A Kashmiri Teenager Moves UN Diplomats and Activists in Geneva

The tears of Aneesa Nabi, whose parents were killed by Indian soldiers, even shook the Indians, as activists rushed to console her; several embassies sent observers to witness her testimony, including US government’s permanent mission to Geneva.

GENEVA, Switzerland—Her parents would have never thought their little girl would go this far, but a Kashmiri teenager smuggled by an NGO across the ceasefire line in Kashmir landed in Geneva today to a grand start, shocking world diplomats and activists with the story of her father and mother long after their death.

Aneesa Nabi, 17, drew the attention of diplomats and human rights activists and NGOs that have descended on Geneva this month for the 16th session of Human Rights Council, which is UN’s highest rights body designed along the lines of the UN Security Council in New York, minus the powers.

Representatives of a Kashmiri NGO based in Pakistan, the Kashmir Institute of International Affairs, KIIA, were seen lobbying world diplomats and NGO representatives in the main hall of the Palais de Nations, or Palace of the Nations, which is the focal point of UN operations in Geneva.

“She really moved all of us,” said Altaf Hussain Wani, director programs at KIIA. “We’ve been with her for the past week but today she left us in tears.”

“You could see the interest in her,” said Shagufta Ashraf, a KIIA activist, as she distributed flyers and pamphlets in the main lobby of the Palais. “The diplomats and NGO types got really interested in this story.” African human rights activist Micheline Djouma arranged for Aneesa’s appearance at a seminar today on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council meetings. The council was busy dealing with issues as diverse as Iran’s human rights record and a proposal to outlaw denigration of religions. But this didn’t stop rights activists and some diplomats from attending Aneesa’s appearance.

What boosted Aneesa’s case was the fact that Kashmiri groups spread worldwide occupied a square in front of Palais de Nations, known as Broken Chair, where an exhibition of museum of Indian Army genocide against Kashmiri people was set up inside a tent, surrounded by banners and hoards depicting the situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir. Before Aneesa started her speech, an Africa-based rights activist Mrs. Colette Samoya, president of Bangwe organization, delivered a speech in French, where she mentioned Kashmir five times as she gave examples of violations against women and children in conflict zones. Building anticipation, Samoya kept reminding the audience, saying “We have a girl from Kashmir here to tell her story.”

Aneesa began her speech in a normal way, but her voice began choking when she mentioned her father, who was arrested by Indian Army on 24 July 1996 when she was four. By the time she mentioned her mother, she was in tears, sobbing involuntarily as she recalled how the Indian occupation authorities warned her not to join NGOs lobbying for disappeared persons. In 2003, the Indians barged into her house and opened fire on Aneesa’s mother from automatic guns as she fell to the ground. Amazingly, she was carrying a toddler, Aneesa’s younger brother, in her arms and never let him ago despite receiving fatal injuries. The boy’s leg was shattered by bullets but he survived.

“She had been repressing her emotions,” recalled Ahmed Quraishi, a representative of OIC’s World Muslim Congress and a Kashmir activist. “In the past, she would only smile when asked if she remembered her parents or missed them. She would ignore it. But today, all the repressed memories, all the repressed pain, came out naturally. She really believed this was her last chance to do something to help free her father if he is still alive.”

Video Link: http://786insidekashmir.blogspot.com/2011/03/kashmiri-teenager-moves-un-diplomats.html

HIGHLIGHTS
When Aneesa began talking, the entire hall went silent, which is rare in United Nations Human Rights Council side events.
She couldn’t control herself when she mentioned her father, and was unable to continue after mentioning her mothers

A known Indian lobbyist linked to the Indian government, who is a Kashmiri Hindu, couldn’t control himself and hurriedly left the hall in tears

On the stage, an Indian academic, Dr. Krishna Ahoojapatel, tried to express grief, and an African panelist stood up from her chair, walked up to Aneesa and hugged her like a mother would hug a daughter. Someone else brought her a glass of water.

The moderator repeatedly interrupted a sobbing Aneesa to ask her if she wanted to take a break or continue telling her story. Aneesa tried to continue but couldn’t. She failed to read out the last portion of an appeal to the international community and to the United Nations to help force the Indian government and military to reveal the fate of her father.

A senior UN official, whose name is withheld, was so moved by Aneesa’s tragedy that he conveyed to her that he will do everything possible to hold the Indian government and military accountable for any harm done to her father and for serious human rights violations in Kashmir.

‘I saw them execute my mother, I was seven’
Tale of a Kashmiri girl from Srinagar who lost her parents, escaped  The Indian Army and found her way to Geneva to tell her story.

