Srinagar, April 24: A civilian was killed and four others injured in two separate incidents of firing by Indian army men in Kashmir, India on Saturday.

The army has ordered a high level inquiry into the incident.

Locals said that two men identified as Gulla Gujjar and Manzoor Ahmad walked into the forest area of Chewan Abhom, Kellar, Shopian, some 50 kms south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, in the early hours of Saturday.

“Indian army’s counter insurgency unit – 53 Rashtria Rifles, had laid an ambush for the militants in the forest area. At about 04:10 hours, when the two men walked into the ambush, the soldiers presumed them as militants and started to indiscriminately firing on them, killing Gulla onthe spot and critically injuring , Manzoor,” they said.

They said two horses were also killed in the indiscriminate firing by Indian army forces.
As the news reached the home village of the deceased that he has been killed by soldiers, the villagers in large numbers came out on roads and staged demonstrations to protest the killing of the civilian in an unprovoked and unjustified firing by Indian soldiers.

Chanting anti-India, anti-army and pro-freedom slogans, the angry mob were demanding action against the army men involved in the killing of the civilian. They attacked the vehicles that were parked in the area by the soldiers, who were involved in the ambush. The mob pelted bricks and stones towards them and tried to set ablaze one of the army vehicle which got trapped in the muddy water.

The army men fired on the protestors, causing injuries to three of them. There were taken to a local hospital, where two of the injured were transferred to Indian Kashmir’s leading hospital in Srinagar. The doctors attending on the injured said one of them had received a bullet injury to the chest and another on the neck.

“They have been operated upon by a team of doctors,” a senior doctor of SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Kashmir’s leading hospital.

An Indian army spokesman in Srinagar, Lt Col J S Brar while giving details of the incident said, “Based on intelligence inputs from police, an operation was launched in the area last evening. A cordon was established at 02:30 hours on the outskirts of the forest area, where suspected militants were likely to come. At around 0410 hours today, three persons entered the cordon from outside the village. On being challenged, they started running away. As a result soldiers opened fire on them. One person was killed, another injured and the third one was apprehended and handed over to the police.”

He said at day break, a large number of local residents gathered in the area and resorted to stone pelting.

“Despite the efforts of Commanding Officer of the army unit and local police officer to control the situation, the crowd took law into their own hands and burnt two Army vehicles, which had got stuck in the muddy area. Though soldiers on the ground exercised utmost restraint, any act of destroying Government property will not be tolerated,” he said.

The army spokesman said a high level inquiry has been ordered to investigate the incident.

NationalTurk Kashmir – Fayaz Wani
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