The Chicken have come home to Roost

Two soldiers were killed and three wounded in a suicide bomb attack in Pakistani administered Kashmir on Friday, the military said, the first such bombing in Pakistan’s occupied Kashmir.

'The bomber blew himself up near a military vehicle. Two of our soldiers embraced martyrdom,’ a military spokesman told Reuters.

I remember initial days of terrorism in Kashmir and the same Pakistanis would say then"Do Hindustani Faujiyon ko jahnam raseed kar diya mujahidon ne" which means ,Two Indian Soliers have been sent to hell by The MujahideenThe official said three soldiers also were wounded in the attack.

Militants have carried out a series of bomb attacks across Pakistan in recent weeks in retaliation for a military offensive in the northwest but there have been no such attacks in Pakistani Occupied Kashmir.Benazir was proud of the very men who killed her.She would often say that they are sons of Ghazis-the slayers of Hindus.

I dont know whether to mourn the soldiers of Pakistan army or to feel happy that they have got a taste of their own medicine.Whatever the case may be the chicken have come home to roost.

Where are the protestors and the Press ?

Kashmiri Muslims are a sick lot.They will need absolutely no reason to bring down temples,write garffitis on them and deface them.They will find a thousand to throw stones and protest even if a security guard looks at their sisters. Yet they will stay silent when their dear Mujahids kill their sisters.

The following two barbaric killings barely evoked any noise leave alone protest. While the first case was that of 17-year-old Nigeen Awan which took place barely few kilometres away from the place in Shopian of South Kashmir which is witnessing protests over the alleged rape and murder of two women, the second took place at Sopore where the 45-year-old lady Rashma Jan was shot dead because her daughter and son-in-law worked with police force.

It is not case of Kashmiri Muslims alone but a malaise associated with Muslims in general that they will kill hundreds and destroy property, hold the state to ransom if an Infidel kills, rapes or even casts a look at the Believers (who are none but Muslims because the Koran says) yet the same people will do nothing, quite on the contrary, they will applaud when a Mujahid kills a fellow Muslim and will even justify it by quoting some Surahs from the Kitab-e-Asmani.

It is not without reason that Pakistan is today suffering from militancy, it is not without a reason that there are two million Internally Displaced People in Pakistan today, it is not without reason that Kashmiri Muslims continue to reap the poison ivy that they sowed, it is not without reason that the Muslims who shouted “Aese gache Kasheer Batev baghaer ti batenaev saan”(We want Kashmir without Pandit men but with their women) have hundreds of their own raped, quite a lot by their own Mujahids.It is law of Karma. What comes around goes around.

But it isn’t just the Kashmiri Muslims who are sick. Isn’t the liberal Indian Media an accomplice in Crime? Why doesn’t Shekhar Gupta’s Indian Express carry this story on its front pages when it reports even the smallest protest that separatists carry out in Kashmir. Is he too scared of the Mujahids or is the Kashmir Bureau so independent that Shekhar Gupta just goes along. Apart from Times Now who carried a story called “Valley’s double Standards” no other TV channel reported the killing of these two women. And then call themselves impartial!

It still is time for the Kashmiri Muslims to wake up before they too have their women being beaten by Taliban in the centre of the city. If they have it in them then Kashmiri Muslims should speak in one voice against anyone who commits a crime, be it a so called Mujahid. May be I am asking for too much from a community who have become mere puppets in the hands of Pakistan and a handful of separatists. They are like sheep that are goaded to go along and anyone who dares to talk another route is cut and eaten. That is probably what happened to these two women.Maybe one simply said no to a Mujahid's overtures.Havent we heard women being forcibly married to Mujahids?

It is for the government that they institute a similar enquiry as they did for Shopian rape victims and gets to the killers.The Police have identified the killers of Rashme Jan as Bhasharat,Latif and Riyaz.The deaths were supposedly carried out by Hizbul-Mujahideen. Omar Abdullah should show that he is ready to act against militants and not just Policeman.

No protest over murder of women by Hizb men

No Shopian-type protest over murder of women by Hizb militants

PTI
June 23, 2009

Srinagar In the uproar following the Shopian rape and murders, two separate brutal killings of women by militants in Jammu and Kashmir have almost gone unnoticed.

While the first case was that of 17-year-old Nigeen Awan which took place barely few kilometres away from the place in Shopian of South Kashmir which is witnessing protests over the alleged rape and murder of two women, the second took place at Sopore where the 45-year-old lady Rashma Jan was shot dead because her daughter and son-in-law worked with police force.