Meet Aneesa Nabi Khan, a bright 17-year-old studying at a school in the part of Kashmir liberated from India.  Her mild demeanor, big eyes and a warm smile set her apart from other students in her school. But very few of them know her real story. Someday soon she will graduate and do something to impact the lives of her people. Her parents will never know how their little girl, the eldest of three kids, has grown up to be a precocious young lady.

Today she is in Geneva to tell her story to politicians, activists and the media from all over the world. She came here to speak. She wants the world to know her story because she made it to this place. Others like her can’t. And she wants to represent them.

She has a story. It is a compelling tale of fear, courage, tragedy, and a people’s quest for freedom from the tyranny of one of the biggest armies in the world.

Where Does Aneesa Come From?
She comes from Kashmir, a paradise nestled in the grand Himalayas to the north of Pakistan, bordering China and India. One of the world’s most scenic lands is also home to the world’s biggest concentration of armed soldiers—more than half a million regular army from the world’s largest democracy: India.  Aneesa’s people want freedom from occupation. India does not want to grant it or heed United Nations resolutions calling for a settlement.

But for 63 years, Kashmiris did not take foreign occupation lying down. Aneesa’s father was one of them. That’s how her tragedy begins.

Where Is Aneesa’s Father?
Ghulam Nabi Khan was in his mid-thirties in 1996 when he was last seen by Dilshad, his wife, and daughter and her toddler brother

Raees.
Ghulam left his house in the morning. He was what his people call a freedom fighter, oppose to the forced Indian occupation of his homeland. The Indian military saw him as a ‘militant’.

The Indians laid a trap for him. One of his friends was recruited by Indian intelligence. Ghulam was lured into a meeting at his friend’s house. They swooped on him as soon as he entered the house.

By evening the news reached his wife. So many Kashmiri men have ‘disappeared’ in similar circumstances. Dilshad’s brother took her to the local police station, manned by Indian police. They refused to register a case of forced ‘disappearance’. Days and months passed without any record of what happened to Ghulam. Fearing a similar fate, Dilshad took her children to her village to live with her parents.  Somehow they managed to contact the mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Indian capital. Red Cross is the only international organization that is allowed limited access to a few jails in Indian-occupied Kashmir. Most of the jails and detention centers remain closed to the world. When a Red Cross delegation visits Kashmir, the Indian government and army only allows Indian citizens working for Red Cross to enter the occupied territory. The Red Cross searched for Aneesa’s father but to no avail. This is because Indian military is authorized by law to arrest and detain Kashmiris for long periods without charges or trial.

Indian army is desperate to eliminate Kashmiri men and women who actively participate in the independence movement. Once any Kashmiri, man or woman, is dubbed a ‘militant’ by the Indians, he or she is never seen again.

How Was Dilshad, Aneesa’s Mother, Executed?
After her husband’s ‘disappearance’, Dilshad moved with her three children to the village, where her own parents and her in-laws lived. She joined a group formed by Kashmiris called the Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons [APDP]. The group is one of the largest civil society organizations formed by Kashmiris to peacefully resist Indian occupation. It organizes peaceful protests in Srinagar against excesses by Indian occupation forces and keeps the cause of the ‘disappeared’ persons alive. The exact number of the missing is not known.

Dilshad became an active member of the APDP, frequently seen in television news footage from Srinagar organizing peaceful protests in front of Indian and international media. These protests caught the attention of some foreign diplomats based in New Delhi, local and international media, and rights organizations. They turned into an embarrassment for the Indian military.  Indian occupation officials were remanded by the Indian government in New Delhi for failing to stop the activities of Kashmiri women like Dilshad.

One day in 2003, Indian soldiers entered the house of Aneesa’s mother. Some of them were in uniform and others were in plainclothes. The Indian soldiers asked everyone in the house to line up in the center of the front room. Dilshad, her brother, an unmarried younger sister, and her parents and some visiting relatives did what the soldiers told them to do. There was some shouting. Aneesa was nine. She too stood in the line. The soldiers were asking Dilshad about her activities with APDP when tempers flared and one of the Indian soldiers began firing indiscriminately. He took it out on Dilshad, which gave everyone else enough time to run toward the rooms behind them to hide. Nine-year-old Aneesa slipped under a bed. She could see an Indian soldier emptying his weapon into her mother.

The soldiers ran out of the house soon after.
Aneesa rushed to her mother. She remembers vividly how her mother was breathing her last. She says her mother wanted to say something but couldn’t. Blood started coming out of her mouth and she died in her nine-year-old daughter’s arms.  Amazingly, Dilshad was still carrying Aaqib, who then was a toddler. Bullets hit his left thigh and tore the flesh apart. He was unconscious and his uncle rushed him to hospital. He survived the injury.

