Srinagar: Authorities resorted to teargas shelling and lathicharge on Tuesday (September 9) to foil protests in parts of the restive Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir against the detention of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Mehraj-ud-Din Malik.

An ambulance reportedly got stranded on Tuesday as a result of the ongoing situation due to which a two-month-old child who was being rushed to the district hospital in Doda died.

“She was referred from Gandoh to Doda but by the time her family reached the hospital, she had passed away. It is a very unfortunate incident,” Dr Rakesh Bahl, principal of the Doda medical college, told The Wire.

A relative of the victim who spoke with local media outside the hospital alleged that they were stopped by security forces near a bridge on the outskirts of Doda, and despite their repeatedly pleading with the security personnel to let them through, they refused.

“I explained to them that the condition of the child was critical, but they said that they had orders from the deputy commissioner to disallow people from going to Doda. When we reached the hospital, she was no more,” he said, breaking down into tears.

Doda's deputy commissioner Harvinder Singh could not be reached for comment.

Prohibitory orders

After restricting mobile internet in Doda earlier in the day, the administration imposed prohibitory orders under section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) on Tuesday afternoon to prevent the protests against Malik’s detention from spiralling out of control.

The announcement of prohibitory orders was made by policemen in parts of Doda district using handheld public address systems. However, an official order in this regard is awaited.

Section 163 grants sweeping powers to magistrates to issue prohibitory orders and restrict gatherings, although the Supreme Court has ruled that the legislation, which covers offence under section 144 of the old law, should be used sparingly in “extraordinary” circumstances.

Last month, a court reprimanded a senior Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service and former deputy commissioner of the adjoining Kishtwar district for passing a “very arbitrary and illegal” order earlier this year under section 163 of BNSS to clamp down on protests for free electricity in the district.

Despite prohibitory orders, however, thousands of protesters came out on the roads in Doda district and some parts of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday to express solidarity with the jailed AAP leader and demand his release.

Witnesses said that security checkpoints were set up at several places in the hilly district where the supporters of Malik, who has been booked under the stringent Public Safety Act, were either stopped or turned away by the police and paramilitary forces on Tuesday afternoon.

Heavy lathicharge and teargas shelling

At many places in the Chenab valley district, security forces resorted to heavy lathicharge and teargas shelling to disperse the protesters, some of whom retaliated with stone pelting.

A video showed bluish-grey smoke released by a teargas canister obscuring a stretch of Thatri-Gandoh road in the hilly Dunadi village of Doda on Tuesday. A few dozen metres away, hundreds of Malik’s supporters could be seen marching towards a security checkpoint. Spools of concertina wires were stretched across a bridge in the village and Malik’s supporters could be heard urging each other to keep on marching.

In the distance, more than two dozen security personnel armed in riot gear at the checkpoint, who fired the teargas shell, could be seen preparing to handle the situation while some residents filmed the event from their rooftops using smartphones.

Witnesses said that the two sides clashed in Dunadi soon afterwards, during which police and paramilitary forces fired more teargas shells, with Malik's supporters resorting to heavy stone pelting.

It was not immediately known whether anyone was injured in the clash which was going on in the hilly village when this report was filed. Senior superintendent of police Doda, Sandeep Mehta, could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.

Locals told The Wire over phone that similar checkpoints were set up by police and paramilitary forces on arterial roads in Gandoh, Kahara, Thathri, Bhalessa and other AAP strongholds allegedly to prevent Malik’s supporters from joining the main protests in Doda town and its peripheries.

“Only government employees are being allowed to move after their identity cards are checked. The police have been making announcements asking locals to stay indoors,” said a resident of Doda, wishing to stay anonymous.

Some videos shot on Tuesday in different parts of Doda, which have been verified by The Wire, show security personnel resorting to heavy lathicharge to disperse protesters, including women, who came out to protest against the “illegal” detention of their lawmaker.

Witnesses said that a protest was heavily lathicharged outside the office of the district police headquarter in the main town of Doda, where Malik’s supporters had gathered on Tuesday morning and resorted to sloganeering to demand his release.

A video from the scene of the incident showed a policeman landing his baton with full force on a young protester wearing a black tee while other protesters can be seen fleeing, some of them abandoning their footwear, in a rush to escape the action of security forces.

There are reports that Malik’s supporters were involved in a live stand-off with security forces in Thatri area of Doda where security forces were deployed in strength since Tuesday morning to prevent any breakdown of law and order.

A local resident who spoke with The Wire on the condition of anonymity said that the army soldiers from a local camp in Thathri had parked a truck on the Kishtwar-Doda road and they were urging protesters, who are reportedly in thousands, to disperse peacefully.

Several supporters of Malik have been detained during the day while protests were going on in many parts of the district when this report was filed.

This story was updated to reflect the correct gender of the two-month-old child.

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