Cricket bat material suppliers from Halmulla of South Kashmir’s Anantnag have alleged that armed forces personnel burnt their raw material and beat them merely for possessing Pakistani cricket bat brands’ stickers.
A raw material supplier, wishing anonymity, told The Kashmiriyat that on Tuesday, at around 11 a.m., the army entered the shops, beat them, and burnt all the raw material.
“We have scars all over our body. And this happened merely for possessing Pakistani cricket bat brand stickers including CA, BOOM, MB Malik, etc.,” he said. “We faced a loss of about 4-5 lakhs,” he told The Kashmiriyat.
The supplier told The Kashmiriyat that the security force personnel also took their phones and transferred some phone numbers of some of the sticker makers from Meerut and Jalandhar into their own phones.
Another supplier, wishing anonymity, told The Kashmiriyat that the armed forces personnel only burnt the Pakistani brand stickers. “We have Indian brand materials, as well, but they did not touch that,” he said.
The Kashmiriyat contacted PRO Defence, Col. Emron Musavi, and enquired about the matter who said that the shopkeeper had burnt the stickers on their own in order to avoid investigation by the police, since the bats had ‘Made in Pakistan’ stickers.
“On 28 Dec 21, certain shops at Halmulla, Sangam, were displaying Pakistan made bats. These bats, though locally sourced, had stickers of “Made in Pakistan” on them. The shopkeeper burnt the stickers owing to their own violation, to avoid investigation by the Police,” Colonel Emron Musavi said.