SRINAGAR: A 70 year old man was hit by a CRPF vehicle near Solina in Uptown Srinagar, on Wednesday evening.
Ama Chopan succumbed to his injuries at the Institute of Medical Sciences today (Thursday).
Police say it was an accident.
But people suspect that the deceased might have been deliberately hit. They say the CRPF are angry after Wednesday’s militant attack that left five of their colleagues dead.
A few hours after the militant attack, the CRPF shot dead a young man, Altaf Ahmed, at Saidapora in Suburban Srinagar.
The provincial president of the governing National Conference Party, Nasir Aslam Wani called it a “cold-blooded murder”.
A resident of Eidgah in old srinagar, Aijaz Ahmed says “The killing of the Saidapora youth was a clear act of retaliation. The Solina incident may as well be the same, who knows?”
A prominent separatist leader and Chairman JKLF, Yasin Malik says that Chopan was “deliberately hit by a CRPF vehicle.” He has alleged that “CRPF is in a hurry to take revenge.”
A journalist, who requested anonymity, had a direct feel of the CRPF’s anger. “Till yesterday, they would always open the gate for my car to pass as they knew me. But this morning they shouted and asked me to open the gate for myself.”
There are fears among people that the CRPF’s anger may lead to a very ugly situation. In the past two decades there have been widespread allegations against the paramilitaries, the army and even the local police of killing ordinary civilians and burning their homes to avenge attacks by the militants.
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