It was the Jammu & Kashmir Police and not the BSF, who fired first at the mob at Ramban in Jammu on Thursday.
According to eyewitness accounts, the Jammu & Kashmir Police fired on the mob which was pelting stones at the BSF camp, killing one person on the spot. This resulted in the protesters turning even more violent and the BSF, which had exercised restraint until then, was forced to open fire in self-defence.
This disclosure will cause major embarrassment to J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, as he had squarely blamed the BSF for the killing of four civilians in the firing.
According to eyewitness accounts and ground reports, when the crowd gathered in Gool area of Ramban district to protest against the alleged manhandling of a local religious leader, the first bullet was reportedly fired by a J&K Police officer from Sangaldhan police post. This led to the death of a Political Science teacher from the Government Higher Secondary School, Manzoor Ahmad Shan, around 10.30 am.
His death instantly sparked off fresh protests in the area which led to the killing of three others in firing by the security forces.
According to villagers, after the initial protests on Thursday morning, Manzoor Ahmad Shan had managed to persuade the villagers to resolve the issue amicably and stop pelting stones at the BSF camp.
The villagers, who attended Shan’s funeral procession on Friday, claimed that if a J&K Police officer had not fired at the protestors without giving them a single warning, then the situation would have been resolved and would not have taken an ugly turn.
On Thursday, Omar had blamed the BSF for excessive use of force against the mob.
After speaking to Union Home Minister Shinde, Omar had said: “It is highly unacceptable to shoot at unarmed protesters just because they were reportedly protesting against the manhandling of a religious leader of their area.”
However, the Chief Minister did not mention the role the State police played in the firing incident.
Surprisingly, the State Government is yet to issue any official statement giving details of the sequence of events leading to the firing by the BSF.
The silence has raised suspicions over the intentions of the State Government.
Interestingly, the State police headquarter is yet to issue a detailed statement on the firing. None of the senior police officers have given any statement to the media elaborating on the events preceding the firing.
The only official version available in the public domain is that of the Inspector-General of BSF, Jammu Frontier, Rajeev Krishna, in which he had said that the jawans of the State police and BSF opened fire in self-defence to ensure safety of the arms and ammunition stocked in the BSF camp.
Meanwhile, majority of the Valley including Srinagar and areas in Ramban district of Jammu were placed under curfew to contain the volatile situation. The Jammu-Srinagar highway was also closed and Amarnath yatra halted.
Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Yasin Malik have been placed under house arrest in Srinagar.
Three FIRs have been registered against the BSF officials and State police personnel.
“We have registered three FIRs at Gool police station in connection with Thursday’s firing,” IGP (Jammu), Rajesh Kumar said here on Friday.
Based on complaints from locals, these FIRs have been registered under various sections and police were already looking into it, he added.
The BSF would also file an FIR over the incident, I-G Rajeev Krishna said.
Meanwhile, BSF troops on Friday vacated the Dharam camp and handed the facility over to the police. The troops have been moved to Battalion area in Ramban district, a BSF officer said.
The move was taken in view of the tension in the area after Thursday’s incident, he said.