SRINAGAR: To all intents and purposes, it was another operation “Blue Star.” This time, it was the Muslim community’s holy shrine; Char are Shrief, located in Charar, a town in the north of Kashmir, reduced to ashes by the Indian army’s midnight mortar shelling, last week.
Based on the government’s briefing, the Indian media on May 12 portrayed the incident as the handiwork of Jammu and Kashmir militants backed by Pakistan but the real picture, started merging soon after. It was evident from the eyewitness accounts that the 535 year old walnut timbered shrine caught fire quickly as a result of army’s firing. In fact, say the local residents, the Indian army preened them from putting out the fire. This version is confirmed also by the local units of the J&K police who say that they, too, were stopped from ‘putting out the fire, by the army. ‘The 15th century shrine commemorates the memory of Sufi Saint, Sheikh Nooriddin Wali, a place revered by the Muslims even more than Hazmabal, The shrine was gutted twice in the past 500 years and was rebuilt each time by the Muslim devotees. Kashmiris are distressed at the possible loss of holy relics kept in the Shrine.
The army failed to accomplish its major aim of capturing or killing the militants and their leader, the Afghan war veteran, Mast Gul, who escaped from the armed siege. Gul speaks Punjabi and hails from NorthWest‘em Frontier Province of Pakistan and is ‘thumbing his nose’ at the Indian armed forces. According to Indian intelligence reports, Gul escaped along with 15 other militants six days earlier.
The Indian army says that the mutants themselves had a plan to destroy the shrine to put the blame on the government and cite the cause of ‘Abdul Aziz, Najar who allegedly protested against the militants plan. But the Chararre sidentsdebunk the theory by saying that Najar was an intelligence plant who had infiltrated into the shrine, Far from being a militant, Najar was a thief and an arsonist. The militants detected his plot and quickly hanged him inside the shrine to teach him a lesson. Farooq Ahmed, a militant, has been quoted by Indian media as revealing that the militants recovered Rs 8000 from the man before he was hanged. The money was given to him by the army for setting the shrine as well as the town on fire: The army had promised another Rs 1 lakh (about $350,000) after he accomplished the assignment.
Ahmed also says Monday had been ‘a busy day, as many residents returned to the town to spruce up their homes for Id, which they were to celebrate on Wednesday. Abdul Rehman Balla’s kirana shop adjacent to the shrine, Mohammed Siddique’ tobacco shop, and those of Abdul Rehman Balla, Saida, Mohammed Ilyas and Ghulam Hasan were all open, he says. That night, say a large number of those who were in town, a helicopter flew overhead at around 7:45. Since its late twilight around that time, there would be enough light to see a helicopter.
They say the helicopter went back and about an hour later another small plane not a helicopter flew overhead and sprayed some powder over their homes. Officials dismiss this as impossible.
The residents insist, though, that the fires erupted wherever the army’s mortar shells landed on the powder (The army maintains that it used no mortar or artillery).
The residents insist and an intelligence officer now confirms that the first fire erupted at 10:30 p.m. that night at the mosque in Bara Talab locality. The fires continued intermittently through the next two days and residents insist that the militants, whom they call “mujahids” helped to fight the fires while the army continued to rain bullets and mortar shells.
Officials maintain that the militants started the fire and prevented firefighting. They add, though, that there were no more than 40 militants there and that these took shelter in the shrine during those first fires.
If that is true, there seems no reason why the army itself could not have helped the people put out the fires and obtain their support against the militants, The desolate residents are full of anguish at all they have lost and would surely have fought anyone who tried to prevent firefighting.
They maintain that it was the firing of the army which prevented the many fire tenders. All they were allowed to do Monday night, they say, was to spray water on the shrine and the adjacent historic Khankah mosque.
Fire service and police personnel also say they were prevented by the army from putting out the fires. A group of firemen from two fire tenders said they had been shut in a room in Gulshanabad locality and told they would be shot if they came out.
They say the militants called out to them over a loudspeaker on Wednesday night, asking fire and policemen to save the shrine and the Khankah, ‘which had caught fire, but they dared not come out.
There is a discrepancy, though, in the time they say this call came, One said 11:30 p.m. another 2 a.m. Like most local residents, they do not want their names to be published for fear of reprisals.
They all agree, though, that the Khankah caught fire soon after 11 that night and the shrine at 2:30 next morning. Some of them also say Khankah had been signed on one side ‘on Monday night too but it was saving until Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses say Mast Gul started bustling his band out of the burning town on Thursday, cling them to take what ammunition they could and return for more if they could.
Most of them apparently got out, through the army siege, because the army claims it recovered 23 bodies but showed media persons five bodies on Friday, which later they handed over to local residents.
It appears those corpses could have been of Charar residents, killed in the crossfire, which were borrowed for the macabre display. ‘Whatever the truth about the disaster Charar last week, the army certainly has much to explain, not least the fact that it took four days to capture the shell of a town from no more than 60 militants even after the shrine their reason while it existed or using kid gloves had been reduced to ashes.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 19, 1995
