Administrative breakdown sets Pattan villages on fire
50 injured, 40 structures gutted in sectarian clash; Army takes charge

AHMED ALI FAYYAZ

SRINAGAR, Feb 25: Complacency and administrative failure today led to the worst of sectarian clashes in Pattan area of Baramulla district where more than 40 shops and residential houses were torched by hostile crowds and nearly 50 persons sustained injuries. Government’s failure to resolve dispute over the name of a village square in the last three months has led to sectarian tension even as Army moved in with a flag march, enforced prohibitory orders and restored order to a level late tonight.

Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, told Early Times that a team of Ministers and officers---comprising Minister of Rural Development Ali Mohammad Sagar, Minister of Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir, Minister of Animal Husbandry Aga Syed Ruhullah, Advisor to CM, Mubarak Gul, and Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda---would visit the worst affected villages in Magam-pattan belt in the morning on Friday with efforts to resolve the crisis and ensure that no more damage was caused to life or property of the residents.

Informed sources said that an administrative vacuum, which was created with the sudden transfer of DC Baramulla, Lateef-uz-Zamaan Deva, and his replacement by an inexperienced Additional DC of Bandipore last month, today led to a major sectarian clash in Hagarpora, Kongamdara, Ahmedpora and Maharajpora villages in Pattan-Magam belt. Notwithstanding the remarkably swelling tension over the name of the village square at Hagarpora-Kongamdara, authorities did nothing to resolve the crisis in the last three months. Earlier, flames of the sectarian strife had been successfully doused by District administration and Police in December 2009.

Sources said that even the other day, Police intelligence had reported to the Government that people of a particular village had purchased 40 knives and a sectarian clash was imminent. Authorities are understood to have ignored all these reports till a volcanic eruption of the sectarian tension today. Police moved in only after more than 20 structures had been gutted and equal number of peoples from both sides had sustained injuries.

Eyewitnesses said that there was tremendous resentment against SDPO and SHO Pattan for moving Police only for the support and protection of a particular sect. They said that at least four residential houses of the two warring sects were torched by the crowds when DC Baramulla, Bashir Ahmed, was personally present in the locality. He drove out of the village after a mob attacked his escort vehicles. In all, 40 shops and residential houses of Hagarpora, Kongamdara, Ahmedpora and Maharajpora perished in the flames as these were set on fire by the warring groups. Sources that more than 50 civilians sustained injuries. A resident of Kongamdara, namely Ghulam Hassan Mir S/o Ghulam Rasool Mir, received 16 stitches into his head after he was stabbed by an unidentified youth with a knife in his head. Doctors described him as “stable” and said that he was responding to treatment at SKIMS.

Tension increased as some of the media organizations—particularly the Urdu channel of a Hyderabad-based media house---continued with the ‘breaking news’ of a resident’s death in the clashes. Officials confirmed devastation of 25 shops and 7 residential houses in the riots but maintained that no fatal casualties had been reported from any of the affected villages in Pattan area. However, independent sources asserted that 50 people sustained injuries and 40 structures gutted in the inferno.

Reports from Pattan area said that vehicles fitted with PAS were seen moving in several villages, including the highway passing through Police Station of Pattan, while announcing that one person had been killed and places of worship of a particular sect had been torched. According to these reports, Police remained a mute spectator till residents of Sari and adjoining villages swarmed for ransacking two more villages on Pattan-Tangmarg Road.

After witnessing the Police inaction in Pattan and its partisan role at the flashpoint, authorities called in Army that conducted a flag march, imposed curfew in about 30 villages in Pattan-Magam belt and restored a level of order till late tonight. Chief Minister said that three of his Ministers, one of his Advisors (Mubarak Gul) and DGP Khoda would visit the area and interact with representatives of both the sects in the morning on Friday. He said that the forces would infuse a sense of security among the residents and ensure that there was no more damage to their life or property.

DCs and SSPs of Baramulla and Budgam districts, besides Divisional Commissioner Naseem Lankar and IGP Farooq Ahmed were asked by the Government tonight to camp in Pattan-Magam belt and leave no stone unturned in defusing the crisis. They have been directed to constitute a joint committee of both the sects to resolve the controversy over the name of a village square at Kongamdara-Hagarpora.

Meanwhile, DC Srinagar, Meraj Ahmed Kakroo, and SSP Srinagar, Javed Riyaz Bedar, today visited Khushipora and Aban Shah villages in Zainakoot outskirts of the capital city today and succeeded in resolving another clash over a shrine. Both sects of the Muslims have been laying claim over the shrine, insisting that the saint buried there belonged to their respective sects. Sources said that representatives of both the sects would attend a meeting with the authorities on March 31 and hammer out a solution to the dispute.

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