Qaiser Amin Bhat, the latest casualty of Kashmir’s bloody season of protest

‘He had conviction in the movement’

WrittenBy:Nidhi Suresh
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Last Friday, after protests, Qaiser Amin Bhat had washed blood off the floor of Jamia Masjid in downtown Srinagar. This Friday the sun glistened over his blood.

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Just like every Friday, on June 1, men filed out of Jamia Masjid once the afternoon namaaz was read by 2:30 pm. Unlike most Fridays, this week, there was no security deployment outside the 624-year-old masjid. Minutes after the prayer, people gathered outside the gates of the mosque with black flags of Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Islamic State, or ISIS. As the crowd increased and momentum picked up, the men proceeded to move down the road from Jamia Masjid towards the police station.

The mob halted at a spot when they realised that the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were blocking the road ahead. Security personnel were also present at the end of a bylane that lead to the main road.

For close to an hour the men yelled pro-freedom slogans – “Hum kya chahte – Aazadi”, “Musa, musa, Zair Musa”, “Burhan zinda hai” and more. The shops had their shutters down, most residents had shut their windows lest any stray stones, pellets or bullets hit them. A young boy, barely five-years-old, looked on from his first floor window and watched other boys, perhaps in their teens, bare their chest and call for a bullet. In between, the boys took turns in sitting down to catch their breath. It is the holy month of Ramzan, most of them were fasting.  

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A young child looks on at the protests from the window of his house

For close to an hour, there wasn’t much retaliation from the side of the security forces. Occasionally, the forces took a few steps forward from both lanes and the men would take a few steps back themselves.

By 3:45, a group standing closer to the mosque, began yelling unusually loudly. The entire mob ran towards them. Nobody expected to witness everything that unfolded in the next few moments.

A white gypsy zoomed down the road towards the crossing in front of the masjid. The mob lost all control. They picked up anything that they could lay their hands on and smashed it against the gypsy. When the gypsy reached the crossing and turned towards the police station, it halted, bounced a little and looked like it was attempting to go over a heavy object. As soon as the gypsy halted, all hell broke loose. One of the boys jumped onto the bonnet with a bat-like object in hand, attempting to smash the windshield. Others began climbing onto the sides. The left door of the gypsy was momentarily forced open just as a bicycle was flung onto the windshield.

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Mob starts attacking the jeep

All this while Qaiser, 21, the ‘heavy object’ that had halted the gypsy, was stuck beneath the vehicle. A few seconds later, the screeching of the tyres overpowered all other noise as the driver sped off.

The shock was apparent on everyone’s face. Members of the mob picked up Qaiser, and two others who were injured and took them into the bylanes. Stones were placed around the blood that had been spilt. The calls for aazadi resumed with a refreshed rage. Qaiser was rushed to a hospital. The air resounded with cries and ambulance sirens.

A stone pelter who sat down for a breath told Newslaundry: “if I get my hands on that officer, I will strangle him”.  

In the next half hour, the forces began dispersing the crowd with heavy tear gas shelling. Some of us took shelter in a house near a bylane. Very soon a tear gas bomb fell into the veranda of the house. The family ran out and joined journalists outside until the effect reduced. Eventually we made our way out, the mob had receded, some of the boys lit rags on fire to dilute the pinching effect of the tear gas bombs. Breathless, red-eyed journalists and protesters gathered around the fire for some relief. By 4:30 pm protestors, passers-by and journalists went home.

By late evening, news poured in that Qaiser and two other boys had been admitted to SKIMS hospital in Srinagar. Qaiser’s condition was steadily deteriorating. A little post-midnight, the 21-year-old succumbed to his injuries. According to Qaiser’s relatives, he had suffered chest injuries and fractures that lead to internal bleeding.

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Tear gas smoke

‘He had conviction in the movement’

Qaiser is survived by his two younger sisters –  Toyeba (19) and Iffat (16).

A family member told Newslaundry that Qaiser had lost both his parents by 2010. He had completed his school education and showed “no particular interest in studies”. The past few months, he had been working as a craftsman.

While his parents were alive, Qaiser and his sisters used to live in downtown Srinagar at Fateh Kadal. After his parent’s death, the children had moved to their aunt’s place at Dal gate, 4 km from Fateh Kadal. “Even though his body was in Dal gate, his heart was in Fateh Kadal. Downtown boys have a different mindset all together,” said a relative.

Qaiser spent most of his time in downtown Fateh Kadal where most of his friends live. According to the relative, since 2008, Qaiser had been a regular stone pelter but off late he had started to express a little fear of getting injured or caught. Going to Jamia Masjid every Friday was a routine that Qaiser never missed. “Last Friday, he told me that he had cleaned the blood off the floor of the Masjid after protests. He was not linked to any agency or organisation. He protested because he had a strong conviction in the movement”, said the relative.

