Srinagar, Aug 30: Emotional scenes were witnessed at SMHS hospital here when the five Maisuma youth and teenagers injured in unprovoked firing by police were brought for treatment.
As the injured were writhing in pain, some women could not control their emotions and broke down. “You were playing carom. For what crime did the brutal cops fire upon you,” shouted inconsolable Shahzada, mother of one of the injured, 28-year old Yasir Rafiq Sheikh.
While critically injured Yasir was rushed to the Casualty of SMHS hospital, Shameema and other women jostled their way through the anxious relatives and neighbors and offered prayers for his survival and speedy recovery of other injured.
All the injured hail from the Maisuma locality which is considered to be a bastion of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. As two of the injured persons- Yasir and Ishfaq Malik- are respectively the cousin and nephew of JKLF Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik, hundreds of angry party activists thronged the hospital.
Soon many pro-freedom leaders including Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, Maulana Showkat, Javid Mir arrived and expressed sympathy with Malik who looked worried over the deteriorating condition of Yasir.
In the meantime, the JKLF hurriedly called a press conference in the hospital premises. The vice-president of JKLF, Advocate Bashir Ahmad Bhat termed the firing on civilians at Maisuma as a conspiracy to suppress the efforts of Malik to sustain and keep the ongoing agitation peaceful.
“The indiscriminate firing on boys and youth who were playing carom from point blank range clearly shows that Government wants to suppress Malik for making efforts for appealing people to carry on peaceful protests. India does not want to even allow Kashmiris to stage peaceful protests and is using every tactic to crush it,” Bhat said who was flanked by Maulana Showkat.
Bhat said that there was a pattern behind the killings in the Valley. “The police and troopers are mainly targeting people in the age group of 16 to 25. This is a dangerous trend. Now Kashmiris are being targeted by the same guns which Omar Abdullah procured for quelling the protests,” he said.
He maintained that ‘every Kashmiri is a relative of Malik.’ “In fact since his release from jail, he has been personally condoling the affected families. Malik Sahib launched the armed struggle in Kashmir and today’s incident won’t deter his resolve to take the ongoing movement to its logical conclusion through peaceful means,” he stated as the JKLF activists shouted pro-freedom slogans.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST