Wamiq Farooq, a class 7 student who too was hit on the head by a tear gas shell during the unrest of 2010.

Thirty-five-year-old mother and 12-year-old son were killed while travelling in a boat by Indian forces and were later buried in this graveyard in a single grave.

A photojournalist Mushtaq Ali is also buried in the martyr’s graveyard. He was killed by a parcel bomb on September 10, 1995, in Srinagar’s Press Colony.

Pro-freedom leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s father Moulvi Farooq is also buried in the same graveyard. He was assassinated by unidentified gunmen in 1990.

Another tombstone inscribes Father, Ghulam Mohammed Malla, 45, and Son
 Mehraj Din Malla, 15, Martyred in 90's.

Besides, there are also the graves of Kashmiri militants who were killed by the security forces since the conflict in Kashmir began in 1989.

Qaisar Sofi, a 16-year-old resident of Shalimar, who was buried in the graveyard in November 2016. Sofi was found in an unconscious state a day after he went missing on October 27, 2016. He breathed his last in hospital. Sofi was allegedly poisoned and tortured by the police.

Khan says that a man was killed in the cemetery itself.

On asking on how it feels to be a gravedigger, Khan says, “Whether people call me a gravedigger or see me among the most coveted ones, I will never give up being a gravedigger.”

Khan is survived by two daughters and a son.

Abused, traumatized, neglected: Why Kashmir’s ‘troubled’ youngsters are getting high on heroin

The piece first appeared in Free Press Kashmir on October 16, 2018.

By Sheikh Saqib

When Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized heroin worth Rs. 10 crore in Srinagar this past September, it inadvertently highlighted the quantum of the substance abuse in the valley. As an accessible dope meant to trigger an escapist trip, heroin is now apparently being consumed in Kashmir like never before.

On a bright autumn day in Srinagar, two friends—a boy and a girl—move to their secret spot, called Zilla, soon after their classes are over. The space is sheltered from wind and weather, with low chances of coming on the cop radar. The duo finds it as an adequate place, where they come with their inebriated equipments, without caring about intrusions, interruptions or unwanted observers. Shortly, they get ready to inject the ‘illicit’ drug to get high.

“We use this secret place for the fear of being rejected or judged by people while getting high on heroin,” says Amaan, 22, a college student from Srinagar.

As they pull off their clothes to inject the drugs, Hina, 22, Amaan’s mate says, “It has become a routine for us.” Even before one could dismiss them as some deviants on a wild trip, they share the method behind their madness.

“We both have faced childhood abuse which affected our thought process and pushed us to take salvation in drugs,” Hina adds.

Hina was a school-going kid when a domestic servant at her house started abusing her on a daily basis. As she would come back home after her day at school, she says, the servant would undress her and sexually abuse her till her parents would be home.

Once she was old enough to make sense of things, she felt ‘disgusted and dirty’. And to overcome the depression, she started taking refuge in drugs.

“I was only 16 when I made sense of things and started taking drugs,” she says. “The servant eventually moved on with his life, but left me with tormenting memories. I could not share the trauma with my parents and kept it to myself.”

Her parents are doctors while Amaan’s father is an engineer and his mother a teacher. The duo met at a friend’s place, where they came to know about each other’s common ache, and the addiction.

As both of them dissolve the “Heroin-powder” on a spoon filled with water, they draw their drug solution from the spoon into a syringe through a piece of cotton.

“I was a kid when my father’s driver would come to pick me from my school,” Amaan takes on the conversation. “While driving home, he used to touch my private parts. He would first drop me home and then go back to get my father. Sometimes my mother would come home after me and the driver used to take advantage. He used to get over me and sexually abuse me.”

Unlike Hina, Amaan’s parents came to know about his addiction lately, and are mulling a course-correction for their son. But as of now, the duo regularly meets at Zilla to take their shot, and temporarily forget about their troubling past.

