Govt gunmen unleash terror in Kupwara village

Attack 20 of a family, including 11 day infant, over land dispute

September 3:

Twenty members of a Kupwara family, including a 11 day infant, were injured, some of them critically, when a group of government gunmen attacked them over a land dispute in border village of Trehgam on August 29 night.
 

Twelve of the injured protested at Press Colony here Sunday. With injury marks visible on their bodies, they narrated the tales of atrocities perpetrated on them on the fateful night. Among the injured were five women, including an old lady with serious wounds. “More than five people beat me up. They tore my clothes and I was fainted. I opened my eyes in a local hospital,” she said.
 

“I tried to save my kid by holding him in my bosom but they were so atrocious that they snatched him from me and hurled him away. They even tried to molest me but it was because of my brother that my chastity was saved,” said another woman.
 

Ghulam Qadir Lone, the family head, said that a former renegade, Muhammad Shafi Lone aka Peer Jehangir hurled a grenade towards his house followed by an attack with sharp edged weapons.
 

“We were sleeping when I heard an explosion. At first I thought gas cylinder in the kitchen had exploded, but soon Shafi Lone barged into our home along with nearly 50 people and attacked us,” Qadir said.
 

He said an army post is next to their house and the police post is ten meters away. “We raised a hue and cry but no one came to our rescue,” Qadir said, adding “the attack was pre-planned. They thrashed us continuously till 3 am.”
 

“They even fired a few bullets in air. For a moment I thought all of us will be killed. I somehow managed to escape and tried to approach police which is very close to our house but they didn’t pay any attention,” said Qadir’s son Mukhtar Ahmed.   Two of the injured, he said, have been admitted to the SKIMS, Soura.
 

Mukhtar said they had purchased a piece of land from a Pandit family few months ago. But Shafi Lone, he said, lodged a complaint with the district administration. The district administration “gave the verdict in our favour and then he complained in a local committee which also gave verdict in our favour,” Mukhtar said.
 

He said they had already given three malras of land to Shafi Lone out of fear. “But he wanted more and when we resisted, he attacked us,” he said.
 

“Though police arrested some of the attackers after some senior police officials from the district headquarters came to know about the incident, the main culprit is still roaming freely, Mukhtar added.
 

Despite repeated attempts, no senior police officer from Kupwara was available for comment.