Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR: A policeman and a village Panch have been called for questioning by the police for their alleged involvement in violent anti-India protests in Kashmir over the hanging of Muhammad Afzal Guru.
Police have so far rounded up at least 53 youths across the valley who they say pelted them with stones during protests over Guru’s execution. They (Police) are on the lookout for more such youths.
Constable Imtiyaz Ahmed is alleged to have joined a crowd of protesters who clashed with the police and paramilitaries at Kunzar, nearly 35 km north of the capital Srinagar.
Ahmed joined the police two years ago and is now training at Manzgam. He says the concerned police station told his family that he was wanted for questioning.
“I am shocked,” he told freepresskashmir.com.
“The last time I was home was on the occasion of Eid. I haven’t ever left the camp since then. How could I be among the protesters.”
Ahmed says he is being framed. “Those who have told the police about my joining the protesters must be settling personal scores against me,” he said.
The Station House Officer (SHO) of the police station Kunzar, Sajad Ahmed says the police are still investigating whether Ahmed was really involved in stone pelting. “We have his mobile number and are checking his call log. We have told his family that he need not report at the police station for now,” he said.
Harassment
Ahmed is perhaps the first policeman facing allegations of being a stone-pelter. But there have been allegations that a number of civilians found themselves in police lock-ups on false charges of stone pelting and bought their release for huge sums of money.
Police of course deny such allegations.
Unlike Ahmed, the Panch of Chanapora village, Ghulam Hassan was very much present during a demonstration against the hanging of Afzal Guru. But he says he was only asking the protesters to disperse.
“They called me ‘Mukhbir’ (informer of the police) and now the police are accusing me of being a stone pelter,” Hassan, 42, said.
Residents of Chanapora say youths from surrounding areas come to their village to hold demonstrations which, they say, exposes them to unnecessary harassment by the police.
Chequered Past
The police in Kashmir has had a chequered history since an armed conflict between separatist militants and the Indian security forces broke out more than two decades ago.
Hundreds of policemen were dismissed or suspended after a mutiny of sorts in 1993. The police revolted after a constable Reyaz Ahmed had died in Army’s custody.
However, the police’s image changed after the formation of the counter-insurgency Task Force the next year. The police has since been in the forefront of anti-militancy operations in the state.
And the militants have gunned down hundreds of police including senior officers in target killings during this period.
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