By Jehangir Ali
Srinagar: Two Kashmiri shawl sellers were harassed by a suspected Hindu rightwing activist in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday (1 February) with the police allegedly refusing to file an FIR in the case.
A video of the incident which circulated on social media shows an elderly Kashmiri man identified as Mohammad Ramzan, a resident of Kupwara district, carrying a sack of shawls on his back and walking towards a market in Nurpur of Himachal’s Pradesh when he is intercepted by the accused.
The second victim is also a Kupwara resident named Ashiq Hussain Gojri.
The video shows the perpetrator running a live broadcast of the harassment on Facebook using a smartphone, despite objections by Ramzan who appears annoyed and tries to avoid him, repeatedly pleading to let him go while the accused follows him towards the market.
“We are poor people,” Ramzan tells the man sternly but looking tense, “Why are you harassing us? Don’t you have kids? Are we not Indians? We believe in brotherhood. You may be a bigger Indian but we are also Indians”.
However the accused cuts him short and blames Ramzan for threatening the army in Kashmir and betraying the Kashmiri Pandits. He also demands Ramzan open his sack of shawls.
“Where was your brotherhood when Pandits left Kashmir?” the man says in a threatening tone, ordering Ramzan to produce his “permission” letter for doing the shawl business.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
