BEERWA
A brief video recorded by a teenager has enraged Kashmir. Shot during the day of re-poll by this fleeing boy, who was afraid by the incident, it has emerged the first instance in which human shield was actually seen after being talked about for decades. Now identified as Farooq Ahmad Dar, a resident of Chill in Beerwa’s Arizal belt, he was going to a neighbouring village to mourn death of a relative when Rashtriya Rifles caught him and put him on a jeep bonnet and tied him with ropes. The jeep piloted a convoy that went to 3 kms. He said he was not permitted to talk to villagers as soldiers used mike-fitted vehicle to tell people see what they can do, if they pelted stones. Interestingly, he was not a stone pelter.
DELHI
And this incident had enraged cricketers and actors. On April 9, highly charged groups of youth escorted polling staff and paramilitary men out of polling booths. In one incident, a boy was recorded kicking a CRPF man as others were interrupting him. This video has gone viral from TV channels to celebrities. The heckling led cricketers Virendra Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Mohammad Kaif and now Farhan Akhter to demand immediate action against the accused. Police have already registered a case and arrested three youth. Interestingly in a much clear footage that shows a soldier killing a boy from a very close range has not triggered any reaction anywhere.
MUMBAI
On the day first of normalcy since Sunday, the other side of the life revealed itself, this time in Tulip Garden. A film crew had descended upon the garden to shoot a song for upcoming film Hai Tujhe Salam India. A good crowd watched Bollywood actors Aarya Babbar and Smita Gondkar to hang around the colourful rows, sometimes getting closer to the Tulips and sometimes with each other.
LONDON
Raqib Shaw is one of the reputed Kashmiri artists living in London. A scion of Shaws’, he left Srinagar early nineties, was taking care of the family business, then started art and took off impressively. From June, the exhibition of his exotic Kashmir inspired paintings is scheduled at Whitworth in Manchester, a property of the University of Manchester. The exhibition starts on June 24 and would continue till November 2018. The exhibition will take the form of an installation, drawing on influences of renaissance and baroque imagery, combined with theatrical extravagance, nature and poetry, to echo the mythic space Shaw creates in his paintings. Highlights from the collection include a stunning gold and pink brocaded Kashmir shawl from the nineteenth century, a hand-knotted Persian hunting carpet (1900-1924), John Frederick Lewis’ oil painting Indoor Gossip, Cairo (1873) and a rare engraving by Italian artist Andrea Mantegna Battle of the Tritons (1470 – 1479).
SRINAGAR
Who wins and who loses is a different story. The fact is various schools lost a lot during last week as cops and military men moved into the school premises. One school each in Shopian, Pulwama and Budgam went up in smoke. Nobody knows what happened to the students enrolled in these schools. In Srinagar, another interesting thing happened. More than 100 students of a middle school in Gagribal went home last week knowing that while they will be home, their school will become a temporary shelter for CRPF. With election over, when they returned, the CRPF did not let either the students or their 11 teachers in! Nobody knows if the students have found some alternative shed to educate. The latest is that in Kralpora, when the school resumed, they found the records missing. Now boys have a chance to get younger.
DELHI
Girish Chandra Saxena, former RAW chief who was Kashmir governor twice from May 26, 1990 to March 13, 1993 and later in from 1998 to 2003, died at the age of 90. He was rushed to hospital for breathlessness and died at around 4:30 am. The 1928 born Agra resident was a 1950 IPS from UP cadre took over as RAW head in 1983 for three years. Saxena came to J&K after Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq was assassinated replaced Jagmohan. He has played a crucial role in reviving state police and giving them lead role in counter-insurgency. Dr Farooq has termed him a visionary and Omar a guide.
