On Saturday, there was a lot of outrage over the viral video of a Kashmiri man who had been tied to a jeep. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat called on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti this evening amid a controversial video showing a man tied to an army vehicle during polling for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat on April 9. Gen Rawat apprised Mehbooba about the situation in the Valley and assured her of timely action against its personnel who were responsible for the act of tying the man to the vehicle at Budgam. According to the sources, the army officials told a probe team that they had received a call from ITBP and local police guarding a polling station to save them from a mob which was out to lynch them.
While the debate raged on, General GD Bakshi, who is often seen on TV panels, said that the army officer responsible saved lives on both sides.
He wrote on Facebook: “They are screaming for the scalp of that young Major Gogoi who tied a stone pelter on his jeep. I think in retrospect that the boy did some out-of-the-box thinking and saved lives on both sides. The standard military solution would have been to shoot the pelters dead. He was authorised to but for some reason our boys seem hesitant to shoot- what with this constant Human rights tamasha. An operation is judged by its end results. He was able to rescue the ITBP boys who were surrounded by a blood thirsty mob.
He seized the stone pelter used him as hostage to get safe passage for his column. The Israelis do it routinely. Why can’t we do it? This way no military or civilian personnel was killed. You can always apprehend a stone pelter for interrogation about his links and take him to your post.”
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The 26-year-old Farooq Ahmad Dar told DNA that he was paraded for 26 km allegedly to keep stone-pelters at bay. He said: "I cannot believe that I am alive. They first thrashed me and then tied me to the bonnet of the jeep and zoomed past several villages.”
Dar, who ekes out a living by working as a Sozni (handmade embroidery) craftsman, was on his way to Gampora when he was allegedly picked up by the army troopers near Putligam and tied to the bonnet of a jeep before being paraded around dozens of villages.
His brother Fayaz Ahmad added that Dar had even cast his vote before he left to attend the condolence meeting of a relative when he was allegedly caught by the army and tied to the bonnet of their jeep to keep stone throwers at bay.
Anger spread across Kashmir after the video went viral. Former CM Omar Abdullah tweeted Dar's picture, and demanded an investigation into the case. Later he posted a 19 second-video on his Twitter handle sparking an outrage on the social media. "Here's the video as well. A warning can be heard saying stone pelters will meet this fate. This requires an urgent inquiry & follow up NOW!!" Omar said.
According to a report in the Indian Express, the incident occurred on April 19 and he was paraded for nearly for four hours and driven nearly 25 km. Dar was quoted saying by the newspaper: “Gareeb log hain, kya karengey complain (We are poor people, what will we complain?). I live alone with my asthmatic mother who is 75 years old. I am scared. Anything can happen to me. I am not a stone-pelter.”
Dar told The Wire: “They damaged my bike, thrashed me severely with gun butts and wooden sticks and in an almost unconscious state tied me to the front of the jeep and paraded me through 10 to 20 villages.”
