SRINAGAR: Iqbal Ahmad, a resident of Gool area —around 207 kilometres from Srinagar — says he received a call on his mobile phone in the intervening night of 17-18 July 2013 from a friend who informed him about the alleged sacrilege of the Holy Quran in a local Madrassah at the hands of the Indian Paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) in Dharam village, in Ramban district.

“Soon after the phone call, I called Moulana Shabir in Dharam to cross-check. He confirmed the sad incident and said the villagers have assembled in the area to protest the desecration of the Holy Quran. We also drove toward the spot at midnight,” recalls Ahmad.

Around 7,000-8,000 villagers, he says, spent the entire night on the roads and staged a peaceful sit-in. Quoting eye-witnesses, he says that at least “four BSF men, with their shoes on, had made a forced entry into the religious seminary in Dharam" and then desecrated the Quran.

Police superintendent in district Ramban, Javed Ahmad told Dawn.com “After this complaint, a police party along with a Tehsildar reached the spot on Thursday at around 2330 Hours (IST). I reached there by early Friday morning,” the police officer said.

The BSF said they fired on protesters in “self-defence” as the mobs tried to “storm” their camp. Locals dismiss the BSF statement as “rubbish”. After the protests and anger against the civilian killings in Dharam, Gool, the Indian paramilitary BSF vacated the camp on Friday. The facility in Gool, according to credible reports, has been handed over to the local police.

The news about the alleged sacrilege, according to sources, infuriated the villagers who then passed on the information to residents in adjoining areas in quick time. People assembled and demanded stern action against the “guilty BSF personnel”.

Bashaarat Masood, a Kashmiri journalist working with The Indian Express, reached Dharam on Friday. The entire Gool region, Masood says, was “strangely calm” although people were “very angry”. This anger was a result of civilian killings on Thursday.

Four civilians had been killed in firing by BSF personnel when locals, according to eye witnesses and media reports, were protesting against the “desecration” of Quran and the “beating” of a local Imam (prayer leader) outside the make-shift BSF camp there in Dharam, Gool.

At least 15 civilians, Masood told Dawn.com, had bullet injuries while scores of others were wounded in violent action by the BSF. “Villagers had assembled to stage a protest against interference in religious affairs. A poor labourer, survived by a disabled wife and two sons, is also among those killed in BSF firing.”

The deceased belonged to different villages in Gool. Quoting SP Javed Ahmad, Masood reported that Manzoor Ahmad Shan, a 32-year-old assistant professor in political science, who was trying to pacify the angry protesters, was shot in the head by the BSF. He later succumbed to his injuries.

“Villagers told me that when Shan received a bullet he was facing the protesting villagers with his back to the BSF camp,” says Masood. This heightened the tensions. According to The Indian Express report, the SP too had a close shave with death, as he and Shan were addressing the villagers.

After seeing Shan lying in a pool of blood, reports quoting eyewitnesses say, the BSF started firing indiscriminately at the assembled crowds. This caused mayhem and eventually four civilians lost their lives.

The deceased were identified as local Imam Abdul Lateef, Javeed Ahmed, Farooq Ahmed Beg and Manzoor Ahmed Shan. On Friday, the mountainous villages in Ramban district buried its four inhabitants, most of them in their mid-30s.

Three-day strike

Camps led by separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have given separate calls for shutdown and protests. Malik was arrested soon after he tried to stage a demonstration in Maisuma, Srinagar while all other major leaders were placed under house arrest.

The United Jehad Council (UJC), an amalgam of armed outfits based in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, supported the three-day long shutdown call beginning Friday.

Meanwhile, fresh protests against the alleged sacrilege and killing of four civilian in firing by the BSF continued across the curfew-bound Kashmir Valley.

Chief minister tweets

Soon after the tragic incident, the chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir Omar Abdullah posted on Twitter: “As deeply as I regret yesterday's (Thursday’s) deaths the inaccurate reporting of death tolls is unprofessional and certainly doesn't help us on the ground.” Expressing displeasure about the “errors in reporting” the Gool tragedy, Abdullah further tweeted, “We have had 4 deaths, not 6/7 as some channels/websites are insisting & all injured are stable 'n out of danger. Even 4 is 4 too many.” The beleaguered chief minister then took a dig at Indian satellite news channels, tweeting, “It would certainly be expected from nationally reputed news sites that they would make an effort to report accurate news & not rumours.”

Abdullah’s criticism over media reporting and his overall reaction on Gool killings has certainly not gone down well with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the principal opposition in the troubled state.

“Omar Abdullah’s pledge on zero tolerance to human rights violations has become a cruel joke,” said Naeem Akhtar, chief spokesperson of the PDP.

About the BSF firing on protestors, Akhtar told Dawn.com in a telephonic conversation that impunity was now “upgraded to brazenness” in Kashmir. “They (uniformed men) kill people for sport. They harbour mistrust in spite of the fact that people had taken bold initiatives, cast votes in elections.” He voiced concern that the silence of Kashmiris was being “interpreted as their surrender and defeat.”

Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of English daily The Kashmir Times, told Dawn.com that there was no rationale behind “militarising” an area like Gool, which, she said, has been one of the peaceful areas even in the peak years of militancy in the disputed Himalayan region.

“There is a culture of brutality in Jammu & Kashmir. The armed forces enjoy absolute immunity. Ordinary people are treated as virtual enemies. And then we have clumsy statements and denials from the state, which is unfortunately an usual trend,” Bhasin says. She also blames the civil administration for “failing to act as a bridge between the enraged villagers and the BSF”.

In a press release, the UK-based global rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) said authorities must avoid excessive use of force and investigate killings in Indian-administered Kashmir.

"Dozens of people have been injured in many parts of Jammu and Kashmir in widespread clashes between security forces and protestors. The protests began on July 18, when four people were killed by paramilitary forces in Ramban district."

"Protesters have defied curfew regulations and held violent demonstrations. Authorities have reportedly used excessive force, including firing live ammunition against protestors.”

The AI has called on authorities to protect the right to life in accordance with the constitution of India and international law - including the International covenant on civil and political rights, to which India is a state party - and international standards, in particular the UN basic principles on the use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials and the code of conduct for law enforcement officials.

Indian Kashmir’s state cabinet has sanctioned Rs five lakh INR and a job each as compensation to the next of kin of the victims. Media reports said the cabinet voiced serious concern over the firing incident. It also condemned the excessive use of force in Gool and extended condolences to the bereaved families and sympathies with those wounded.

Brief timeline of civilian killings in Indian-administered Kashmir

This year, Tahir Sofi — a young scholar from the northern town of Baramulla— was killed by the Indian Army.

In June this year, the army shot dead two civilians in Sumbal, Bandipora.

In March, one more civilian was killed in firing by the Indian paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Saidpora, Srinagar after a militant attack in Bemina area.

Another youth, Hilal Ahmad, 25, was killed in a fake encounter.

In 2010, more than 123 civilians, mostly teenagers, were killed in police and CRPF firing during a wave of anti-India protest demonstrations across the Kashmir Valley.

In July 2005, three teenage boys in Bungergand, in frontier district Kupwara, were killed by the army while they were attending a marriage party.

Only a few months after the Bungergand killings, four more boys were killed in Handwara while playing cricket.

The writer is a journalist and writes features for Dawn.com. He has served as Editor at Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany) in Bonn, Germany. Previously, he has contributed features for the BBC.