Army abandons operation flush out militants after attacked by locals in Shopian

Srinagar: More than two dozen people were injured in teargas and shotgun pellet use by the security forces in their attempt to quell protests during a cordon-and-search operation launched by the Army and other counterinsurgency forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district on Wednesday.

The operation, the official sources said, was launched following information about the presence of militants in the area. But soon surging crowds came in their way and hampered the operation by hurling rocks at them in and around Heff Shermal village falling under Zainapora area in Shopian.

The Army and police sources said that about 1,000 men from the Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the CRPF were involved in the operation which started around dawn.

The security forces first swung bamboo sticks to disperse the crowds which were chanting pro-freedom slogans. Subsequently dozens of teargas canisters were fired and on finding the mobs adamant to disrupt the operation, the security forces used pellet shotguns against them. One of the protesters was hit in the eye during the pellet use, the hospital sources said.

The locals alleged that the security forces ransacked residential houses and damaged properties including vehicles. They also accused them of thrashing the family members of some of the known militants from the area. An uncle of Hizb-ul-Mujahedin militant Saddam Padder received several stitches after he was hit in the head, they said. The police officials, however, denied the charge.

In view of the resentment shown by the locals and the clashes witnessed in the area, the security forces called off the operation, the reports said. However, they came under stone-pelting even while leaving the area, witnesses said. Two persons identified by locals as Meraj Ahmed Ganai and Khush Haal Hameed were arrested by the security forces earlier.

The search operation comes two weeks after a similar, though on a much larger scale, was launched in Shopian district to flush out militants. While the security forces did not find anything in the day-long search operation on May 4 covering nearly two dozen villages and involving more than 4,000 troops, the militants attacked a Sumo cab ferrying Army personnel back to their unit on that evening resulting into the death of its driver and injuries to half a dozen soldiers.