Kashmir’s leading rights activist Khurram Pervez on Thursday claimed that security agencies had snapped his landline communication system in Srinagar, just two days after he started a creative and interactive online campaign to ban pellet shotguns.
“My home landline phone and internet have been shut. We have been informed by a senior BSNL officer that 20 phones, including my home phone, have been shut [down] by the government’s order. One doesn’t have to explain when the government stops internet and phone [connection] of a human rights defender,” said Mr. Pervez, who is coordinator of the J&K Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), which has come up with critical reports on the security agencies’ role in the Kashmir valley over the past 26 years.
Internet services on mobile telephony remain suspended since July 10 in the valley. Internet services can be accessed only via landlines in the Kashmir valley.
Officials have refused to comment on the snapping of the rights activist’s communications. The alleged move comes just days after Mr. Pervez started an online anti-pellet campaign, highlighting casualties that have taken place in the Valley since July 8.
“Repressive regime is using illegal pellet shotguns on Kashmiris and the whole world has gone blind,” reads the tagline of the anti-pellet campaign, where emotional messages are generated in Braille-like script.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has also asked the state government to end the use of pellet guns. Amnesty's senior campaigner Zahoor Wani said, “The death of a third person, Riyaz Ahmad Shah, in Kashmir, due to injuries caused by pellet guns, is a reminder that the ‘less-lethal’ weapon can have deadly consequences.”
“Pellet guns are inherently inaccurate and indiscriminate, and have no place in law enforcement. They cannot ensure well-targeted shots and risk causing serious injury, including to bystanders or other protesters not engaging in violence. These risks are almost impossible to control,” he added.
HC for lodging FIR against top cop
The High Court on Thursday upheld Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar’s direction to lodge a First Information Report against a Deputy Superintendent of Police in a civilian killing case.
Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir dismissed the petition not to lodge a separate FIR since a case is already registered regarding a stone-pelting incident on July 10.
The court asked the police to register an FIR against the accused police officer. DSP Yasir Qadri is accused by the family of the victim to have killed their son “in a cold-blooded murder” on July 10, when no protests were taking place in Srinagar’s Tengpora area.
The government had challenged the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order in the High Court to lodge an FIR against the accused.
