Cover Story
Parveez Rasheed
Palhallan has always been a crucial village in the resistance movement. The village is 35kms away from summer capital Srinagar and has a population of about 30000. The village has known nothing but killing and mayhem and hundreds have been martyred since 1989. Almost every household has a tragedy to narrate .
In 2008 & 2010 uprisings the village have given higest number of sacrifices as compared to rest of Kashmir. In a single day 7 people aged between 18 -57, have been martyred. And due to its steadfastness and sacrifices, the village got many names , some of them are Crown of resistance , Khandar of Kashmir and Gazapatii Palhallan. This later became the reason of its miseries and tragedies , because in the eyes of state it is crime .And the time has come when the village is being dealt with oppressive and brutal ways officially.
Palhallan is in a condition, were normalcy seems to be a distant dream, clashes and injuries of youths has became a routine now. And during the protests, the armed forces use high concentration of non-lethal weapons( tear smoke shells, pepper gas and pellets ) which has caused many problems to the people. The use of pepper gas causes acute suffocation and old aged often revealed of chest pain and stomach diseases. Not only this, forces enter into the village show their anger by breaking windows and doors in the village. This shows the hardship and anguish of the people of pallhalan and more over the oppressive character of state. Like in Focuian sense, state needs only those things , which would benefit it and on the things that do not benefit it, it uses acute force to muzzle their voice.
The state is playing a psychological war, after every Friday sermon large number of forces appear on the national high way whether there is a call from separatists or not. And even when youths remain peaceful and go home after Friday prayers , the police vehicles enter the premises of village and takes round from street to street and if anyone who comes along their way, faces their brutal face and gets ruthlessly beaten .In reply to this youth came on streets and resist against this oppression. Like in Marxian canonation when capitalists used acute oppression on workers, workers will unite and find no other way than to resist. To resist oppression is no crime.
In order to make this village more volatile a CRPF camp has been installed in the village. The camp keeps constant vegil on people and people feel threatened, thus restricting the movement of people after dusk.This kind of aura has became so problematic for students that they feel brian-sieged and cannot concentrate on studies. The parents finds no other way to send their children either to their relatives or to live in the city . The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish discribes this aptly
to be under occupation, to be under siege is not good inspiration for poetry or studies.
Not only the cops but the intelligence sleuths in civvies maintain a close vegil on village and sometimes stop the public transport for unnecessary checking, and if they find youth, they detain them, irrespective of their involvement in Stone-pelting, their crime – being a kashmiri and more over a kashmiri born in Palhallan.
About the Author:
The writer is a resident of Palhallan and a Political Science Student.
He can be contacted at : [email protected]
