Protests over death of youth in police custody in Gilgit city
Photos and report by Farman Karim Baig
Gilgit, June 27: Violent protests have erupted in Gilgit after the death of a young person detained by the police, allegedly due to police torture. Hundreds of people started a procession in the morning from Ghari Bagh, came to Hunza chowk, where they burnt tyres and chanted slogans against the administration, the police and the government. Later the procession moved into the NLI market where the protestors smashed windows of shops expressing their anger and frustration at the death of the youth.
According to reports the police had detained a number of young people as suspects in the murder of Anwar Jan, a government employee murdered recently. One of the detained youth died in police custody due to alleged police torture triggering violent protests in the city.
Gilgit has been tense for some months because of various fresh acts of sectarian violence and the resultant detentions by the police.
I am deeply saddened to hear this tragic news.My heartfelt sympathy goes to the family of the deceased.May God give them strength to bear the loss.Its heartening that our youth is being used for such violent acts. Why is our youth unaware of the fact that they are being used by a handful of people for their own interest. We are fed up of these sectarian conflicts.We all are, in the end Muslims and Islam teaches us to be tolerant and patient towards others. Our youth doesn’t need to get involved in such activities. Our youth must understand that we have to play positive role in the society in different ways.For example as a student, it’s our duty to study,getting awared of the happenings around the world,pondering and analyzing the situations because of which the third world countries are suffering and discuss things and ask our elders if something is bothering. But here we need to be careful,our elders are not always right so we must be prudent enough to show flexibility and of course broad minded and if there seems to be some concerns,we should consult the teachings of Islam which gives us the message of tolerance and compassion.Islam teaches us to stay away from evil doings. We, Muslims are blessed people so we don’t need to kill anybody. Our youth have to be flexible in their approach. We shouldn’t be hasty in our approach.Islam teaches peace and love for humanity. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) never initiated a battle or war. Inshort.We, Muslims are against every kind of violence and we condemn such interest oriented act.
Refrence to the first word of third line, “…heartening…” Please note that due to a typo the word “hurting” became “heartening”. I am sorry for this mistake.