Aneesa’s Journey To Pakistan?
With her mother killed and father kidnapped by the Indians, the male members of Aneesa’s family worried about her safety and her future. By 2008, five years after her mother was killed, Aneesa’s two younger brothers had adapted to a life without parents. Raees was 13 and was looked after by his maternal grandmother. But Aaqib was even younger. So her mother’s unmarried sister took his custody. That left Aneesa. She was the only one among them to have a passport, an Indian passport.  Apparently, her mother was planning to get her out of India anyway, most probably to travel to Dubai and then take a flight from there to Pakistan, where most of Kashmiris have taken refuge, escaping the harsh Indian occupation of their homes and fields. India is more than happy to issue Indian passports to Kashmiris because it sees that as Kashmiris accepting Indian citizenship. But over the years, most Kashmiris have preferred to reach Pakistan without passports—trekking the tough route through the mountains to Pakistan.

How Is Her New Life Like In Pakistan?
Aneesa is living with her mother’s cousin and her husband and three children. They all come from the same extended family so she feels at home and her family is very close to each other. She was in class 7 in Indian-occupied Kashmir. In Pakistan she was admitted to class 8. But she was weak in two subjects: Urdu, the Pakistani official language, and Islamic studies. The schools in occupied Kashmir have no choice but to follow the Indian educational system where the two subjects are not taught. But Urdu and Islamic studies were not alien to Aneesa and she quickly mastered them.  She stays in touch with her brothers back in Indian-occupied Kashmir through telephone. She doesn’t remember her father at all. She was two when the Indians kidnapped him. She was nine when they killed her mother. She hardly experienced their love. She says her family now gives her love and affection and the sense of security that her tormentors denied her.

Still Looking For My Father
Aneesa and her new family continue to stay in touch with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the hope that someday they might find him in one of the Indian jails. Her relatives back in Indian-occupied Kashmir keep their ears to the ground, collecting any information or rumors about anyone sighting Aneesa’s father in Indian detention centers. They pass on the information to her so she could forward it to Red Cross.

Why Is She In Geneva This Year?
Her answer is simple: “I hope it helps me find my father.” She wants the international community not to abandon people like her. She wants the powerful democracies to heed her call. And she intends to make her voice heard. She couldn’t do anything for her mother. She couldn’t save her mother. But in case her father is alive, she wants the satisfaction of knowing she did all she could to save his life. Her activism brought her message to the world, and now Aneesa wants to take the world to occupied Kashmir. Her mother and father would have been proud of the work done by their daughter today. 

More details: http://786insidekashmir.blogspot.com/2011/03/kashmiri-teenager-moves-un-diplomats.html

Kashmir is fighting for Right to Self Determination

Egypt and Kashmir

To draw a comparison between the two would be a fallacy

Burhan Majid

After Tunisia, Egypt is the buzzword. Indeed Egyptian people deserve applause. They have shown the world that how dedication and collective endeavour can bring a revolution. Even as the Egypt’s future remains to be precarious, a thirty year old dictatorship had fallen, reports Burhan Majid.

Though this major political development has its impact on the world politics, unfortunately, a section of people has surfaced, both within and outside, which drew parallels between Egypt and Kashmir, a Himalayan valley. Infact their argument is that Kashmiris should learn from the Egyptians.

To me it is a flawed argument, sufficient enough to add insult to the injury. The courage shown by Egyptian is worth inspiring, however, in no possible way can we draw a similarity between the recent protests in Egypt which toppled a regime and the struggle Kashmir is involved. If we do so, we delude our people.

At the first instance, Kashmir is fighting for Right to Self Determination; the Egyptian people want the change of regime that has been governing them for past thirty years. There is a world of difference between the two. In Egypt protests are related to governance and economy. In Kashmir the case is entirely different. Kashmir is a geopolitical issue. The world saw a sea of people at Tahrir Square (Egypt) for consecutive eighteen days. Can we think of same gathering for the same duration at Red Square (Lal Chowk) in Kashmir where at times people are not allowed to assemble for a peaceful demonstration? Where, last year alone, 112 youth fell to bullets while protesting against the atrocities committed by Indian forces and local police; where children as young as eight are killed mercilessly.

Another significant difference is that the protests in Egypt were given a widespread coverage by international media. Major media houses of the world ran the news about Egypt minute after minute. Live updates, videos photographs, debates, analysis and opinions were broadcasted. On the other hand, Kashmir is seldom talked or debated in the international media circles.

