The police in Kashmir on Monday claimed to have arrested around 20 accused allegedly involved in lynching of a police officer on the premises of central mosque last month. Provincial chief of police Muneer Khan did not rule out questioning senior separatist leader Mirwaiz
Umar Farooq, who heads the mosque’s management and delivers sermons.
Khan said the investigations in the lynching case are still going on and more arrests as well as questioning were expected in near future.
“We have arrested 20 accused in the case so far. Another accused, Sajad Ahmad Gilkar, was killed in an encounter in Budgam on July 12,” Khan said.
He said police have constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Superintendent of Police (north) Sajad Shah for speedy investigation into the lynching case. Sources said that most of the arrested youngsters have cases registered against them in stone pelting. All except one accused youngsters belong to the old parts of Srinagar city.
Khan said with the help of locals and leads provided by them led to the arrest of the accused. “With the help of information provided by the locals, we were able to arrest the four main accused persons who later led to the arrest of others. We have also recovered the iron rod used to beat Pandit, a damaged service pistol, his identity car and his cellphone have also been recovered,” Khan said. He appreciated the civil society for coming out and voicing resentment against the incident.
Elaborating on the investigations, Khan said that the officer was spotted by the assailants while checking the security personnel deployed for access control duties of the Jamia Masjid. He said when the officer came out of the mosque a group of people was chanting slogans in favour of militant commander Zakir Musa while waiting for the arrival of separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was scheduled to deliver a religious lecture during the night.
“As soon as Pandit came out of the mosque, he was called by miscreants and asked for his identity card which he refused to give. He was in turn heckled and during this time a number of miscreants assembled there and joined the assailants. The officer fired some shots from his service pistol in self-defence. The below waistline fire caused injury to three assailants who were in his immediate proximity. The mob continued to heckle him leading to his instant death,” Muneer Khan said.
Asked whether Mirwaiz Umar Farooq would be questioned during the course of investigation, Khan said that everyone who needs to be questioned will be questioned.
During the intervening night of June 22 and 23, Deputy Superintendent of Police (security wing) Muhamad Ayoub Pandit was lynched by a mob before stripping him. He was on duty in the area during a sacred night in the month of Ramzan, known as lailatul Qadr when Muslims engage in prayers throughout the night. Pandit fired his service weapon injuring three attackers but was eventually heckled to death by the mob. The incident evoked widespread condemnation.
Meanwhile, the Inspector general of Police that Army has ordered a Court of enquiry (COI) into the alleged thrashing of policemen by its personnel in Ganderbal district last week. He said the COI has already been started. He was referring to the incident of thrashing six policemen and ransacking a police station by a group of army personnel returning from Amarnath pilgrimage.
He said police have taken up the matter with top army officers including corps commander lt Gen JS Sandu. While police have lodged a report against the erring soldiers, the army described it a minor incident citing no major injuries were caused.
Corps commander in a tweet has said that ‘anti-nationals’ were trying to exploit the incident. “Efforts to create divide between Army & Police by anti-nationals won’t work,” he wrote. “We’re together always working as brothers in arms,” Sandhu said.