ISLAMABAD: “Nights fill us with dread,” says Zainab (name changed), a resident of Baramulla in north Kashmir. Zainab is in her late forties, and her children have grown up, but as many as three children have been “picked up” by security forces from her area, during raids conducted at night. One of them, Qasim, is about 10-11 years old, and stayed barely a few blocks away from Zainab.“They (Qasim’s family) heard someone banging on their door a few days back. It was quite late. They (security personnel) told the family to call Qasim. They pleaded with the forces not to take the boy away but they roughed up the father and took Qasim under detention,” Zainab narrates.This is one of the several instances of minors being detained by security forces in the Valley after the government decided to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on 5 August. The number of children detained is said to be running into hundreds.The pattern of raids is similar across Kashmir: a late-night raid, protests by parents, fathers or elder brothers being roughed up, and minors being taken away. But the ordeal of the families begins there.In the subsequent days, the families are often seen waiting at police stations, pleading with the police to provide them some news of their children.Why night Raids?: night raids by security forces have been a common feature in Kashmir and are not particular to the present crisis. raids are conducted at night, mainly because it becomes more difficult for the people living in the area to gather and protest the arrests. Security personnel say that it becomes easier to reach the targetted place without being noticed by locals, and that the likelihood of the person they are looking for being at home is higher.However, locals say that night raids specifically aimed at minors have become more common than in the last few years. “It seems that the forces are specifically targetting children. We told them that our son hadn’t done anything, that he never took part in stone pelting. Still, they took him away,” said Hussain, a resident of Srinagar whose son has been detained.Raids in south Kashmir are particularly severe. A large number of minors and youths have been picked up by security forces in places like Pampore, Awantipora, Khrew, Tral, and Pulwama, all of which are in the Pulwama district. “Several boys have been picked up from here. We are afraid to even hear a sound at night. We pray every night for safety of our children”, said a resident of Pampore.How Govt gathered massive data before Article 370 move: A fact-finding team led by activists Kavita Krishnan and Jean Dreze documented the detention of children by forces. Here’s an excerpt from their report:“We met an 11-year-old boy in Pampore who had been held in a police station between 5 August and 11 August. He had been beaten up, and he said there were boys even younger than him in custody, from nearby villages. Hundreds of boys and teens are being picked up from their beds in midnight raids. The only purpose of these raids is to create fear. Women and girls told us of molestation by Forces during these raids.”
09-01-2019, 10:01 AM
How children are being ?picked? in night raids across IHK
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