SRINAGAR: Senior Congress leader and Minister, Taj Mohi-u-Din on Sunday said one among the four youth shot dead in Shopian district of south Kashmir on September 7 was a not Bihari labour but a Lashkar militant.
He has also said that the other three youth were civilians but were killed “because they accompanied the ‘militant'”, a local news agency, CNS, reports.
By his comments, the Minister for Medical Education has overtaken the magisterial probe into the incident ordered by his own government.
Also, Mr Mohiuddin’s statement comes as the state chief of his party, Saifuddin Soz, persuaded the Union Home Minister, Sushilkumar Shine to order a detailed inquiry into the killings by CRPF.
‘Clean Chit to CRPF’
Four youths were shot dead by the CRPF outside their camp in Gagren village on September 7. The CRPF has maintained that they were militants who attacked their camp.
The police then issued a statement saying three of the four youth were civilians, but added the fourth was a non-local militant of the Lashkar e Toiba outfit.
However, a senior Congress leader and former minister, Ghulam Hassan Khan alleged that the fourth deceased was a Bihari labourer, shot dead “because he was an eyewitness to the unprovoked firing”.
The cabinet also issued a statement saying that the fourth youth was still unidentified. It also asked the police to come clear on the youth’s identity.
Subsequently, the police sent a SIM card and a mobile phone, recovered from the unidentified youth, for forensic tests to Chandigarh.
Also Read: Militant? Labourer?: Shopian Authorities Urge Eyewitnesses to Depose
However, even when the test report has not come, Mr Mohiuddin claimed that the recovered items were “ample proof” that the youth was a militant.
“We know that people are angry and are not willing to accept the facts but the reality is that one of youth was a Lashkar militant and not a Bihari labour,” he told a local news agency, CNS.
“Police has said that three youth killed in the firing have no past militancy record but the fact is that they were killed because they were accompanying the militant.”
Observers have criticised Mr Mohiuddin for his “too early” remarks. “He is trying to be more loyal than the king. He is just trying to please his bosses in New Delhi,” said a teacher, Shamim Ahmed.
“On the one hand, Congress state chief, Soz goes to Delhi and gets a probe ordered. On the other, his party member gives a clean chit to the CRPF.”
