J&K: Locals say firing by police, not Army

Authorities accept locals’ 6 demands, including removal of Army bunker from town square.

The firing incident in Jammu and Kashmir’s north-western town of Handwara in which three persons, including a woman, were killed and a few others injured on Tuesday is getting murkier as the residents have alleged it was the local police which targeted civilians with direct fire. They also said Army personnel, on the other hand, fired their weapons mainly in the air.

The local elders and other “respectable” citizens on Wednesday held a meeting with senior police and administration authorities during which they, on the basis of “eyewitness accounts”, told them that while Army personnel also swung into action to disperse protesters following an alleged attempt to molest a local girl student, it was the J&K policemen who opened direct fire at them, killing a youth on the spot and critically injuring two others. One of them died on the way to hospital whereas a third person is struggling for his life after he was operated upon in a Srinagar hospital.

They told the officials the firing was so reckless and indiscriminate that an elderly woman, Raja Begum, was also hit in the head even though she was standing at a distance from the scene of the clash and was not part of the protest.

After hearing them, police authorities placed ASI Muhammad Rafiq under suspension for “negligence of duty”. The action was taken on the basis of a formal letter written to the police by Kupwara’s district magistrate. The family of the two slain youth had told the DC that it was ASI Rafiq who killed the two in cold blood.

However, the police authorities said that the alleged molestation of the girl and subsequent firing incident are being probed and that it would be too early to draw conclusions.

According to reports from Handwara, the district authorities have accepted six demands put forth by the locals, following which they agreed to bury their dead. These are — removal of the Army bunker from the main town square within a month, none of the civilians would be named in FIRs being lodged in connection with Tuesday’s incidents, a magisterial probe would be held and its finding made public also within a period of a month, the police officer involved in the firing incident would be placed under suspension pending inquiry into his conduct, the government will provide maximum possible ex-gratia and other benefits to the bereaved families and all persons detained since Tuesday will be released unconditionally.