At least four civilians, including the brother of a National Conference leader were killed and over 40 protesters injured, when security forces fired at protesters storming a camp of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Shaida Gool village of Ramban district, 145 km from Srinagar.
The mob was protesting against the alleged manhandling of a local religious leader by some BSF personnel.
Following the deteriorating law and order situation, the district administration clamped curfew on Ramban district on Thursday evening. The State Government has ordered a magisterial enquiry into the incident and also shifted Deputy Commissioner Ramban Shyam Vinod Meena. He has been replaced by Muhammad Hussain Malik, who was earlier posted as Director, Estates.
In Delhi, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde ordered an enquiry into the firing and said any excessive use of force will be dealt with strictly. “I have ordered an enquiry to be conducted without any loss of time to ascertain the circumstances leading to the firing. I assure that any use of excessive force or irresponsible action shall be dealt with strictly,” he said in a statement issued here. BSF Special Director-General Dilip Trivedi has been rushed to Ramban from Delhi to assess the situation there.
According to reports, tension was simmering in the area since Wednesday evening after a local religious leader was intercepted at one of the check points at Daram, 6 km ahead of Gool around 9.00 p.m. The volatile situation, however, took an ugly turn on Thursday morning when a mob of 700-800 people attacked a BSF camp around 9.30 a.m. The security forces, after exercising maximum restraint, resorted to firing to ensure safety of the BSF camp. In the firing, at least six to ten people received serious bullet injuries while over 12 were badly injured. While 16 of the injured were airlifted to Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu, others were shifted to the local hospital in Ramban.
According to the BSF, the mob was reportedly mobilised by the religious leader by making announcements on the public address system and spreading rumours related to desecration of the holy book.
According to Inspector-General, BSF, Jammu Frontier, Rajeev Krishna: “When the BSF jawans intercepted a person late on Wednesday evening, he resisted their efforts to find out the reason behind his suspicious movement in the area. The BSF released him and informed the local police and district authorities in the area about it.”
The situation became tense after the religious leader provoked a crowd of around 300 people gathered in the area by spreading rumours. They raised slogans and attacked the BSF post. The situation was brought under control with the help of the local police, a BSF spokesman said in a separate statement.
According to the written statement, at around 6.45 a.m a mob started to build up and tried to enter the COB Dharam campus forcefully. When the mob began pelting stones, the police tried to disperse the crowd and fired three to four rounds.
A BSF constable identified as Ramhari also received a bullet injury in his stomach. After more than two hours the mob, which had now swelled, attacked the BSF camp once again and the security forces were forced to open fire in self defence in which four civilians were killed. The deceased brother of the National Conference leader was identified as Manzoor Shan.
The incident later on sparked off spontaneous protests in neighbouring hilly districts of Doda, Kishtwar and parts of Kashmir Valley. The National Highway was blocked by protesters at various places between Batote-Ramban-Banihal. A batch of Amarnath pilgrims was stopped on the national highway and not allowed to proceed further. In view of the tense situation the State Government may not allow a fresh batch of Amarnath pilgrims to proceed towards the base camps in Pahalgam and Baltal.
Meanwhile, protesters in Ramban went on a rampage and torched three State Government vehicles in the office complex of Deputy Commissioner, Ramban. Several security personnel were roughed up by the protesters in Ramban during the day-long protests. On the other hand, to prevent the protests from spilling over the State Government blocked Internet and mobile messaging services in Kashmir Valley.