Contractual lecturers protest govt ‘indifference’, get batons

Nishwan Rasool:

Dozens of contractual lecturers of different degree colleges in the Kashmir valley received injuries as police resorted to baton charge on them while they were protesting against the government indifference towards their demands at press enclave here.

The lecturers were holding a protest demonstration demanding increased salary and regularisation of services.

“We were trying to hold a peaceful demonstration for acceptance of our demands but police resorted to stern baton charge,” Ameen, a contractual lecturer said.



He further added, “We hadn’t done anything wrong. We are only raising voice for our rights, but our voices are always being suppressed with force.”

The lecturers, having Masters degrees and holding Ph.D are paid ‘not more than Rs 8000 per month, while a regular 4th class employee’ earns up to Rs 15000 per month in the same degree college, he alleged.

“Is this justified in a democratic state?” he asked.

Chanting vociferous slogans against the government 'mismanagement', the teachers were demanding a ‘smooth and transparent process of promotion’ when they were baton charged.

“Even woman lecturers weren’t spared and were brutally thrashed and manhandled by the police,” said another lecturer who wished to remain anonymous.




“When political magnates take out rallies and disrupt traffic for 3 hours, the state machinery does nothing, but when it is about teachers or any other sector we are met with force,” he added.

In colleges in the summer capital here, an estimated 80 per cent of the class work is affected due to the strike, given the workload shared by the contractual staff.

Around 650 contractual lecturers have been on indefinite strike since Monday. They are demanding revocation of the nomenclature, terming them academic arrangement lecturers and teaching assistants instead of contractual lecturers; monthly stipends equivalent to the basic salary of the post on which they are engaged; and end to new norm of six classes per day.

When contacted, the president college contractual teachers association (CCTA), Fayaz Ahmad, said the strike was being observed with commitment. He hinted that there was no possibility of calling off the strike soon.




“There has been no response from the government. Therefore, the strike will continue,” he said.

Asked about the government response, he said: “So far we have not received any invitation for negotiations.”

'Opertaion Blue Tossed' ,Trouble for Politicians and Babus

Nishwan Rasool:-

Joint Consultative Committee (JCC), an amalgam of government employee unions, here, ‘has threatened to launch a campaign aimed to uncover the massive bungling by bureaucrats and politicians by disclosing their undisclosed assets’.

Termed as ‘Operation Blue’, Qayoom Wani, Employees Joint Action Committee (Q) told Kashmir Dispatch, “We have the monetary information of all the politicians and the bureaucrats of our so called democratic state, and if our demands would not be fulfilled within a given deadline we would divert all the information to media and central government.”


Wani said they would go ahead ‘with the unraveling of the illegal assets of the politicians and bureaucrats’ if the government failed to meet their demands by August 6.

Thousands of employees on Monday on the call of JCC had gathered at Exhibition crossing in the heart of the city and started marching towards the nearby Civil Secretariat in the afternoon.

The JCC had announced “Secretariat Gherao” and threatened to intensify the agitation if the demands of the employees were not met immediately.

Police used baton and water-canons against the protesting employees. Many among them were detained also.

Stating that yesterday’s act as “brutal and undemocratic”, Khursheed Alam member JCC said, “The state has always used its forces against the poor and destitute employee who are pushing for their genuine demands.”



Both the employee leaders have now asked their members from the three divisions of the state not to attend offices on August 5 and hold sit-in protests outside their offices on August 6.

After prolonged agitation till May last year, the employees had called off their strike after the assurance by the government and cabinet sub-committee that their demands would be fulfilled in due course of time.

The demands included release of arrears in cash in favour of the retiree employees, enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60, regularization of about 50000 ad hoc and other temporary employees, and redressal of pay anomalies in different cadres.



Both the leaders have demanded chief minister, Omar Abdullah to immediately address the employees’ demands.

Child unsuccessfully operated thrice in 30 days at SMHS

Nishwan Rasool:

In a case of alleged negligence, a three-year-old child was operated thrice after repeated failed surgeries by different doctors at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS), hospital here. Azhar Jan, 3, daughter of Fayaz Ahmad of Handwara was operated for appendix by a doctor at the SMHS hospital here on March 14, this year, her father Fayaz Ahmad said.

After surgery, the girl child was kept in the observation ward for the next ten days. However, the condition of the child deteriorated.



The doctors at the hospital told the family that the baby has to be operated once again.

On March 24, Azhar Jan was operated again. The surgery was performed by another doctor.

