SRINAGAR: Rejecting the latest government version on the September 7 Shopian incident in which four youth were killed in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) firing, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today said it amounts to giving a clean chit to the CRPF, even before investigation has begun.
In a statement, party president Mehbooba Mufti said ‘As in earlier atrocities of similar nature, the police have acted as judge, jury and the prosecutor; burying another tragedy under unrelated and unestablished accusations against the victims.’
Ms Mufti said very few people in Kashmir expect justice from the present government, but police statement in the Shopian case has taken brazenness and insensitivity to an unprecedentedly low level.
‘It seems the police have tried to justify the killing of youth, for one of them having been arrested under PSA, and two others having some distant relatives connected with militancy,’ she said.
After huge public outcry, FIR into the incident was lodged after 12 days and police came out with its version of facts within a day only, thus eliminating any possibility of further investigation, she alleged.
Though, over few days, the National Conference leaders have been making demands that the Centre should take action against the CRPF, but it is their government which gave the CRPF a clean chit, the PDP leader stated.
Ms Mufti said by the latest argument justifying killing by CRPF, would make most Kashmiris fit for facing the firing squad as hundreds of youth have, in fact, been subjected to.
She said on one hand the police very recently claimed that they had contacted Bihar police to establish the antecedents of the unidentified fourth victim, but without taking people into confidence.
On the progress of that reference, it virtually brought the rabbit out of the magic hat by giving a name to the dead body and tagging it as that of a terrorist, she added.
She said the police story contradicts every version of the local witnesses, which have been extensively quoted in the media reports.
Ms Mufti said the present government has, by its conduct, sent a clear message to the people of the state that each one of them is a suspect and vulnerable to government bullets and that no judicial remedy is available to them.
She said even the judicial orders are being violated with impunity as people set free by courts are rearrested within the jail premises itself.
The instance of Mushtaq-ul-Islam is a glaring example of lawlessness of the government, as he has repeatedly been rearrested even as courts granted him bails, she added.
Ms Mufti said Kashmir is facing a human rights crisis under the present dispensation as the wanton arrest of youth and killings by security forces and by unidentified gunmen are worsening the situation.
She said the recent killings in Markundal of Bandipora and Gool at Ramnban, too, have been hushed up as is now being done to the Shopian incident.
