Girl killed, brother handicapped as littered shell goes off in Kashmir’s ‘meadow of death’ A minor was killed while two other received life threatening wounds handicapping him when a littered shell exploded at the Tosemaedan in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district, an official said here on Monday. Witnesses said Simran Akhtar, 9, and her brother Fayaz Ahmed Parrey, 5, were returning to home from their school when near Zompathri stream in Lassipora Drang, a powerful shell exploded leaving the siblings in a pool of blood. Scores of people rushed to spot and found Simran dead while her brother had received fatal injuries and his both legs were smashed up. Reports said that injured Fayaz was shifted to Srinagar hospital where he is battling for life. People took to streets and staged a protest in the area alleging that shells lie scattered everywhere in and around Tosemaedan. Confirming the death of the girl, a police official said they have registered a case and were investigating. The lease of the meadow to the army ended in April this year but it remains under army’s occupation and is used as a firing range. Over 65 people mostly children have died due to littered shells in the area since 1965. Civil society groups have campaigned against the extension of lease to the army. Protestors alleged that due to military drills in the past, shells are scattered in and around the area that has been described as the ‘meadow of death’ and one of the shell exploded and claimed the life of a girl. Jammu and Kashmir RTI Movement, one of the groups spearheading the campaign against the lease extension, said: killing of a minor and critically injuring two minors by littered explosive is ‘the worst example of brutality and barbarism’. “Army has been given a license to kill and is on a mission of killing spree especially youth in order to sustain their illegal occupation of the meadow. They are continuing bloodbath to suppress the sentiment and they have crossed all the possible patience we could stand with,” it said. The government has said the lease will not be extended, but the army says it has sent its report to the defense ministry in Delhi. Despite the lease getting over the army continues to occupy the ‘meadow of death’. Another civil society group, Tossamaidan Bachave Front, said they have no other option but to initiate an “uprising against illegal occupation if the lease cancellation order is not issued”. “Government had an excuse of code of conduct because of which they did not issue the order of lease cancellation but today we warn them to issue it in black and white before 25 May to avoid agitation which will snowball into a major controversy,” it said. “We appeal the government to appoint special team to dispose of military waste and unexploded shells and the areas falling in the immediate vicinity of the meadow,” it added. The group appealed to Kashmir citizens “to condemn the killing of a minor in strongest terms and support the movement”.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 15:47:30 +0000
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