Pakistan: Kashmiri boy's photo draws strong reaction

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) - A photo showing a 3-year-old Kashmiri boy sitting on his grandfather's body that went viral on the social media, drew strong reaction and anger from the top Pakistani leadership and public.

Sharing the photo of the little boy, Pakistani President Arif Alvi slammed the Indian government, and said: "Modi's fascist India kills innocent civilians even for raising slogans for liberation of Kashmir".

"The lament of this 3 yr old boy sitting on the chest of his killed grandfather must be heard by the world & then a soldier stands on body of g/father. Heinous, Criminal, Cruel," Alvi said on Twitter on Wednesday.

The president shared another photo showing a security personnel standing on the dead body.

Quoting the mother of the child, Alvi said that according to the boy's mother, her father was pulled out of the vehicle only for raising slogans for libration from India.

On Wednesday, a 65-year-old civilian was killed in the Indian-administered Kashmir who, according to his family, was killed in “cold blood” by government forces in the region, which the police rejected as “baseless” and “fabricated” claims.

According to the police, the deceased, identified as Bashir Ahmad Khan, 65, a resident of the Srinagar, and an Indian paramilitary personnel was killed when militants attacked the armed personnel deployed in the Sopore district early Wednesday.

The family of the deceased said he was killed in front of his 3-year-old grandson, adding he was brought down from his car and then was shot by the armed forces.

But a senior police officer in the region, Javaid Iqbal, rejected family’s allegations that the forces shot Khan dead.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also expressed anger over the incident, and termed it "cold blood" killing by the Indian government forces.

"3 year old child sits on his grandfather's lifeless, bullet ridden body in the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. This is the real face of Modi’s fascist India. #KashmirBleeds," Qureshi tweeted.

- Parallels drawn with Syria's Aylan Kurdi

The Chairman of Special Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Shehryar Afridi questioned the silence of the world after the photo of the 3-year-old boy went viral.

"Syrian kid was found lying dead to wake the world from slumber to feel pain of Refugees. Today another 3-year-old kid has been captured by Indian Army in Kashmir after [the] killing [of] his maternal grandfather. Where is response of developed world? humanity is bleeding in IOK [Indian Occupied Kashmir]," Afridi said.

Sharing the video of the little boy, Afridi said children are little angels they never lie.

In 2015, Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian toddler, while trying to cross to Europe, drowned off the coast of Turkey, and washed ashore a Turkish beach, spurring an international outcry.

"The statement by this Kashmiri child whose grandpa was yesterday murdered in #Sopore, Indian Occupied #Kashmir, is an FIR [first information report] against fascist Modi & his racist thugs. World needs to act now b4 its too late," he said, tagging a video on Twitter to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN secretary-general and the US president.

Pakistani journalists and public also criticized the Indian security forces for the killing of grandfather of the child and said the photo is heart breaking.

"Heart breaking picture. A 3 years old kid sitting on the dead body of his father who was killed in Sopore area of J&K by Indian security forces this kid was later rescued by a policeman but who will provide him justice?," Hamid Mir, a senior Pakistani journalist asked on Twitter.

A prominent analyst and educator Mohammad Ibrahim Qazi said the victim’s son claimed that witnesses have seen the Indian military exchanging uniforms with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir police killing the elderly person while in custody.

"This is the real face of Hindustan Army in Occupied Kashmir, in fact it is the real Hindustan that has killed innocent Kashmiris in front of the children." Qazi wrote on Twitter.