J&K Police deny civilian killed in firing by security forces

Srinagar, July 1 In the wake of allegations surrounding the death of a civilian in Sopore on Wednesday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police denied that he was killed in firing by the security forces.

Detailing the sequence of events to the media here, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said two LeT militants fired at the 'naka' party of the CRPF from a mosque at Model Town in Sopore, in which a CRPF Head Constable and the civilian were killed. He claimed the security forces did not fire a shot during the incident.

"When CRPF men were deboarding from the vehicle to be part of joint 'naka' party at Model Town, two militants hiding in the mosque fired indiscriminately. One CRPF trooper was killed and three others injured. A civilian was also hit by bullets and died later.

"The attack was carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba militants a foreigner Usman Bhai and a local, Adil.

"There was no retaliation from the security forces. Militants left behind one full magazine and another one from which 30 bullets were used at the mosque," the IGP said while denying the slain civilian's family's accusations that he was shot dead by security forces after pulling him out of his vehicle.

The IGP said the minor boy accompanying the dead civilian was rescued. A picture of the three-year-old boy sitting on the body of his grandfather were doing the rounds on the social media.

"We have observed that wherever the civilian movement is more, militants are carrying out attacks to trigger law and order issues and to trigger disturbances. We did not deliberately close the Internet services in Sopore just to see how people behave.

"The video message circulated on the social media by the son and daughter of the slain man is totally baseless. They have levelled allegations under militant threats," Vijay Kumar added.

"I want to ask whether they were present at the spot? Did they themselves see who had fired? They circulated video messages blaming the forces for killing their father from Srinagar, which is totally baseless."

He said if there was any eyewitness to the killing, they should come forward and police will act accordingly.

The IGP added: "The search in the area is on to arrest the attackers. We have not called off the search operation."

Asked how clippings of the boy getting rescued by police went viral when there was no public movement at the time of the incident, he said police rescued the boy found near the body of his grandfather.

"Going to the operation area with mobiles is wrong. I will ensure police teams going for the operation don't carry mobile phones along as that may pose threat to their own lives.

"In 2018, many security forces personnel got killed while using their mobiles during duty hours, in stand-off attacks," he said.

( With inputs from IANS )