The Tragedies of Palhallan Palhallan lost eight of its youth during the 2010 summer uprising, leaving behind broken families REVISITING 2010 MAJID MAQBOOL On July 30, 2010, Adil Ramzan, 13, was returning to his home in Palhallan in Baramulla district, 30 km north of Srinagar, after offering Friday prayers when his father received a call from an unknown number. Adil received a bullet injury during a protest, the caller informed.He was rushed to the sub-district hospital in Pattan. After some hours, his father received another call from a distraught doctor. They fired bullets at him inside the hospital, thedoctor said, Adil is dead. Adil’s mother Syeda Begum says her son could have survived the earlier bullet injury, which was not that fatal, had a joint party of CRPF and police not barged inside the hospital and opened fire. She was later told by a lady doctor who was present that time in the hospital: ‘they locked us in one room, and then theyopened fire inside the hospital, killing Adil.’ “But soon after Adil was admitted in the Pattan hospital, his wound staunched and an intravenous (IV) drip administered, his father recounts – based on the narration heheard from others present there – the CRPF personnel raided the premises, ripped out the IV cord from Adil’s arm, pulled him off the bed and shot him dead at point blank range,” says a report released in November, 2010 by an independent fact-finding team that comprised of academic Bela Bhatia, advocate Vrinda Grover, journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and activist Ravi Hemadri that visited Kashmir atthe end of October, 2010. (REPORT # 1, 12 November 2010.Attack and killing on Pattan hospital premises: urgent need for accountability) “Whatever the truth about the events that led to Adil’s death,” the report submitted by the fact-finding team says, “there is little question that Pattan hospital on July 30 suffered an attack which by all acknowledged covenants, puts the CRPF and all other elements party to it, under the cloud of a serious crime.This constitutes a clear violation of International Humanitarian Law, and calls for an urgent and impartial investigation.” Adil was the first among eight youthkilled in Palhallan during the 2010 civil uprising. “They shot Adil inside the hospital,” Syeda says as tears brim her eyes. “His drip was pulled, he fell down from his bed and then they fired bullets at him,” she was told by the people who were witness to the incident in the hospital. His dead body reached home around 9 pm as the government forces did not allow people to carry his body home during the day. “temes aus yeaper parun kareth goelev seath,” Syeda says, showing where he had received bullets in his body. Death has been following this familylike a shadow. Adil’s grandfather Ghulam Mohiudin Sheikh was killed by ‘unidentified gunmen’ in the late 90s. Another relative, Muhammad Sultan, who had joined militant ranks, was earlier killed in Haigam, Sopur, in 1992. “My father has been interrogated so many times over the years,” says Adil’s elder brother, Umer Ramzan. “They must have raided our house 50 to 60 times over the years.” Two of his uncles—Ali Muhammad Sheikh and Samiullah Sheikh – are presently languishing in jail. Last year they were brought to Jammu jail from Tihar where they were imprisoned since 2007. Ali and Samiullah were arrested from Delhi in 2007 while they were on their way to Gujarat. Every winter Ali would go to Gujarat for work. That year his younger brother, Samiullah, who had recently appeared in 12th boards, accompanied him. “They were arrested from the railway station; they later showed it in the media that they recovered RDX fromthem,” says Umer. Till last year they were imprisoned without charges, he says, and only last year they have been given 10 more years of imprisonment. They are innocent, Umer says, they have been falsely implicated. Before his brother was alive, Umer would study hard. He wanted to become a doctor. His younger brother’s death affected his studies. Now in the first year of his college, he just hopes to continue his studies. Syeda doesn’t want to even pass through Pattan now. “Earlier Pattan was like my garden,” she says. “NowI fear I might come across my son’s killers if I go to Pattan,” she says. Shecan’t stay at her home alone. “Adil seben yad che yeman mae dohas dahea lache phir,” she says. When Adil would return from his school, he would first come running to her mother, and ask for some food. “I can still hear his voices everyday when we have lunch and dinner,” she says. If I am alone at home, she says, I constantly think about my son. If she is not busy in some work, she remains restless, endlessly thinking about Adil. Some days back, when it was raining, she was alone at home. She couldn’t stayat her home for the whole day. She went out to talk to her neighbors. “I need to go out and talk to people when I am alone,” she says, “that helps to keep away depressing thoughts to some extent.” Adjacent to the small playground of Raipora Public school in Palhallan is the local martyrs’ graveyard. The graveyard exemplifies what Palhallan has been through over the decades. Since 2010 the graveyard isincreasingly eating into the playground of the school as more and more local youth are buried here. There are a total of 94 graves, all of them Palhallan residents who died in the past two decades of conflict, including eight youth killed during the 2010 summer uprising that lie buried here. A teacher who has been teaching in this school for the past six years saysPalhallan was affected the most during the 2010 civil uprising. Palhallan lost eight of its youth that summer. Schools were closed for around two months in the summer of 2010. There was a strict curfew inplace for 41 days in Palhallan, also known as the ‘green town’ and ‘Gaza of Kashmir’. “Adil