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 Updated On! Sunday 05th of September 2010 |
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Crackdown on youth continues, 1400 arrested, police using unrest garb to harass innocents’Srinagar, July 29: Continuing with the crackdown to suppress the peaceful protests over the civilian killings, police has, to date, rounded up around 1400 youth including teenagers from across the Valley. Residents of Srinagar while accusing the police of making arbitrary arrests of the youth said police has arrested nearly 500 youth from various areas of the City, including minors who were either moving on streets or riding bikes. Some of them were released after their parents paid hefty amounts to the cops through activists of some pro-India political parties. The arrests have turned into a flourishing business for the police,” a group of locals told media men. The locals also accuse the police of forcing the families to make their wards surrender” “Police is acting in such a way as if our children are criminals. They detained the younger brother of a boy in lock-up for days together to force him to surrender. This is not policing but sheer harassment,” they said. The locals said that the police have been conducting raids even during night, which forced young boys to migrate to other localities. The Government of India and its regime here seems to be bent upon spoiling the career of our wards by implicating them in false cases,” they said. Dozens of youth and teenagers including a 15- year old Sheikh Arkam son of Shiekh Zulfikar of Jogilanker, an 8th standard student of GP Mission High School Rainawari, was arrested on June 17 and was booked on draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) on July 3, and the teenager was shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu. Arkam’s mother Tasleema maintained that his son is innocent. “He has been implicated falsely” she said. Senior counsel, Mir Shafaqat Hussain, said many minors have been booked under PSA during past over a month. “To avoid public wrath and criticism from other fronts, the authorities in detention orders wrongly mentions the minors as adults. For minors there was a separate Juvenile Act. The authorities can’t book a minor under PSA and lodge him with regular criminals in jail. Law does not allow it,” he said. Shafaqat who is also the member of the High Court Bar Association, stated that over 1400-1500 persons have been arrested across the Valley since June 11 when protests broke out against the killing of Tufail Matoo by police teargas shell. APHC, which was providing legal aid to those arrested during the ongoing anti-Mass agitation, said many minors have been implicated. “I visited many jails in the City and found many minors lodged there. We have so far received hundreds of cases in which youth and teenagers have been booked under PSA and various other draconian Acts. On the directions of Chairman APHC (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, our team of lawyers was pursuing the cases in the Court,” said Hurriyat leader, Advocate Shahid-ul-Islam. Shahid said that some Station House Officers have started minting money from parents of the arrested youth in exchange of their release. The program coordinator of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, Khurram Pervez said, “the authority is using military might on the people fighting against human rights violations hoping that it will force them to forget and forgive.” “But the fact is that it has further alienated people. People have every right to protest against the discrimination. Ironically, instead of punishing the perpetrators in uniform, over 1400 persons have been arrested so far,” he added. GK |
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