SHAKEELA ANDRABI
SRINAGAR: As per the official figures, 10 knife crime incidents were reported in different police stations of the Valley in the last 6 months. The Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a rise in knife crime cases in 2023.
According to police, department is chalking out effective policies and planning strategies to combat the crimes. As stabbing is emerging as a new trend, especially among the young population, it has come to know that in the Month of May, seven cases stabbing were reported across the Valley.
On July 5, a youth was injured after stabbed by two men in Rajbagh area of Sonwar Srinagar, police said the accused jumped into river Jhelum to escape. However, they were arrested by authorities.
Earlier on the eve of Eid ul Adha on June 29, an unknown criminal attacked on a young boy in Nowhatta Srinagar when he was busy in gossip with his friends in nearby park of that area.
As per the official figures one of the shocking incident took place when a self-styled journalist and a social media blogger Asifa Bashir stabbed her fiancé namely Adil Ahmad Kaloo with a knife in the Kak Sarai area of down town area of Srinagar.
The Srinagar police in May apprehended a juvenile in connection with a shocking stabbing incident that left a 45-year-old man dead in the Batamaloo area of Srinagar. The victim, who vehemently opposed his daughter’s relationship with the accused, tragically lost his life after being stabbed multiple times by the accused.
In May, a youth identified as Mohsin Ahmad was stabbed in Baramulla. He survived with injuries to his arm and head. Another youth identified as Sameer Ahmad Magray, a resident of Harduakad Anantnag, was stabbed with a knife.
A man named Adnan Altaf was injured after being stabbed by his friend in the Krangsoo area of Mattan in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. He was stabbed outside his home following an argument with his friend.
In April, the Jammu and Kashmir police arrested Mohammad Iqbal Khatana for suffocating her nine-year-old daughter to death and then slitting her throat with a knife in Kupwara district.
In a scuffle broke out between two groups of school students in Beehama Ganderbal, wherein one student namely Zahid Shabir attacked two fellow students with a sharp object/knife resulting in injuries to both of them
In March, Kaiser Yousuf Zargar of Gowharpora village in Chadoora of Budgam was stabbed viciously to death with a knife by Abid Hussain Dar. A man named Shabir Ahmad Wani was also held for killing a woman in March. It was revealed that Shabir allegedly chopped off the woman’s body into several pieces and buried the parts at different locations to hide the crime.
In view of the crimes being reported in the valley, social activists raise concern over the rising graph of cases.
“Knife crime in Kashmir was never reported before. Now that people are coming forward and reporting such crime is a good step,” he added.
“There are multiple contributing factors to the increase of violent crimes involving edged weapons, which include drugs, poverty, social exclusion, social media and mental illness,” health experts, adding, “Edged weapons are easily available, and this is not going to change, no matter what the law says or will say in the future.
Meanwhile, Kashmir Zone Police appealed to people to come forward and report any such incidents to them and seek their assistance in resolving such issues.