was a brilliant student, we miss him,” says his teacher outside his school. “Now his classmates only see his grave here.” Zubair, a 15-year-old student studying in 10th standard, steps up near the graveyard in the school compound. He has a question. “If Kashmir is an integral part of India, then why do they kill us,” he asks, pointing at the graveyard. They don’t fire bullets at protesters elsewhere, he says, “but here they have only bullets for us.” He says recently over 100 pellets were fired at one of his friends from a close range during a protest. His cousin was locked up for three days in the police station. “They even arrest 10 year old kids here and beat them up,” he says. At her single-storey home Syeda remembers one day when Adil cameback from his school and told her that some women had come to the martyrs’ graveyard near his school. “She was weeping near one grave inthe graveyard,” Syeda recalls Adil telling her that he did not like it and he told that woman not to weep there. Now Adil lies buried in the same graveyard adjacent to his school where he was studying in 7thstandard till the summer of 2010. “That is why I have never gone thereto weep near his grave.” Death of a young man Ansarullah Tantray, 25, a resident of Tanraypora, Palhallan, had just appeared in his final year MA English annual exams. On September 18, 2010, he had gone to a nearby mosque in the locality to offer noon prayers. When he came out of the mosque, his father says, CRPF and police started firing without any provocation. Ansar received a bullet in his mouth. “That day there were no protests. CRPF and police had terrorized people overnight and also ransackedhomes in a nearby neighborhood on that morning,” says Ansar’s father, Ghulam Muhammad Tantray. He wassome distance away on the street when his son received a bullet. “When they opened fire on people, I thought I also received a bullet,” he says. Then he saw some boys who were carrying Ansar in their hands. Blood was oozing out of his mouth. “He died on the way to the hospital,”says Ghulam Muhammad. His younger son Nayeem Ahmad Tantray was at home that day. He was himself recovering from bullet injuries he had received on September 6 when five youth were killed in Palhallan by the government forces. When a deal in curfew was announced that day, Nayeem came out of his home to open his shop near a bus stop in Palhallan. “The CRPF and STF again opened fire near the bridge,” says Nayeem, “they had already killed four people by then.” He received two bullets. “After the bullet injuries, around ten to twenty CRPF and STF troops came and started thrashing me,” he says. “I don’t know how I survived that day.” They don’t expect justice from the current political dispensation. They could not even lodge an FIR those days. “What kind of justice will we get now,” asks Ansar’s father. (Feedback atThe Tragedies of Palhallan Palhallan lost eight of its youth during the 2010 summer uprising, leaving behind broken families REVISITING 2010 MAJID MAQBOOL On July 30, 2010, Adil Ramzan, 13, was returning to his home in Palhallan in Baramulla district, 30 km north of Srinagar, after offering Friday prayers when his father received a call from an unknown number. Adil received a bullet injury during a protest, the caller informed.He was rushed to the sub-district hospital in Pattan. After some hours, his father received another call from a distraught doctor. They fired bullets at him inside the hospital, thedoctor said, Adil is dead. Adil’s mother Syeda Begum says her son could have survived the earlier bullet injury, which was not that fatal, had a joint party of CRPF and police not barged inside the hospital and opened fire. She was later told by a lady doctor who was present that time in the hospital: ‘they locked us in one room, and then theyopened fire inside the hospital, killing Adil.’ “But soon after Adil was admitted in the Pattan hospital, his wound staunched and an intravenous (IV) drip administered, his father recounts – based on the narration heheard from others present there – the CRPF personnel raided the premises, ripped out the IV cord from Adil’s arm, pulled him off the bed and shot him dead at point blank range,” says a report released in November, 2010 by an independent fact-finding team that comprised of academic Bela Bhatia, advocate Vrinda Grover, journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and activist Ravi Hemadri that visited Kashmir atthe end of October, 2010. (REPORT # 1, 12 November 2010.Attack and killing on Pattan hospital premises: urgent need for accountability) “Whatever the truth about the events that led to Adil’s death,” the report submitted by the fact-finding team says, “there is little question that Pattan hospital on July 30 suffered an attack which by all acknowledged covenants, puts the CRPF and all other elements party to it, under the cloud of a serious crime.This constitutes a clear violation of International Humanitarian Law, and calls for an urgent and impartial investigation.” Adil was the first among eight youthkilled in Palhallan during the 2010 civil uprising. “They shot Adil inside the hospital,” Syeda says as tears brim her eyes. “His drip was pulled, he fell down from his bed and then they fired bullets at him,” she was told by the people who were witness to the incident in the hospital. His dead body reached home around 9 pm as the government forces did not allow people to carry his body home during the day. “temes aus yeaper parun kareth goelev seath,” Syeda says, showing where he had received bullets in his body. Death has been following this familylike a shadow. Adil’s grandfather Ghulam Mohiudin Sheikh was killed by ‘unidentified gunmen’ in the late 90s. Another relative, Muhammad Sultan, who had joined militant ranks, was earlier killed in Haigam, Sopur, in 1992. “My father