{"id":4552,"date":"2020-08-30T10:27:59","date_gmt":"2020-08-30T10:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/?p=4552"},"modified":"2020-08-30T10:27:59","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T10:27:59","slug":"they-attacked-women-children-kashmirs-pellet-riddled-muharram-procession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/2020\/08\/30\/they-attacked-women-children-kashmirs-pellet-riddled-muharram-procession\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThey attacked women, children\u201d: Kashmir\u2019s pellet-riddled Muharram procession"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bashir Hajam remembers attending Muharram processions in Khomeini Chowk, on the outskirts of Srinagar, holding his father\u2019s hands as a child. Today, on 29 August, the 23-year-old was on a stretcher at a hospital, his right hip bears the mark of a tear gas shell while his back is pockmarked with wounds from metal pellets fired from shotguns.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Hajam was with a friend when the police reached the Khomeini Chowk area. Within a moment, he said, police personnel jumped out of the vehicle and fired a teargas shell at them. As he lay on the ground, on his chest, the personnel \u201ccocked his gun and fired pellets at me,\u201d he said, writhing in pain. \u201cHe knew I couldn\u2019t move.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-g-rec td-g-rec-id-content_inline tdi_3_357 td_block_template_15 \"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9343062704070559\" data-ad-slot=\"2238421734\" data-adsbygoogle-status=\"done\"><ins id=\"aswift_1_expand\"><ins id=\"aswift_1_anchor\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"aswift_1\" src=\"https:\/\/googleads.g.doubleclick.net\/pagead\/ads?client=ca-pub-9343062704070559&amp;output=html&amp;h=60&amp;slotname=2238421734&amp;adk=2976390325&amp;adf=2772993364&amp;w=468&amp;lmt=1598783170&amp;psa=1&amp;guci=2.2.0.0.2.2.0.0&amp;format=468x60&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fthekashmirwalla.com%2F2020%2F08%2Fthey-attacked-women-children-kashmirs-pellet-riddled-muharram-procession%2F&amp;flash=0&amp;wgl=1&amp;adsid=ChEI8Jyt-gUQnaC88aiau8yXARIvAMlxc_V7ZjknzILWvGklf-OcfX6Oq2Nyx1opK5hGrrmUwKaVtKzNEPWP5Tuej4c&amp;dt=1598782998058&amp;bpp=4&amp;bdt=27843&amp;idt=1686&amp;shv=r20200826&amp;cbv=r20190131&amp;ptt=9&amp;saldr=aa&amp;abxe=1&amp;cookie=ID%3Dc2259fb8ff9afb1e%3AT%3D1587980777%3AS%3DALNI_MYc7EOGeIVo6AifwntK4T4lqpgWKA&amp;prev_fmts=728x90%2C0x0&amp;nras=1&amp;correlator=5909711168916&amp;frm=20&amp;pv=1&amp;ga_vid=1311927114.1587980775&amp;ga_sid=1598783000&amp;ga_hid=323853571&amp;ga_fc=0&amp;iag=0&amp;icsg=2337481599168&amp;dssz=35&amp;mdo=0&amp;mso=0&amp;u_tz=300&amp;u_his=1&amp;u_java=0&amp;u_h=1024&amp;u_w=1280&amp;u_ah=984&amp;u_aw=1280&amp;u_cd=24&amp;u_nplug=3&amp;u_nmime=4&amp;adx=398&amp;ady=1749&amp;biw=1263&amp;bih=913&amp;scr_x=0&amp;scr_y=0&amp;eid=21066154%2C21066923%2C21066944%2C21066806&amp;oid=3&amp;pvsid=1420050344355248&amp;pem=932&amp;rx=0&amp;eae=0&amp;fc=896&amp;brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C1280%2C0%2C1280%2C984%2C1280%2C913&amp;vis=1&amp;rsz=%7C%7CoeEbr%7C&amp;abl=CS&amp;pfx=0&amp;fu=8192&amp;bc=31&amp;jar=2020-08-30-10&amp;ifi=2&amp;uci=a!2&amp;btvi=1&amp;fsb=1&amp;xpc=vpwi0EiUHY&amp;p=https%3A\/\/thekashmirwalla.com&amp;dtd=M\" name=\"aswift_1\" width=\"468\" height=\"60\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-pointer-lock allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-google-container-id=\"a!2\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-google-query-id=\"CNPP0bjbwusCFTsBBgAdCkUN2Q\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/ins><\/ins><\/ins><\/div>\n<p>Mr. Hajam could not even bear the thin sheet that covered his wounds. \u201cIt hurts a lot,\u201d he said as tears rolled down his cheeks. \u201cMy entire body is aching.\u201d In the hallway at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS), Mr. Hajam was not alone. Besides him, with at least five other young men who were injured by metal pellets.<\/p>\n<p>It was the ninth day of Muharram, the Muslim month in which mourners commemorate the killing of the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s grandson, Imam Hussain; authorities in Kashmir have imposed strict restrictions in parts of Srinagar and Budgam districts, to disallow mourners from taking out processions.<\/p>\n<p>The procession that was taken out in Khomeini Chowk was organised by three-four local\u00a0<i>anjumans \u2014\u00a0<\/i>or groups \u2014 said Syed Ali, a local resident, and was attended by nearly 500 mourners. The mourners were taking out the procession peacefully and \u201cthere was no stone pelting\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople were following the SOPs for the COVID-19 [to curb the spread of the virus]. They [authorities] are deliberately provoking people,\u201d said Mr. Ali. \u201cIf it was for COVID-19, they should have facilitated the processions \u2013 what does it mean when you fire pellets and teargas shells at a hundred people out for processions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Senior Superintendent of Police in Srinagar, Haseeb Mughal, told\u00a0<i>The Kashmir Walla\u00a0<\/i>that the procession was not allowed implementing directions by the Supreme Court and the Jammu and Kashmir administration\u2019s \u201corders that no procession shall be taken out in view of the COVID [19].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the use of force against the mourners, Mr. Mughal said: \u201cWhen there is an apprehension of law and order [situation], when they are pelting [stones] on the force, that [teargas shells and pellets fired] was done to restore the highway and to keep it through. Why does the police use force? It is to keep law and order under control and we have used the minimum force.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The injured were initially taken to a nearby Imam Hussain Hospital. An administrator at the charitable hospital spoke with\u00a0<i>The Kashmir Walla<\/i>\u00a0on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal from the authorities. \u201cForty of them [mourners] had pellet injuries and were referred to other hospitals including SMHS and Barzulla [to the Bone and Joint hospital],\u201d he said. \u201cTwo were very critical and needed immediate surgery; their eyes were badly injured.