Within hours of incident, chief minister Omar Abdullah, removes Srinagar’s top cop.
One civilian was killed when security forces fired at a mob at Noor Bagh in the Old City on Sunday morning.
People reacted angrily to the killing and within hours, the Jammu and Kashmir government removed Riyaz Bedar, the senior superintendent of police (SSP) at Srinagar and replaced him with Syed Ashiq Bukhari. Chief minister Omar Abdullah, who met top officials before taking the decision, made it clear to the police and paramilitary that utmost restriant must be exercised while dealing with the public.
Two others — superintendent (north city) Abdul Rashid and deputy superintendent (north city) Hameed — were also moved out. Abdullah has directed divisional commissioner, Srinagar, Tanveera Jahan, to probe the incident and submit a report within a week.
According to the police, the youth who died was part of a group of protestors who had allegedly tried to set ablaze a bullet-proof mobile bunker of the central reserve police force (CRPF). The incident occurred in the morning, when the body of 26-year-old Rafiq Ahmad Bangroo was being taken for his last rites. Bangroo, who was injured in a clash with security forces on June 12, had been on life support for a week. He died on Saturday night. When the mob threatened to destroy the bunker, CRPF men got off and started firing at them. One of the bullets pierced the throat of Javiad Ahmad Malla, causing his death.
“We observed maximum restraint, but the mob tried to set ablaze our bunker. The jawans had to fire in self defence,” CRPF spokesman Prabhakar Tripathi said. One eyewitness, however, said forces opened fire without provocation. “They [forces] opened fire just like that. There were no warning shots,” said one protestor.
With Malla’s death, the number of people killed by security forces in June has touched three. On June 11, 17-year-old student Tufail Ahmad Matoo was killed by the police during a stone-pelting incident at Rajouri Kadal. The next day, Bangroo was clobbered with batons by police in another stone-pelting incident. The deaths angered so many people that they defied curfew to hit back at the forces.
The latest bout of violence has given ammunition to separatists. Hurriyat hardline leader Ali Shah Geelani was detained on Sunday for making a provocative speech. Hurriyat hardline and moderate factions as well as the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front have separately called for bandhs on Monday to protest the deaths.
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