His mother saw him carry a bat and march towards the playing field, little did she know that his son would not be able to play cricket again. Wamiq, 13 a 7th grader, learning complexities of algebra and geometry, was killed after a teargas canister hit him on the head on January 30th at Gojwara Srinagar just outside his usual cricket field. “He was a very brilliant student”, one of his friends said, “and a very passionate cricketer”. Why was he killed? This question haunts his relatives as much as other fellow Kashmiri’s. His death spewed a large number of demonstration and protests across the valley. Kashmiri’s have a trait that they want to fix the blame on someone so does the government. Who is to blame, Wamiq himself because he came in front of the teargas shell, the stone pelting youth who provoked the police to shoot, the policeman who shot the teargas canister directly towards the protestors or the government who gave a free hand to the armed forces?. It is a question which cannot be answered because each and every one of them is responsible for the death of Wamiq, the government, the police, the protestors. The government suspended the ASI (assistant sub-inspector) who fired the teargas, the separatist groups put the blame on the armed forces, and CM Omar Abdullah said vested elements are to blame. But who is going to explain Wamiq’s mother that she has lost a son and justice is lost in a blame game.
Bob Marley sang “get up stand up, stand for your right, get up stand up, don’t give up the fight”. This is so true in Kashmir and everything is so circular, a person is killed, people protest, protesters are shot at, some are injured some die, again people protest the killings, kids are arrested and sodomised in jails, people protest, police shower bullets again someone is killed and the cycle continues. When will this all end?
Wamiq was only 13, Inayat was 16, and they were too young to die. But in Kashmir that’s not the case, you’re a Kashmiri that proves you are guilty. It doesn’t matter if you are 60, 16 or 7. You cannot give a protestor a death penalty, but this is not the case in Kashmir. Innocents are being killed; they are not even given a chance to prove their innocence. Even animals should not be treated in this manner.
Wamiq’s father would have dreamed a bright future for his son, his dreams are shattered now. The question he wants to ask, when will this end?
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