Burning boy of Kashmir

It was a season of spring, Gardens and Orchards were blossoming to its fullest, some of the fruits in the orchid had started to blossom while some of the fruits were at the verge to get ripened. All the orchardists were happy and rejuvenating since it was a productive year for their crop. Activity was high in the field as all the orchardists were busy in spraying pesticides and were taking good care of their crop.

One such orchardist from village Wagub of town Sopore in north Kashmir he had some plants of pears which were ripening and which would have been ready to be harvested in couple of weeks, it is common in Kashmir when a crop especially any fruit crop is in its final stage and ready to be harvested is always vulnerable to theft, also the kids get lured to the delicious taste of fruit. In order to protect the crop from thieves and kids one has to regularly visit the orchard in order to keep an on the miscreants.

One evening when 19 year old son of the orchardist visited his orchard to keep an eye on miscreant, it was getting darker and nobody was in the field as soon as he reached the orchard he found himself surrounded by drunken Indian army personals. These military personals kept hold of him and started beating him mercilessly. The boy was frightened he started shouting for help, as there was no one in the field so he had no help to avail. His voice was so loud that people far away in their homes heard it and they rushed to the orchard after reaching there what they say was shocking and shivers went down there spine.

The boy who was the only son of his farmer father was burning in the middle of orchard. The drunken indian army personals had used gun powder to burn him down. People used cloth to put off the fire but his body sustained 80% burns and he survived for couple of days on ventilator and he revealed the ordeal done to him by the army. Police, media, politicians and UN officials recorded his statement. But unfortunately till date no army personal was booked or convicted in that case. This incident is one of the many human rights violations done by army against the people of Kashmir. Moreover the convict rate of army personals is very low or even negligible because they are protected by draconian law AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act).