But these two deaths -- barbaric in their own way -- have gone little noticed. Police reasons that its because of the fear as these gruesome killings were undertaken by militants of prominent terror group Hizbul Mujahideen, armed wing of Jamaat-e-Islamia.

According to the police files, Awan was allegedly killed by Latif Theuuda along with Riaz of Hizbul Mujahideen at her residence on the intervening night of June two and three because she had spurned advances by the former.

Quoting eye-witnesses, the police alleged that Latif pumped over a dozen bullets into her at her residence in Dohnado in Shopian district and instructed that no one to take her to hospital.

The young girl died in front of her family members and villagers after struggling for 45 minutes.

Ironically, in the FIR 109/07 registered in police station Keller, police have quoted unnamed eye witnesses who refused to come on record because of the fear of gun except her father Sharief Ahmed Awan who told the police that he was "instructed" by the duo to bury the body and not to make any hue and cry.

While the Jamaat cadres in the Shopian district spread the word that Awan was working for police, senior officials brushed aside the charge saying that the victim had not even attained the age of 18 years which is mandatory for working as Special Police Officer .

Another killing by Hizbul Mujahideen militant was that of Rashma Jan on June 16 at Sopore in North Kashmir. This area is a Jamaat-e-Islamia stronghold and pro-Pakistan leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani also hails from here.

The 45-year-old Jan, work ing as an employee of UCO Bank, met her death when terrorists barged into her house at Sopore on June 16 and fired indiscriminately. She died on her way to hospital as she had received bullets in her head and chest.

She was allegedly killed by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Basharat, who had nurtured a grudge against her because she had a fight with his mother over marriage of her daughter.

The daughter -- Shameema, a police constable – was married off to a Policeman and at present posted in Baramulla.

When approached, neither leaders of the ruling coalition of National Conference and Congress nor the opposition PDP are willing to comment about the two incidents and are even refraining from saying on record that culprits need to be brought to book.

..another report published in Hindustan Times.

Arjun Sharma, Hindustan Times
Srinagar, June 24, 2009

Amid protests over the Shopian rape-cum-murder case, two separate killings of women by militants in Jammu and Kashmir have almost gone unnoticed.

While the first case was that of 17-year-old Nigeen Awan, which took place barely few kilometres away from Shopian, the second took place in Sopore where the 45-year-old Rashma Jan was shot dead on a doubt that she was a police informer.

Superintend of Police, Baramullah, Viplav Kumar said: “The members Hizb-ul Mujahideen entered the house of Rashma Jan on the intervening night of June 2 and June 3 and gunned her down. The militants have been identified as Basharat, Latif and Riaz.”

But these two deaths have gone little noticed.

Police reason that it is because of the fear as these gruesome killings were undertaken by militants of Hizb-ul Mujahideen.

Married to Militants and Living in Hell-Kashmiri Girls

by Binoo Joshi(IANS)

Not all marriages are made in heaven. Some are solemnised at the point of a gun - as many women and teenaged girls in Jammu and Kashmir will tell you.
Forced marriage to militants has wrecked their lives in the insurgency-wracked state. Fatima Bi , now 16, who belonged to Chatroo, a mountainous village in Kishtwar district, told IANS over telephone that she was just 12 when she was abducted by militants.
She was studying in Class 7 in a local government school when one day a group of four militants led by Sher Khan, then divisional commander of Harkat-ul-Jehad- e-Islami (HUJI), barged into their house and kidnapped her.
'I was studying at that time when they abducted me,' she said.
'They took me to their hideout in the nearby forest where they beat me and tortured me for eight days. They hit me with rods on my thighs and threatened to kill my family if I did not marry Hashim Ditta ,' she said.
She said Ditta was a close friend of Sher Khan and a helper of HUJI.
'She was forced to marry Ditta at gun point,' said a police officer in Kishtwar.
Fatima wanted to study and become a teacher. 'But my dreams were shattered after they abducted and forcibly married me to Ditta,' Fatima said. Ten months after her marriage she gave birth to a son and her 'childhood was snatched away when I delivered this baby'.
A 'happy moment' for Fatima came when Sher Khan along with his two associates surrendered before the security forces last year.
'Except for bearing Ditta's child I never took him as my husband and there never was any such feeling as it was a forced marriage that ruined me,' she said.
Sher Khan was sentenced to imprisonment for eight years. Fatima took this as an opportunity and fled Ditta's house along with her infant son.
Ditta's parents, however, lodged a missing person report with police. Fatima went to her relatives in an adjoining village and fell in love with a farmer.
Her second chance at life was however not so easy as the local clerics said even if it was a forced marriage, Fatima would have to live with Ditta until they got legally separated.
Similar is the story of 18-year-old Chana whose nightmare started in early 2007.
A Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA) militant called Farid fell for her when he saw her grazing cattle in the Chicha area of Kishtwar district. She too was forced to marry at gun point.
'I too had dreams of getting married to a well-to-do person with all the rituals,' said Chana. 'But in forced marriages like ours it is just a couple of militants and a maulvi who form the marriage gathering.'
A few months later, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant, Khalid , operating in the area, wanted to marry Chana and asked Farid to divorce her. But when Farid declined, the LeT militant shot him dead and also shot Chana in the left leg.
She was forced to marry Khalid and now lives with him along with her and Farid's infant son.

