Jammu and Kashmir rocked by protests as students clash with security forces over recent spate of civilian killings

Srinagar:  Protests rocked Kashmir on Thursday  with students, including women, clashing with security personnel and pelting stones to protest against the militant and civilian killings in south Kashmir. This is a repeat of the situation in April last year when students took to the streets in almost all parts of the Valley and the state government was forced to shut schools for days altogether. Back then, the students were protesting the excessive use of force on students at a degree college in Pulwama, that led thousands of students to hit the streets. One such student, Nadia, is seen bogged down by the weight of the big rock in her hand. But when her fingers finally manage a tight grip, she flung it with full force. The rock fell short of a police truck parked at a distance on the busy Maulana Azad Road in Srinagar city. Then she picked up two stones and aimed at the target again. This time, she aimed perfectly. The stone crashed into the vehicle, on its front windshield, but bounced off because of the steel mesh over the glass. [caption id=“attachment_4420727” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] As the protesting girls changed places, unknown groups of boys came in from all four sides and started pelting stones. Image courtesy Muzamil Matoo[/caption] “Karo kya karna hai (By all means, do what you want),” she shouted as the police truck remained unmoved. An old man watching the spectacle unfold from an elevated footpath along the road remarked: “Tauba, tauba, ye gai zaen aseen (Pardon me, my God, but this is how a woman should be like).” Wearing a white salwar-kameez uniform under a black sweater, Nadia, who gave her first name only, started throwing stones again. She rallied other girls and scolded them for not joining her. Finally, she managed to break the mobile phone of an ATM guard, who was apparently filming the commotion. Soon, Nadia rallied a group of at least a dozen students, marched towards a group of policemen guarded behind a police vehicle, pushing them, provoking them, while raising anti-India and pro-militancy slogans. In an attempt to control the situation, the girls are pushed back by the police, who seem irritated. At this point, the protesting girls move back. “Every other day, one or two people are getting killed in cold blood. What kind of democracy is this? Who has imposed this kind of culture here?” Nadia told Firstpost, outside Srinagar’s press colony, where she shouted anti-government slogans. “When they (forces) are killing civilians, why are we not allowed to protest on the streets. Why are these Hurriyat people only issuing statements and not doing anything?” As the protesting girls changed places between Maulana Azad Road and the parallel Residency Road, unknown groups of boys came in from all four sides and started pelting stones at the security forces. This time, their insouciance paved way for baton-charge and teargas shelling. [caption id=“attachment_4420731” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Thursday afternoon resembled the student unrest in April of last year. Image courtesy Muzamil Matoo[/caption] On the other side of the Jehlum river in Srinagar, in Gogjibagh area, hundreds of students fought pitched battles with police. Protesters broke the glasses of Amigo’s restaurant, and a mob of students from the nearby Amar Singh College set a CRPF bunker ablaze amid intense clashes. “This protest is against those who have been oppressing us for decades,” Nowshad Ahmad Mir, a first-year student at the college told Firstpost, “How do they expect us to focus on our studies when all we get to see on TV, WhatsApp and Facebook are dead bodies of our brothers? How can we stay silent?”. Mir has pulled off his shirt and used it to mask his face. Having climbed the eastern wall of the college, he started pelting stones at the police. The clashes continued for hours. When a column of police moved towards the wall, he along with other students came down on the road and started shouting anti-India and pro-freedom slogans. “The distinction between a civilian and a militant has long been erased in Kashmir. We are all militants now,” he told Firstpost. When the clashes ended, the road in Gogji Bagh outside the college was covered with a layer of hastily smashed red bricks. The traffic was missing and the only sign of human life was the uniformed men who were happy that the day was finally drawing to a close. As schools and colleges opened on Thursday after four days of the shutdown, students across the Valley, including in Srinagar, Kupwara, Handwara, Sumbal, Baramulla, Pattan and Palhalan, started staging protests. Chairman of his faction of Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, denounced the use of force on students protesting the civilian killings in Kashmir. [caption id=“attachment_4420735” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Protesters broke the glasses of Amigo’s restaurant, and a mob of students from the nearby Amar Singh College set a CRPF bunker ablaze amid intense clashes. Image courtesy Muzamil Matoo[/caption] “Strongly condemn the police excesses on students protesting the brutal Shopian and Kangan killings. Scores of young students, including girls, injured and hospitalised. For every reaction to oppression even by students, the standard state response is brute force,” Mirwaiz tweeted. Fearing a repeat of April last year, the Jammu and Kashmir government has now decided to close all educational institutions across Kashmir on Friday. The decision has been taken as a precautionary measure “to avoid a law and order situation” in the Valley as the protests might escalate in the coming days. “There is no denying that the situation is tense. Any wrong step can explode student protests into a full-blown rebellion which is the last thing we want, especially at a time when the spring season has arrived and the tourist footfall is growing steadily,” a senior PDP leader and minister in the state government, said. Experts argue that shutting down educational institutions amounts to a denial of the universal right of education to students in Kashmir, which will have disastrous ramifications on the future of the state. But in the turmoil wrecked Kashmir, a shutdown, be it for businesses or educational institutions, may be the only way to prevent more losses and more bloodshed.