The bone chilling videos showing blood splattered on the floor of Srinagar’s historic Jamia Masjid and pictures capturing the moment when tear gas shells were hitting the central mosque’s rooftop emanating black smoke this Friday are defining in many ways.

These pictures and videos recording what exactly happened in and outside Jamia Masjid, Srinagar, on 25 May,Friday, will definitely haunt the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) forever.

In one of the videos of 30-second duration, a group of elderly Kashmiri women worshippers inside the mosque can be seen covering their faces with a piece of cloth or veil, coughing profusely, running for cover in panic and reciting verses from Koran as the last refuge while the male worshippers, including young and old, too, can be seen running for their lives with slippers and shoes in one hand and handkerchiefs in another, and some falling on the floor in the process.

Another video shot from a mobile phone shows blood stains inside the mosque’s compound.

Greater Kashmir, a local daily published from Srinagar, reported that at least fifty (50) persons including women worshippers were injured.

Attack on Jamia Masjid is an assault on faith

Quoting a doctor at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in Srinagar, the newspaper said that “fifteen youth were received with pellet injuries.”

Worshippers were running for their lives on a day when they had gathered at the mosque with the aim to offer mandatory Friday prayers at Jamia Masjid in the holy month of Islamic calendar, Ramzan.

But what they did not anticipate was the fact that police and paramilitary personnel deployed in large numbers outside the mosque will turn hostile to such an extent that their act of veneration in Ramzan will transform into a bloody day.

Eyewitnesses have accused the government forces of indiscriminately firing pellets and tear gas shells at civilian worshippers, including women, children and elderly.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Srinagar-based head priest and chairman of a faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), in a tweet alleged: “Heavy deployment of Govt forces around #JamaMasjid even in this holy month leading to tension & agitation. Dozens of civilians injured after forces resorted to pellet &teargas shelling! large number of people unable to come out of the mosque. Condemn the deployment and forces action.”

Why did the government need to deploy troops in huge numbers outside the mosque when it had marketed its decision of ‘cessation of hostilities’ during the holy month, which it also wrongly refers to as ‘Ramzan ceasefire’?

Where is the sensitivity and respect for Ramzan when even a Friday is turned bloody by hitting youth with pellets in their eyes?

Where is the respect for Islam, which the ruling PDP invokes each time it has to score brownie points against the people of Kashmir, in Ramzan?

Why is it that this government led by the PDP seems to be in love with the idea of romanticising and glamourising ugly militarisation?

Is this being done deliberately with the aim to provoke impressionable young minds to give Kashmiri youth a bad name as ‘stone throwing youth’ or ‘Islamists’?

A little bit of context and historicity: For many Kashmiri women, a visit to historic Jamia Masjid on a Friday is no less than a pilgrimage.

Those who can’t afford travels to holy Mecca to perform the annual pilgrimage Haj find solace in visiting Kashmir’s Sufi shrines and Srinagar’s central mosque on Fridays.

Why is it that this government led by the PDP seems to be in love with the idea of romanticising and glamourising ugly militarisation?

Apart from an act of faith to attain spiritual richness, the visits to Jamia Masjid and shrines are cathartic exercises, cultural confluences, social gatherings and also a reason for an outing to many females to buy kitchen and home appliances.

The attack on Jamia Masjid is an attack on Kashmir’s faith, culture, social fabric and also an infringement of religious right to offer prayers.

Besides, the brutality unleashed by the government forces is human rights violations, intrusion in privacy, sacrilege of a historic religious symbol and violence against women, elderly and children.

Shahr-e-Khaas Coordination Committee has condemned the brutality and violence perpetrated by the government forces on a Friday and called for a day-long shutdown against this on Saturday.

The videos and pictures showing blood stains, stampede and helplessness of worshippers have since gone viral on social media evoking angry reactions and sharp criticism from Kashmiri citizens.

These videos and pictures shall not be forgotten exactly like that unforgettable picture in which the Indian Army’s notorious Major Leetul Gogoi was seen tying Farooq Ahmad, a Kashmiri civilian, to the bonnet of his jeep during by-elections in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on 9 April last year.

Using Ahmad as a human shield, Gogoi had shamelessly paraded him for several hours through various villages to inflict long- lasting psychological pain on the young man.

The videos and pictures showing blood stains, stampede and helplessness of worshippers have since gone viral on social media evoking angry reactions and sharp criticism from Kashmiri citizens.

Be that as it may, the police version of the Jamia Masjid episode is pathetic to say the least.

“700 to 800 miscreants assembled near the main gate of Jamia Masjid and again started heavy stone pelting on the forces. However, forces showed utmost restraint and some ammunition was used to disperse the miscreants and hence minimal force was used to control the situation,” it said.

So, according to J&K Police, nearly a thousand people are ‘miscreants’. And in using ‘minimal force’ they injured 50 civilians and hit 15 with pellets. All of this is akin to fighting a war against people and then giving them a bad name.