BATMURRAN
In last two weeks, the pictures of two toddlers who lost their mothers to stray bullets sent social-media into instant mourning. The first one was from Handwara, where a young mother was killed by what police termed was a stray bullet, leaving behind a crying toddler. The second picture shows a baby girl with a milk-feeder in her mouth, unaware of the fact that her mother was killed by yet another ‘stray bullet’ during an encounter in Batmurran village in Shopian.
PULWAMA
The new wave militancy follows its own set of norms. Usually a new recruit announces his joining by sharing a picture with gun on social media. But in a strange case, police swung into action and arrested Pulwama boy Shadir Gul Wagay, for uploading pictures of Shahnawaz Rashid Wani, declaring him a new recruit to militancy. Interestingly, Wagay worked at Wani’s orchards where the said picture was clicked.
SIACHEN
Love is blind but love for ones nation can be intoxicating at times. In order to score some brownie points, BJP’s MP and actor Kirron Kher tweeted a picture of soldiers braving cold conditions with a message that soon turned out to be a major embarrassment. She wrote: “At Siachen Glacier. Temp -50*c. Respect and Salute to Indian Army”. To Kirron’s disappointment the picture turned out to be of Russian soldiers and not Indians as she tweeted.
DELHI
It was love at first sight for fashion photographer Bharat Sikka when he visited Kashmir first in 2013. Since then he is a regular visitor, but would always with a camera. Come 2017 and Sikka was ready with his photo-book, Where The Flowers Still Grow (which started as a travelling exhibit from Nature Morte, Delhi) Sikka’s photo-book is a collection of austere solo portraits of pheran-clad Kashmiri men whom he describe as “mute witnesses to the convulsions of history”. The book is available at Rs 2600.
QAZIGUND
What could be more empowering than a mobile phone with a video camera? On Thursday evening, when a police officer began assaulting a doctor inside Qazigund hospital for refusing to provide medical opinion in a road accident death case, someone made a video. The officer is seen warning the doctor that, ‘I will see you tonight…’. After the video got viral, quick came an apology from the higher ups.
RAJASTHAN
Zahid Ahmad Bhat, 18, a Class 12 student from Yaripora, Kulgam, went to Jaipur with a truck-load of apples, but came back in a coffin. He was putting up at Muhana Mandi area of the pink city where he was found hanged inside his rented room. So far nobody knows what made this young boy hang himself in such a manner? Despite assurance from Union Home Minister and CM Mehbooba Mufti, Kashmiris are targeted regularly outside the state. A few days back, two siblings, studying in Bangalore were allegedly assaulted by locals for not speaking Kannada.
