SRINAGAR: Police in Shopian district of South Kashmir on Friday started a process for identification of the non-local youth killed in CRPF firing last Saturday.
The move comes as the government pulled up the police to come clear on the youth’s identification yesterday.
Four youth were shot dead by the CRPF at Gagren village last week. The CRPF maintain that the four were militants who attacked their camp.
Police said three of the slain youth were civilians, but added that the fourth non-local “unidentified, unclaimed”, was a militant of the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit.
Residents and even some pro-India political parties have, however, claimed that all the four were civilians including a labourer from the Indian state of Bihar.
Ghulam Hassan Khan, a senior Congress leader, said the police “shelved the matter” and buried him at an unknown place in the forest.
On Thursday the state cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, ordered a magisterial inquiry, a day after another youth was shot dead in the same village by the CRPF. The probe team will investigate into both the incidents.
The government also gave the police 48 hours to come clear on the identity of the non-local, shot dead on Saturday.
A local news agency, KNS, reports that all the non-state labourers in the Shopian district were on Friday summoned by Police to identify the photograph of the slain youth.
However, the agency writes, quoting sources, that none of the non-state labourers could identify the slain person.
It is not clear if the police will summon non-local labourers from nearby districts as well.
