Kashmir Grieves Custodial Death Of Young Teacher

A shutdown was observed in Kashmir to protest the death in police custody of Rizwan Asad, a 28-year-old school principal, in Srinagar.



While the details surrounding Asad's death are still unclear, the family has called it a "cold-blooded murder".



In a statement on Tuesday, local police said: "In pursuance of a militancy case investigation, a suspect Rizwan Pandith of Awantipora was in police custody. The person died in police custody. In this matter, while following the procedure laid down in section 176 of CrPC, a magisterial inquiry is underway".



The death has brought back memories of custodial deaths in the region in the past.



"Thousands of people have been killed in custody and have been subjected to custodial disappearances in Kashmir. It is not new," Khurram Parvez, a Kashmiri human rights activist, told Anadolu Agency.



"The police in their statement are saying that Rizwan has been arrested for investigations in a militancy-related case, as if that makes his killing any less heinous. How could he die there in two days of detention? That is the question and they are not saying anything about it," Parvez added.



The last such death took place in 2016 when another school teacher Shabir Ahmad was beaten to death by Indian army in Khrew area of south Kashmir. The police had registered a case against the army personnel; the investigations are still on in the case.



"Nothing comes of these cases, these probes ever. Since 2008, 108 inquiries have been ordered to probe various human rights violations. These inquiries have not led to a single prosecution of armed forces' personnel," Parvez said.



Citing UN figures, the recent U.S.'s annual human rights report said there has been no prosecution of armed forces personnel in the nearly 28 years since the armed conflict started in the region.



Asad's family said they expect no justice from the system and from those who were responsible for the death of their son.



"We know the fate of other probes," Mubashir Pandit, brother of Asad, said when asked about the inquiry ordered into the case.



Pandit said that justice for the family would be a death sentence for the "killers of his brother".



- Who was Rizwan Asad?



Before he was arrested on Sunday night by unidentified men accompanied by policemen from the local police station and a day later announced dead, Asad was a school principal with scores of young people who looked up to him.



Many of those students gathered at Asad's home in Awantipora for their teacher's body to arrive and shouted slogans for independence and clashed with the heavily-armed Indian forces.



Asad, with a master's degree in Chemistry, was the principal of Sabir Abdullah Public School and also a guest lecturer at the polytechnic college of Islamic University of Kashmir.



Asad was arrested for the first time in August 2018 under the Public Safety Act, termed as "draconian" and "lawless law" by Amnesty International, that allows armed forces to imprisoned any person in Kashmir for up to two years without a trial.



"The court had quashed my brothers imprisonment after two months, finding it without any basis, but even then the police didn't release him for another two weeks," Pandit said.



Recalling the Monday night raid, Pandit said the armed forces locked the women in one room and the men in another.



"They ransacked everything, they took our phones and laptops and then they took our brother too. He was an innocent man," he said.



The family says that they heard of Asad's death from the media and that the police did not even convey to them about his death.



Asad died in the headquarters of Special Operations Group (SOG) of the police in Srinagar, Indian media reported citing sources.



Condemnations



Condemnations started pouring in following the death of Asad in custody, with Kashmiri politicians calling it a "gross human rights abuse."



"I had hoped custodial deaths were a thing of our dark past. This is an unacceptable development & must be investigated in a transparent, time-bound manner. Exemplary punishment must be handed out to the killers of this young man," Omar Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, said in a Twitter post.



Another former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said in a Twitter post the Indian government's "repressive approach leaves young educated men vulnerable who are forced to take up arms."



The pro-independence leadership called for a shutdown and said the incident has once again revealed the situation on ground in Kashmir.



"Distraught at the brutal custodial killing of young Rizwan Ahmed of Awantipora. The brutal killing once again exposes the, helplessness, vulnerability and insecurity of the lives of Kashmiri's as impunity to the authorities keeps rising," said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, one of the pro-independence leaders.



Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.



Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.



Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.



Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.



According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989. -