3 critically injured as security forces fire live rounds at protesters.
Ahead of home minister Rajnath Singh’s two-day visit to the Kashmir Valley, at least 17 people were injured, three of them critically, when security forces fired live ammunition on protesters in the Vihil and Nowgam areas of Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district on Tuesday.
The seriously injured were brought to Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) for specialised treatment, whereas the rest were being treated at a medical facility at Vahil and the district hospital of Shopian.
Reports from Shopian said that the Army and members of the police’s counter-insurgency special operations group (SOG) were removing barricades erected by the locals along a road passing through the twin villages. On seeing them, the residents came out of their homes and began chanting pro-freedom slogans. The police said that security personnel came under heavy stone-pelting as they tried to chase away the surging crowds.
The locals accompanying the injured to Srinagar, however, said that the security forces fired teargas canisters and pellet guns and rifles at what they claimed were peaceful protesters. “They descended on the villages and, fearing that they may enter houses, beat residents and damage property as they had been doing in different areas of the Valley for the past few days, the villages — with a view to avert such a situation — came out chanting slogans, but faced the brutality,” one of them told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
However, police sources strongly denied the charge and said that the security forces were removing the roadblocks when they came under heavy stone-pelting. They first resorted to firing in the air and lobbed teargas into the “violent crowd”. It was only when these measures failed to have the desired effect that pellet guns were fired, police sources said. The incidents set off fresh tensions in Shopian areas, according reports.
Clashes were also reported in Malangam village in Bandipora district, north of the Valley. Witnesses said the Pakistani national flag was put up at a few places in the village.
