South Asia Human Rights Journalist Association

Srinagar, Thursday, 18 Jul 2013: Indian paramilitary forces have killed at least eight civilians and injured 42 others when Border Security Force (BSF) troopers fired at protesters in  Ramban district this morning.
The people were protesting against involving troops in a religious seminary in Kashmir. desacceration of the Holy Quran and assalting of worshipers  at Gool area of Ramban, police say.
The firing incident took place in Gool, some 50 kms from Ramban, by the troopers of BSF camp of 76 Batallion when the protesters were demanding action against troopers who had forced their way into an Islamic seminary.
Troops fired on protesters who had gathered outside a Border Security Force (BSF) station on Thursday in the district of Gool, 230 kilometres south of the main city of Srinagar, two police officers said on condition of anonymity.
"It is mayhem. Six are dead and dozens injured. The death toll could rise further," said one officer earlierly. Protesters clashed with troops over an incident on Wednesday evening in the seminary attached to a mosque in Gool, witnesses said.
The death toll in firing has reached eight with the succumbing of critically injured protesters in police firing in Gool - a remote area of Ramban district.
Even as large number of people left home with the dead bodies after the BSF firing at Dadham, thousands are still protesting at the carnage site. Entire district administration is at the spot and emotions are running high. Dg police has also reached the spot.
A citizen from the area told Kashmir Life that the toll is already up and has reached up to nine. The locals said that it may still increase. “There are lot of rumors but I am sure not less than nine people have died but it will take a bit of time for me to collect the names,” the citizen who wishes not to be named said. “Apart from Shan, there is Abdul Latif, a resident of Dadham, Farooq, a resident of Banihal who is an operator with the railways and at least two cops who were part of the protest while in civvies.” The citizen said the latest to breath last was Shahbaz Mirza.
"As the news spread, people came out in protest, which continued throughout the night," one protester, Mehjoor Dar, told Reuters news agency. Another protester, Ghulam Nabi, said about 5,000 people had gathered outside a BSF camp and the force opened fire.
There was no possibility of crosschecking this information with the police. Nobody is picking up the phone. It includes almost everybody from SP to IGP Jammu range.
Interesting part of the crisis is that residents asserted that the firing took place when Deputy Commissioner was present on spot along with most of the police officers deployed in the area. “It sounds strange that it still happened,” he said. “I think, injured might be more than 25.”
Top police officers in Srinagar said they have told about six deaths so far. “Since it does not fall in our area of responsibility, we do not have anything latest to offer,” one officer said.
"It is mayhem. Six are dead and dozens injured. The death toll could rise further," said one. Protesters had gathered outside the Border Security Force (BSF) station to demonstrate against an incident involving troops at a mosque on Wednesday evening, witnesses said.
The troops had entered the mosque in Gool to complain about the loud recitation of prayers by worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan, the witnesses told AFP.
Worshippers gathered outside the security force station from early Thursday to protest at the incident. "The BSF soldiers fired indiscriminately, downing protesters left, right and centre," one witness who declined to be identified told AFP by phone from the nearby village of Dharam.
Forces fired at the protesters killing six of them. Initial reports said that four people have died, but sources told Kashmir Dispatch that two more died while being taken to a hospital. 
People of the area said that BSF personnel forced their entry in to Darul Aloom at village Dharam, Gool some 25 Kilometers from district headquarter Ramban last night and they (BSF Personnel) attempted to desecrate the Holy book Qur’an and beat up the local religious preacher yesterday.
Sources said that hundreds of people took to streets early Thursday morning against an desecration of Holy Qur’an and beating of a local Masjid Imam and head of Daral-Ul-Aloom, Qari Shabir Ahmad late Wednesday evening at Dadam, Gool in Ramban.
Qari Shabir Ahmad, head of Dar-ul-Aloom Kanzal-ul-Iman said over phone that a BSF party last evening at 11:30 pm entered Madrasa Jamia Noora where they beat up students on the pretext that militants were hiding in the Madrasa. “Abdul Lateef the caretaker of the Madrasa told the BSF party that there were no militants in the building on which they beat him up ruthlessly alongwith other students. They also desecrated Holy Quaran,” he said.
Qari Shabir said that when people heard about the incident they came on roads in the morning to protests against the incident. “However, the BSF personnel in presence of DC and SP fired upon the peaceful protesters in which six of them were killed and dozens others injured,” he added.
Qari Shabir, said, "They beat him up... That is when Abdul Lateef (the caretaker) raised an alarm and people started to assemble and the word spread," Shabir told AFP by telephone from Gool.
As the protesters headed towards Srinagar-Jammu Highway, the BSF personnel opened fire on them resulting into death of six persons and injuring 42 others. However, there were also some reports that eight people have been killed.
The six persons who were killed have been identified as Farooq Ahmad, son of Ghulam Ahmad of Salballa Gool, Javid Ahmad (a 4th class student), son of Abdul Salam of Goie Dharam Gool, Muhammad Latif, son of Abdul Rashid of Jamlan Dharm and Manzoor Ahmad Shan (a lecturer of Higher Secondary School), son of Abdur Rahman of Gool, Mohammad Amin and Nissar Ahmad.
Witness said that while people were protesting; a Sub Inspector of Police Station Sangal Dam, Muhammad Afzal Wani opened indiscriminate firing on them, killing four of them on spot.
When contacted Deputy Commissioner Ramban Sham Vinod Mena, said that four persons have been killed and several others were injured in a firing incident. “I, along with other senior officers including DGP, am on job to handle the situation and we are trying to ascertain the facts,” he said.
