Omar's functioning under a scanner-04/08/2010

04/08/2010

Omar's functioning under a scanner

New Delhi: With no let-up in the protests sweeping the Valley, renewed signs of chill have emerged between Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his critics in the state Congress, his ally in the government.



A group of senior Congress leaders, including legislators, former ministers and parliamentarians, met top party leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and AICC general secretary Prithviraj Chavan over the past two days to express their apprehensions about Omar's ability to handle the current crisis.

These leaders, said to be loyalists of Union Minister and former CM Ghulam Nabi Azad -- as distinct from the pro-Omar faction close to state party chief Saifuddin Soz -- have proposed a host of remedial measures to the central leadership, ranging from Governor's Rule to a change of guard in the state.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister heard a delegation of about 50 Congress leaders, including Congress Legislature Party leader Choudhary Mohammad Aslam, MP Lal Singh, MLA Ashok Kumar, MLC Naresh Gupta, and former MP P Namgyal, among others.



Sources said they expressed strong reservations against the Chief Minister's policies, including his ambivalent instructions to security forces over restraint and action.

Criticising the Chief Minister's functioning, the Congress leaders pointed out how Omar did not ask his Cabinet colleagues to visit their constituencies and reach out to people when trouble started last June.

Chaudhary Mohammad Aslam told The Indian Express that the delegation of Congress leaders had only apprised the PM of their concerns about the situation in the state. The Prime Minister was said to have assured them that he was looking into the matter, he said.



Asked if the delegation had demanded placing of the Assembly under suspended animation, Aslam admitted that one of the leaders had demanded it "but that was in another meeting".

Meanwhile, the wave of protests convulses the city and large tracts of the Valley on Tuesday testing the writ of both the state government and the security forces who struck back. This set off clashes and firing in which five protesters were killed and 18 wounded, five of them critically.

Over the last five days, 27 people, including a nine-year-old boy, have been killed taking the civilian death toll to 45 since violence began eight weeks ago.



After Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and other Central officials, the state government asked police and security forces to go ahead and crack down.

So Srinagar woke up to announcements from police jeeps that the government had issued "shoot-at-sight orders" against those defying curfew. Later, officials denied any shoot-at-sight order and said residents were told to stay indoors. But few listened. Soon after daybreak, people came out in the city's Qamarwari neighbourhood. At 10 am, as the gathering swelled, a heavy contingent of police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) opened fire to halt the protest. Six protesters were wounded and taken to the nearby Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital where 20-year-old Meraj-ud-din Lone succumbed to his injuries.



As news of Lone's killing spread and his body was taken back to his neighbourhood, hundreds took to the streets raising pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. The police and CRPF opened fire at a group of local photojournalists who were covering the protests.

At 11 am, several people defied curfew restrictions and came out to protest in the old city's Narwara neighbourhood. It was here that the police and CRPF had opened fire in which 17-year-old Anees Khursheed Ganai was killed. This angered residents who flooded the streets forcing the security personnel to withdraw.



Except for one corner of Watalkadal, all bridges over the Jhelum river that connect various neighbourhoods of the old city were taken over by angry crowds. Ganai's body was taken in a massive procession that continued to swell as people walked towards the Jamia mosque.

Later, thousands -- including several women -- sat on roads outside their neighbourhoods, shouting slogans, offering prayers. Mats were spread out, special langars organised across downtown to feed the protesters.



"We don't want to confront the police and CRPF. They are not allowing us to express our anger peacefully," said Mohammad Ramzan, an elderly man who sat on a pavement. "They know their presence infuriates people. They are killing our children. Let them leave us alone".

The CRPF men watched from across the bridge barely yards away. Tapes from the early 1990 uprising were played on mosque loudspeakers all around.

Hurriyat hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, released on Sunday, had called for a march to Eidgah to pray for those killed during the protests. Geelani had appealed to the youth to "exhibit discipline and refrain from stone throwing." Sources said Geelani was freed because the government felt the ailing hardline leader could use his substantial influence to halt the stone-throwing. But the government changed its mind apprehending a massive protest march and at 2 pm today, when Geelani stepped out of the hospital, he was promptly re-arrested.



In south Kashmir, in Frisal in Kulgam district, hundreds took to the streets to protest the death of two civilians on Monday. The crowd clashed with security forces who opened fire in which a young man, Jehangir Ahmad Bhat, was killed.

"We received three wounded persons at the hospital," said Chief Medical Officer Kulgam, Dr Nazir Ahmad. "One of them succumbed at the hospital while another critically wounded was referred to Srinagar hospital".

Bhat's killing triggered massive protests at Frisal and a police post was set on fire. So was the house of a Special Police Officer (SPO), accused of firing. In neighbouring Kulgam, thousands hit the streets and staged a sit-in outside the District Police Lines.

At SKIMS, 20-year-old Riyaz Ahmad Bhat died this morning. He was wounded on Saturday when police opened fire on a group of protestors at Khrew. Hundreds from Khrew and its adjacent villages joined his funeral procession.



In north Kashmir, police and CRPF opened fire on a group of protestors at Rangwar wounding three persons. A critically wounded, 45-year-old Mohammad Akbar Wani was hit by a bullet in head and was shifted to SKIMS hospital in Srinagar where he is battling for his life.

The police firing sparked massive protests in Baramulla as thousands of people from Rangwar and its adjacent neighbourhoods took to streets protesting against what they termed "unprovoked" police firing.

Police also opened fire on protesters at Shalteng on the Srinagar-Bandipore road, wounding three persons, one of them critically. The protestors then attacked the residence of state Agriculture Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir in Srinagar. Mir doesn't live in the house. His hotel in his native Tangmarg was also attacked with stones, its window panes were shattered. The attack on the property of a senior politician and sitting minister has worried the administration. Protesters also attacked police stations, government offices and railway stations.

Protests and arson were reported from Ompora and Sheikhpora villages in central Kashmir's Budgam district. The villagers tried to set ablaze the railway station but police and CRPF opened fire wounding two protesters critically.

In north Kashmir's Kupwara district, where a youth was killed on Monday, thousands of people defied curfew and ransacked a Border Security Force (BSF) bunker. At Shumnag, the native place of Khursheed Ahmad, who was killed on Monday, more than 10,000 people assembled and raised pro-freedom and anti-India slogans.

Source: The Indian Express