Share it frinds Kashmir story that media isn’t telling Faisul Yaseen Srinagar, Sep 14: Muhammad Salman is an unsung hero of Kashmir who rescued more than 150 persons from Jawahar Nagar locality of Srinagar in his small wooden ferry, often risking his own life, but media is not telling you his story. It is telling you the story of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah making a chopper ride, throwing a handful of bananas and bread while posing for the cameras of the New Delhi-based news channels. It is telling you the story of the Indian Army troopers, 700,000 of who are posted in Kashmir for fighting insurgency, carrying rescue operations in a handful of areas, mostly rescuing tourists, VIPs, beggars coming to Kashmir from the Indian mainland and some Kashmiris as well. “This brave heart has saved innumerable lives by taking his wooden ferry into the deep flood waters and rescuing the women, children, elderly and young alike,” said Mir Nizamuddin of Jawahar Nagar about Salman. “If only the Omar government had been as active on the ground, the sufferings of the people would have been less.” The subject of most of the New Delhi-based news channels while covering Kashmir floods has not been flood victims but the Indian Army. Instead of telling the masses about the tragedies of flood victims and their sufferings, the media has focused its attention on singing eulogies for the Indian Army. “There is a lot of resentment against the Indian Army particularly after the news channels have been highlighting our efforts while ignoring the sufferings of the common Kashmiris hit by floods,” said a trooper, posted on duty on the Rambagh-Jawahar Nagar Bund, who was not authorized to talk to the media. He said though the Indian Army was doing its bit to rescue the people, they could not match the job done by the locals. Hundreds of youth from the outskirts of Srinagar visit the submerged areas of the city everyday and carry rescue operations with the little resources available to them. “Unlike the Indian Army and the NDRF (National Disaster Response Force), we don’t have sophisticated boats but we try to rescue as many people as we can by making several trips throughout the day,” said Niyaz Ahmad Dar of PadshahiBagh, drained from the day’s work of rowing his ferry while rescuing marooned people. Apart from the local rescue teams, people from central Kashmir and north Kashmir areas like Chadoora, Chrar-e-Sharief, Budgam, Handwara, Kupwara, Sopore, Baramulla are sending relief material for flood victims putting up in local relief camps while the government and the administration seems to be non-existent. “Any idea where the government-run relief camps are located in Srinagar. Omar claims that their numbers are in three figures but I failed to locate even one, at least in uptown localities like Barzulla and Hyderpora where quite a number of citizen camps have been set up and where thousands of flood sufferers have been camping,” ZafarMeraj, a senior Kashmir journalist, posted on Facebook. People are also displaying bonhomie and communal brotherhood with Sikhs putting up in Masjids and Muslims in Gurdwaras. Local Muslim youth rescued hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits, Hindus from various Indian states, and foreign nationals. This is not getting any mention in the media, which is doing a free public relations exercise for the Indian Army even as troops were seen beating up locals for taking sacks of apple to flood victims saying they were carrying stones to pelt at them. “And now they (so called journalists) want us to believe that people stranded in their homes for days and without food and water had collected stones to pelt on choppers, or fished out stones from several feet deep water or found them on their slanting roofs. Only a nincompoop would fall for that. Shame on you electronic media!” Anuradha Bhasin, senior Kashmir journalist, posted on her Facebook page
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 02:07:48 +0000
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