Srinagar: The army allegedly beat up a group of nomadic tribals on Saturday (July 26) in the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir’s capital Srinagar on charges of shielding suspected militants, The Wire has learnt.At least four victims, identified as Mohammad Liyakat, Mohammad Azam, Showkat Ahmad and Abdul Qadir, all residents of Rajouri district, suffered injuries of various degrees in the thrashing, which was allegedly led by an army official of the 50 Rashtriya Rifles.The official is in charge of a new base camp that has come up in the Dhagwan area in the higher reaches of Srinagar in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.Terming the incident a “grave violation of human rights”, ruling National Conference lawmaker from Rajouri’s Budhal constituency and tribal leader Javed Choudhary, who is in contact with the victims, demanded action against the guilty.“The administration should immediately register an FIR and rein in the forces responsible for these recurring atrocities against innocent tribal people. This pattern of intimidation and violence against tribal communities must stop,” Choudhary told The Wire, adding that the community will launch a mass agitation if the perpetrators are not punished.The Wire could not immediately verify the name of the army official who, according to the description provided by the victims, sported long hair and used a heavy wooden cane to beat up the tribal people.The army’s Srinagar-based spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel M.K. Sahu could not be reached for comment.Srinagar’s senior superintendent of police G.V. Sundeep Chakravarthy said that the police were trying to get in touch with the alleged victims, who are reportedly on the way to the capital city.“It is a very far-off area. Once our team gets in touch with them, we will have clarity on the matter,” he said.Dhagwan is a high-altitude geographical barrier where Srinagar’s Zabarwan range of mountains and the Lidder valley of Anantnag district meet. It has dense vegetation comprising pine and cedar forests, glacial water streams, deep ravines and steep mountains spread over thousands of hectares of land.The area serves as a summer home for nearly 200 families of the nomadic Gujjar and Bakkerwal communities, the poorest of the poor in Jammu and Kashmir, who graze their herds of sheep, goats and other livestock in the mountain pasturelands circling Kashmir during the summer and migrate to Jammu before the onset of winter.Three victims who spoke with The Wire over phone alleged that they were segregated into two groups, of which one group comprising 10-15 men were “beaten up like animals”, while others received minor thrashing.The victims claimed that two army soldiers held the victims by their arms while the superior official thrashed them “without showing any mercy”.Recalling the ordeal, Liyakat said that a group of soldiers came to his seasonal home on Saturday morning, saying that “sahab” was looking for him. He said that when he reached the camp at around 1 pm, around 40 other male residents had gathered outside it.The army official accused the tribal men of having information about militants and providing them food. He also issued an ultimatum to the residents to vacate their homes within two days.Speaking with The Wire over phone, Liyakat said that the officer accused him of sheltering militants who have turned the higher reaches of Kashmir into a dangerous battleground by inflicting heavy casualties on security forces in the years after the reading down of Article 370.Security agencies have been carrying out massive searches in the girdle of mountains surrounding Kashmir amid fears of infiltration by militants after the four-day-long Indo-Pakistani conflict in May this year.“When I rejected his allegations, he said ‘Go to Pakistan and get them [militants] from there’. Why will I go to Pakistan? He said ‘our people have died in Pahalgam’, but what have we got to do with it?” Liyakat said in a weak voice over the phone.Muhammad Yusuf, who received a minor beating, claimed that he pleaded with the army official to let go of Liyakat as he was going to be surgically operated on next week. He said that the officer didn’t listen and thrashed him anyway.“Now my second leg is also broken,” a distraught Liyakat said. “I can’t even stand up and go to the bathroom. They should have shot me there instead of putting me through this ordeal.”Dhagwan is also a haven for trekking enthusiasts and mountaineers as it connects Srinagar with the Dachigam national park, the Wasturwan meadow, the Overa wildlife sanctuary and Pahalgam.According to security agencies, the area has been used as a transit route by militants in recent years to move from south Kashmir into Srinagar.Following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, the victims said that the army set up a new base camp in the area. “We carried the wooden logs and other materials on our backs for the base camp. We do their work and serve them tea whenever they like. This is how we have been paid back,” said Yusuf.This is not the first incident where the army has faced accusations of using violence against the tribal people of Jammu and Kashmir, who have come under an intensifying political and security spotlight following the reading down of Article 370 in 2019.In December 2023, three members of the Gujjar community were allegedly tortured to death, while many others suffered grave injuries when the army launched an operation in the Poonch district of Jammu division, which has emerged as a militancy hotspot since 2019.The army had set up a court of inquiry with regard to the torture allegations. A brigadier and three other officers were removed from the command of the army camp where the tribal civilians were tortured.On November 20 last year, four civilians were detained for questioning in connection with a militant attack in the Kishtwar district of the Chenab valley in the Jammu region; they were allegedly tortured in custody.The army had ordered a probe into this matter also, but it wasn’t immediately known whether any action was taken against the alleged culprits.Zafar Choudhary, a Jammu-based senior political analyst, said that the Gujjar community was having a “strong feeling of either being specifically targeted or not being factored in as worthy of consideration as a human stock”.“If the authorities think the exclusion of this community with a strong feeling of alienation and injustice was their political objective, then they have almost achieved it. If there is a case of rogue elements colluding with political interests at isolated smaller levels, then an all encompassing legal, administrative and political process must take place towards confidence-building, keeping in view overall strategic and security interests as specific to Jammu and Kashmir,” he said in a post on X.