Protests and lynching as Kashmir grapples with ‘braid-choppers’

The panic over braid-chopping has turned into a headache for security personnel in Kashmir, with a frenzied mob lynching a 70-year-old in Anantnag and separatists calling a protest.

Social media in the Valley is full of conspiracy theories, with as many as 80 cases of hair-chopping of women being reported in the last month, The Times of India said. Authorities have barred mobile internet and imposed curfew at five places in Srinagar to prevent street brawls, stone-pelting and protests from growing.

The separatists are blaming “Indian intelligence agencies and security forces” for the mischief, and Hurriyat’s Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF’s Yasin Malik called for protests after Friday namaz, the police said.

The man killed recently, Abdul Salam Wani, was mistaken for a braid-chopper and his attackers are untraceable. Frequent reports as well as rumours of hair-chopping have led to vigilantism and violence in the absence of arrests of the culprits and begun affecting anti-terrorist operations.

A helpline has been established and a reward of Rs 6 lakh been announced on information on the braid-choppers, who are reportedly cutting the braids of women in other states as well.

Baramulla SSP Imtiyaz Hussain was quoted by The Indian Express: “There are apprehensions that people could be killed by mobs. In the last two days, four cases were reported in my district, all of them were baseless.”

According to the report in the newspaper, in the 1990s, the Valley was gripped by similar rumours of “bhooth”. A belief spread that the ghosts were men from security agencies trying to scare people. Now, the hair-chopping incidents have again given rise to a similar belief that security agencies could be behind the incidents.