Though Indian media reported the events in Kashmir however the intention was only to malign the cause of Kashmiris and to label the genuine protestors as terrorists, paid agents and what have you. It was after so many killings that Kashmir was discussed and debated in Indian media circles.

The protests in Egypt were gaining momentum, the coverage by the media across the length and breadth of the world also intensified.  The BBC, CNN, New York Times, Guardian and many other international media outlet continuously reported about the situation unfolding in Egypt. Who voiced the voice of Kashmiris at the time of unrest?

Leave alone the question of international media as the agitation gained ground in Kashmir, the local electronic media was gagged and it continue to be till date.

Moreover, according to the media reports, Egyptian Army exercised maximum restraint while dealing with the protestors. Look at the way police and security agencies used power to crush the people and protestors.

Egyptians acknowledged that social networking websites played an important role in accomplishing the goal of ousting Hosni Mubarak. Though social media wasn’t the cause of revolution in Egypt, it hastened its pace and transferred the voice from one to millions.

In Kashmir, the youth tried to use the facebook in the similar fashion; tried to highlight the atrocities committed upon hapless people; but, they were arrested and few were charged under criminal offences.  SMS were banned. The service is yet to be restored for prepaid customers after ‘normalcy’ returned. The bottom-line is that the two are different and to draw comparison is fallacious.

Author is a researcher in Laws at University of Kashmir, and can be reached at burhan.mjd@gmail.com

FAMILIES OF SLAIN HR DEFENDERS PIN HOPE ON UN RAPPORTEUR

Srinagar, Jan 19: While the United Nations Rapporteur, Margaret Sekaggya is scheduled to visit Kashmir on Wednesday to assess the situation of human rights defenders, justice still eludes the families of several such defenders killed in different incidents in Kashmir in the past two decades, reports GK 18/1.

Pinning hope on the UN Rapporteur, the families of several defenders have shot off letters to Sekaggya to apprise her about their plight.

Fifteen years before, a prominent human rights lawyer Jaleel Andrabi disappeared and was later killed. Justice still eludes his family as the trial of the accused Major Avtar Singh is yet to start, despite repeated directions from a Court to arrest Singh, whose presence in California was confirmed by the United States National Central Bureau (USNCB) of Interpol in 2009.

Disappeared on March 8, 1996, Jaleel’s body was found 19 days after his disappearance. In April, 1997, the Special Investigation Team constituted by the state government to investigate the killing presented its initial findings to the High Court and claimed that one Major Avtar Singh from the 103rd Unit of the Territorial Army and other soldiers were responsible for the abduction and killing of Jaleel. However, the SIT was unable to arrest Singh as they could not trace him.

Talking to Greater Kashmir Jaleel's brother Arshad Andrabi said he had sent a letter to UN Rapporteur seeking justice from the international organization.

He blamed the state government for insincerity to proceed in the matter. “The abnormal delay coupled with inherent defects in the investigation suggests that the government is neither sincere nor interested to pursue the case. They must be waiting for the witnesses to die or be eliminated by the same invisible hands which have manipulated the killing and subsequent cover up of the case for 16 years," he said.

He also talked about a “larger conspiracy” on the part of officers of Army, Intelligence and Police who according to him had worked in tandem before the killing of his brother-Jaleel.

A letter shot by USNCB of Interpol has confirmed that Major Avtar Singh lives in California. However, the US-based agency has asked the Interpol New Delhi to furnish the record of proceedings translated and certified version of conviction record, charge-sheet, and other relevant documents.

In another incident on December 31, 1993, unidentified gunmen kidnapped Dean Faculty of Law Kashmir University Dr Abdul Ahad Wani and took him to a nearby area Sadrabal, Srinagar where he was shot dead. In similar incidents, noted human rights defender H N Wanchoo, advocate Ghulam Qadir Sehlani, Dr Abdul Ahad Guru,  Sheikh Ghulam Rasool Azad (Editor Kashmir Saffron Times), Mushtaq Ahmad Lone Editor, Wehdat-e-Milli), Dr Farooq Ahmad Ashai and Ms Asiya Jeelani were killed.

Reportedly, days after Jaleel’s killing, women human rights defender, Dr Hamida Nayeem went to Geneva to attend a Human Rights Conference. On her return to Valley, she was allegedly harassed and her passport seized by the state government for raising voice against the HR violations.

The Kashmir-based human rights organizations and civil society groups have exuded hope that the UN Special Rapporteur’s visit would help them highlight the crackdown on the human rights defenders.