--Courtesy: IANS Service

Obituary-Dr.Jagat Mohini Thusu-Florence Nightangle of Kashmir

COURTESY:KP-NETWORK

Dr. Jagat Mohini Thussu, a true rattan of Rattan Rani hospital and Kashmir
by Dr. Navin Atal and Neera Goyal

We lost a great soldier of Kashmir valley, a woman who towered like a giant in the valley for the last seventy years of Kashmir history. The noble lady left us on the early morning of 14th June 2009 at the age of about eighty eight years, after bravely battling her ailments for more than a year. She sought the love of her fellow people till the very end, the fellow Kashmiri people, whom she once served with all her passion.
Dr. Jagat Mohini, who had her roots in Punjab , did her M.B.B.S from King Edward Medical College , Lahore . She came to Kashmir in 1945 as a young bride and a young lady doctor, in a culture different from hers. She settled down quickly and adopted the Kashmiri culture to become an integral part of it. Since then she dedicated her entire life to the service of the people of Kashmir valley. She and her husband, late Dr. Onkar Nath Thussu, a renowned Pathologist, started the Rattan Rani Hospital at Barbarshah, Srinagar , named in memory of Dr. Onkar Nath’s late first wife. It was the very first hospital of Kashmir based on modern treatment and is now a century old heritage site. Dr. Jagat Mohini’s battle for upliftment of the society was fought for the last seventy years or so from Rattan Rani Hospital with her field of operation being the Kashmir valley.
Dr. Jagat Mohini worked selflessly for people of Kashmir at a time when there were very few doctors and hardly any specialist. She treated all types of patients and battled all diseases deftly, but the most important contribution to the society has been the upliftment of women of Kashmir valley. She was a champion of fighting issues of women, like discrimination, violence, dowry, health issues of women etc. She was widely known for her generosity and charity.
She not only treated them medically, but also put a healing touch to their socioeconomic ailments also. She became a champion to the cause of women of the valley. She worked day and night her entire life, sleeping just four hours in a day, totally dedicated to her profession. She saved, treated and cured countless patients. As time passed, people looked up to her, as a mentor, guardian and a saviour. She earned the nickname, “Mummy” from her staff and all her patients. She was literally a mother to all as she brought endless many to this world as a gynecologist. She is truly the “Florence Nightingale” of Kashmir , or the “Mother Teresa” of the valley. The national newspaper “The Hindustan Times” wrote on its front page an article of her achievements and it was titled as “the supermom of Kashmir ”. Her work was also recognized and complimented by many other national papers.
She worked as a social reformer and a philanthropist, doing a lot of charity work without looking for any reward. She was a social worker who fought all evils of society and became a source of inspiration to many. She was instrumental in providing employment to many people, both directly in the hospital, as well as by opening vocational centres of training in occupations like stitching, sewing and knitting, including Pashmina shawls making. A multi-talented women, she used her knowledge of stitching, sewing, and knitting to open centers to train women from the weaker sections of society so that they could live a life of dignity. The vocational training camps and centers started and run by her provided a source of livelihood to countless women in Kashmir . She was successfully running a Nursing school which enrolled many students from many parts of the country and again provided a source of livelihood to women of the state and other parts of the country.
A bold upright woman, she stood for justice and never wavered inspite of all odds. Whenever and wherever a person needed help, she was there for them. She opened a school, “Viswa Bharati” which from a two room set up became a college, later having a branch in NOIDA near Delhi . She had the foresight to acquire land for the school at NOIDA and then converted it into a successful school. She organized and conducted health camps in and around the city for the benefit of poor and needy people of the state.
She was a brave and fearless soul, who never deserted the people of the valley in all times. She stood tall and courageously faced both the good and bad times of the valley. A simple and good human being, she never faltered to help a fellow Kashmiri.
Dr.Jagat Mohini has given her entire life to Kashmir . Now it is for the people of Kashmir to see how they can repay a small part of good she has done to the valley. It is time to repay her debt by carrying on her legacy for the betterment of the valley.
Mrs. Thussu was predeceased by her husband, Dr. Onkar Nath Thussu, daughter, Seema Thussu, and brothers Anand Kumar Atal and Dr. Pushkar Rattan Atal, brother in law Janki Nath Kaul, and nephew Vimal, brother in laws and sister in laws Hriday Nath and Prabha Thussu, Pushkar Nath and Kamla Thussu, Kameshwar Nath Thussu, Raj Dulari Thussu, Prithvi Nath Coraji, and Radhakishen and Uma Raina.
Her survivors include her son Ashok and daughter in law Promila, granddaughters Vidisha and Nisha and their families, sister Manmohini Kaul, brother Dr. Chand Kumar Atal and sister in law Saroj, brother Jagdish Ratna Atal and sister in law Sheila, and sister in laws Rekha Atal and Indira Atal, brother in laws Rajinder Nath Thussu and Janki Nath Chaku, and sister in laws Kaushalya Chaku and Lalita Thussu, and the extended families. She is also survived by the following nephews and nieces, and their families on the Atal side: Gitanjali, Urvashi, Manjula, Neelima, Neera, Navin, Anuradha, Ritu, Nidhi, and Subodh and the family of Vimal, and those on Dr. Onkar Nath Thussu’s side, with extended families: Sheela, Surender, Kuldeep, Priti, Iqbal, Usha, Kanwar, Kamlesh, Sudhir, Rita, Nancy, Satish, Shami, Bittie, Girija, Nirmala and Suresh.

