J&K: 2 protesters die in security forces' firing over militant's killing in encounter
Srinagar: Two youth including a woman were killed and ten other people were injured when security forces fired live ammunition after sections of protesters while chanting pro-azadi slogans turned violent near an encounter site in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern district of Pulwama on Sunday.
Police said 15 of its men and 6 Army jawans were injured in stone-pelting incidents. Two of the Army jawans were hit in their head in mob attack, it added.
One suspected Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militant was killed in the brief encounter that took place in a residential area near Gousia School in Astan Mohallah of Kakapora. He has been identified as Adil Ahmed Shergojri, a resident of northern Bandipore district. Two of his accomplices managed to escape taking advantage of chaos created by mob intervention and stone-pelting, officials said.
Reports said that while the encounter was still underway, the security forces who had laid siege to the area were attacked with stones by a mob. They retaliated by opening fire and teargas canisters injuring about a dozen persons. Two of them, 25-year-old Shahista Tahira Hameed and 24-yar-old Danish Farooq Mir, died in or on way to hospital. Locals claimed that neither was part of stone-pelting mob and that Mir was among a group of youth playing cricket in a nearby ground when hit by a bullet fired by security forces.
Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani said, “While the boy received fatal injury in teargas shelling, the girl was hit by a bullet in cross fire”.
Police confirmed Shaista was not part of the protest but among the civilians who, it said, were being evacuated during the cordon-and search operation launched by security forces from Army’s 50 Rashtriya Rifle, local police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and 183 Battalion of CRPF. “While search was going on militants hiding in a house opened indiscriminate fire on security forces,” a statement issued by police in the evening said. It added, “The police started evacuating civilians trapped inside the cordoned area. A large number of people were evacuated but a lady namely Shaista while taking cover was hit by a bullet. She was evacuated to hospital where she was declared dead”
The police statement also said that “some more miscreants and stone pelters received bullet injuries in the cross fire.” It said that a large number of people despite imposition of Section 144 cprc came near the encounter site where militants were firing indiscriminately on security forces from inside the house and started pelting stones on security forces. “In view of heavy stone pelting and ensuing law and order situation the security forces had to resort to tear smoke shelling as a result of which some protesters received injuries”.
Police officials said that they have taken up investigations into both incidents and are monitoring the situation closely. Meanwhile, the protests have spread to new areas of Pulwama including highway town of Pampore. Irate crowds clashed with police also in central Srinagar after hearing about the Pulwama incidents.
The police authorities also said that the District Magistrate Pulwama had through an order issued last week imposed restrictions on movement of people around encounter sites. The DM had said that the order was issued to save the civilian lives as they receive bullet injuries during and after encounters. The order read, “In order to save the precious lives of people, it is expedient to impose restrictions on their movement near encounter sites”.
Of late, Kashmir Valley has been witnessing protests by surging crowds around the sites of encounters between security forces and militants. Also, people have in several instances while chanting pro-freedom slogans targeted the security forces with stones in their attempts to create situations which could be seized by holed up militants to escape or, at least, receive encouragement. The massive attendance in militant funerals is also a routine occurrence now, a fact that has got security officials worried.
As Sunday’s killings have generated anger in Kashmir Valley and various separatist groups have called for a strike on Monday to protest and mourn these, the authorities have asked for tightening security. Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and chairman of his faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and some other separatists have been placed under house arrest. Kashmir University has postponed all examinations scheduled for Monday.
The Mirwaiz, in a statement issued here, alleged “Indian forces are committing crimes against humanity and unleashing terror due to the unbridled powers that they enjoy under the draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The merciless killing of innocent civilians is the worst example of state-sponsored terrorism.”
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti while strongly condemning the killing of two civilians in the firing incident said it was “unfortunate and uncalled for”. National Conference (NC) said such “heartbreaking incidents” are major setback to reconciliation and peace. “This is a very tragic and heartbreaking incident. The Governor should ensure the guilty are identified and brought to justice in a time bound manner. Our hearts go out to the families of the two deceased youth and we pray for the smooth and complete recovery of those who have sustained serious injuries in this incident”, NC spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu said.
Sunday’s bloody incidents come a day after security forces killed five militants in a 22-hour-long fire fight in Chowkibal area of frontier Kupwara district. A senior Army official said that the slain militants also belonged to the LeT. "The weapons and other equipment we recovered from them (imply) they were from Lashkar," General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Srinagar-based 15 (Chinar) Corps, Lt. Gen Satish Dua, told reporters here. Two Army jawans were also killed and three others including Major injured in the encounter.
Lt. Gen. Dua after paying floral tributes to the slain jawans also said that it was being ascertained whether the group of militants had infiltrated from across the Line or Control (LoC) recently or were active in the area for some time. "Whether it was a new group or not, that is being ascertained. Once the analysis of the equipment takes place, only then we will be able to tell," he said. He claimed that the security forces are getting intelligence inputs about the presence of militants in the area. He said, "We are getting intelligence inputs about the presence of militants in the area and we launch the operations along with other security forces on that basis."
