A BRIGHT sun makes the water droplets shine as they trickle down a public tap cemented with graffiti at Wamiya Chowk, Noor Bagh in old City area of Srinagar. “(In memory of the Martyr) Bashir Ahmed Khan son of Muhammad Sultan Khan killed on May 11, 1995 (11 Zilhajj) at 5 PM,” reads the calligraphy on the white marble. 
 Straight ahead, a lane leads to the residence of teenager –Javaid  Ahmed Malla –killed allegedly by paramilitary CRPF on Sunday while protesting the killing of his relative.
 Crisscrossing logs and rocks scattered all around are enough to convey that the public anger against the killings is yet to decline.
 On the left, some police and CRPF troopers have taken shelter in the shade of shops.
 “You can proceed, the stone pelting has just halted,” says one of them, as the man in Khaki crosses the road to quench his thirst.
 A few yards ahead in the narrow lane, some elderly are sitting on a shop pedestal –discussing the situation in the City in the wake of recent killings.
 One of the victims –Malla –was their neighbour next door while as Rafiq Ahmed Bangroo was a resident of adjacent Dana Mazar area.
 Killings in the past 20 years of turmoil aren’t new to our area.
 “We have shouldered bodies of no less than 30 local youth… all of them fell to prey to bullets of the troopers,” recalls elderly Ghulam Ahmed Sofi as he chats with his neighbour Abdul Salam Malla.
 The tension this hot season reminds the oldie duo of the yesteryear summer when blacksmith Bashir Ahmed Khan was killed.
 “He was victim of mistaken identity when troopers shot him dead in the nearby Wanganpora area while looking for militants,” the duo recaps while some youth join in.
 Protests against Khan’s killing had continued for some days and finally his family and other well wishers erected a public tap in his memory. Since then, the family has been paying fee for the public facility regularly, the locals add.
 Incidentally, Malla fell prey to bullets, a few furlongs away from the Khan’s memorial. Its waters, as per locals, were used to clean the blood stains.
 Many such memorials (or Sabeels meaning potable eater facility for public in local parlance) popped up in the summer Capital in the early years of militancy.
 In ‘90s, one such tap was erected at Sarai Bala area of Civil Lines in the memory of Sajad Ahmed Chowdhary aka Raja, a local youth killed during the then Operation Tiger.
 The infamous Tiger had consumed Sajad and four other local youth in a day.
 The group of innocents, as per the locals, was picked up during a crackdown only to be released dead, one-by-one.
 “Raja’s family wanted to do something memorable…As it was hot summer so Sabeel proposal finally realized,” recalls his friend Javed.
 But as for erecting Sabeels, the trend didn’t last long. Why so?
 “Earlier, the victims used to be few and far... But later as everyone became a victim in one way or the other things changed,” opines Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, who teaches law at Kashmir University.
 “But,” in the same breath, Dr Hussian adds, “that it doesn’t mean people remained indifferent towards the ongoing movement.”
 “They might not have erected monuments physically but the sacrifices remain monuments in the minds of the people of Kashmir… And that is what sustains the present movement,” he adds while referring to the recent surge in the peoples protests.
 But then not all the Sabeels could last long. While some of them were removed by the authorities for being “roadside encroachments”, some like Noor Bagh Chowk tap continue to serve.
 A decade-and-a-half on, the tap has been running to serve the people, particularly the area shopkeepers.
 In the past three, however, the troopers fighting pitched battles with the rock pelting youth use the facility more. 
 But why is the water trickling down drop-by-drop? “We kept it (tap) slightly open otherwise the water will go hot,” explains a trooper standing nearby, as the sun shines bright on hot summer day, in seiged Shahr-e-Khaas! 

Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST