A civilian, who allegedly jumped the checkpoints set up by the CRPF and the police, was killed in a firing on Wednesday in central Kashmir’s Budgam, forcing the authorities to snap Internet in the district as a precautionary measure.
A CRPF spokesman said the civilian, identified as Peer Mehrajudin from Budgam’s Makhama-Beerwah area, was travelling in a car around 10:20 a.m. and jumped a checkpoint of the police and again jumped another of the CRPF’s 141 Battalion.
“A convoy of the Army, at that point in time, was passing through the adjacent road and fearing a sabotage, a CRPF jawan manning this checkpoint fired warning shots. The car was driving in the wrong direction of the road and that was even more alarming. When it didn’t stop, despite the warning shots, the jawan fired at the car and the driver was hit on his left shoulder," said the CRPF spokesman.
The civilian was shifted to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital in Srinagar and its medical superintendent Dr. Nazir Choudhary said, “The civilian was bearing multiple bullet injuries, and was brought dead to the hospital”.
Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, Tariq Ahmed Ganai said he had ordered a probe into the incident.
Father contests CRPF, police version
The victim’s father, Ghulam Nabi Shah, disputed the version of the police and the CRPF on the sequence of events leading to his son’s death.
“My brother is a police officer and my son was dropping him at the Police Control Room. My son was a law-abiding person. It is a cold-blooded murder. If my son was escaping, why there is no damage to his vehicle?,” he said.
The killing sparked clashes between locals and security forces in parts of Budgam and scores of people raised anti-government slogans.
Around six people were injured, with two suffering pellet injuries in their eyes in the clashes at Budgam's Narbal and also Makhama, according to hospital sources in Srinagar and Beerwah.
Hundreds of locals participated in the funeral of the deceased.
PDP, NC, PC, CPI(M) demand probe
National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah termed the incident “very unfortunate”. “The circumstances surrounding this shooting need to be impartially investigated and findings made known,” he said.
A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman said the “shooting a civilian dead cannot be how a democracy operates”. “Eagerness of few trigger-happy individuals to replicate the Delhi Police model of destruction and violence in Budgam is detestable. An enquiry should be initiated and guilty taken to task.”
People’s Conference spokesman Adnan Ashraf Mir demanded a probe into the incident. “Jumping a checkpoint must not be a reason to kill and we must not normalise shooting of our youth for minor incidents like these,” he said.
CPI(M) leader M.Y Tarigami demanded that the “reckless killing of an unarmed civilian at the hands of security personnel must be investigated in a time-bound, impartial manner and responsibility be fixed, so that guilty is punished under law”.
He said, “Even if the claims of the police are true that the slain civilian jumped a checkpoint, the CRPF men could have fired at the tyres of the vehicle instead of shooting him in the chest”
