SRINAGAR: Police on Friday arrested a 22-year-old woman for allegedly throwing stones at security forces during the 2010 summer uprising in which 111 unarmed people, mostly young men and children, were killed by police and paramilitary firing.
The lady was released on bail today.
The arrest of Zahida Akhtar, the first case of a woman being detained on charges of stone throwing, came despite a promise by chief minister Omar Abdullah to grant amnesty to the stone pelting youth involved in the uprising.
Officials say they are still working on the scheme.
Akhtar has been booked for rioting with deadly weapon, participation in an unlawful assembly, use of force with criminal intent and endangering life of a person, police sources said.
In 2010, the death of a teenager, allegedly due to a teargas shell fired by police at protesters, triggered massive anti-New Delhi demonstrations throughout the summer.
Human rights bodies severely criticised security forces for their use of live bullets against unarmed protesters, many of them school going boys.
Late last year, chief minister Omar Abdullah announced an amnesty scheme for youth who he said were involved in over 1,200 cases of stone-pelting during the uprising.
However he made no mention about punishing the security forces who were blamed for “undue use of force”.
Even the state’s law minister, Ali Mohammad Sagar had openly accused the CRPF of “going out of control and opening firing unnecessarily”.
‘Condemned’
The Hindustan Times newspaper quoted Superintendent of police, Anantnag, Ramesh Kumar Jala as saying that Akhtar has been let off.
However senior separatist leaders have still condemned the woman’s arrest. The hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani called the police action as “madness of police”.
“In 2010, they killed 125 youth, but not even one among the CRPF or police have been booked for the target killings. However, on charges of stone pelting, young students are still being arrested.
What is worse is that now an innocent girl has been arrested,” the amalgam said in a statement.
Spokesperson of pro-Independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front headed by Muhammad Yasin Malik has described the arrest as “an act of state terrorism”.
