Why attack by stone-pelters on schoolchildren has massively hurt Kashmir cause
If April was cruel - 40 killings including 20 on the first day of the month and six on the last - May is turning out to be uglier in restive Kashmir.
On the morning of May 2, a school bus ferrying 50 schoolchildren was attacked by stone-pelters in the apple town of Shopian, a hotbed of new-age militancy in south Kashmir. Two children were wounded, one of them critically, some 50km from the summer capital of Srinagar.
Eight-year-old Rehan Ahmad, son of Nooruddin Gorsi of Kellar Shopian, received head injuries and was rushed to Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, for treatment.
According to SSP Shailendra Mishra, the bus ferrying students of Rainbow International School was targeted by stone-pelters who were sitting on a hillock.
The stone-pelters had called a "hartal" to mourn fresh killings, especially that of Hizbul militant Sameer Tiger his associate, and a civilian – the trio killed during an encounter in adjacent Pulwama district on April 30.
School children being attacked by stone pelters in Shopian? यह कैसी आज़ादी दोस्तों? Shameful https://t.co/LtvFJnORGW
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) May 2, 2018
Stone throwing incident on a school bus is quiet disturbing one fails to understand why a school bus carrying children was targeted?Those who indulge in such holliganism should realise that these actions tarnish our movement & provide an opportunity to our adversary to defame it.
— Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) May 2, 2018
School bus attacked by stone pelters in Shopian South Kashmir. Two minor students injured , one student studying in 2nd Standard is critical & referred to SMHS hospital after ‘head injury’.Agar AZADI aise hi hoti hai toh, I don't want this so called AZADI.#GivePeaceAChance pic.twitter.com/SNI1vz0ZTr
— Zakir Khan (@ZakirKhan012) May 2, 2018
In the last four months, Kashmir has witnessed over 100 killings, including that of some 40 local militants, 30 civilians and security personnel. Given the number of deaths, Kashmir has been in an unending state of mourning.
By the evening of the fateful day, when schoolchildren were attacked, there was another killing. Umar Kumar, a 17-year-old schoolboy from the same district was killed in firing allegedly by security forces, when protesters tried to save besieged militants in Pinjoora area of Shopian.
Such killings and other rights abuse are bound to trigger public fury. But pitched battles between protesters and security forces will always be different from mob attack on civilians.
A few days ago, during a similar shutdown, stone-pelters stopped an ambulance in Natipora area of Srinagar. Somehow restraining themselves from pelting stones, the mob preferred to resort to hooting at the patient and his attendants, as if it was the patient’s fault to have fallen sick on a day of "hartal". Amid hooting and sloganeering, the stone-pelters warned the ambulance to “disappear”, lest they lose their cool any further.
In the latest attack, as per a Hindustan Times report, seven tourists were injured when stone-pelters targeted passing vehicles in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on May 1.
What was the patient’s fault and how were the schoolchildren or tourists at fault? Kashmir is getting flooded with such queries on stone-pelting.
But then, we have evolved a mechanism to classify stone-pelters. The logic is simple: If a civilian is attacked, we label the attackers as “miscreant” and not stone-pelter.
If Kashmir is a political dispute, awaiting resolution through dialogue, a stone is not expected to be the mediator, unless one expects that mountains of this Valley in the Himalayas have to come on table.
Stone-pelting in Kashmir may have been a “symbol of resistance” for years, but now it’s proving more of an expression of abuse. Such attacks to protest against human rights abuse is only compounding the unjust practices against Kashmiris. The attack on schoolchildren has only hurt the Kashmir cause, the violence reminding of Karni Sena's attack in Gurgaon. On January 24, the Rajput Karni Sena stooped to an unprecedented low by attacking a school bus in Gurgaon while protesting against the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat.
If only the stones could talk, those hurting innocent children would have been given a befitting reply.