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Infant dies during stone pelting
in Kashmir valley, reignites debate
WSN
Bureau
 Srinagar: A
ten-day-old infant Irfan was killed when a group of stone-pelters
attacked the car in which he was being taken to hospital by his
mother Kulsooma. His four-year-old brother Obaid was injured.
A group of
stone-pelters intercepted the Tata Sumo Taxi, in which Kulsooma and
other passengers were travelling, at Janbazpora village on the
outskirts of Baramulla and pelted it with stones.
The incident
came in handy for the Jammu and Kashmir government that was quick to
blame the PDP, the principal opposition party, or encouraging the
stone battles. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah went
on the TV channels and reiterated his policy of cracking down hard
on the stone pelters of
Kashmir.
The state has
been witnessing incidents of stone pelting with regularity as the
youth of the valley come out every Friday morning to hurl stones and
the paramilitary forces. The activity is highly organised and now
the Kashmiri government is claiming that it is even being funded by
groups in Pakistan.
How badly the
government has been shaken by incidents of stone pelting is clear
from the Jammu and Kashmir government's approach now that anyone
caught in the act will now be slapped with such draconian clauses of
the law that stone pelting will attract life sentence or even death
penalty. Such a step has brought much criticism to the Congress-NC
government.
After the death
of the infacnt, the police said the attackers were imposing the
strike called in protest against the police’s crackdown on
stone-pelters across the Valley. Demanding release of the youth
arrested by the police during the past week,the protesters have
virtually paralysed Baramulla for the past three days.
Kulsooma, wife
of Nissar Ahmad Magrey, a resident of Rawchoo village in Rafiabad,
later told doctors at Baramulla District Hospital that her baby had
been keeping unwell since Saturday evening. She could not take him
to a doctor on Sunday due to the strike. After the baby’s condition
worsened Monday morning, she decided to bring him to Baramulla.
“When the baby
was brought to the hospital,blood was oozing out of his nose and he
was breathless,”a doctor who attended to him said. “The mother told
us the baby fell from her lap onto the road and was unconscious ever
since. She also told us that she wanted to bring the baby to
hospital on Sunday but due to stone-pelting in the town, she could
not venture out of her home. But as the child’s condition worsened,
she decided to take the risk and rush the baby to hospital today.”
However, the
doctor also said the baby had “no apparent external injury” and that
he was suffering from septicemia and hypothermia.
Obaid, who was
hit on the head by a stone, got four stitches, doctors said.
24
February 2010
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