‘I don’t want to become police agent’ Youth goes into hiding ‘to escape persecution’ By Izhar Nazir Ali Published: Sun, 28 July 2013 11:16 PM Srinagar: A Kashmiri youth who was released last year from jail after one year detention, Saturday accused police of subjecting his family to humiliation and harassment for turning down their offer to become an ‘agent’, a charge denied by the police. Waqar Ahmad Moharkan, who was released on July 8, last year following a vibrant online campaign by his well wishers, told Kashmir Reader that police has made his father’s life miserable by threatening to seize his shop and to arrest every member of the family after he refused to take up their job offer of acting as an agent. Due to police atrocities, he said, he had to abandon his home. “My only fault is that I have refused to be their agent. From the last four days, my father and my family have been subjected to humiliation and harassment by the police. My father is a heart patient. He suffered a stroke when I was arrested in 2011. He is not keeping well. Police should stop harassing my family. If I’ve done something wrong, they should deal with me. They should not bring my family in-between,” Waqar, who has gone into hiding, said by phone. Waqar, son of Khurshid Ahmad Moharkan, a Science graduate was first arrested on October 4, 2011, during a raid on his house in Lal Bazaar on charges of participating in protests. Even as a local court bailed him out twice, the police rearrested Waqar and slapped him with the Public Safety Act (PSA). He was shifted to Jammu’s Kot Balwal Jail instantly. His arrested sparked outrage among the people, particularly the youth, who launched a powerful online campaign in the virtual world. Waqar’s well wishers also launched website freewaqar.org urging internet users to send petitions to the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International seeking his release. The vigorous campaign finally paid off and Waqar was released from jail after 277 days on July 8 last year. “If I’m an outlaw, and police claims it is a civilized force, then they should behave in a polite and humane manner with the parents of the youth, whom they charge of stone pelting. Not like the hooligans abusing and beating old men and women. Such atrocities will push youth to adopt other resistance measures,” he added. The police, Waqar added, was pushing the youth to the wall by arresting a father in lieu of a son, and a brother in lieu of a brother. He said collective punishment is being given to the families of alleged stone pelters. “It’s not only my case. Every youth is facing similar atrocities. This is what they do to the family of every Kashmiri youth. A senior police officer has threatened my father of devastating his life if he fails to produce me before him. They can’t imagine the consequences of pushing youth to the wall. If they have animosity with us, why do they make our families to suffer,” he said. “I’ll answer every allegation of theirs. I’ll show them their ugly faces. I’m ready to go to jail again. However, I can’t tolerate my father’s (routine) humiliation,” he added. Waqar said that every youth who stages protests on the streets of Valley against the human rights abuses has a story to narrate. He said that dubbing stone pelting youth as drug addicts, terrorists, and anti-social elements to defame them before the international community will serve no purpose to police. “Police claims that the youth get money for pelting stones. I ask them do they (police) get money for oppressing innocent people? Do you get paid to kill innocents?” he said. “Police has black laws and unbridled powers to kill us. If law is for everyone, why doesn’t police arrest those BSF men, who murdered four civilians in cold blood in Gool? Why don’t they arrest and punish their own man, who pushed Budgam woman to death? Waqar also sought the intervention of international rights bodies, especially Amnesty International saying that police was infringing upon the human rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. However, police dismissed Waqar’s charges as ‘baseless’. The Inspector General of Police (Kashmir), Abdul Gani Mir told Kashmir Reader that police does not harass any one. He said there might be a case registered against the youth and for the same reason police might be looking for him. “If the youth has a grievance, he must visit the higher police officials for the redressal. Some people create a perception about an institution to defame it. If SHO or DSP, as he alleges, is harassing him, he should go a step higher to get his grievance addressed. That is the proper way,” Mir added.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 23:01:47 +0000
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