Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR: The death toll in protests over the hanging of Afzal Guru has gone up to three while the valley of Kashmir remains under an indefinite curfew for the third successive day today.
A teenage boy, Obaid Mushtaq who was among the five injured in firing by police and paramilitaries at Watergaam village succumbed at the Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar late last night.
A student of ninth standard, he received bullet injuries in the abdomen after the police and paramilitaries fired live bullets to quell protests near the northern town of Sopore.
Witnesses said a large number of mourners joined his funeral in Watergam this morning.
Obaid’s friend, Sajad Ahmed who received a bullet in the head is still battling for life at the hospital.
A resident of their village told this reporter over phone “CRPF had no reason to shoot the boys. They were running in an alley when CRPF saw them and fired bullets.”
In a separate incident two youths drowned in the Jehlum while being chased by the police and paramilitaries in Sumbal area near capital Srinagar yesterday.
They were fleeing in a boat which capsized.
The body of a teenage boy, Zameer Ahmed has been recovered today while that of Tariq Ahmed was recovered yesterday itself.
Curfew Continues
The valley of Kashmir remains under an indefinite curfew for the third successive day today. The curfew was imposed to prevent violent demonstrations after the hanging of Muhammad Afzal Guru in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
Police and paramilitary are deployed in strength and rolls of concertina wire block entry to roads and streets.
Separatist leaders have either been arrested or confined to their homes.
The police have also stopped publication of newspapers in Srinagar for the second day. Even cable operators are not being allowed to beam news channels except for the government-owned Doordarshan television.
All examinations have been postponed.
The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked police and paramilitary to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with the situation, he told reporters a short while after news of Guru’s hanging had spread.
Authorities fear protests could snowball into a major uprising and repeat the summer 2010, when a teenager died after he was hit by a teargas shell. The death led to a series of protests in which 111 people – mostly young men and children – were killed due to police or paramilitary firing on protesters.
Mortal Remains
Guru, convicted for plotting an attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, was hanged at 0800 hrs Saturday in cell no 3 of the Tihar prison in New Delhi. He was also buried there.
The President of India had rejected his petition for mercy.
Guru is the second Kashmiri after the JKLF founder Mohammad Maqbool Butt to be hanged.
Butt was hanged on Feb 11, 1984 and Guru – only two days ahead of his 29th death anniversary, which is observed as the “Martyr’s Day” in the valley.
Maqbool Butt became a rallying figure for the separatist movement in Kashmir, where an armed conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.
Many see Guru’s hanging as a political decision to blunt the BJP’s opposition ahead of the general elections due next year.
The Indian government was under immense pressure from the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party to hang him.
A prominent Indian lawyer, Kamini Jaiswal has strongly criticised the Indian government for not allowing Guru to see his family before going to the gallows.
We have done it in a manner as if we were a “blood thirsty” nation, she told NDTV.
Guru’s wife has now written to the authorities of Delhi’s Tihar jail to allow them to perform again his last rites in accordance with Islamic traditions and has also asked for his mortal remains.
The letter written by Guru’s lawyer on her behalf says the family came to know about the execution only from television channels. The family has denied that they received any letter informing them.
However India’s home secretary RK Singh said the family had been informed by registered post about the President rejecting Guru’s mercy petition.
