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Kashmir police officer accuses security forces of vandalism in Anantnag
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nisar Ahmad Bakshi in a Facebook post accuses security forces of damaging the windows of parents’ house, parked vehicles and shops.
After a police officer accused his colleagues of vandalism in south Kashmir’s Anantnag on Facebook, several residents of the town have come forward with similar claims against security personnel.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nisar Ahmad Bakshi late on Thursday evening posted pictures of broken window panes and wrote a scathing Facebook update accusing security forces of damaging the windows of parents’ house, parked vehicles and shops.
“Vandalism by security forces at KP road Anantnag. Pr(o)perty worth lacs including windows and window pan(e)s of my residential house damaged. Houses/vehicles and shops smashed and attacked by rods and rocks. This is for the 8th time since 2008 that my residential house has been damaged in such a way,” Bakshi, who is with the state human rights commission, wrote.
Bakshi said that his family’s house is right on the edge of highway and security forces had responded after “routine” stone pelting in the area on Wednesday evening.
“Not only mine but some 10-15 more houses and vehicles were damaged,” he said. “Most of the times my house has been damaged by security forces”.
Bakshi, who lives in Srinagar while his parents live in Anantnag, said that he has not filed an FIR. “It has happened many times whenever there is stone pelting on the road. Today, I wrote it on social media so that it does not happen again”.
Bakshi did not did not blame any specific agency for the vandalism. However, a shopkeeper, Mohsin Sofi, said vandals were from the special operations group of the police department.
When contacted, Deputy inspector general (DIG), south Kashmir, Amit Kumar asked the reporter to talk to Anantnag senior superintendent of police, Altaf Ahmed Khan. “We are investigating into it,” Khan said.
“When the houses of police officers are damaged in such a way what should be the fate of other people,” wrote a Facebook user.
Other residents of the town also narrated similar incidents. Altaf Hussain, a retired college principal who owns a diagnostic centre in Anantnag, said that a window, a door and two-three glass panes of his diagnostic centre were damaged by security forces.
“Youth throw stones at them and they get angry. In anger, they retaliate and whosoever comes in their way they target,” Hussain said. “These things have happened three-four times before this as well,” he said.
Security forces were also accused of vandalism during mass protests in 2008, 2010 and 2016.
Sofi said young men pelted the police’s special operations group with stones near Khanbal on Wednesday. “And from Khanbal to KP Road which is some 600 – 700 metre distance, they thrashed people and broke things. The display board of my shop and those of my neighbouring shops were damaged. Somehow I shuttered the shop and ran away,” Sofi said.
