A 12th standard student Irfan Ahmad Bhat was arrested by police this week allegedly for his activities on social networking website Facebook.
Bhat is said to have created a Facebook profile with the name Kalekharab (hot headed) where he posts messages espousing separatist cause or supporting stone pelters.
Bhat was later released, however police denied that he was detained for his online activities. They said he was being questioned for stone pelting.
Facebook emerged as a popular forum among youth in Kashmir, especially during the unrest months, with youth posting rebellious messages. A number of groups and pages on the site, often under fictional names to avoid police scrutiny, are popular with Kashmiri netizens, where they exchange messages. During the curfews and shutdowns in summer, netizens would update the pages with news from their localities.
Police made a few arrests in summer trying to counter the growing rebellion on the net. Mirwaiz south Kashmir Qazi Yasir was booked under PSA for “instigating stone pelting” through his Facebook profile.
Analysts say that while police is unable to counter the rebellion on Facebook, it is trying to scare them off by arrests and brief questioning.
When a video showing Kashmiri boys being paraded naked by security forces in an unidentified location appeared on Youtube and Facebook in 2010, police reacted by registering a case against the internet companies.
Government sidelines JKB
The state government has entered into an agreement with the Reserve Bank of India under which the central bank will be the banker of the state, a position held so far by the state owned J&K Bank.
A statement issued by the RBI said that under the agreement, which shall be effective from April 1, 2011, the RBI will carry out the general banking business of the J&K government and act as the sole agent for investment of Government’s funds.
The statement added that on the recommendation of the state government, it has entered into an agreement with J&K Bank whereby J&K Bank would act as an agent of the RBI, for conduct of general banking business of the State Government.
The RBI has already been acting as a debt manager to the state government since 1972.
Analysts say the latest agreement indicates state’s financial integration with the rest of the union as J&K was an exception that was conducting its business directly with the bank in which it owned 53 percent shares.
Under the existing system, the RBI as regulator and the central bank of the union is taking care of the official businesses of most of the states excepting the J&K. So far, J&K bank was acting as the debt manager, an agency bank and as a development bank – a position that was in commensuration with J&K’s distinct position in the union.
The decision is said to be an outcome of efforts by the Omar Abdullah led government to reduce the outgo on interest on account of overdraft. The new system will fetch J&K government comparatively low cost loans from the RBI. Insiders suggest that the central government may offer some one-time grant to the state government to liquidate its over draft with J&K Bank. Thirteenth Finance Comission has suggested a one-time special grant of Rs 1000 crores to the state government for managing its surging OD.
Meanwhile officials in the government as well as the J&K bank are denying that the new agreement will have any adverse impact on the bank, or the state’s financial system.
Keep politics aside
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, made a brief visit to the Kashmir Valley this week.
Sekaggya who visited Kashmir as part of his 10-day-long India visit on the invitation of government met with government officials and some people from the civil society including human rights activists.
She told reporters n Srinagar that she would report to the Human Right Council of the UN about the situation in Kashmir including human rights violations in the Valley. She also promised to recommend measures to improve the ground situation in the state.
She met Parveena Ahanger of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, Pervez Imroz of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, members of Bar Association, families of summer unrest victims and the families of 2009 Shopian alleged rape and murder victims.
Back in New Delhi Segakkaya made an appeal for repeal for the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the Public Safety Act, which she said was arbitrarily applied at the national and state levels in J&K and in the Northeast India.
She also advised India to keep politics with Pakistan on the J&K situation aside and instead take up issues “about the people” and begin the “healing process” as people in the state “have been suffering for many years.”
In her preliminary report, released to journalists, she also said: “I am troubled by the branding and stigmatisation of rights defenders, who are labelled as Maoists, terrorists, militants, insurgents, anti-nationalists, members of the underground.”