In the backdrop of last year’s summer unrest in the Valley which left 112 civilians dead in police and paramilitary CRPF action, the UN Rapporteur is to assess the condition of human rights defenders. Officials said Margaret Sekaggya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, is scheduled to meet top officials of the State including the Home Secretary, Director General of Police besides the civil society and human rights groups.

STF/Indian Army/Ikhwan/Counterinsurgency/RAW/RR/Papa Kishtwari/Javid Shah/Muma Kana/HM/Ali Shah Gilani

A small village that gave Kashmir’s counterinsurgency an alternative name wants to change its name now - hoping they would not be identified as Nawabadis. Ibrahim Wani and Farooq Ahmad report on the Nawabadi Mohalla and its haunting baggage. Nawabadi Mohalla may pass off as just another small village in the Sonwari belt of north Kashmir, but for its street lights that make it stand apart. Those familiar with the village, don’t dare to take it for any other village, anyways. Nawabadi has entered Kashmir’s lexicon as a word that strikes terror. There were many villages in Kashmir that became hotbeds of counterinsurgency in mid 1990’s but Nawabadi was one name that stuck. A village of some three hundred people, two and a half kilometres from Safapora, Nawabadi residents now want to change its name to Mirabad. They no longer want to identify with its past. A few kilomteres from father of counterinsurgency Kuka Parrey’s Hajin village, Nawabadi Mohalla gave Ikhwan some of its most dreaded men. Many remember the village as the birthplace of ruthless renegades, like Fayaz Mir alias Fayaz Nawabadi, notorious for extortion, rape, politically motivated killings. For the state security apparatus, that patronised them, these men were important to break the back of militancy in the Sonawari-Ganderbal belt and by extension whole of Kashmir. So they did. Hardly anyone was spared. Perhaps because many of the first renegades came from Nawabadi village, the name in local parlance became a synonym for all the counterinsurgents or police informers. An alternative name for Ikhwan, the largest renegade group. Nawbid was actually used in the area to refer to the residents of the Nawabadi Mohalla. So anyone from the area was a Nawbud. After the switching of Ikhwan to counter insurgency, apart from the ruthless renegades who emerged from Nawabadi Mohalla, the village provided a haven for all counter-insurgents. Even though only a few from the village carried out the dirty work, almost all residents were Ikhwan sympathisers. Nawabdis trace their shift of allegiance to the killing of a JKLF militant from the village by Hizbul Mujahideen in inter faction rivalry in 1993. Manzoor Ahmad was the first postgraduate from the village. He did his MA in Urdu from Kashmir University. Later he joined Jammu Kashmir Students Liberation Front and crossed the LoC for arms training. After this he joined Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front as Deputy District Commander. This was around the time when animosities between Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and JKLF were building up. While on his way back from Sopore Manzoor was picked up by Hizbul Mujahideen. “They accused him of being an Indian agent,” say the residents, “but at that time it was widely known that Manzoor was a man of character. It was actually that Ahsan Dar wanted him to join HM.” When news of Manzoor’s abduction spread in the area, desperate attempts started to secure his release. “The negotiations were carried out at the highest level; almost all the known militants and separatist leaders were involved. The residents were promised his release. “But he was not released. We kept on searching for him. We formed search parties and would search for him throughout the area,” says Kawaam Din. But the search yielded no result. At this time Fayaz, Manzoor’s cousin was in jail. “Even Syed Ali Shah Geelani searched for him in his car. He told us that he had spent 13000 rupees searching for him,” he says, “Moulvi Abbas Ansari and Saleem Geelani also mediated but to no avail.” Demands for Manzoor’s release were building up. People were protesting. The Hajin bazaar remained shut down for 25 days at a stretch. Then, residents say, a HM rebel Shams-u-Din informed the villagers that Manzoor had been killed on the second day of his abduction, and lay buried in Hari-Taar, on the banks of Jehlum near Sopore. “We rushed to the spot. Some militants from HM were guarding the spot, and they fired on the crowd. People from the surrounding areas like Shah-Gund joined in and we retrieved the body,” adds Kawaam. The eruption of emotions and sentiments was spontaneous. “It was an angry crowd, which sees nothing in rage. On the way from Hari-Taar to Nawabadi Mohalla, around 14 houses belonging to Jamat-e-Islami (JeI) members or sympathisers were burned,” adds Kamaal. “It was a day which this region can not forget. It was a day of pain.” After this the rift between JKLF and HM-JeI deepened. A civil war sort of situation ensued where people from both sides were being assassinated. The Nawabadis became fiercely anti-HM and anti-Jamaat. “In all this all the militant organisations united against HM, and opened a united front against them,” he says. Peer Ziya-ud-Din of Asham, a JKLF sympathiser and father of Nazir Ahmad Geelani of JKLF was also gunned down by HM. This added oil to the fire. Around 500-600 people would die in this infighting, many among them were civilians. It was around this time that 28 militants surrendered, and under the leadership of Kuka Parray formed the renegade Ikhwan. Fayaz, now released, joined the Ikwan, and with the wounds of Manzoor’s loss still fresh, many Nawabadis followed him into the fold. “When we had seen the body of Manzoor, we could see nothing else. He had come out for the cause. We had followed in his footsteps, but Jamaat and Hizbul mujahideen ruined it. They targeted everyone who was not their supporter. We could tolerate it no further,” says an ex-counter insurgent. Fayaz was merciless. He soon gained notoriety and was gifted the post of commander-in-chief of the Ikhwan. Kuka Parray reigned as the supremo. Thus started the reign