By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net,
Srinagar : Zahid Rasool Bhat, one of the Kashmiri truckers immolated by a group of Hindu radicals in Udhampur last week, died after he succumbed to his injuries at New Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital on Sunday.
A resident of Batengo area of Khanabal near Srinagar-Jammu highway, Zahid had suffered 70 per cent burn injuries with swollen respiratory system due to swallowing of fire flames.
Zahid Rasool Bhat
As the news of Zahid’s death reached Kashmir, people took to street and fought pitched battles with police and the paramilitary troppers in various parts of the valley, shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans.
In Anantnag, the native district of the deceased, protestors took to the streets, blocked the Jammu-Srinagar highway by burning tyres which ensued stone pelting, triggering street battles triggering teargas shelling and cane charge by the security forces.
Zahid Rasool Bhat and Showkat Ahmad Dar had sustained major injuries when a group of Hindu radicals hurled a petrol bomb on their stationary truck at Udhampur on the Jammu-Srinagar highway as “fit of rage” over the recovery of carcasses of three cows in the same district a day before.
The truck driver who managed to escape by hiding beneath the truck had alleged the assailants of thrashing and sprinkling petrol over two of his accomplices before letting them on fire.
The mortal remains of the deceased reached Srinagar airport this afternoon and were received by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President and Member Parliament (MP), Mehbooba Mufti along with some ministers from state cabinet. Amid strong pro-freedom and anti-India protests, the body was handed over to his family late Sunday evening.
The District Magistrate of Udhampur, where the attack on the truckers took place, examined the dossiers which were submitted by the district police over the involvement of accused in a series of criminal acts including the deadly attack with combustible material on a Kashmir bound truck, issued warrants for detention of the accused under the stringent Public Safety Act and lodging them in Central Jail.
However, after the death of one person, the case will now be investigated and tried under section 302 for murder.
The police have so far arrested six people under the PSA and five other under the Explosives Substances Act.
Meanwhile, condemnation over the death poured in from the all quarters of the state with Separatists calling for a valley wide Shutdown on October, 19, Monday. Hurriyat (G), Hurriyat (M), Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) have all supported the call for shutdown against the death of Kashmiri trucker. Kashmir University and JK Board of School Education Kashmir have postponed all their examinations scheduled for Monday.
“These acts de-moralise and de-stabilize the society we live in. These acts need to be checked as soon as possible and it should be by all means responsibility of the Government who hold the position in state as well as in centre to check this law and order problem created by some communal headed persons,” Sanjay Tickoo, Chairperson KPSS, said in a statement.
Senior Separatist leader, Shabir Ahmad Shah while condemning the death held the State Chief minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, responsible for the death of trucker.
“Mufti by joining hands with communal RSS and BJP made it clear that he is not concerned with the people of the state. He (Mufti) doesn’t care whether the people of Jammu and Kashmir live or die but is only concerned of his chair. If Mufti Muhammad Sayeed is having some conscience left, he should resign from his post,” Shah told Kashmir Life.
The Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation, while supporting the shutdown call, asked the CM to answer the “cold blood and systematic elimination of Muslims in the state”.
“It is PDP which joined hands with the communal forces led by RSS and within six months, the situation in Kashmir has reached the level that we the people are no safer to travel even within our own state. The government is answerable for this pre-planned murder,” Federation President Mohammed Yasin Khan said.
Mainstream political leaders also joined the fray to express their shock and solidarity with the bereaved family.
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has expressed deep shock and grief over the death. In a condolence message, Mufti Sayeed regretted that one more precious life has been lost to the politics of hate and intolerance that is posing a grave challenge to the state and country’s plurality.
“I have no words to condemn the dastardly act which consumed the life of a poor and innocent young boy for no fault of his,” he mourned.
Ex Chief Minister of J&K, Omar Abdullah while launching a scathing attack on PM Modi and J&K Govt took to Social Networking Site Twitter and held BJP and its allies “directly responsible” for killing of Zahid Rasool Bhat.
“The Hon PM passed the buck on to @yadavakhilesh & the UP Govt for #Dadri. Who will he blame for #Zahid’s death now???” Omar said in a tweet.
“And to think that all the state Govt could do was to throw 10,000 rupees at #Zahid & wash its hands off the whole thing #BeefMurder”. “Another needless death in the name of #BeefBan for which the BJP & its affiliates including allies are directly responsible,” Omar said in a series of tweets.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Ex Chief Minister of J&K, Ghulam Nabi Azad while expressing deep condolences over the demise of Zahid called upon the State Government to take urgent and effective steps to prevent such events in future, Azad said such painful incidents rip apart the social fabric and create fissures which are difficult to bridge.
“Time has come to put an end to politics of hate and intolerance in order to regain the place of glory for our state – which has been abode of peace and tolerance for centuries,” Azad told a local news agency KNS.
The independent Legislator from Kashmir, Engineer Rashid, who had visited the injured youth in the Safdargunj hospital and was accompanying the family of deceased at this time of grief in New Delhi, while offering his deep condolence over the death asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “open his eyes and see what the hell is going on all around”.
Related
Violent beef protest reaches J&K; Three attacked with petrol bomb in Udhampur