SRINAGAR: A government probe has indicted the Indian Army for killing a young man in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district that led to massive protests.
Tahir Ahmed Sofi was shot dead on March 5 this year during a shutdown against the death of a Kashmiri student in Hyderabad.
Residents accused soldiers of army’s counter-insurgency unit – Rashtriya Rifles – of killing Mr Sofi, a charge which they denied.
The army said “a mob attacked their patrol creating a life-threatening situation and prompting them to fire bullets”.
However the government went ahead with ordering a magisterial inquiry into the incident.
The probe report says on that day army soldiers ransacked residential houses and damaged property “without any reason” and also fired at “unarmed and peaceful citizens without any justification”.
It was in this firing that Mr Sofi died, the report says.
The report says the army did not fire warning shots and instead the soldiers fired directly at people.
“There seems no valid reason for the action that was taken by the Army personnel, resulting in the loss of an innocent life and injuries to the teenager who has been rendered handicapped for the rest of his life,” the report says.