The ghost of Mohammad Ayub Pandit

Sanjay Sharma, the spokesperson of the CRPF confirmed that there were six people in the gypsy – one driver, four escorts and the officer SS Yadav, who is second in command of 28 CRPF Battalion.

He said the officer was trying to take stock of the security deployment when the mob attacked their vehicle. “They were surrounded by people who were after their life. Once they drove in, there was no question of going back,” he said. He added that the men in the vehicle must be “applauded” for the “exemplary and uncommon restraint” they showed. “All of the men were armed with rifles. They knew that if the vehicle was halted, they would be dragged out and lynched to death. Despite that, they didn’t shoot but simply drove on,” said Sharma.

According to him, the protesters came in front of the vehicle and Qaiser lay down on the ground before the vehicle.

It is impossible not be reminded of the gruesome murder of Ayub Pandit. A year ago, last June, after Friday prayers, Mohammad Ayub Pandit, a deputy superintendent of police, was stripped, dragged, beaten and stoned to death in the very same area. This Friday, if the men had got their hands on the officer in the car, in all likelihood, he also would have met a similar fate.

When asked why there was no deployment outside the mosque, Sharma said there had been an agreement with the mosque’s management committee –  Anjuman-e-Auqaf where the two parties had struck a deal that instead of sending deployment, ‘volunteers’ would guard the mosque against protestors.

Chairman of the All Party Hurriyat conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who delivers the Friday sermons from the Jamia Masjid denied the agreement. “The Auqaf did not make any official agreement with the forces. I believe it was certain trade bodies from Shahr-e-Khas who attempted to have an agreement with the police since they did not want protesting to affect their business. During the holy month of Ramzan, it is common for volunteers to be present to ensure that prayers take place peacefully,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

In a press statement, the General Secretary of the committee Altaf Ahmed Bhat said there was “no truce meeting” and that the story is completely “baseless”.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told Newslaundry that the CRPF vehicle driving through that mob was like throwing a “rag to the bull”.  

The next Friday is the last Friday of Ramzan. Scores of people from across the state will be present to offer prayers at the Jamia Masjid – 2,000 is the number Mirwaiz estimates. According to him, the next Friday will be a “defining moment”. “If they increase deployment then we will have no option but to tell people to come out onto the streets. And if they shut down the mosque on such an important day, people are not going to tolerate it. There will be a massive backlash,” he said.

When asked why the boys had raised flags of Jaish-e-Mohhammed and ISIS, he said “These are young angry boys. So what if they want to raise a black flag or a Pakistani flag. What is the big deal? We have been repeatedly requesting that there should not be deployment outside the Masjid. If there is no deployment who will boys protest against?” he asked.

The next morning, the Joint Resistance Leadership of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Miwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik condemned said: “The killing spree of Kashmiris by the forces continues despite so called Ramzan ceasefire either by bullets, pellets or lately by crushing them under vehicles,” said the statement.

Kashmir is still recovering from another video that surfaced early May this year. The video showed a CRPF vehicle crushing another protestor’s body under its wheels. 18-year-old Adil Ahmad Yadoo of Srinagar died on the spot. Initially, the police said Adil had died due to a “road traffic accident” and that “citizens may not pay heed to rumours”. A few hours after the video surfaced, sticking to the line of “road accident” the police tweeted that they had “taken cognizance of the road accident” and “legal action” would be initiated.

In the case of Qaiser, the J&K police have registered two FIRs – one against the driver of the gypsy for rash driving (Section 279). Since Qaiser did not survive, this can now include section 304 (culpable homicide). The other FIR was registered against the protesters under section 307 – attempt to murder, and under section 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon).

A long summer ahead

On Saturday, a day after the incident, Srinagar woke up to a deathly quiet city. Shops were shut, transport was halted and the internet was snapped. But in Nowhatta, downtown Srinagar, Qaiser’s funeral procession was once again dispersed by tear gas shelling.

At 6 pm, a grenade explosion took place at Fateh Kadal, near Qaiser’s house. CRPF spokesperson Sharma said, “two militants had hurled a grenade at the CRPF personnel, injuring three of them and a lady civilian”. Within the next two hours, two more explosions took place.

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Grenade attack at Fateh Kadal

One at Maisuma, central Kashmir which left one CRPF personnel injured and another at Magarmal Bhag, located near the police control room. No injuries were reported in the third explosion. A bloody summer of protest has only begun in Kashmir.

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