has been interrogated so many times over the years,” says Adil’s elder brother, Umer Ramzan. “They must have raided our house 50 to 60 times over the years.” Two of his uncles—Ali Muhammad Sheikh and Samiullah Sheikh – are presently languishing in jail. Last year they were brought to Jammu jail from Tihar where they were imprisoned since 2007. Ali and Samiullah were arrested from Delhi in 2007 while they were on their way to Gujarat. Every winter Ali would go to Gujarat for work. That year his younger brother, Samiullah, who had recently appeared in 12th boards, accompanied him. “They were arrested from the railway station; they later showed it in the media that they recovered RDX fromthem,” says Umer. Till last year they were imprisoned without charges, he says, and only last year they have been given 10 more years of imprisonment. They are innocent, Umer says, they have been falsely implicated. Before his brother was alive, Umer would study hard. He wanted to become a doctor. His younger brother’s death affected his studies. Now in the first year of his college, he just hopes to continue his studies. Syeda doesn’t want to even pass through Pattan now. “Earlier Pattan was like my garden,” she says. “NowI fear I might come across my son’s killers if I go to Pattan,” she says. Shecan’t stay at her home alone. “Adil seben yad che yeman mae dohas dahea lache phir,” she says. When Adil would return from his school, he would first come running to her mother, and ask for some food. “I can still hear his voices everyday when we have lunch and dinner,” she says. If I am alone at home, she says, I constantly think about my son. If she is not busy in some work, she remains restless, endlessly thinking about Adil. Some days back, when it was raining, she was alone at home. She couldn’t stayat her home for the whole day. She went out to talk to her neighbors. “I need to go out and talk to people when I am alone,” she says, “that helps to keep away depressing thoughts to some extent.” Adjacent to the small playground of Raipora Public school in Palhallan is the local martyrs’ graveyard. The graveyard exemplifies what Palhallan has been through over the decades. Since 2010 the graveyard isincreasingly eating into the playground of the school as more and more local youth are buried here. There are a total of 94 graves, all of them Palhallan residents who died in the past two decades of conflict, including eight youth killed during the 2010 summer uprising that lie buried here. A teacher who has been teaching in this school for the past six years saysPalhallan was affected the most during the 2010 civil uprising. Palhallan lost eight of its youth that summer. Schools were closed for around two months in the summer of 2010. There was a strict curfew inplace for 41 days in Palhallan, also known as the ‘green town’ and ‘Gaza of Kashmir’. “Adil was a brilliant student, we miss him,” says his teacher outside his school. “Now his classmates only see his grave here.” Zubair, a 15-year-old student studying in 10th standard, steps up near the graveyard in the school compound. He has a question. “If Kashmir is an integral part of India, then why do they kill us,” he asks, pointing at the graveyard. They don’t fire bullets at protesters elsewhere, he says, “but here they have only bullets for us.” He says recently over 100 pellets were fired at one of his friends from a close range during a protest. His cousin was locked up for three days in the police station. “They even arrest 10 year old kids here and beat them up,” he says. At her single-storey home Syeda remembers one day when Adil cameback from his school and told her that some women had come to the martyrs’ graveyard near his school. “She was weeping near one grave inthe graveyard,” Syeda recalls Adil telling her that he did not like it and he told that woman not to weep there. Now Adil lies buried in the same graveyard adjacent to his school where he was studying in 7thstandard till the summer of 2010. “That is why I have never gone thereto weep near his grave.” Death of a young man Ansarullah Tantray, 25, a resident of Tanraypora, Palhallan, had just appeared in his final year MA English annual exams. On September 18, 2010, he had gone to a nearby mosque in the locality to offer noon prayers. When he came out of the mosque, his father says, CRPF and police started firing without any provocation. Ansar received a bullet in his mouth. “That day there were no protests. CRPF and police had terrorized people overnight and also ransackedhomes in a nearby neighborhood on that morning,” says Ansar’s father, Ghulam Muhammad Tantray. He wassome distance away on the street when his son received a bullet. “When they opened fire on people, I thought I also received a bullet,” he says. Then he saw some boys who were carrying Ansar in their hands. Blood was oozing out of his mouth. “He died on the way to the hospital,”says Ghulam Muhammad. His younger son Nayeem Ahmad Tantray was at home that day. He was himself recovering from bullet injuries he had received on September 6 when five youth were killed in Palhallan by the government forces. When a deal in curfew was announced that day, Nayeem came out of his home to open his shop near a bus stop in Palhallan. “The CRPF and STF again opened fire near the bridge,” says Nayeem, “they had already killed four people by then.” He received two bullets. “After the bullet injuries, around ten to twenty CRPF and STF troops came and started thrashing me,” he says. “I don’t know how I survived that day.” They don’t expect justice from the current political dispensation. They could not even lodge an FIR those days. “What kind of justice will we get now,” asks Ansar’s father. (Feedback at
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:54:26 +0000
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