of terror. After that it was “catch and kill,” accepts Kawaam. Though the actual gun wielding Nawabdis did not number more than 10, all the counter insurgents in Valley - estimated to be between 1,000-1,200- came to be known by the name. The shifting allegiances of Nawabadis created animosities with adjoining villages. Residents recall that after Manzoor’s death the adjoining villages in Safapora and Bandipora enforced a boycott of the village. “The shopkeepers won’t provide us amenities. We were not given medicines even for around six months,” says a Nawabadi resident. Mohammad Sidiq, father of Fayaz Nawabadi says the boycott forced them to loot any trucks that passed the village. “But we would pay them,” he said in the same breath. In coming years, the response from the Nawabadis was often brutal. Fayaz Nawabadi walked the streets like a king. “Even policemen had to look down while walking past him,” says a resident of Ganderbal. He was the most notorious export of Nawabadi Mohallah to the rest of Kashmir. The Commander-in-Chief of Kuka Parray’s Ikhwan, he is said to have killed hundreds of people. “If his eyes fell on something he liked, it had to be his,” the resident adds. One day his eyes fell on a new scooter parked in the Safapora market. The scooter belonged to Waseem, a 21 year old. “Waseem would not just let go of his new scooter when the Nawabadis asked him to give it to them,” says the resident. Fayaz then walked up to him, and held him by his throat. He then pumped bullets into him. Waseem fell to ground. When a shopkeeper raised his voice, he too met the same fate. One more onlooker also fell to the ground. “Three innocent people died that day,” adds the resident. With three dead bodies on the streets Fayaz issued his threat, “People of Safapora, whosever goes against us will meet a similar fate,” he says. Fayaz would be accompanied by his trusted lieutenants, Abdul Hamid Mir alias Nikka Bhai, Mohammad Afzal Mir alias Commander Adil, Ghulam Nabi Mir alias Kaka among others, all Nawabadis. They reign of terror engulfed Sonawari, Safapora, Ganderbal areas. Hardly anyone was spared, but the families of militants and Jamat-e-Islami supporters were especially targeted. It started a wave of migration from the area to the urban areas. Many people even left the state. “No one was safe,” says the resident. The killings continued. Saif-u-Din Bhat, a 60-years-old teacher from Safapora was killed because his brother was associated with HM. Another teacher Abdul Karim Bhat was killed because of links with Jamat-e-Islami. A bank employee, Mohammad Afzal of Yongoora Chak also fell to bullets, for unknown reasons. The number is estimated to be above 300. Some locals say the number of the people killed was much higher than 300. “Many deaths were never reported. Many of these will never be known,” the resident adds. Nawabadis once went to the house of a Jamaat-e-Islami sympathiser in Banyari village. The man was not there. “The routine would have been to harass the family and leave,” says Yasir, a resident of the area.  But on this day death was in the air. “One of the Nawabadi commanders caught hold of a six month old son of the man,” he says. Then hell broke loose. “He flung the child into the air, and the Nawabadi party started firing.” The infant came down in smithereens. “I can not forget that day,” says Yasir, “there are no words to express this cruelty.” Tales of the atrocities abound. “One more case still resonates in the minds and hearts of people. It always gives me pain,” says Yasir as he recalls. “There was a girl in Asham, a beautiful girl, Nazima, the daughter of one Ghulam Mohammad Lone. And then their eyes fell on her,” he says. Nazima was kidnapped and raped. “For days together no one knew of her,” he recalls. Then details related to her emerged. It was Fayaz actually who had sought her. When she had resisted she was raped, by many Nawabadis, says Yasir. They raped her for days. She became pregnant. After a few months she was let go. In the meantime, Ashraf Nawabidi, Fayaz’s brother started pursuing Nazima’s sister. She too was kidnapped. “The family would not have protested if they would have known what was to come next,” says Yasir. The Nawabadis converged on the Asham market. Nazima was dragged out on the street. Fayaz oversaw everything. “What transpired next is engraved in the psyche of the people there forever,” says Yasir. The eight month pregnant woman was held forcibly. Then her clothes were torn. After this she was paraded naked. “Fayaz pulled the trigger, and shot her in the abdomen first. He kept on shooting and shouting - see the result,” recalls Yasir. Nazima died on the spot. Her sister is still with Ashraf. Even after an incident of this sort, no one raised a voice. That was the peak of Nawabadi terror. “But nothing is permanent. Whatever goes up, has to come down,” says Yasir. Most of the Nawabadis met cruel deaths. Kaka was shot dead in 1994, Nikka Bhai was killed in 1995, Afzal in 1996. The kingpin, Fayaz after surviving 18 attempts on life finally met his fate on Feb 17, 2000. He was blown up in an IED blast in Sumbal, just a few kilometres away from where he had shot Nazima. According to locals the intensity of the blast was such that his body parts could be seen hanging from the power supply wires. Many people believe that he was killed by his own people - the Ikhwanis. Fayaz Nawabadi is considered a martyr and a hero in his village. So are the other Nawabadis killed in these years. Their graveyard reads Mazar-e-Shohada. Fayaz’s grave is decorated and fenced. It lies on way to the shrine of a saint in the mohalla, called Sayeed Sahib. A stone throw’s distance from the graveyard is a model school. His house has a 12 foot high wall topped by barbed wire. He is survived by two wives and four children. “Similar is the case for many others too,” says Afzal, a government employee who was assigned a task in the area. For him too the visit was painful. His best friend had been killed by Fayaz. “I tried to skip the area, but I had to do my job,” he says. While walking through the village he saw a man walking behind him. Initially he became suspicious. Then when he finally gathered the courage to ask the