SRINAGAR: There are still conflict reports about the killing of four youth in Gagren area of Shopian in south Kashmir on Saturday afternoon.
The CRPF, local police and the authorities have all given different statements regarding the incident.
When the incident took place the CRPF spokesman, Kishore Prasad, told FreePress that militants had attacked a camp of the 14th batallion and that CRPF personnel had killed “all three militants” in retaliation.
He added that some arms and ammunition have also been recovered.
But a police statement later said four persons had died while one was wounded, and added that only two of them were militants who attacked the CRPF camp. A statement issued by them identified the slain civilians as Towseef Ahmed Bhat and Mohammad Yousuf.
It also said that a phone recovered from the militants had been used by members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba rebel group.
However, on Sunday, the head of the civil administration in the district or Deputy Commissioner, Bashir Ahmed Bhat told a local news agency that three among the four slain youth were civilians. Only one was a militant according to him.
He added that if need arose an inquiry would be constituted to ascertain the facts.
Many residents, separatists and even pro-India parties like the main opposition People’s Democratic Party have claimed that none of the four was a militant and that all of them were civilians, killed in “unprovoked firing”.
A local news agency, CNS, also quoted an eyewitness saying that she saw CRPF personnel stopping two motorcycle-borne youth, and firing at both of them. The CRPF, she said, also killed another motorcyclist and a non-local mason, who, according to her, was watching everything from a nearby spot.
However, Adil Rehman, who was on the bike and was wounded in the initial firing, spoke to FreePress at the SMHS hospital in Srinagar and said: “I was going for taking my exam. The CRPF stopped us as our motorbike did not have a registration number. There were others behind us who were also stopped. Soon we heard gunfire and after that I don’t know anything.”
He insisted that he did not know who fired at his friend and him.
