Humanity beats curfew in Kashmir as locals rush to help Amarnath bus accident victims

Local people in Bijbehara help a group of Amarnath pilgrims whose bus collided with a truck

One more youth was killed on Wednesday in a clash between a stone-pelting mob and security forces in Kashmir, taking the toll in the five-day unrest to 35, even as Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed "great sadness and sorrow" over the deaths and promised a "healing touch".

Shattering the peace during most of the day, clashes erupted in the evening at Harnag in Koimoh with a group of youth pelting stones on passing vehicles of security forces. In retaliatory action by the security forces, one youth was injured, officials said, adding he succumbed while being shifted to a hospital. This raised the toll during the five-day unrest to 35. As soon as news of the death spread, angry protesters set ablaze a forest hut at Khannabal in Anantnag district town, the officials said.

In another incident, a youth was injured when security forces opened firing at Koil in Pulwama district to disperse a mob which was pelting stones at Indian Air Force base, the officials said. They said Reyaz Ahmad Padder was admitted to the district hospital in Pulwama where his situation is stated to be stable.

Earlier, barring some incidents of stone-pelting, Kashmir was relatively calm through the day as curfew remained in force in some parts of Kashmir, including Pampore and Kupwara towns. Restrictions were in place on movement of people in the rest of the Valley. A police spokesman said barring "some incidents" of stone pelting at various places, the situation "remained under control" in the valley. The stray incidents of stone-pelting were reported from Khudwani, Kulgam, Iman Sahib, Shopian and Kakpora in south Kashmir, Kralpora, Kupwara, Trehgam, Langate, Lalpora, Putkha Sopore and Main Chowk Sopore in north Kashmir, he said.

But the Valley on Wednesday witnessed a display of humanity and religious brotherhood when local people in Bijbehara rushed to the help of a group of Amarnath pilgrims whose bus collided with a truck at Sangam in Bijbehara, killing two and injuring 23.

When the news of the accident reached the locals, they defied curfew and reached the spot and began evacuating the injured pilgrims. Around 50 local people came to evacuate the injured after the accident, said a pilgrim, A K Arora, from Meerut in a two-minute video, which has gone viral on social networking sites. "If anyone wants to understand humanity, learn it from people of Kashmir. I felt the true value of humanity from the people of Kashmir. They came to our rescue at a time when we were abandoned by even fellow pilgrims and the army." He said he has "witnessed humanity for the first time".

The state government has directed the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution department to open all the sales outlets and fair-price shops to ensure distribution of ration in the Valley. 

Directing those concerned to lift the remaining stock of foodgrain from Food Corporation of India forthwith for distribution among the outlets, the CAPD Minister Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali asked Director of CAPD Kashmir Peerzada Mushtaq to coordinate with the FCI authorities and ensure that godowns and PEGs are functional with immediate effect.

In Jammu, displaced Kashmiri Pandit employees who left the Valley at night and arrived at Jammu, on Wednesday said they would not return to become "sitting ducks for target practice of teenage stone-pelters". Over 200 employees from various colonies, where they were posted under the Prime Minister Special Employment package in 2008, narrated incidents of stone-pelting by teenagers, even women, stopping of milk and other supplies and the failure of security forces.

Across the border, Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday condemned the "brutal killings" of youths in Kashmir, joining the rhetorics of Prime Minister Nawaz Sahrif's government on the issue.

Mehbooba sought the peoples’ "support in pulling J&K out of the vortex of violence and bloodshed." She said she needs people's support in realising the dream of a politically-emancipated, economically self-reliant and socially secure Jammu and Kashmir.

"The 27-year-long violence has left deep wounds in almost each home here and we have to jointly safeguard our state and our people from further bloodshed and destruction," she said after paying homage to the martyrs of 1931 at the Martyrs graveyard in Khawaja Bazar area of downtown Srinagar.

Commenting on the current unrest, Mehbooba said, "I won't let the people down, despite facing a challenging task. While my government's immediate priority would be to reach out to the affected families with a healing touch, in the long run a concerted effort shall have to be launched to make peace and stability a reality in J&K, with youth being the focus of the government's welfare initiatives."