In a bizarre move, the Jammu and Kashmir police have booked the chairman of J&K State Board of School Education and five officials for sedition for publishing an illustration of a"tyrant" who resembles a"policeman" in an Urdu primer the board published for Class 1 students.
The image is an illustration of a man in cap and uniform " resembling that of a policeman " holding a bamboo stick and described as"zalim" (tyrant). The book has been in circulation for a year, but it was only today that the police registered a case against board chairman Sheikh Bashir Ahmad.
"There are many reasons for registration of this case," said Srinagar senior superintendent of police Ashiq Bukhari."This picture is one of them." Asked what the"other reasons" were, Bukhari declined to comment.
On page 51 of the book " which teaches the Urdu alphabet " are words that begin with the Urdu letter Zoi: zaroof (utensils), zahir (visible), zareef (humorist) and zalim (tyrant).
Only "˜zalim"™ has a corresponding picture: of a man in uniform, sporting a moustache with a bamboo stick in his hand.
"The picture doesn"™t identify anybody... It doesn"™t resemble any person from the (security) force, it"™s only a graphic", said board chairman Ahmad."In fact, when the police first informed us about this picture, we recalled all the books. We sent special teams to schools to put a black seal on the picture because we don"™t want to hurt anybody"™s sentiments."
"There is misrepresentation of facts in the book," said investigating officer Shailendra Mishra."We have registered cases against six people including the board chairman."