Kounsar Bashir
Cricket bat raw material suppliers in Sethar, Halmulla of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district have alleged that some armed forces personnel burnt their raw material and beat them for possessing Pakistani cricket bat brands’ stickers.
A raw material supplier, wishing anonymity, told The Kashmiriyat that on Tuesday, at around 11 a.m., the army entered the shops, beat them, and burnt all the raw material.
“We have scars all over our body. And this happened merely for possessing Pakistani cricket bat brand stickers including CA, BOOM, MB Malik, etc.,” he said. “We faced a loss of about 4-5 lakhs,” he told The Kashmiriyat.
The supplier told The Kashmiriyat that the security force personnel also took their phones and transferred some phone numbers of some of the sticker makers from Meerut and Jalandhar into their own phones.
Another supplier, wishing anonymity, told The Kashmiriyat that the armed forces personnel only burnt the Pakistani brand stickers. “We have Indian brand materials, as well, but they did not touch that,” he said.
The Kashmiriyat contacted PRO Defence, Col. Emron Musavi, and enquired about the matter who said that the shopkeeper had burnt the stickers on their own in order to avoid investigation by the police, since the bats had ‘Made in Pakistan’ stickers.
“On 28 Dec 21, certain shops at Halmulla, Sangam, were displaying Pakistan made bats. These bats, though locally sourced, had stickers of “Made in Pakistan” on them. The shopkeeper burnt the stickers owing to their own violation, to avoid investigation by the Police,” Colonel Emron Musavi said.
Incurring Losses
The cricket bat manufacturing industry of Kashmir has suffered incessant loss since the Pulwama attack. The business further dropped down after Jammu Kashmir region lost its semi-autonomy when Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution were revoked.
The bat manufacturing industry of Kashmir consists of more than 400 manufacturing units. More than one lakh people are engaged in this business, he said.
However, after the Pulwama Attack, the cricket bats manufacturing business went down by almost 50 per cent, he said. “Our Kashmiri product has demand all over the world.
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And thus, the business has remained smooth with the grace of Almighty. But demand of bats among the tourists has decreased, significantly,” a business owner told The Kashmiriyat.
Various shoppers alleged at the post the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019, the tourist vehicles that were among the major consumers of Kashmiri bats were not allowed to stop near the shops that run on both sides of the Kashmir highway from Sangam to Awantipora in South Kashmir.
The Army PRO denying the allegation said that only at the time of the Convoy movement, the Army comes out on the highway. “Only during the convoy movement, as a security measure, no vehicles are allowed to stop on the roadsides,” he told The Kashmiriyat.
The Pulwama attack, one of the deadliest attacks in Jammu Kashmir, occurred on February 14, 2019. Reportedly, a Jaish suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district. The attack also left many critically wounded. 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed in the attack.