Trehgam (Kupwara), Oct 13: Screams of women and children beaten by police touched Mudasir. He objected to this at the cost of his life.
 Eyewitnesses said: On August 13 curfew was in force in Trehgam town of this district. Cops didn’t allow Nimazees to offer the dawn prayers at Jamia Masjid Trehgam and beat up the seharkhawn and Nimazees triggering unrest in the area.
 Protesters including women and children defied curfew and poured onto the streets to protest the excesses by the troopers and SOG men. To quell protests the CRPF troopers and SOG men resorted to cane charge and indiscriminate tear gas shelling.
 The troopers barged into houses, broke windowpanes and beat ruthlessly everybody who came their way.
 The troopers and SOG men did not even spare the women protesters. According to eyewitnesses they opened fire on women protesters injuring 60-year old Janti Begum wife of Sidique Malik who received bullets in her left leg.
 The troopers caught hold of a girl identified as Tasleema Bano daughter of Abdul Ahad in Shah Mohalla and beat her up with bamboo sticks and gun butts resulting in fracture to her leg.
 “She was lying on ground and writhing in pain. Her screams touched Mudasir and he came out of his home and objected to this behaviour of the troopers and SOG men, though I insisted him not to step out,” said Hameeda Begum, mother of Mudasir.
 The wailing mother said the confrontation resulted in a heated argument between her son and an SOG man and the latter pointed his gun towards Mudasir and shot at him from a point blank range leaving him in a pool of blood.
 “It was like a doomsday for me. My son was writhing in pain and blood was oozing out of his body,” she said.
 She said they were not allowed to take his body to hospital and within minutes he succumbed to his injuries.
 Curiously, for Hameeda this was not the first tragedy. Years before, she had been struck by a tragedy of equally appalling magnitude when her husband had gone missing.
 “Since my husband went missing in mid nineties, Mudasir (16), my elder son, was the only source of income for the family,” she said, adding that in addition to his studies he worked at a bakery and looked after “me and my younger son Jahangir Hussain who is also studying.”
 Interestingly, Mudasir, according to her mother, had told her that he felt he would be martyred and if that turned true “I should be buried in Shaheed Mazar (martyrs graveyard).”
 “Just a day before he was killed he advised me to take care of mother and family affairs,” said Jahangir Hussain, his brother.
 “My brother was deliberately targeted by SOG,” added Jahangir.
 Relatives of Mudasir told Greater Kashmir that bullets pierced through his neck and shoulder. “When his body was being taken to hospital in a procession, CRPF men resorted to tear gas shelling and firing and his body fell on the road twice,” they said.
 Following the protest demonstrations, more than 25 mourners including some of his relatives were arrested by police and his relatives were asked that not more than 5 persons would be allowed to bury his body.
 However, when residents didn't agree they were allowed to offer the Jinaza around 3 PM.
 “When we took the body towards Shaheed Mazar for burial, mourners were again fired upon and tear-gassed resulting in bullet injuries to a retired head master Haji Muhammad Sikandar Malik and injuries to scores of other people,” said the residents.
 Mudasir was laid to rest in Trehgam Shaheed Mazar.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 13 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 IST