Here’s why the Kashmiri woman footballer who pelted stones is staying away from the playground

Football coach Afshan Ashique, who trains 30 women footballers caught media attention when her photo throwing stones at security forces went viral

By: Majid Hyderi |
April 29, 2017 11:56 am

Afshan Ashique, a young Kashmiri woman footballer, who captured the anger of the Kashmiri youth holding her football in one hand while pelting stones in other, caused a stir for her remarks that she aspires to represent India in the game. In an interview to a national daily she said that she was not a stone pelter and that she had to do so as a security personnel had roughted up her friend. Day after the interview, Ashique has taken off from her training centre in Srinagar. Afshan, who trains around 30 girls at Bakshi Stadium and elsewhere in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, is a certified football coach. On a normal day, she is the first the first to make it to the playgrounds, twice a day for morning and evening sessions. “But for the last two days, she was not seen here, something unlike of her as she happens to be very punctual otherwise,” her trainees say.

Insiders say given the controversy surrounding her remarks, the girl was asked by the family to take a break and stay away from the limelight. “The situation in Kashmir is very fragile and she comes from a very respectable family. So to avoid any further controversy her dad has asked her to take a break,” the insiders say.

21-year-old Afshan studies at Government Women’s College MA Road, the institution which has been at the forefront of the ongoing student agitation in Kashmir.

On April 24, after college Afshan and her fellow players were heading towards playground for a practice session when massive clashes were underway in the heart of the city. Mistaking the group of footballers as protesting students, some cops on law and order duty had allegedly bullied one of the girls. Enraged, in retaliation, the entire team of girls started pelting stones on the cops. “But this was the first time and presumably the last that we acted as there were no other options left, otherwise we are not any stone pelter but belong to respectable families,” the girls say.

Sources say as the news about the incident broke out Afshan and her family received “numerous calls from nears and dears that she should have refrained from behaving indecently like stone pelters.” While media person has been making a beeline outside her home trying to seek her reaction, Afshan has been avoiding any such interactions and prefers to be indoor.

But the Jammu and Kashmir Football Association(JKFA) who groomed Afshan says she would be brought back to fields. Appreciating her, the JKFA spokesman says she has played a significant role in promotion of football among girls in Kashmir. “Her role has been commendable and this is something that cannot be ignored and we’ll get her back.” The JKFA says “We don’t know why sports persons are being unduly dragged to politics and as to why sporting activities are being equally politicized for the sake of it to create controversies out of everything.”