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| Tension prevails, one more killed, 8 injured in fresh firing | | Police, CRPF at loggerheads over Shopian killing | | Bashir Assad
SRINAGAR, Sept 11: Killing of four persons at Shopian on September 7 allegedly by CRPF seems to have once again brought the State and Central forces at loggerheads.
While the State police in a press release claimed that three of the four killed were locals with no history of militancy, a CRPF internal enquiry claims to have found all of them to have had criminal antecedents and the three locals to be linked to a top LeT operative.
CRPF sources also said jawans had no option but to fire at the youths as they were being fired at. Four persons were killed when CRPF personnel opened fire to repulse an alleged militant attack at Gagran in Shopian town, 52 km from Srinagar, on Saturday. The killings sparked protests in the south Kashmir district as locals accused the CRPF of killing four innocent youths, prompting authorities to clamp an indefinite curfew on the town to restore calm.
The Jammu and Kashmir police press release earlier identified all but one of the four slain youth as locals "with no antecedent of militancy". The fourth youth has been identified as LeT's Abdullah Haroon "based on evidence collected and subsequent verification". Haroon has also been linked to an earlier attack on CRPF personnel in Arwani and Awnera areas of Shopian where militants had snatched weapons from jawans.
The other three have been identified as Tawseef Bhat, Mohammed Sofi (both from Shopian) and Tariq Mir (from Kulgam). CPRF sources, however, said their enquiry revealed that the slain locals had criminal antecedents and at least one of them was booked under Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act twice.
Sources also argued that recovery of a pistol and two grenades from their possession showed that they were not innocent. "They came on two bikes very close to the CRPF bunker. On being asked for identification, they fired at us. What else could the jawans do than to fire back. And if the three were innocent what were they doing with an LeT militant," asked a CRPF officer.
This would be the second occasion in two month when State police and Central forces deployed in the Valley have come at loggerheads over firing incidents. Earlier, in the firing at a mob in Ramban, BSF is alleged to have killed four civilians. While BSF claimed it was a riotous mob and they had to fire for their safety, State police said BSF indulged in "sudden firing".
Meanwhile another youth was killed in Shopian on Wednesday allegedly in CRPF firing during a protest rally against the earlier killings. The slain youth has been identified as Mohammad Rafiq Rather, son of Ghulam Qadir Rather a resident of Bonasaidpora.
Sources said Rafiq a sumo driver, was a part of peaceful protest in Gagran Shopian". The residents were protesting killings of four 'innocents' who were shot dead by CRPF on September 7 near their camp.
They said Rafiq was taken to a nearby hospital at Vehil, Shopian where doctors declared him dead.
Pertinently curfew was lifted from Shopian today after three days after which locals had come out on roads demanding arrest of the CRPF personnel involved in killing of four youth.
They said announcements were made on loudspeakers calling people to come off their homes and likely the body might be taken to the Shopian town for last rites due to which the situation took an ugly turn and in a fresh incidence of firing eight people have been injured who were later shifted to the sub district hospital, said locals.
"Around eight people have been injured and among them three are seriously injured who are getting shifted to SHMS inSrinagar" said sources.
They further said that people including women, children, men are on roads and protests are going on in the Gagran Shopian, where Mohammad Rafiq Rather was killed. "Teargas shelling and gun shots are continuously fired on protesters and the number of injured person is increasing." |
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