Fear grips Valley as Army shoots with a camera

Fear grips Valley as Army shoots with a camera
MUFTI ISLAH & MIR EHSAN

BARAMULLA, JUNE 20: Panic has gripped the Rafiabad, Pohru and Zanigeer belts of this North Kashmir district with the Rashtriya Rifles asking all villagers to take group photographs of their families and hand them over to the nearest Army camp.

Frightened residents told The Indian Express that the decisionmaking it ``mandatory'' for them to deposit photos within the ``shortest time''has come as a surprise since this is the first time in the 11-year-old militancy that people have been asked to identify themselves.

Thousands of residents of 40 villages, including Roucha, Dangivacha, Hatchepora, Zethan, Pazalpora, Kangroosa, Kitherdachi, Chitlouva, Tugger and all the villages of Pohru belt, have been asked by the RR personnel to submit group photographs.

A Q Manhas, Senior Superintendent of Police said some villagers had indeed apprised him of this and he was investigating the complaints.

Admitting that the Army was indeed seeking photographs of villagers, a spokesman of the Kilo Force, the division under which the RR works, claimed this was neccesary to check foreign militants. ``It is compulsory as otherwise we will not be able to differentiate between the villagers and the outsiders,'' he told The Indian Express.

Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Minister of State for Home, said he was unaware of this but added that he would look into it and if ``such a practice is continuing, I will ask to put an end to it.''

The RR has also conveyed to the villagers that in case a guest drops in any of their houses, they need to inform the nearby camp. An elderly man at Galora, an adjoining village, said he had deposited the photograph but without the woman members of his family.

For this unprecedented exercise, the RR has engaged local photographers who are charging Rs 20 per copy. Invariably, this has set off a race among the photographers to get as many pictures as possible.

Villagers are also afraid that the photos will identify the female population, ``who can also become targets in case an encounter breaks out in the area and Army launches house-to-house searches''.

Says Mukta, a mother of four daughters at one village in the upper belt of Rafiabad: ``Parents like me are spending sleepless nights and even contemplating to shift them to relatives' places. I am sending my three daughters to Bijbehara in Anantnag district because of their safety,'' she said.