Justice for Nilofer and Asiya

Omar Abdullah-The Apathetic Idiot

Shopian looks like a ghost town today. There are no people on the streets. The shops are shut wide and the atmosphere of gloom looms large over an otherwise bustling suburb. The rape and murder of two young women has left the town full of bitterness, anger and hopelessness.

There obviously are no two ways about the fact that the ghastly murder and rape should invite severest possible criticism with a strong call for finding the perpetrators of this heinous crime and punishing them in a manner as to make an example of them. But here we are. The young prince dismissed their rape and killing as a simple case of drowning. As a Chief Minister of the State shouldn’t he have been a little more prudent than this clownish dad. He should have at-least bothered to know the depth of the water in Rembyaer Nallah in this season. As someone who has crossed this Nallah even without his knees getting wet I must say that the Chief Minister was at his apathetic and ignorant best. Little did he realise that a man as perverse as Yasin Malik or Bitta Karate is roaming free to commit more crimes.

The day the badly bruised bodies of Nilofer and Asiya were recovered, they bore marks of what seemed like molestation if not rape. Their clothes were torn and bodies disfigured. Yet the Police dismissed it as a case of drowning. Forensic reports now confirm the rape of a pregnant Nilofer and a studious and intelligent Asiya.

Two grown up women drowning in knee deep water!

This led to huge protests all over the valley. A simple word of acceptance of the crimecould have avoided all that happened later. The separatists were quick to latch on some food. After all the Young Prince had given them a stick to beat with which they could beat him, the army, the establishment and India. The beastly Mehbooba wasn’t the one to be left behind. Despite the fact that her party-men were beaten on way to Shopian, she looked at it as opportunity she was in no mood to let go off. The sexually frustrated Asiya Andrabi too took to streets with her band of Dark Scary Images. The calls for justice soon got lost in the din of cries for Azadi and removal for AFSPA.

This obviously is no time for politicking. Unequivocally we condemn the State governments handling of this entire episode. What was ideally a law an order problem has now spun into a huge controversy thanks to the kid who our National Media projects as the best thing to have happened to India after the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. Apart from firing the SP of Shopian(who obviously deserves to be fired) the Chief Minister should also have resigned for the way he led Kashmir to one more crisis.

Nilofer’s husband, Shakeel Ahmed has said time and again that he wants justice and not Azadi. Unfortunately what he gets is denials and more denials and now an enquiry commission. The State ought to show its concern for its people irrespective of their political alignments. But then that virtue is lost long time back.

In this hour of grief we are with the family of the victims. May God give them power to overcome this grief .We at Roots in Kashmir will do our best to ensure that the family gets justice. Although we are in exile,yet we mourn alongside the family of the victims.

The need of the hour is that the Chief Minister personally meets the family and apologises for his errant comments and asks the commission to submit a report in a time bound manner and then act fast to punish the culprits of this sick crime. It may not bring them their dear ones back but at-least it would restore the confidence of the people in the State.