Inside SMHS’ Drug De-addiction centre in Srinagar, 18-year-old Ryan is battling with withdrawals. Being the youngest child in the family, he used to sleep with his elder brother. For four consecutive years, Ryan’s elder brother would rape him during night.

It took him time to make sense of his repeated abuse. 

And once Ryan made sense of it, the ensuring bad blood between him and his elder sibling further took a toll on his mental health. In desperation he approached his friend, who pushed him to drugs—Heroin.

“My friend who himself is a sexual abuse victim used to sniff heroin powder to get high and feel nothingness for a certain time,” Ryan says. “I approached him and took some heroin to get over the abusive nights my brother put me through. This is how I got into this.”

As Ryan hopes to overcome drug addiction sooner or later, another drug victim Fiza is grappling with the menace at the moment in the de-addiction centre.

Hailing from a remote village in Kashmir, she has been injecting heroin since she was 15. Behind her addiction too was her childhood abuse.

After her mother died when she was a child, Fiza’s father would keep her under a neighbour’s watch while going for work. “But my next-door neighbor would come to my house and sexually abuse me,” she says. “I suffered that abuse for 5 years and then I started taking drugs to overcome the trauma.”

Like Fiza, there’re many drug addicts who want to overcome the addiction, but because of the societal fear, they don’t open up to their associates and keep feeding on the habit.

Most of these drug addicts take heroin, says Dr. Yasir Rather, at IMHANS, a Drug De-addiction centre in Srinagar. “The heroin was not on the scene in Kashmir two years age. But we cater to more and more heroin-addicted patients now. The illegal supply of heroin is increasing rapidly.”

Heroin has the tendency to make one an addict in just the first few shorts. And its addicts are afraid to tell their stories because they fear the police, and this keeps them from reaching out for the desperately needed help.

“But one shouldn’t wrap these addicts in prison chains,” believes Dr. Rather. “It’s an old concept to confine the patient in the four walls. Punishment is not an approach. An addict is not a criminal, he’s a patient.”

But the fear of social boycott is still running high among the heroin addicts, like Saleem.

As he comes for his check-up to SMHS, his father takes me aside and tells me, “Mere bete ki kahani suno, ismai nasha be hai, love be hai, aur bhi buhut kuch hai.” (Listen to my son’s story which is about dope, love and many more things.)

Saleem was in Chandigarh pursuing B-Tech, where he ended up injecting heroin in his veins. “My college friends would come to my room and take heroin during the night,” he says. “That’s how I got addicted to the illicit drug.”

He and his friends once overdosed, which resulted in the death of his friend. “We were shocked and shouted, but he didn’t respond,” Saleem says. “We immediately took him to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.”

He managed to escape from the hospital along with his friends, before he was caught at a check post in Chandigarh with packets of heroin, and was put behind bars for a month. He eventually returned home, where he’s grappling with withdrawals.

“I first took drugs to overcome my childhood heartbreak,” he says. “My girlfriend at school left me and I went into emotional trauma.”

To begin with, he started smoking cannabis and left in a year. When he went to Chandigarh for studies, he started taking heroin.

“It would help me overcome the childhood trauma and make me feel like some romantic hero nursing heartbreak,” he says. “But I was wrong! I ruined my life. Heroin devastated me and now, I want to overcome it.”

But the larger tragedy with heroin remains its easy availability, which is now pushing more and more ‘troubled’ youngsters towards imaginary Nirvana trips, and ends up tormenting them further by leaving them high and dry.

Throat slit and left to die: Victim of state torture in Kashmir tells his story via pen and paper

Feroz Hajam with the notebook through which he communicates

The story first appeared in TwoCircles.net on October 13, 2018

By Sheikh Saqib

Srinagar: Feroz Hajam, 25, is lying on bed number 32 inside Srinagar's famed Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS). Unlike other patients in the ward, however, Feroz is not suffering from medical ailments. He is a victim of torture, whose throat was slit by security forces 

Feroz is unable to speak and reaches for a notebook when asked about the reason behind him being in the hospital. “I was picked by the Indian armed forces from Khanabal and was driven to the Joint Interrogation Center (JIC) where the Special Task Force (STF) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police tortured me and slit my throat,” Feroz writes on a notebook which helps him communicate with people.

