Locals accuse man from Haryana of eve-teasing, ask him to leave village
Army men allegedly ransacked the Kulpora village in Kulgam district here and thrashed dozens of villagers hours after a non-local was asked to vacate the village.
Villagers said that a non-local from Haryana, Ram Lal, was turning out to be an eve teaser and an indecent person after a couple of years of his stay in the village.
“Besides, the locals had inputs that he worked for the Army and informed them about stone pelting youth and other activities in the village,” sources in the village told Kashmir Post.
After repeated complaints against Ram Lal some Panchayat members Wednesday evening confronted him and asked him to leave the village.
Lal however abused the Panchayat members and threatened them of dire consequences.
“We had gone to the local police station to get an FIR registered but were turned away from there as well,” said one of the Panchayat members, requesting anonymity. Later in the night at about 11:30 PM several Army men from the nearby 9 RR camp of Ashmuji visited the village and thrashed several villagers apart from smashing window panes of the houses and cars parked in the village. Announcements were made from mosques and the villagers were asked to assemble to confront the Army men. “Our standing against them infuriated them further and they brought in further reinforcement from their camp. They kept beating and threshing us throughout the night,” the villagers said. Women, children and elderly men alleged that they were beaten mercilessly.
Dozens of people showed their wounds to media men today. The villagers said not only local houses even mosques were not spared and people on Aiteqaaf (the 10 day Masjid stay) were also thrashed.
The people of Kulpora and some adjoining villages today assembled and blocked Anantnag-Kulgam road for several hours forcing the civil and police administration to take note. SP Kulgam, Muhammad Irshad, told Kashmir Post that there was an altercation between a non-local and some locals.
“The Army came to the rescue of the non-local and in turn faced violent stone throwing in the village. It was chaos after that in the village,” Irshad said. Army spokesperson, N N Joshi, termed the allegations baseless.