person as to why he was following him, he came to know that he had no job or work to do. The reply startled him. The man had identified himself as an ex-counter insurgent, some of the few who had survived. He did not venture out of the village, out the fear. “Even though almost all the notorious Nawabadis were killed, the people of the surrounding areas can not forget the mayhem inflicted by them,” says Afzal, who happened to meet a relative of Waseem on return from the mohalla. Their response was, “There is no question of forgiveness. Even if they repent it, nothing is going to change. There can be no forgiveness.” Ejaz from Safapora echoes similar sentiments. “We cannot forget what Nawabadis have done to us. They are traitors. There is no question of having any sort of relation with them. They are still like that only,” he says. However, the residents of the Nawabdi Mohallah insist they want to stay aloof of politics. “We want to be away from politics,” says Mohammad Kamaal Mir, a resident of Nawabadi Mohalla, “We have already suffered a lot. Now we want to be away from all this. We also have same aspirations like all other Kashmiris, and our children like others too also cheer for the Pakistani cricket team. But we are silent spectators. We will not repeat our mistakes again now.” The residents of the area are self confessed supporters of National Conference. “It is we who made Akbar Lone successful in Sumbal,” says Kawaam Din. He further adds, “Akbar Lone is the most honest politician in all of Kashmir, and he is an ideal for all the politicians.” They credit him for most of the development work in the village, including the street lights and the tube wells. “We were even approached by the opposition parties with an offer of 40,000 rupees to vote for them, which we out rightly rejected,” say Kawaam. According to him recently when they had gone to meet Akbar Lone, he gave their issues precedence over all the other works on hand. “He even sent prayers on Fayaz and recalled how he had saved him when once Kuka Parray had grabbed his collar to beat him.” “It is us who voted against Kuka Parray. We made him fall. He did no development work here,” says Sidiq Mir, father of Fayaz. He describes Kuka Parray as a fool who was made the king. “If he would have been in Srinagar he would have been taken to a mental hospital,” he remarks. Narrating an incident when he had rebuked Kuka Parray for letting his brother go on a looting spree all over the area, Sidiq says, “I told him that his brother was like a wild bull that was going wild throughout the area and causing damage and action should be taken against him.” Later Kuka Parray according to him called him privately and told him that he should not have said this in front of everyone. When Fayaz’s father, an employee of the cattle farm operated by SKAUST in the vicinity was about to retire, he was put under suspension. So his pension was automatically stopped. He attributes the development to Kuka Parray. At this time, Fayaz was among his main men. The issue was finally resolved when some politicians close to both the sides intervened. Mehraj, a resident of Ganderbal was a child when the Nawabadis were at the peak of their power. He remembers a day when Nawabadis converged on his village, and cut down all the willow and poplar trees on the government land. “They sold it to their own friends at the cheapest possible rates,” he says adding that the fear was such that no government official either resisted or complained of the incident. Such was the case with all of the area. “They even cut trees in the Jarokha Bagh,” says Yasin another resident of the area, “Loot was a common thing with Nawabadis those days.” Yasir says, “Any vehicle which plied from the area was looted. People would think twice before passing through the area dominated by renegades.” Sidiq accepts. “The people from the surrounding areas on the directives of militants had imposed a blockade on us. So we had no option left but to loot for survival.” But according to Gulzar from Sumbal, “Nawabadis have always had a bad image in the area. They were involved in thefts and robberies before they became associated with counter-insurgency. After that they would carry out their activities openly. Extortion became their main business.” With Fayaz’s death, Nawabadi mohalla’s power waned. The village elders approached other surrounding areas, with a message of reconciliation. But they have met little success. The scars ran deep. When the Northern Command chief visited the area, post counter-insurgency, Nawabadis too were invited. “I stood up and asked them that what had the Government of India done for us,” says Kawaam. “I asked them what had they paid the families of the soldiers who had been martyred in Kargil, and in relation to them we were paid nothing. I told them that India has not paid us a penny.” Despite fighting a bloody war for the state, Nawbadis say they were neglected. Many of them, say, all they got from their haunting past were dead bodies. “If I had been in some position then, and could think the way I do today, I would not have let these things to happen,” says Kamaal. However, Kamaal maintains they do not face any social ostracism today, and are well heard in corridors of power. “We have good relations with people of other village, even among from people of Jamaat. We are invited in their functions,” says Kamaal.  But still the villagers want to get rid of the baggage their village name carries. They expect Mirabad to conceal their identity, and bring them back into the fold of the society. Travelling around with a identity card bearing the name of the village may not be wise option always, they admit.   “Nawabadi has now become associated with us. It is a sort of stigma. Wherever we go, people see us in a particular image. With the name change we hope things may get better,” say the Nawabadis. The story of Nawabadi Mohalla is the story of a village which switched sides en-masse. It tasted power, and wealth, until the downfall started. Now it is trying hard to merge back with the society it stood against. But neither the society, nor the village seems to have made its mind fully. More details (http://www.kashmirlife.net)

