The Army Chief, Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag, on Sunday visited Jammu and Kashmir to discuss with local commanders the situation arising out of the shooting incidents in frontier Kupwara district in which five protesters were killed and few others injured earlier this week.
The protests were sparked by an alleged molestation of a 16-year-old student in a public lavatory close to an Army camp in the north-western town of Handwara on April 12. The Valley also witnessed shutdowns and official curfews and violent clashes, leaving 202 security personnel and 27 civilians injured.
On April 12, word spread in Handwara, 72 km from here, that a local school girl has been molested by an Army jawan inside the lavatory. Soon irate crowds took to the streets but were confronted by the police and the Army which opened fire, killing two youth and a 53-year-old woman and injuring another person. In similar actions, two more youth died in neighbouring Dragmulla and Natnusa villages and in one of these, the Army has been accused of targeting a group of peaceful protesters with rifle fire.
The girl, who is since in police custody along with her father and aunt, on Saturday reiterated that she did not see any Army soldier inside the lavatory and that it were two local youth who harassed and even slapped her as she was leaving the place.
Soon after arriving at the headquarters of Northern Command (NC) in the garrison town of Udhampur, Gen. Suhag closeted with chief of NC Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda and corps commanders and other senior Army officers for a review of the situation. “Lt. Gen. Hooda briefed the Army Chief on the overall security situation in the command theatre,” defence spokesman Colonel S.D. Goswami said.
He added, “The Army Chief interacted with the Corps commanders and took a firsthand assessment of the prevailing internal security situation specifically in view of the recent incidents at Handwara and Natnusa (in Kupwara district)”. On Friday evening soon after a teenage boy was killed and three other protesters were injured in Army firing at Natnusa, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, spoke to Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, on the phone to urge him to ensure the Army exercises restraint in dealing with the unrest. Earlier, she also met Lt. Gen. Hooda, and told him that Handwara and Natnusa like incidents come as a major setback to the efforts of the State government in consolidating peace dividends in the state and are hence unacceptable. While the State government ordered a judicial inquiry into the April 12 incident at Handwara, the Army is on its own probing it and also the Natnusa shooting and has assured that “anybody found guilty will be dealt as per the law.”
