Travelling from her house at Bagh-i-Mehtab to SKIMS Soura in the evening hours of October 2 proved to be an ordeal for Haleema and her husband.
Writhing with a severe abdomen pain, the sense of panic increased when the car Haleema was travelling in was showered with a volley of stones at Chanapora. As Haleema’s husband tried to manoeuvre the car through narrow alleys, a huge rock hit the rare windowpane, resulting in its complete breakage. Haleema’s is not the only case of broken windowpanes. Cars with polythene working as a makeshift windowpane has become a common sight across Kashmir after the rise in incidents of stone pelting and security forces damaging vehicles since July 8.
A service executive of a leading car dealership, at the condition of anonymity said 6000-7000 vehicles in the city have suffered breakage of windowpanes either due to stone pelting or damage caused by security forces.
“These damaged vehicles are of all models and all brands. Either their front/rare wind shield or door glasses have suffered a breakage but all this damage is registered under the insurance cover,” he said. He said due to the continuous strike and government restrictions only a small number of car owners with cases of windowpane breakages have approached this dealership for replacement.
“For availing insurance benefit there is a requirement of furnishing an FIR copy or newspaper report which mentions the stone pelting incident during which the breakage occurred. Now-a-days we are shut for most of the time. Our service centres have been able to service only a few windowpane breakages during deal hours,” he said.
According to the executive, a ‘compulsory clause’ in the motor insurance makes it mandatory for a car customer to pay Rs 1000 for a hatchback (small segment cars) and Rs 2000 for (Sedans, SUVs) for getting “any number of broken windowpanes replaced”. “But in case the broken windowpane is a sealant based glass of the rare and front wind shield, the customer has to pay 50 per cent of sealant cost. This cost is around Rs 400- Rs 500,” he said.
He added: “The door glass comes fully under insurance. The customer does not have to pay anything to get door windowpanes.”
However, not every car owner is able to avail the insurance benefits as they get the windowpanes replaced from local mechanics. A resident of Rangreth, wishing not to be named, had his car windowpane getting smashed while he was travelling to his factory at Rangreth Industrial Estate last week. “I got a broken windowpane fixed on my own. Days after getting the windowpane fixed, my rare window shield was again hit by a stone,” he said.
The steep rise in incidents of windowpane breakage has also led to a huge demand of replacement in the unorganised after-sale service market. A Barzulla-based mechanic said he keeps his workshop open for three to four hours every morning to only replace windowpanes. “At the moment I have almost a dozen orders for new windowpanes waiting to be replaced but meeting every requirement is a tough job amid this unrest,” he said.
When contacted, SSP Srinagar Amit Kumar told Kashmir Post that although incidents of car windowpane breakage have taken place in a “huge number” but most of such cases go unreported, he added. Kumar said police has rounded up many youth accused of attacking private cars.
“There are many cases of damage to cars which go unnoticed since the victims don’t inform us. We have taken cognizance and picked up boys who have been intentionally aiming private vehicles.” Kumar said apart from thickly populated areas, incidents of breakage of car windowpanes have also taken place on bypass and highway.
Innumerable incidents where security forces have been accused of damaging windowpanes, especially of high-end cars had recently gone viral on the social media through photographs and videos. In fact, eyewitness accounts have also revealed incidents where forces have used catapults to randomly aim stones at cars resulting in breakage of the glass. When contacted, Public Relations Officer (PRO), CRPF, Rajesh Yadav told Kashmir Post : “No such incident has come to my knowledge,”. However, he said a probe shall be conducted incase photographic or video evidence of CRPF men breaking windowpanes of cars is provided to him.
“We will be checking into the matter but on the hearsay we will not be able to comment. It needs to be ascertained which security forces were involved in such incidents,” Yadav said.
Apart from private vehicles, several trucks of State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) have also suffered windowpane breakages, said an SRTC official. He said 75 trucks operating for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution ( CAPD) have got hit by stones resulting in damage to these trucks.
“Most of these trucks were travelling on inter-district routes when their windowpanes were smashed. We have put in a requisition with the government for replacing the damaged parts with new windowpanes. The overall damages to trucks would cost around Rs 7 lakhs,” the official said.
Other incidents where windowpanes have been shattered are that of oil tankers carrying fuel to Kashmir from outside. Windowpanes of these tankers have mostly been damaged on the highway. Repeated attacks on tankers and harassment of drivers by security forces on the highway had resulted in tanker union stopping oil supplies for three days to the state during last month.
“The state government has now compensated us with Rs 2.50 lakh for repairing the broken windowpanes. Windowpanes of 700-800 tankers were damaged during three months out of which 250 vehicles were replaced with new windowpanes. We are replacing windowpanes on a war-footing so that tankers ply smoothly and there is no delay in supplies of fuel especially since winter is approaching fast,” said Khair Din Wani, President, Oil Tanker Drivers and Cleaners Union.
