Srinagar:
''Stone-pelting is the alternative (for a gun). If we're getting injured, police are getting injured as well. They are facing losses as well. We want freedom.''
This is what a young stone-pelter says. He is part of an army that has been making its presence felt on the streets of Srinagar, taking on security forces in protests that are becoming increasingly formidable.
This month alone, more than 50 policemen and as many civilians have been injured in clashes with stone-pelters. (Read and watch: Stone-throwers strike: Protests, lathicharge in Srinagar)
For the police and the military, this is a new challenge: how to deal with seemingly unarmed and unorganised young attackers, and their unconventional warfare?
The government alleges that the stone-pelters are being financed and guided by Pakistan. ''It's not as if all the stone pelting, that takes place, takes place on ideological grounds. We have sufficient evidence and more is being collected as we speak that there is a deep sort of pattern of the involvement of money, of developing and generating these sort of law and order situations,'' says Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir.
In a mammoth crackdown, in the last month, more than 100 separatists and stone-pelters have been arrested under the Public Safety Act - an Act that provides for two years of imprisonment without trial.
It is in this atmosphere charged with hostility that 16-year-old Zahid Farooq and his friends were jeering at a Border Security Force convoy earlier this month. A jawan allegedly shot Zahid.
A week before that, 13-year-old Wamik Farooq was part of a mob, allegedly stoning the police, when he was killed by a tear gas shell. Now the police have booked the dead student for attempt to murder - a decision that has grossly backfired.
''Now the government will face it. It is forcing us to come on the streets," says Wamik's father, Farooq Ahmad.
Omar Abdullah has been grappling with the issue of human rights violations since he came to power in January 2009.
A fresh cycle of stone-pelting and violence in the Valley couldn't come at a worse time. The Opposition is already gunning for him.
''There has been a policy of bullet for bullet, but for the first time the state has adopted a policy of bullet for stone, which is unheard of, and it is alienating and angering the Kashmiri youth even more,'' says Mehbooba Mufi, People's Democratic Party Chief.
Now, the stone-pelters have called for a four-day strike. And as they took to the streets on Monday morning, a photojournalist was injured.
On the streets where they operate, the stone-pelters have a questionable reputation. A Srinagar doctor accuses their demonstrations of delaying ambulances and causing the deaths of a hundred patients.
Other critics say that they posture as unarmed helpless people trying to oppose subjugation, but their violence is calculated.
But pro-separatists call stone-pelting a new face of resistance against New Delhi.
Ironically, the most visible support has come from the High Court Bar Association. ''They are resistance forces. Don't give them any other name. We at the Bar Association convened a meeting of all separatist parties wherein a resolution was passed that the word stone pelters has been coined by the government," says Ghulam Nabi Shaheen, the General Secretary, High Court Bar Association.
This is what a young stone-pelter says. He is part of an army that has been making its presence felt on the streets of Srinagar, taking on security forces in protests that are becoming increasingly formidable.
This month alone, more than 50 policemen and as many civilians have been injured in clashes with stone-pelters. (Read and watch: Stone-throwers strike: Protests, lathicharge in Srinagar)
For the police and the military, this is a new challenge: how to deal with seemingly unarmed and unorganised young attackers, and their unconventional warfare?
The government alleges that the stone-pelters are being financed and guided by Pakistan. ''It's not as if all the stone pelting, that takes place, takes place on ideological grounds. We have sufficient evidence and more is being collected as we speak that there is a deep sort of pattern of the involvement of money, of developing and generating these sort of law and order situations,'' says Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir.
In a mammoth crackdown, in the last month, more than 100 separatists and stone-pelters have been arrested under the Public Safety Act - an Act that provides for two years of imprisonment without trial.
It is in this atmosphere charged with hostility that 16-year-old Zahid Farooq and his friends were jeering at a Border Security Force convoy earlier this month. A jawan allegedly shot Zahid.
A week before that, 13-year-old Wamik Farooq was part of a mob, allegedly stoning the police, when he was killed by a tear gas shell. Now the police have booked the dead student for attempt to murder - a decision that has grossly backfired.
''Now the government will face it. It is forcing us to come on the streets," says Wamik's father, Farooq Ahmad.
Omar Abdullah has been grappling with the issue of human rights violations since he came to power in January 2009.
A fresh cycle of stone-pelting and violence in the Valley couldn't come at a worse time. The Opposition is already gunning for him.
''There has been a policy of bullet for bullet, but for the first time the state has adopted a policy of bullet for stone, which is unheard of, and it is alienating and angering the Kashmiri youth even more,'' says Mehbooba Mufi, People's Democratic Party Chief.
Now, the stone-pelters have called for a four-day strike. And as they took to the streets on Monday morning, a photojournalist was injured.
On the streets where they operate, the stone-pelters have a questionable reputation. A Srinagar doctor accuses their demonstrations of delaying ambulances and causing the deaths of a hundred patients.
Other critics say that they posture as unarmed helpless people trying to oppose subjugation, but their violence is calculated.
But pro-separatists call stone-pelting a new face of resistance against New Delhi.
Ironically, the most visible support has come from the High Court Bar Association. ''They are resistance forces. Don't give them any other name. We at the Bar Association convened a meeting of all separatist parties wherein a resolution was passed that the word stone pelters has been coined by the government," says Ghulam Nabi Shaheen, the General Secretary, High Court Bar Association.
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