[Assam] Amarnath martyrdom stokes passion

[Pradip Kumar Datta]

Amarnath martyrdom stokes passion 

Simmering Hindu 
anger
>From Khajuria S. Kant in Jammu

The lull that had descended in Jammu after a 10-day-long spell 
of shutdowns and curfews was broken on July 23 with violent protests after 
Kuldeep Kumar Dogra allegedly committed suicide to protest the government’s 
‘inaction’ on the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board land row at the place of chain 
hunger strike. 

The chain hunger strike organised by Shri Amarnath 
Sangarsh Samiti (SASS) against revocation of forest land transferred to the 
Amarnath Shrine Board. He made an emotional speech and recited a poem to the 
gathering, saying the revocation of the land transfer order to the shrine board 
had driven him to desperation. He said he was ‘sacrificing his life for the 
cause’, and fainted soon after finishing it, an eyewitness said. 

Dogra, 
35 who had allegedly consumed poison before making the speech, fell unconscious. 
He was taken to a hospital where the doctors declared him dead. According to the 
suicide note found in Dogra’s pocket, he was upset about Omar Abdullah’s remarks 
in Parliament on July 22 that Kashmiris would die but never give up their forest 
land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. 

Soon after the news of suicide 
spread, hundreds of people took to street to protest against the Government. 
Samiti unanimously decided to call for Jammu bandh on July 24 and extended it 
upto July 27 in protest against the death of a youth who committed suicide by 
consuming poisonous substance. 

Undeterred by the curfew and agitated 
over the government’s alleged failure to restore land to the shrine board, 
people in several parts of this winter capital city and its suburbs held protest 
demonstrations and blocked the Jammu-Pathankote and Jammu-Srinagar national 
highways in protest against Omar Abdullah’s remarks in Parliament. 

The 
protesters were raising slogans against Governor N.N. Vohra and National 
Conference president Omar Abdullah, whose effigies were burnt at various places. 


The situation became tense early on July 24 when at 2.30 am some cops 
both men and women led by Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Bakshi Nagar, 
Mohan Lal Kaith descended on the hunger strike venue Parade Ground where Shri 
Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti had kept the body of Kuldeep Kumar Dogra. The 
cops allegedly lifted the body from the venue on the pretext shifting it to the 
native town of the deceased and put it in a police vehicle. 

The Samiti 
leaders and the family members of the victim including his wife who were present 
on the spot resisted the police move to shift the body. This led to scuffle 
between the police and those present on the spot. The cops, family members 
alleged, used force on those present there. They resorted to cane charge, 
dragged the family members, relatives and Samiti leaders into the police buses 
after bifurcating men and women. The bus carrying the men was shifted to unknown 
destination while the vehicles carrying the body and the women including the 
wife of the deceased were driven to the cremation ground at Bishnah where some 
cops had already made arrangements for cremation of the deceased. 

The 
cops allegedly laid the body on an already prepared pyre at around 3.30 am and 
despite resistance of the female family members, the cops consigned the pyre to 
flames. 

Shilpi, wife of the deceased Kuldeep Kumar Dogra alleged police 
put the body on the pyre despite my repeated resistance and tried to set it on 
fire by throwing kerosene oil and liquor”, she alleged, regretting that even the 
lady police Inspector didn’t allow her to even see the face of her husband last 
time. “We requested the police not to cremate the body in the predawn hours but 
the cops did not accept our request. They snubbed all the women present at the 
cremation site and hurriedly consigned the body to flames”, she maintained. 
Shilpi, displaying the marks of torture, threatened that she too would end her 
life at Parade Ground if action was not taken against police officers and cops 
responsible for giving inhuman treatment to her husband’s body and family 
members on July 23, night. 

The priest of the nearby Ram Bagh Temple 
where a religious function (Jagrata) was going on observed some people cremating 
a body at the cremation ground, he raised hue and cry and also made announcement 
from the temple loudspeaker. The youth who were present in the religious 
function rushed to the cremation ground while the other villagers who woke up 
after the announcements followed them. Seeing the people rushing towards the 
cremation ground, the cops fled from the spot. The villagers extinguished the 
fire of pyre immediately using water and brought out the body, they said. The 
body suffered burns at toes and some part of the face by the time it was brought 
out. Some of the villagers chased the cops while others set ablaze the police 
vehicle in which the body was shifted to Bishnah near the cremation ground. 


Irked over the police action, the people caught hold of four cops when 
they took refuge in a house near the cremation ground. The cops were subjected 
to severe thrashing by the mob. The mob tore off their uniforms, removed their 
caps and canes and set these ablaze. 

The body was shifted by the people 
to Mahajan Sabha Bishnah. Hundreds of locals gathered at Mahajan Sabha. Some of 
them moved towards the Police Station Bishnah and started pelting stones on the 
cops. The handful of cops, who were present there, hid themselves inside the 
Police Station to save their lives. However, the additional troops were rushed 
to the spot from District Police Lines (DPL) Jammu and Kathua. 

The cops 
took positions at various places in the town and the protestors clashed with 
them. The ding dong battle between police and the protestors continued at 
various places within the town till 1 pm. The protestors set ablaze tyres in the 
middle of the road and also raised several road blockades. 

The situation 
remained tense in the town till the cremation took place in the afternoon at 
1.30 pm. The army also staged flag march in the town at noon. 

Thousands 
of people from all walks of life including several politicians attended the 
cremation. 

Dogra’s death re-ignited protests in Jammu. His cremation 
fuelled the agitation in Jammu division, defying the curfew restrictions the 
protests broke at several places when the news of the whisking away of the body 
spread like wild fire. The protestors burnt tyres and effigies of National 
Conference president Omar Abdullah. 

There was virtually no locality in 
the city where the people joined by women and children didn’t take to streets 
shouting slogans against Governor N.N. Vohra, National Conference president Omar 
Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti. Protesters burnt tyres to block road and 
torched effigies of Vohra, Abdullah and Mufti raising slogans like ‘Bum Bum 
Bhole’ and ‘Kuldeep Dogra Amar Rahe’. The people were demanding stern action 
against police officials responsible for desecrating the body of Dogra. 


Jammu has been reeling under a spell of shutdowns and curfews since July 
1 when the government cancelled its May 26 order of allocating nearly 40 
hectares of forest land to the SASB. 

The shrine board manages the annual 
Himalayan pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir, at an 
altitude of 3,888 metres, dedicated to lord Shiva, one of the Hindu trinity. 


The government was forced to cancel the order following massive protests 
in the Kashmir Valley, which were triggered by fear and widespread perception 
that the land would be used for settling non-locals to change the 
Muslim-majority character of the Valley. The government’s reversal of the 
decision helped the Valley protests die down but Jammu erupted.