“The doctor told me that the operation was successful. He said my daughter needs to remain under observation for two days, before she could be taken home,” Ahmad said.

However, he said his happiness to see her daughter recuperating did not last long.

Hours after the surgery, Ahmad said, blood and septic started oozing out of her wounds.

The alleged failed surgery, Fayaz said, shattered the family.

He said the head of the department on March 30 visited the ward where his daughter was recuperating.

Ahmad said asked him to take an undertaking as the doctors decided to go for another surgery.

“The third surgery failed as well. More than the much needed medicare, my daughter was made a scapegoat. The doctors experimented with her,” he alleged.

The doctors, he said, did not even stop after the third surgery. He said he was asked by the doctors that his daughter has to go another surgery on July 5.

“I’ve just lost faith in the doctors. They won’t rest till my daughter is dead,” he said.

Ahmad said that he sold his land to meet the expenses for the treatment of his daughter.

However, he said not only economic loss, but the family has undergone psychological trauma due to the alleged negligence of the doctors.

Lecturers boycott classes, students suffer

Nishwan Rasool:

The face-off between state government and the contractual lecturers is affecting education of many students studying at various graduate colleges across the Kashmir valley. The contractual lecturers are on an indefinite strike and have boycotted the classes as Government ‘has failed to fulfil their long-pending demands’.

Many classes at almost every college have not been going on from last three days – since the strike began.

“Class work remained suspended as the contractual teaching staff, which is a major workforce in the colleges, stayed away from teaching,” says Khurram Ahmad, a student at Sri Pratap College here.


For students covering long distances, the strike has added to the inconvenience. “We cover a distance of almost 70 kilometres from Srinagar to Baramulla and since last three days the classes are not taking place,” says Ifra Shaikh, who is pursuing Bachelors in Computer Application at Women’s Degree College, Baramulla in North Kashmir.

Ifra, who is in the third year of her graduation, feels teachers must realize that very less time is left to prepare for final examination. “If the strike goes on it can really prove perilous for our future,” she says.

In all the major colleges in Srinagar, unaware about the ongoing strike, students were seen outside the classes waiting for teachers.

“We, don’t know what exactly the problem between the government and the teachers is, but, in this tug of war students are the sole sufferers,” says Hamid Ali, who is pursuing graduation at Valley’s oldest institution- Amar Singh College.

Students particularly in the final years of their graduation are finding it hard to comprehend as for three successive years colleges during summer have hardly functioned.

“My graduation has been affected by something or the other. First the Amarnath land row which was followed by Shopian rape and murder case, the last year civil unrest and now the indefinite strike,” says an engineering student Munsheeb Shah.

“I can count my attendance on finger-tips for the number of times I had lectures in last 1095 days,” he says with an evident sarcasm.

But the fears of students are too little for the community of contractual lecturers, 'whose woes have hardly been tendered by the government'.

At least 850 lecturers working in various colleges are demanding revocation of an order of the Higher Education that asks them to teach 150- 200 students.

These teachers believe the order is against the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms and had rendered 1100 of their colleagues jobless.

“The workload circular has reduced a teacher’s job to that of a Munshi (record-keeper) as we have to teach 150 to 200 students which is a gross violation of UGC norms,” says a contractual teacher Mohammad Wasim.

The teachers believe that the government’s decision has forced them to go on strike. “We have been observing silent protests, wearing black arm bands in colleges and submitting appeals to the principals, but the government did not comply with our demands,” says Tanveer Hussain, a contractual teacher.

A solution if not reached fast could put career of many students in jeopardy, he remarks emphatically.

Fun dive that turned fatal

Nishwan Rasool:

Last Friday when people in adjacent areas of City Centre here were going to offer Friday prayers, Shakir Bhat, 15, stopped in the middle of the footbridge that connects the Bund with Raj Bagh locality. Accompanied by a friend, the teen from Tyndale Biscoe School was about to do the impossible – he was going to jump into Jehlum. The lads were joined by other friends at the footbridge. “Initially there appeared chaos, we tried to stop them,” says one of the Shakir’s friend.



Two boys from Biscoe School watch Jehlum waters from the spot where Shakir jumped on Friday last

Perhaps, he had second thoughts, but the other boy who set out with Shakir to jump from the bridge had dived moments before jumping from the dangerous spot.

Shakir’s friends asked him not to jump. “We shouted at him not to jump but a group of girls who were passing by egged him on” says the friend.

Despite being a dangerous stunt the boy who had jumped before him had credentials to do so, he says.

According to his friends the applause prompted to alter his decision and jump into the deadly river never to return again.