Feroz is stuck to the hospital bed with his stitched throat and stares with haggard eyes at each passerby. While doctors fear he might not regain his voice, Feroz lives in hope and writes: “Don’t insist with my family members to talk about the incident; once I am able to talk, I will give you all the details.”

He fears that his family may face the wrath of the Indian armed forces if they talk about the horrifying experience he faced and directs his siblings not to talk to the media personals and writes, “They will kill you,” he writes.

‘I want justice’

“Feroz Ahmed Hajam, a resident of Khretti village in Kokernag area of Anantnag district, has been brutally assaulted by slitting his throat and is lying almost dead at SMHS Hospital,” stated a petition filed by Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, chairman International Forum For Justice and Human Rights (IFJHR) on September 13.

Later, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) directed the Deputy Commissioner and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Anantnag to file a report regarding the incident.

Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir Police had issued a statement that on September 5, 2018, one Jaish suspect Feroz Ahmed Hajam, son of Ghulam Rasool Hajam, and a resident of Iqbal Pora Kherti Larnoo wanted in connection with case FIR number 125/2018 of Police Station Kokernag was brought for questioning.

“During the course of questioning the suspect went to attend the nature’s call and while in the washroom attempted to take his own life by slitting his throat. He was given immediate medical attention and shifted to a hospital in critical condition. He is under treatment in a hospital now,” the statement further reads adding that the necessary legal actions have been initiated.

But Feroz denies all the allegations and writes, “Muje Insaaf chahiye (I want Justice).”

“On September 5, at around 10 in the morning, Feroz was on his way to Kulgam to meet a customer who had purchased some clothes from him,” says Feroz’s brother, Tariq Hajam, who work together to manufacture shirts and trousers in a small shop in Anantnag.

After reaching Khanabal area, Feroz writes, he was stopped by Indian-armed forces, who bundled him into a police vehicle.

Later on the afternoon of September 6, Hajam was found near Nodura Army camp in the Dooru area, 20 kilometres from Feroz Hajam’s residence in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

While talking to TCN, doctors who attended Feroz said on the condition of anonymity, “When the patient came his throat was badly slit, he wasn’t talking and we couldn’t make out if it was a homicidal or suicidal injury. We had to perform an emergency surgery to repair the throat, and an artificial tube (tracheostomy) was placed to help him breathe. The patient is fine now, his life is safe, but we can’t comment with surety if he can speak again or not, it will depend on how badly his vocal cords were damaged, we will review him regularly.”

The notebook on which Feroz writes in order to convey his messages has many torn pages. The first page that was cut from the book was when Feroz narrated the whole incident to his family. “Since some strangers came over to check the medical certificates of Feroz, we try to hide every detail related to Feroz,” says Feroz’s sister.

She said that after “roller torture”, police stubbed cigarettes on his legs and shoulder.

stubbed with cigerette

“After stubbing cigarette butts, I was subjected to electric shocks,” writes Feroz.

After torturing him for several hours in JIC, Feroz says that later he was driven to Kapran camp, a military garrison located 30 kilometres south of Anantnag.

At Kapran, Feroz says, he was forced to wear an Indian-army uniform. “After putting on the uniform, I was blindfolded and then the policemen cut my throat with a sharp knife,” Feroz writes.

It was only after the Crime Investigation Department called his brother, Tariq Hajam, that his family came to know about Feroz who had gone missing a day before.

“Police had arranged an ambulance to take him to the hospital for his treatment. He was taken to a hospital in Qazigund from where he was referred to the Islamabad hospital. From there, he was shifted him to SKIMS, Soura. After giving him the necessary treatment, the doctors then shifted him to SMHS,” says Tariq Hajam.

As per his family, more than eight people were involved in torturing Feroz at the interrogation centre.

