Mufti Claims Army Forced Locals to Chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’

Jammu and Kashmir’s former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday claimed that Army personnel dragged civilians out of their homes in the middle of the night, thrashed them with batons and forced them to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’. She further took a jibe at the BJP-ruled Centre and said that it “seems like this is GOI’s vision for integrating J&K into India”.

“Army personnel drags civilians out of their homes in the middle of the night, thrash them with batons & then force these innocent men to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Seems like this is GOI’s ‘vision’ for integrating J&K into India now,” Mufti tweeted along with a media publication detailing the incident.

According to a report in The Kashmir Walla, 20-year-old Bilal Hussain and his father were asked to walk down the streets by about 40 troopers of the Army around 1:30am.

Hussain was quoted as saying that the troops kept repeating the same questions: “Where are the militants?”, “Tell us where did they eat food?”, “Did you watch the video?”. The troopers were referring to a video recorded and released by militants who attacked a patrol group, killing two troopers, on the afternoon of November 26 in the Abanshah area on Srinagar’s outskirts, where he lived.

The report further stated: Armed with assault rifles and thick bamboo sticks, Hussain said, the army troopers thrashed the rounded up residents for nearly an hour. “We were not allowed to scream,” Hussain recalled, “or even raise our heads up.” During this, he said, one man shouted in agony: “If you are going to kill, [then] shoot us.”

For Hussain, the pain didn’t numb with continued thrashing and he let out a scream. Then, “their officer walked up to me and said ‘Bol, Jai Shri Ram’, (chant Victory to Lord Ram, a rallying slogan for Hindu nationalists)” recalled Hussain. “[But] I screamed in pain then he shoved his gun in my mouth.”

Since the attack, the locals have accused the Army of raiding the neighbourhood every day and night, dragging out civilians and beating them up. More than a dozen families The Kashmir Walla spoke with in the neighbourhood claimed that more than sixty people were beaten up by the army so far.

The report quoted by Mufti further said that when Army’s Srinagar based spokesperson Rajesh Kalia was contacted on the matter, he said, “These allegations are unfounded. No army personnel is involved in thrashing or beating of civilians.”