People Beat Up Mentally-Ill Man, Try To Set Him Ablaze Accusing Him Of Being Braid-Chopper

Jammu and Kashmir Police have registered an FIR against miscreants for ruthlessly beating up a mentally challenged man in Sopore, close to 55 km north of Srinagar.

According to a Srinagar based police spokesman, the police got intel about a mob beating up a person on the allegation of being a braid chopper. “Immediately a police party rushed to the spot and found that a mob was beating a person ruthlessly. The miscreants had also burnt hay and were trying to set the person ablaze. Some miscreants were trying to run a tractor over him," the police spokesman said.

He said the police rescued the person, who was later identified as Wasim Ahmad Tantray, a mentally challenged man from Puthkhah, Sopore. “He was immediately rushed to the SDH Sopore. The condition of injured is stated to be critical and has been referred to Srinagar. Police have registered a FIR and the culprits involved have been identified," he said.
The police have registered over 110 FIRs of the braid chopping incidents across the Kashmir Valley with 55 cases being reported from the south Kashmir.

“I cannot say what it is. But all I would say that the incidents and subsequent panic in the society have put the security agencies in the very disadvantageous situation. This (braid chopping) thing cannot be done by any security agency as it is going to our disadvantage, in every way. Law and order situation worsens due to this and also all my all anti-militancy operations have been impacted," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, Munir Ahmad Khan, said in a recent press conference.

He said the police are facing problem in investigating the cases. “The police are not getting support from the victims and their families. The investigation couldn’t be held in an effective manner because there is no cooperation, neither from the victim nor from his family. There is too much hue and cry but we don’t get support to carry forward investigation," Khan lamented.

“All we have (is) circumstantial evidence and there are cases which apparently seem beyond the truth”, he said. Khan said the frequent complaint is that the unknown masked men spray some substance on the victims and with it they get unconscious and when they regain conscience they see their braid cut and masked men nowhere to be spotted. Khan calls it a 'mystery.' “To investigate it scientifically we need to take the blood sample of the accused or swabs of their sweat or skin," he had said.