While Shakir’s relatives continue to camp at the site of incident, his classmates are finding it almost impossible to comprehend the loss. He is remembered and missed every moment. In his class room- 10th Red, the third desk as one enters- where Shakir would sit has been left empty. Even his close friends have been shifted to another section of the class.



But that hasn’t helped. “We start the day thinking when will his body be fished out and we sleep with the same thoughts,” say his friends who spend time waiting at the banks after the school gets over.

Shakir’s classmates, who shared a bench with him, remember him as a ‘person with a good heart’, endeared to everyone who knew him.

“Seven days have passed, but the episode is still roving in our minds, it is our worst nightmare,” say Shakir’s friends.

The shock and despair on their face is far too evident even after eight days of the incident. “He always used to carry lunch from home, which we stole,” says a close friend.

The students are angry at the lack of interest shown by the school. “When the principal’s son got married, we had a week long holiday. But when one of our classmates drowned, no one is even bothered to talk about it,” the students say.

Their anger hasn’t found a vent. About four days ago a solidarity rally arranged through social networking site was scuttled using repressive measures. “As we came out of the school, the police team intercepted and prevented us from taking out the rally. The students, including girls offered stiff resistance and tried to move to footbridge, where Shakir's family is camping for the last eight days,” says a student.

“We had arranged a peaceful solidarity rally but police, chased and beat us outside the school, they even didn’t leave the students of 5th and 6th class they were also beaten,” Omer a student adds.

“We received batons and abuses for holding a solidarity rally. Is this what we call a justice and a democratic state,” he questions.

They believe that the government is not taking the search operation seriously and see it just as a river-rafting exercise. “At the end of the day they come out with perplexed faces after cleaning the garbage from the river,” says a disgruntled student.

Stating the act as imprudent, a senior staff member at Tyndale Biscoe school was told after the incident by some students, “12 students were planning to jump from the footbridge on the same day to see who among them could swim fastest to the banks. However, the unfortunate incident acted as a deterrent for them.”

He expresses need for a rescue point to be set up near the bridges as most drowning incidents occur there. “More they delay in doing so, lesser are he chances of salvaging the lives of people,” he says.

Faheem Bakhtoo is a former student at Biscoe School. He has been watching the rescue operation since the incident took place and he seems visibly disappointed. “I believe that the government hasn’t taken their jobs seriously. It looks as if they are enjoying boat rafting there,” he says.

The strategy employed by various rescue teams from different departments is to create whirlpool in the river by moving boats in circular motion and putting hooks.

However, experts say that such strategies are faulty when applied in a moving water body like a river.


Abdul Ahad (name changed), an official of the State’s Water Transportation Department feels that such incidents could be prevented but lack of resources rescue are major constraint.

Ahad says that Kashmir has Asia’s two biggest fresh water lakes and three major river and the resources deployed to guard such mammoth territory is miniscule.

It is pertinent to mention that the river rescue team has not for the first time failed to fish out the drowned. Recently, Omar Farooq, 10, who drowned after a pack of stray dogs chased him in Old City, was fished out by locals in Sumbal in North Kashmir after 23 days.

In such cases locals living near the banks are informed about the drowned person. Ahad says, “Identification and contact details are given to people living along the banks of Jehlum in North Kashmir and are asked to inform the relatives if the body comes up.”

However, the state administration claims that they are well equipped to carry out such rescue operations. “We have a sufficient number of boats for the operation. But we need professional water divers who could search below the water and would be good enough to use the underwater equipments,” says Amir Ali, Officer on Special Duty at Divisional Commissioners office.

He says, “We are trying our level best to find out the body. We are hoping to fish out his body at the Chattabal Weir.”

Biscoe Students 'thrashed' for solidarity Rally

Nishwan Rasool :

Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday used batons to quell ‘solidarity rally’ of the students for the family of drowned student of a missionary school in Lal Chowk area, here.

Scores of students of Tyndale Biscoe and Mallinson school early this morning assembled near Lal Chowk and tried to take out a rally to express solidarity with the family of tenth standard student, Shakir Ashraf Bhat, who drowned in river Jhelum on Friday.

As the students came out of the school, eyewitnesses said a police team intercepted the students and prevented them from taking out the rally. The students, including girls offered stiff resistance and tried to move to Lal Mandi, where the family of the drowned teenage student has been camping for the last four days.

“We had arranged a peaceful solidarity rally today. Police, however, chased and beat us outside the school,” a student, identifying himself as Omer said.

“We were also beaten by police near the footbridge,” he added.