His family hopes to hear Feroz’s voice again but his injury brings them to the dilemma: would he be able to speak again in future and if yes, then what will he say and how safe will it be?

Feroz’s story adds to Kashmir’s torturous past

According to Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a federation of human rights organisation and individuals, in 2010 turmoil there were 1,491 detainees who were captured by the Indian armed forces. Out of these, a total of 171 described being beaten and 681 said they had been subjected to one or more of six forms of torture. These included  498 on which electricity had been used, 381 who had been suspended from the ceiling, 294 who had muscles crushed in their legs by prison personnel sitting on a bar placed across their thighs, 181 whose legs had been stretched by being “split 180 degrees”, 234 tortured with water and 302 sexual abuse cases.

 The group also claims that 8,000 to 10,000 people disappeared in custody in the past 23 years. The state government acknowledged for the first time in 2011 that thousands of bodies lie in unmarked graves around Kashmir.

Before armed conflict erupted in 1989, most of these torture centres in the disputed valley were guesthouses, hotels, or cinema halls. The men in uniform took over these places, nailed black blankets to the windows and brought in tools of torture: field rollers, iron hooks, strapping benches, pipes for waterboarding, electric wires, and needles.

As per JKCCS, which is headed by Advocate Parvez Imroz, there are around 471 torture centres still existent in Kashmir, 1 out of 5 Kashmiris has been a victim of torture and there is a torture centre at every 5 kilometres. The levels of torture at these camps range from moderate to the seventh degree, around four lakh people had been exposed to all these kinds of tortures, almost 90% of the people who are arrested are being subjected to torture. the methods of torture include dipping the head in the water, inserting chili powder in private parts, rolling on the front side of the legs, electric shocks, cutting and/or mutilating body parts, keeping detainees naked during torture, sexual torture, stretching of arms and legs, inserting iron rods, hanging the detained upside down, forced to drink excessive water, etc. All of these methods have been used on the people of Kashmir.

Some of the most notorious and haunting torture centres in the valley include Hari Niwas, Papa-II, Cargo, Kawoosa House, Red 16, Badami Bagh Cantonment and Shariefabad camp.

http://twocircles.net/2018oct13/426431.html

A shadow looms on Kashmir’s shelter homes after activists expose ‘child abuse’

First appeared in Free Press Kashmir on September 15, 2018 and later a different version appeared in Asia Times on September 24, 2018.

Free Press Kashmir 

https://freepresskashmir.com/2018/09/15/a-shadow-looms-on-kashmirs-shelter-homes-after-activists-expose-child-abuse/

Asia Times: 

http://www.atimes.com/article/kashmir-officials-move-to-stop-child-abuse-in-private-shelters/

By Sheikh Saqib

Every year swarms of children from faraway places of Jammu and Kashmir are being sent to private shelter homes in towns for upbringing and learning. But they don’t always find the safe corners and proper learning atmosphere away from their homes. Lately when women activists unearthed abuse in one of the child shelter homes in Srinagar, it triggered a series of official summons exposing misconduct in many such grooming spaces.

Inside the shabby premises of a private shelter home in Srinagar’s Rajbagh, Ali, 12, is propped up against the dirt stained wall. His unwashed clothes give an impression that the personal hygiene is yet to be regulated in the informal institute, functioning like an observatory.

Ali and other children have been sent to the city by their parents to excel in studies, ignoring the functioning of these homes.

The home is called Babul Islam, which has been registered as a trust by the Mohalla Committee in 2017, with a local Altaf Dar as its chairman.

The building sheltering these children also houses non-local laborers, and some families from Kashmir countryside. The presence of these tenants and their unregulated habits has already cast a shadow on the children’s routine care, proper hygiene and learning atmosphere.

This messy in-house conduct was recently exposed by the members of the Kashmir Women’s Collective (KWC)—a group of women volunteers campaigning for women and child rights in the valley—when they visited the house, and reported the abusive situation.

