Vikram Raj/ Meer Irfan
Three juveniles were taken into custody and booked under the Anti-terror Law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act UAPA on the 30th of May by the Jammu and Kashmir administration.
The Police has booked them in the FIR number 46/2021 under section 13, 16, 18. Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 3/4 Explosives Act have been registered against them at Zainpora Police Station.
A Police official told The Kashmiriyat that Police has done a thorough investigation and after proper questioning, the role of the three has been established in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast attack that was triggered by Militants on 16 May 2021.
The Police identified the three as Shoaib Shafi Bhat, Muntazir Farooq Lone and Tauqeer Ashraf Lone, all residents of the Turkwangam area in Shopian.
On the other hand, what the family of one of the accused, Shoaib has told is quite the opposite of what the police said. The family of Shoaib, while talking to The Kashmiriyat, said that Shoaib is a meritorious student of class 10, who wants to become a doctor.
The family added that when the family members came to know that Shoaib is in police custody, they spoke to the police and told them that he is only a student and he has never been involved in any kind of anti-social activities before, he has never even been a part of any sit-in demonstration or protest.
The police gave them the assurance that they would leave Shoaib in a while, but after some time they came to know that the police have imposed UAPA on him.
He, further, said that the family does not even know the meaning of UAPA, they are simply pleading with the police to leave their child safe. Their child is only a meritorious student who has nothing to do with any anti-social activity. Ever since Shoaib’s arrest, his family has given up food.
“All of the three are minors, we do not understand why are even minors not being spared. Have minors too become a threat to a nation with nukes, missiles, tanks and so much of weapons, to a nation of crores of Indians?” family members of one of the three asked.
The uncle of another allegedly accused Muntazir, while conversing with The Kashmiriyat, told that Muntazir’s age is 15 years and he has quite recently finished the class tenth with great imprints.
On Sunday evening, he went to play cricket with his companions, on his way back he needed to bring some wood which was to be utilized by his sibling (who is a craftsman).
At the point when his sibling and father called him late in the evening, the call didn’t get through to him. The next day they came to know that the police had arrested him. Muntazir’s father, who is a patient is still shocked by this news. The family members do not know what they will do next and what they have to legally.
According to Locals, a fourth minor named Nadish Ahmed Lone has also been booked under UA(P)A.
On April 16, a 30-year-old woman whose video went viral on Social media and was seen rounding up Government Force personnel snapping at them to stop their operation, “Which is troubling the Locals” has been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Saima Akther who was working as a PSO with Jammu Kashmir Police has been accused of obstructing the search operation resisted the search party and turning violent at the Forces.
Saima Akhter, who is a resident of Frisal area in Kulgam has been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UA(P)A by Jammu Kasmir Police and has been lodged at the Yaripora Police Station, a senior Police official from Kulgam told The Kashmiriyat.
Dr. Abdul Bari Naik, an Assistant Professor at Government Degree College Udhampur has been booked under the Anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the month of March.
An official confirming the arrest of Dr. Bari to The Kashmiriyat had said he had been booked in an old case. “He was wanted in an FIR, but he had been evading arrest since then,” he said. The Official said that Dr. Bari who had been posted recently at the Udhampur Degree College was picked by Police in the Udhamur area on Friday.
Given the current scenario, where institutional narcissism has reached such a height that after writers, poets, academicians, teachers, and students of the university, now inhuman and non-democratic laws like UAPA are being imposed on the school students.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said a year ago that a law like UAPA is an immediate danger to basic freedoms, and the public authority of India is utilizing it to stifle the voice of dissent. She also said that this law is a danger to Human Rights Activists.
It is the same law that has been criticized in every social justice circle and civil societies and due to which social thinkers like Arun Ferreira and Kobard Gandhy have been in jail for years and student activists like Miran Haider and Umar Khalid are still in the grip of this act.
There are incalculable names like Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal, Ishrat Jahan, Sharjeel Imam, Gowhar Geelani, Masrat Zahra, Stan Swamy, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bhardwaj, Varavara Rao, Shoma Sen, Akhil Gogoi, and Binayak Sen, who are survivors of this demonstration.
The most widely recognized thing in these names is that every one of these individuals was raising their voice against the abusive approaches of the public authority.
What’s more, today when the public authority isn’t tracking down some other space to conceal its failure, at that point by keeping every protocol and convention on the edge, the public authority is utilizing this act on school understudies.