Braid chopping continues, two more incidents reported 

Srinagar: At least two more incidents of braid chopping were reported from Ganderbal district of central Kashmir on Sunday evening.

According to reports, braids of two teenage girls were cut in Rabitar and Narayanbagh villages of the district on Sunday evening. The victims were shifted to the nearby hospital for a checkup and later discharged.

Pertinently, in the last two weeks, nearly 40 women in the Kashmir Valley have found their hair grabbed and chopped off, often while in or near their home. Most of the cases took place during the day or in the evening, according to the police, which says the women have refused, despite filing complaints, to offer details of the attack or clues that could help identify the offender.

Six lakhs is now being offered as a reward for any information on the braid-chopping, blamed by separatists and locals on security forces who they say are using the forced hair-cuts as an intimidation tactic.

To prevent panic and misreporting and self-styled vigilante groups who have begun rounding up and attacking people they randomly identify as the attacker, mobile internet services were cut off in the Valley for over 5-6 hours today as protests were held by separatists after Friday prayers. However, it is likely to be restored by evening.

Pertinently, protests over rising incidents of braid cutting have pushed the Kashmir Valley on the edge. In south Kashmir today a protest demonstrations was taken out in Seer Hamadan area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district aganist braid chopping incidents.

In afternoon, scores of women from Kakapora area of Pulwama district staged a protest demonstration in main-chowk Kakapora aganist increasing braid-chopping incidents.

Meanwhile, in summer capital Srinagar Police used force to disperse protesters, mostly women, demonstrating against unabated braid-chopping incidents in the Kashmir valley. An eye witness said that police resorted to teargas shelling and cane-charge to break up protests in Batmaloo.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.