A protester was killed in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday after police resorted to firing to quell a mob agitating over death of a Hizbul Mujahideen militant in a prolonged encounter.
The protesters set ablaze an armoured police vehicle and targeted a junior police officer with stones inflicting fractures in his bones. The authorities halted train services in the area as protests intensified after the civilian’s killing.
The trouble began on Tuesday evening when security forces following specific information about the presence of militants cordoned off Naina-Batpora village on the banks of River Jhelum in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Initial reports said that two to three militants were trapped in the cordon.
Police said hiding militants opened indiscriminate fire on the cordoning personnel, which was retaliated. Around fifty civilians who had gathered in a local mosque for a religious conference were trapped in the cross-fire. Police said they were rescued safely before final assault was launched on the militant hideout.
The intermittent firing continued throughout the night. The hideout was later razed to ground in a pre-dawn assault. Sources said body of a local 20-year-old militant Shariq Ahmad Bhat was found in the debris. He was a resident of Bandina village.
Sources said that hundreds of villagers gathered around the encounter site and attempted to break the cordon to help entrapped militants flee. They pelted stones on security forces while shouting slogans in favour of militants. “Security forces exercised maximum restraint and 17 security force personnel got injured (in stone-pelting) — including Nazir Ahmed Ganai, Deputy Superintendent of Police”, zonal police headquarters said in a statement.
The officer of the Indian Reserve Police sustained multiple fractures in his leg.
Police said that to quell the protesters, it resorted to firing that resulted into casualties. “During the uncontrolled rioting, three rioters got firearm injuries, out of which, one Parvaiz Ahmed Guroo resident of Naina later succumbed to his injuries. The condition of other two rioters is said to be stable”, police statement added.
Police have resistered two separate reports for further investigation.
Sources said that train services were suspended in the area as a “precautionary measure” because the single railway track connecting Banihal with Baramulla passes through the slain militant’s native village.
The death of Hizb militant and a protester triggered protests and shutdown in other parts of south Kashmir also. Separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani called for complete shutdown in south Kashmir region on Thursday against the killings.