“The house is lacking the basic facilities,” says Ambreen, a member of KWC. “There’s no security, and no one intervened when we stepped into the house. Who is responsible for these children’s protection there?”

Once the investigation proceeded, many more undesirable things surfaced.

“We also came to know that the children were forced to beg, that too, in the holy month of Ramazan,” says Ambreen. “This is a glaring example of a child abuse.”

But the house chief, Altaf Dar, a well-built man sporting salt and pepper beard, derides the allegation as some ‘nonsensical witch hunt on the house management by some loose activists in town’.

“See this! And this as well,” he takes one on the house tour, showing the washroom and the kitchen. “Aren’t they in  good condition? So, what’s this fuss about unhygienic conditions?"

For Dar, this semi-furnishing state is seemingly a normal in-house conduct, including sheltering the girl students in the space shared by non-local labourers and local tenants.

Dar’s assertions and posturing, however, hasn’t stopped KWC to probe more into the matter.

“To understand the in-house activities in a detailed manner, we approached students,” says Advocate Sabreen Malik who works with KWC. “Girls were very scared as they were undergoing emotional abuse. So they refused to talk, while boys were very ignorant about the happenings around. We tried to contact their parents but they didn’t respond.”

After the activists exposed the murkyhouse affairs, girl students were evacuated and shifted to the government house Nariniketan, Shalimar.

At Nariniketan, Superintendent Afrooza Ahmad says the guardians of the girls were asked to report to Shalimar, as soon as possible, in order to take them home.

“The girls refused to talk about the misery they had faced in the house,” says the superintendent, who’s in her mid-fifties. “We’ve all the details of the girls, but we cannot share till the case reaches to its conclusion.”

Another private shelter home in Bemina run by one Bilal Ahmad is also at the centre of the storm over the ill in-house conduct. Ahmad is being charged by Child Welfare Committee (CWC) department for violating the legal guidelines of Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice Rules.

Many other private shelter homes in Kashmir were lately summoned by CWC, for a detailed debriefing on their house conduct and handling.

“We called them after learning that many of them were not providing separate observation homes for boys and girls, clothing and bedding, proper sanitation and hygiene, and were resorting to physical abuse,” says Munaza Gulzar, Chairman CWC. “There’s a guideline that a juvenile should be classified and segregated according to their age groups, like 0-6, 6-12, 12-16, 16-18. We’ve to make them comfortable and avoid any possible sexual abuse.”

In Rajbagh ‘child abuse’ case, she says, the complaint was registered by the Mohalla committee. “We took cognizance after we came to know that the boys and girls were kept together,” Munaza says. “So, we immediately shifted the girls, as the Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice Act, 2013, does not allow any home to station both boys and girls together.”

At the moment, she says, all the 23 girls are in a state of shock. “They were in trauma when rescued. So, they’ll take some time to get stable and speak.”

While there’re only 70 private shelter homes registered in Kashmir under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), Munaza says, several unregistered homes have to come clean on their conduct. “We came to know that most of these houses are first being registered as trusts or NGOs, before turned into a shelter home for orphans. This is an easy way of registration,” she says. “But there are set guidelines in place for starting a shelter home.”

While norms are being flouted, the abuse seems to have flourished. Both activists and officials dealing with the child abuse cases equally blame the society for their thoughtless conduct towards child care.

Some parents are adamant to admit their wards in private shelters in towns, despite having means and options to school them closer to their homes. “I don’t understand how a person from Reasi is being looked after by a home in Lawipora, Srinagar. Reasi is in Jammu and Lawipora is in Srinagar. There is no cultural connection,” says Munaza. “This is a very ironical situation, and there’s something fishy going on.”

But as CWC and KWC are collectively collecting details of the abuse in the shelter homes across Kashmir, it seems something more “fishy” is likely to come out. However, the conflict-ridden society, where destitution management generally starts and ends with orphanages and charitable bodies, such cases itself deepens the sense of crisis. That’s why, perhaps, it’s the time to put the house in order.