‘Braid-chopping’: Mob tries to set challenged youth afire

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 20

A mob in a north Kashmir town thrashed and attempted to set ablaze a deranged youth on Friday morning on the suspicion of his being a braid-chopper, the police said, as the region struggles with violent vigilantes who see strangers as potential suspects.

The incident in the fruit mandi area of Sopore town, 50 km from here, is a terrifying turn to the vigilantism caused by the alleged incidents of braid-chopping which have resulted in unprecedented fear in the region. Superintendent of Police, Sopore, Harmeet Singh, told reporters that the police responded to information that a mob had caught hold of an alleged braid-chopper and found that “they were trying to burn him”.

“We dispersed the mob, rescued the boy and took him to hospital. We also found that the boy was mentally unsound and would roam around villages,” the Superintendent of Police said, adding the youth was in a critical condition after being severely beaten up by the mob.

The video of the incident showed the youth being questioned by the mob about the modus operandi of braid-choppers and later forcing him to sit on burning hay.

The injured youth has been identified as Wasim Ahmad Tantray, a resident of Shakwara village. The police said they had registered a case and also identified the culprits involved in the incident. “The mob had also tried to “run a tractor over him”, the police said.

It’s the second incident in two days where a mob has attempted to cause severe injury to a suspect. In Srinagar on Thursday, a mob had tried to drown a man who they suspected to be a braid-chopper. A police official in Srinagar said a mob caught hold of a man who was visiting the Hazratbal mosque, which houses a revered relic. “The violent mob tried to drown him in the waters of the Dal Lake to get his confession of being a braid-chopper, they also tried to lynch him,” the police official said.

More than 70 cases of “braid-chopping” have been registered in the Kashmir valley as police fails to reach a conclusion in its investigations even as it has announced a reward of Rs 6 lakh for information or assistance in nabbing braid-choppers.