Above: A security personnel keeps vigil at Lal Chowk, Srinagar. Photo: UNI
The mounting tension within the security forces posted in the Kashmir valley came to the fore on Friday (July 21) when the armed forces mistook the sound of a firecracker for a grenade burst and opened fire on some stone-throwing youths in Beerwah, Budgam district. Two were injured, one of them dying later.
Tanveer Ahmad and Ibrahim Wani fell to the fire, and the former (22) died of his injuries. Wani is in hospital.
An FIR has been lodged by the police against the counter-insurgency 53 Rashtriya Rifles unit, according to reports in the media.
The issue is set to boil over into chaos, as a shutdown has been called and, as per the report, a march to the UN observers’ office to protest against “frequent killings of civilians” is planned.
The police version is: “Someone among the miscreants also hurled a firecracker towards the Armymen. Because of the ‘bang’, the soldiers thought a grenade had been hurled and they retaliated.”
Locals, however, disagree. They have struck to a stone-throwing version, with uncalled for firing by the army.
The FIR will be a new addition.
Just the other day, the Supreme Court had ordered that all encounter killings in Manipur must result in FIRs. While that order is not applicable to Kashmir, the filing of an FIR by the police is critical. What version the police has given in the FIR will go a long way in determining the situation’s legal status.
—India Legal Bureau