Art 370 Turmoil Claims First Victim: Father of 3 Killed in J&K

Noorduddin Dar was carrying a truckload of coal to Budgam when two teenagers hurled rocks at him.

(Photo: The Quint)

A 42-year-old truck driver, Noorduddin Dar of Uranhall, Bijbehara, in Anantnag district of southern Kashmir, has become the first established fatal casualty of the current turbulence triggered by withdrawal of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August.

The father of three young children, Dar, was carrying a truckload of coal from Bijbehara to a brick kiln in Budgam district at 20:15 hours on Sunday when two teenagers hurled rocks at him, hitting his head, near Iddgah on the old Srinagar-Jammu highway.

Sub Divisional Police Officer Bijbehara, Parvez Ahmad, told The Quint that upon receiving the information, a police party rushed to the spot and evacuated the critically injured truck driver to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) Soura, where he succumbed to his injuries 15 minutes into his admission. He said that Dar had been driving a local advocate Haroon’s truck since 2011.

According to SDPO Bijbehara, the police carried out late-night raids and had eight suspects arrested from their residences and hideouts.

After their sustained interrogation, two teenagers, Minhar Nazir Bhat and Athar Ismail Sheikh of Iddgah Mohallah of Bijbehara, were identified as the duo that had hurled stones straight on Dar’s head while he was driving his truck JK03F-2540.

“All the eight we have detained are still under interrogation. However, it has been established with evidence that Minhar and Athar, who are 18-19 years old and students of class 12 at a local school, were engaged in the stone pelting. They threw a stone straight on the ill-fated driver’s head from the front side. He was rushed to SKIMS where he died. We have booked the culprits in FIR No 115/2019 under Section 302,” SDPO Bijbehara Parvez Ahmad told The Quint.

‘No Incident of Stone Pelting in Anantnag’: Police

Senior Superintendent of Police, Anantnag, Altaf Khan and SDPO Bijbehara Parvez Ahmad said that not a single incident of stone pelting, clash with the police or the security forces, attack on any vehicles or public property had occurred anywhere in Anantnag district between 5 to 25 August. They said that the police or the security forces in Anantnag district haven’t fired a single pellet, bullet or tear-gas canister during the last 20 days of the turmoil in the Valley.

Significantly, in the 2016 turbulence, Anantnag, the home district of then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had witnessed the maximum violence and the most number of deaths, injuries and clashes had been reported from the district.

The entire Kashmir Valley had reeled under curfew and shutdown for about four months in 2016 following the Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani’s death in an encounter with the police and the security forces in July.

Around a hundred people had been killed in action by the police and the security forces, and six were killed in separate incidents of stone pelting by unruly crowds. While the number of the civilian demonstrators and stone pelters had reached over 8,000, more than 5,000 police and paramilitary personnel had reportedly sustained injuries. Moreover, thousands of vehicles had been damaged in 2016.

Unlike 2008, 2010 and 2016, the current unrest in Kashmir has been largely peaceful as no major incidents of clashes or stone pelting have taken place in the last three weeks.

The truck driver in Bijbehara has become the first established fatal casualty, his death allegedly caused by stone pelters.

Previously, eleven staff buses and some private vehicles of the doctors of SKIMS were reportedly damaged in different attacks by unruly youths on Ali Jan Road and 90-Ft Road in the Soura area. According to officials, at least ten doctors and other staff members, including Dr Sadaf, head of the Gastroenterology Department, have been injured in attacks such as these.

Situation On Ground Contradicts Govt’s Claims of Normalcy

According to officials, fewer than 50 vehicles have been reportedly damaged in different incidents of stone pelting, and in which, fewer than 40 people have been reportedly injured. Around 150 people have reportedly sustained pellet and tear-gas shell injuries and all but six of them have been discharged.

Family members of Mohammad Ayub Khan (65) of Braripora Safakadal have alleged that he died in the tear-gas firing by CRPF the previous fortnight. Residents of Palpora Noorbagh (Safakadal) have alleged that 22-year-old Mussaib of their neighbourhood drowned to death in River Jhelum when security forces were chasing away some youths on 5 August.

However, doctors at SMHS Hospital maintain that upon examination, they did not find any evidence of the deaths having been caused due to actions of the security forces, as a consequence of which, the police have not registered any FIRs.

Downtown Srinagar has been under curfew since 5 August, even as restrictions have been relaxed in the uptown and other parts of the Valley, where several private vehicles can be seen plying on the roads. However, most of the shops and business establishments remain shut and commercial transport is still off-road. Notwithstanding the absence of any call or statement from the separatists, almost the entire Valley is holding a shutdown. Contrary to the claims of government officials, none of the educational institutions in the Valley have been reopened.

(The writer is a Srinagar-based journalist. He can be reached@ahmedalifayyaz. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)