Soon after the news about the causality spread in the area, there were more violent protests and the angry people tried to burn down some complexes of Deputy Commissioner (DC) office and SP office and set on ablaze a gypsy during a demonstration in the district, sources said.
Witnesses said that they had gone to the office of the Deputy Commissioner where they were provided wrong information about the happening in Gool. We were told nothing had happened, they said.
They said that the locals became violent after learning casual approach of the administration and  ransacked the property in the office of the DC Ramban and burnt the gypsy. "We had received many a calls from Gool informing that four people were killed and over 40 injured, after Deputy Commissioner ordered opening of firing on the protesters, this morning,” the locals said.
They said the protesters also blocked the strategic Jammu-Srinagar highway at some places.  Hundreds of vehicles were stranded in Ramban - Banihal, after thousands of protesters blocked it at various areas of the district. Traffic police officials said for precautionary measures all Jammu bound vehicles have been stopped at Qazigund. “Traffic will be allowed to ply only when the situation becomes normal,” a Traffic official said.
Following the deaths and desecration of Holy Qur’an, many parts of Jammu region including Gool, Sangaldan, Ramsoo, Batote, Chanderkoot , Banihal shut down as a mark of protest. Parts of Kashmir Valley also observed a spontaneous shutdown against the incident.
Protesting the killings, shopkeepers brought down shutters in Kashmir's city centre Lal chowk after the news of the killings became viral. Loudspeakers in Jamia Masjid urged people to observe shutdown.
Reports of clashes were also reported from many parts of Kashmir Valley including Palhallen, Pattan, Sopore, Baramulla, Maisuma, Nowhatta and Pulwama.
Massive stone pelting was reported from Srinagar, Palhalan in North Kashmir. The tense situation in valley led to spontaneous shutdown in major towns and Srinagar City. Huge deployment of forces was also reported. Clashes were going on when this report was filled.
Kashmir Bar Association staged a protest against the incident and took out a march in Lal Chowk. Srinagar city observed a complete shutdown after the news of killings and discretion and killings spread.
Stone pelting incidents were reported from Kulgam, Dooru, Verinag, Gojwara, Nowhata and Maisuma. At Maisuma in Srinagar one policeman was critically injured after he was hit by a stone on his head. He was identified as Selection Grade Abdul Aziz (322) from 3rd IRP Battalion.
Meanwhile, mobile Internet services in the Kashmir Valley were snapped following the Ramban incident amid apprehensions of a backlash. All the mobile Internet connections stopped functioning late this afternoon as the news about killings and desecration of Holy Qur’an went viral. Although, no reason has been given for snapping the services, it is believed that the step was taken to stop Internet.
Omar Abdullah condemned the incident. "It is highly unacceptable to shoot at unarmed protesters just because they were reportedly protesting manhandling of an Imam of their area," so-called Chief Minister Abdullah said in a statement.
"We have imposed curfew in Ramban district as a precautionary measure around 5.30 PM today", District Development Commissioner (DDC), Ramban, Shan Vinood Meena told PTI. Curfew was imposed tonight in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir following violent protests and resultant firing.
Injured Eyewitness from the Ramban firing admitted in the SMHS hospital Srinagar named Nazir Ahmed 
Occupation: Works with railways said The BSF personnel picked up Holy Quran and ripped them off and threw them under their feet. With their boots on they created havoc inside the Quranic School late night at 10:45 pm. The caretaker of the school was reading Quran when he was beaten up and mercilessly dragged outside. Then when the news reached the people they could not tolerate this, it was painful to even hear it. People gathered to protest against this highhandedness of BSF which is in the area to protect the railway lines. It was shocking that they started to fire indiscriminately at the crowds of people without any consideration. The public had assembled and there was sloganeering going on and it was not tolerable for Muslims, but there was no violent instigation or anything from people’s side. After sloganeering, they sat down peacefully outside of the BSF camp, and then they started firing at the people. The police was present in huge numbers, we were terrified to see their numbers and they are equally responsible for the blood bath. The police knew from the beginning that the locals want the BSF sitting in those quarters guarding the railway lines must leave the area. If they have done this to our Holy Quran, we (locals) will never let them stay in our area. Police responded to us by saying that ‘BSF has left the area’. This happened before some of the people wanted to go to the BSF quarters to check if they really have left and in retaliation the BSF opened fire indiscriminately on them and then on all of the others.
I was one of the people heading towards the BSF bunker outside the quarter and the BSF personnel started to shoot at me, I ducked down and the person behind me received a bullet in his abdomen.  As much as I could see, there were four BSF men outside and a whole contingent inside the barracks. The local police did not do anything, they looked on while we were being beaten and killed.
We were a procession of around 5000 people and then we ourselves helped lifting up the injured and the dead bodies. No one came to our help. Sham-u-din Giri, who is a local leader, gave us his own car to rescue many of us. His personal car actually worked as our ambulance and even water and amenities carrier. The local construction company helped us by sending their ambulances but local police did absolutely nothing at all? I saw with my own eyes the DC said to the BSF, “Kill them! There is no problem as many of them die, it doesn’t matter.” Nine people were killed and their bodies are piled at the police station and around forty people are injured. The DC is from outside Kashmir and he started this killing and the SP, I heard said that it is not his mistake, it is the mistake of  puppet Minister from that area, also an so-called MLA and he has given an green signal to him for killing the people.
He said that they don’t want any compensation but justice and freedom from India.
Another injured Mohammad Amin Wani who is an operator in Mechanical Division in Islamabad told media men in Srinagar hospital that they register protests peacefully. It was chaos and we were injured in that terrible situation. I was injured and referred here after 7:30 PM in the 18 July evening.