Protesters Fired Upon In Pampore, 12 injured

Srinagar, August 11- 12 more persons were injured today after police and paramilitary forces again opened fire to contain raging protest demonstrations against Indian rule in Kashmir.

Meanwhile, Two muslim  women was killed and nine others, including twoIndian  Army soldiers, were injured when a passenger bus was caught in cross fire after an Army convoy was ambushed by Mujahedeen  in Rajouri district today. Kashmiri resistance groups Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-fatha Force jointly Sheikh Aziz's Regiment claimed the responsibility for the attack..

A group of Kashmiri fighters perched on hill tops fired at the vehicle of a Commanding Officer of Rashtriya Rifles. A bus passing through the area got hit in the attack, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Rajouri, R K Jalla told PTI.

In the firing, two women died and 9 others were injured, two of them Army jawans, reports said.Army troops returned the fire and a heavy gun battle followed which was continuing till last reports came in. The bus passengers have been evacuated and the injured admitted to a hospital in Rajouri.


Thousands of people, men women and children are out in the streets defying stringent curfew and braving bullets and batons in scores of areas across Kashmir. In Shaheed-e-Azemat, Sheikh Aziz's saffron town of Pampore, 20 kms south of Srinagar, Indian  forces and police opened fire to quell one such demonstration this afternoon to attend the Sheikh Aziz's 2nd anniversary  in Pampore. Come to Pampore call was given by the Sr. Freedom fighter leader Syed Ali Gilani.

Initial reports said at 12 persons were injured two different places in Pampore, some critically in the firing. According to reports said thousands of people from Konibal, Samboora, Patli Bagh, Aloochi Bagh,Wuyan, Khrewa and adjoining areas chanting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans marched in defiance of curfew in a huge procession towards Pampore, situated on the road this afternoon. The highway remained blocked as sea of people swarmed from surrounding areas to join the demonstration.

Paramilitary forces accompanied by police reached the spot and resorted to heavy shelling of tear smoke canisters and aerial firing.

When procession  continued to move ahead they opened direct fire injuring scores of people of whom two have succumbed to their injuries so far. Details are awaited (Writer-South Asia)