On Friday last week, Shakir and his friend Sheikh Suleman jumped into river Jhelum after they allegedly entered into a bet. While Sheikh successfully swam across, Shaker son of Mohammad Ashraf Bhat of Nowgam, drowned.

Another student wishing not to be named said that many students were injured in the police action.

“We received batons for holding a solidarity rally. Is this justice,” he asked.

The angry students also lashed at the response of the administration over the incident.

“When the principal’s got married we had a week long holiday. But when one of our classmates drowned no one is even bothered to talk about it,” a student said.

Meanwhile, police refuted the allegations and accused the students of indulging in stone pelting.

“The students tried to hurl stones and we had to bring the situation under control” a police official said.

Aalia Sheikh/Pics-Nishwan Rasool:

“They started entering houses and shooting people at point blank range,” Ghulam Qadeer Baig recalls that fateful day of May 21, 1990, which is remembered as Hawal massacre in the collective memory of Kashmiris. The killings by the Border Security Force troopers took place on a day when people were participating in the funeral procession of Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq.

Ghulam Qadeer’s brother-in-law, Farooq Ahmad Baig, son of Mohammad Abdullah Baig, was among the 67 people killed in the Hawal massacre – one of the worst massacres in Kashmir’s recent history.

“I still remember it like it was yesterday,” Qadeer recalls. “How could I forget it? We were helpless and at the mercy of those who had come to kill us,” he says and then lapses into a melancholic silence. Clogged by memories that come back to haunt him, he needs these pauses to recollect his thoughts.

His wife, Parvaiza, chips in when her husband fails to express his pain. “My brother was one among the people killed that day,” she says. He was participating in the funeral procession of Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq. “He was just paying his respects to a dead man,” she says. “Why did they have to kill him?”

Recounting the events of that day, she says, “On hearing gun-shots, many people ran and hid themselves in a neighbour’s house. I was one among them. That is why I could not see my brother being killed.”

Casting a longing glance at the picture of her brother, Parvaiza is torn between the consolation of not having to bear the sight of her brother being shot in front of her eyes, and the regret of not being able to see him alive for the last time.

Although Ghulam Qadeer has survived that horrific day, he hasn’t been able to come out of it without scars. He says the BSF troopers entered his neighbour’s house and shot him and his son, and then their house was set on fire.

The troopers next barged into Basheer Ahmad Baig’s house. “They killed him and his two sons,” says Qadeer. “His wife was also shot in the chest, but she survived along with their third son.”

The names of the victims and the number of people killed that day may change, but there’s one common feature in all the memories of survivors: troopers barging into people’s homes and shooting civilians, and not even sparing women and children.

“My son, who was ten years old then, was also shot at by the BSF troopers,” says Qadeer. “But thanks to Allah, the bullets missed him and hit the wall behind him,” he says. “The troopers also came towards me. I was sitting in this very room, with my young daughter in my lap,” he recalls sitting in his room. One of the troopers placed the barrel of his gun on Qadeer’s chest. “But he eventually changed his mind and did not shoot me,” he says.

Parvaiza’s sobs are the only intermittent sounds in her room. The silence that fills the room is deafening. Abdul Farooq’s mother, Makhta Begum, 60, enters the room.

“They came and snatched him from my arms. The troopers followed Farooq Ahmad right from the procession to his house. When he came in, his mother held him close to her chest -- to protect him. “He was shot in front of me,” Makhta Begum recalls that day when her son was killed. She recounts that day in a matter of fact tone, as if she is bereft of all feelings and emotions.

Later, the Beig family went to the Nowhatta police station and lodged a complaint against the troopers. “One of the BSF trooper’s cap fell in our home. The name inscribed on it was Pokhla. We took it to the police station and lodged a complaint against the trooper,” says Qadeer. But the trooper was suspended from duty only for six months.

Pokhla’s suspension could not bring them justice. If anything, it made their lives even worse. “We complained in the hope that he would be jailed and justice would be done to us,” says Parvaiza. “But they only suspended him for some time,” she says. “He was living in the area around our house and we did not want to face the consequences of standing up against a trooper.”

The family eventually had to move out of the locality and shift to Pampore in Pulwama district. They were on the move for about ten years, constantly shifting to Zoonimar and Soura. It cost Ghulam Qadeer his livelihood. “We lost our business and are living like paupers now,” says Ghulam Qadeer whose back problem restricts him from taking up regular jobs.

Eventually, they had to return to their own home in Hawal, where the ghosts of May 21, 1990 still haunt the family.