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another mourner, 21-year-old Shabir Hussain, was injured when he was marching towards the Khomeini Chowk, at the head of the procession coming out from the Hamdania colony in Srinagar. He and other mourners had not anticipated the police\u2019s actions, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe elders of the area were standing near the police [personnel] and they had allowed the procession [initially],\u201d he said, adding that he before could figure out anything, things had changed. \u201cThe police resorted to the\u00a0<i>lathi charge\u00a0<\/i>[on the mourners]<i>,\u00a0<\/i>including on me, and I tried to run,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A police personnel fired pellets at him from a close range, \u201cnot more than 15-meter distance\u201d, Mr. Shabir told\u00a0<i>The Kashmir Walla;\u00a0<\/i>other eye-witnesses, his friends, corroborated the same.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Shabir\u2019s upper body is scarred with wounds from metal pellets while his left eye had blackened and his hair was clipped on his face as the blood dried. An attempt to remove strands of hair from his wounds prompted him to cry out in pain. \u201cI can\u2019t see from this eye,\u201d he said of his left eye. \u201cThe vision comes and goes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An unrelated old woman, standing next to him, said: \u201cYou went out for [Imam] Hussain. He\u2019ll take care of you. You aren\u2019t alone.\u201d But it doesn\u2019t lessen Mr. Shabir\u2019s pain as he keeps asking for a piece of cotton to clear and soothe his wounds, which later, however, did not help his pain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is mourning for Imam Hussain and we have to do it. If they had restricted it for coronavirus, why would they fire pellets? Then they would have been saving us. They want to disallow mourning,\u201d he wondered.<\/p>\n<p>If he loses his eye-sight, he said that he would not regret it. \u201cThis is a\u00a0<i>mazloom\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>(the oppressed, a reference to Imam Hussain) mourning and we have to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adil Hyderi, who owns a shop in the Khomeini Chowk area, said that the mourners in the procession were ready to wrap the procession within two hours \u2014 a practice, he said, would normally take six hours. He doesn\u2019t understand why the police would fire teargas shells at the mourners, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey attacked women and children in the area,\u201d said the 25-year-old shopkeeper. \u201cA 10-year-old was hit in front of me. We have been experiencing this oppression since our childhood. This is what we expect from them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Hyderi\u2019s friend, who was attending to another injured youth at the hospital, was anguished at the administration for disallowing the processions. \u201cFrom Batamaloo to Lal Chowk, the people have hoarded the markets without masks,\u201d he said, angrily. \u201cBut to stop coronavirus, they disallow the\u00a0<i>mazloom\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>procession. They are trying to finish the Hussainiyat but we are telling them it won\u2019t end till doomsday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The friend was rushing towards the CT scan room; the youth he was attending to was bleeding from the dozens of wounds on his chest and stomach. The mourners, who brought him to the hospital, helped lift him from the stretcher to put him on the scanner bed. The young boy\u2019s face, splashed with blood, remained unmoved. Following the scan, he was to be taken to an X-Ray room across the hallway.<\/p>\n<p>Another group of mourners was pushing a young man, dressed in a black t-shirt, in a wheelchair; his left leg was swollen, wounded with metal pellets on his thigh. \u201cThe police shot at me very closely,\u201d he said, pointing at a wall, barely 6 feet away from him.<\/p>\n<p>He was unable to move his leg and waited for doctors to pluck out the metal pellets. \u201cTomorrow is Ashura and Inshallah we\u2019ll take out the procession,\u201d he said, determined.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, he doesn\u2019t even want to wait for the morning. \u201cWe\u2019ll sit from tonight only,\u201d he added. If the police again tried to stop them, he said, \u201cWe will die but will take out the procession. These pellets have pumped more passion in me.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-rec td-a-rec-id-content_bottom  tdi_5_dd2 td_block_template_15\">\n<hr \/>\n<h1>Kashmir needs independent journalism\u2026<\/h1>\n<p>\u2026now, more than ever to give a voice to the voiceless. The press in Kashmir has operated under tremendous pressures of reporting from a conflict zone but since August 2019 we find ourselves in unchartered territory. The Kashmir Walla is among the oldest independent media outlets in Kashmir and has withstood successive lockdowns as well as attempts to suppress us, fighting back with authoritative ground reports based on facts.<\/p>\n<p>We need your solidarity to keep our journalism going. Your contribution will empower us to keep you informed on stories that matter from Kashmir. Show your solidarity by joining our community. Kashmir thanks you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bashir Hajam remembers attending Muharram processions in Khomeini Chowk, on the outskirts of Srinagar, holding his father\u2019s hands as a child. Today, on 29 August, the 23-year-old was on a stretcher at a hospital, his right hip bears the mark of a tear gas shell while his back is pockmarked with wounds from metal pellets [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,36,40,39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-kashmir","9":"category-latest-news","10":"category-pakistan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4554,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4552\/revisions\/4554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}